Peace and quiet

Not to add more doom and gloom to this already way-too-cloudy world, but a friend and I had a sad realization when I visited a her last week.
I went to her house which is situated about 2 miles as the crow flies from a military air base. My 2 yr old son was with me, and he's always amazed me, because not a lot startles or scares him to tears. Not a jumpy kid, that one. But as we walked out of her house to our car, two very loud military jets zoomed overhead and he LOST IT. The noise was pretty incredible, but it had been a very long time since I'd seen him that shook up. My very astute friend made the comment that there are kids who live with this every day of their lives. For Iraqi and Afganistani children military planes passing overhead, grenades being launched hither and yon and military personnel are a regular part of their lives. I'm so glad for my son that military planes are unusual enough to scare the daylights out of him. His reality is (relative) peace and quiet. He's never had to try to go to sleep while his city was bombed or his home was searched or while his dad was walking around with an AK-48 (or maybe a Kalashnikov) slung around his shoulder. I know there are those with their reasons to go to war, but destroying a child's sense of peace and innocence is a good enough reason to stay out of it.