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What no one seems to take on board is that wars are fought because there are people around willing to fight.

All the Hamas fighters are willing fighters and are not bothered about dying,

So talk about every soldier refusing to fight is living in cloud cuckoo land.

We all need to ask ourselves, if someone attacked us, physically would we fight back or passively let the person attacking us continue the job until they had finished.

In the recent dreadful case in Nottingham, when that young girl rushed back to protect and, sorry, fight off the man who was attacking her friend, she was - fighting.

If a soldier refused to fight he would be imprisoned (better than being shot as in the past). There would still be wars - and the end would be swift in this nuclear age. Your thinking is centuries out of date WonderfulLife - except in some Middle Eastern countries where I’m sure you wouldn’t want to live.

WonderfulLife "If every single soldier refused to fight then there would be no wars at all."
You do realise that, in this country at least, you volunteer to serve in our Armed Forces - why would anyone do that, then refuse to fight? If they'd all done that in WWII, for example, we'd all be speaking German now. I personally am very proud that my son joined the Army and served tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Maizie Most medieval wars affected far more people than just those in the pathway.

I have recently been reading a lot about including The Paston Papers. Letters written between a family fo farmers and merchants based in Norfolk and London. Battles and armies are the culmination of protracted processes starting in regions as well as the centre. I can assure you wars devastated far more people and fra mre land than that lying in 'the pathway.

50,000 men were involved in the Battle of Towton. Up to 40,000 are believed to have died. 10% of the male populations died in total over all the battles in the Wars of the Roses, where battles were fought in Shropshire, Northamptonshire, Yorkshire, Hertfordshire, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire.Leicestershire, and Gloucestershire. between the batteles armed bands roamed the countryside pillaging and destroying crops.

Life in the Middle Ages could be as brutal for the peasant as for the soldier.

In the old days when kings and leaders went out to fight with very small armies it was a lot better.

I do partially agree with this, in that, yes, it was horrific for those of the population who lived in the path of the armies, but limitation on movement (on foot or on horseback only) did mean that people who lived outside that 'pathway' weren't necessarily affected.

Now, of course, everyone is potentially vulnerable.

In ‘the old days’ as you call them Nanna you didn’t get a choice about fighting. You did what you were told to do by your lord and master. Whether you were ‘interested’ was completely irrelevant.

nanna8 Over the whole Wars of the Roses it is estimated that 10% of the male population of England was killed.

The Battlee of Towton took place in 1461 and to quote Wikipedia has the dubious distinction of being probably the largest and bloodiest battle on English soil".[4] It was fought for ten hours between an estimated 50,000 soldiers, between one and two per cent of the English population at the time.

It is an illusion that they just had neat little wars that didn't involve much. medieval armies lived of the land, they raped and pillaged and destroyed standing crops and farm animals.

After William the Conqueror's victory in 1066, the north of England fought on under the successor to Harold, Edward the Aethling.

As a result William took his army north and ravaged the English counties between Yorkshire and the Scottish border. Crops were destroyed, homes and workshops burnt. It is estimated that up to 75% of the population were killed or starved to death,

It is estimated to have taken more than a century for the region to recover.

In the old days when kings and leaders went out to fight with very small armies it was a lot better. I think not.

In the old days when kings and leaders went out to fight with very small armies it was a lot better. Your average person isn’t interested and doesn’t want to give their lives for politics. Let the leaders bash each other up. Putin can get on his horse and face off with Biden and Sunak can hold the spears.

eddiecat78

I recommend The Worry Tree (easily googled) which divides worries into those you can do something about and those you can't. In this case, you can't do anything about global conflicts so let that worry go and change your focus of attention. And definitely keep away from the news - if something serious happens that you need to know about someone will tell you!

Sounds good.

The Bible says, do not worry about tomorrow.
That cuts out half the worries or more, right away.

A couple of things news wise, in the last month, i have "relied" on GN!

People on here can have quite extreme views in all ways.
At least there are then "proper" debates. As opposed to the often, one-sided, channels and newspapers.

Easier on the emotions to read on here, I find. Though some might not agree!

I recommend The Worry Tree (easily googled) which divides worries into those you can do something about and those you can't. In this case, you can't do anything about global conflicts so let that worry go and change your focus of attention. And definitely keep away from the news - if something serious happens that you need to know about someone will tell you!

To be fair after years of Guardian reading I couldnt stand it anymore so I stopped. It's not just the Mail.

I was born after the war but remember how frightening it was especially through the 50 s and 60s. Cuba, suez, Cold War…..

Good advice from silverlining and pascal. I would add - worrying about something which may never happen and over which you have no control is a waste of life. The likes of the DM and Express are in business because of people like you who feed off the negativity they are so good at producing.

Even I, a real news freak, have cut back a bit now on watching or reading the news, because of the endless horrifying and frightening stuff going on.
I lived through WW2, and haven't been this scared since the 1960's.

If I was in your situation I would take a complete break from reading these RW papers and just read Positive News. Your husband sounds like a wise man.. and just live in the present by appreciating what is actually around you... your garden, lovely country walks, good food,friends etc. I think you will be surprised how much your mind settles and you start to feel less anxious.. we feed our anxieties but equally we can feed our contentment

Stop reading the DM with all its poisonous negativity. My poor mum always read it; and believed it. Already an anxious woman it nearly drove her to madness. I am not joking.
It thrives on doom and gloom and always Looks for the worst case scenario.
There are other news outlets with better balance. Or take a break from news altogether for a while.

Life has always been fraught with danger. Most of us here lived through the cold war. Previous genrations lived through the fear and results of the 2 world wars and going back through time. Palestinians are living through the mosyt dreadful of times.

Existential worries and fears will never go away. So we all just have to learn to live with the world as it is and do our own little bit to try to improve it.

COVID led to incredible advances in vaccination technology and science. Unlike the Spanish flu epidemic of 100 years before where nothing could be done.

You could try looking at some YouTube videos to try and control your anxiety.

I do thank you all for your good comments, I did forget to add that my DS paid out for a subscription magazine that delivered to my door every quarterly, simply called Positive News, which I was able to read and pass on. I think I need to rid of these news apps that are full of negativity!

I have almost given up trying to make sense of any of it. Getting older has it perks, I leave it to those who make the decisions now, I don’t, will deal with a problems when it’s there not before. Don’t think conscription could ever happen now so many would claim exclusion either on religious, cultural or other grounds it would be mayhem.

It is also noticeable that headlines are often misleading. Once you read the detail, you can soon see that the headlines are wrong. This particularly applies online. The key is to get your news from reliable sources.
Having a break from the news may be helpful, but you might miss something significant.

The way I look at it is, now that news is 24/7, they have to get click bait or whatever it is called.
So if there is a way of making something into a drama, and making headlines dramatic sounding, they will find it. And use it.

I too read/watch less news.
Once you notice what they are doing, and know why, it is easier to somewhat step away.

I would even go so far as to say, there are some people who think we are all being made to feel frightened on purpose. How true that is, I dont know.

I also stopped reading the news. I was sick to death of everything being about Harry and Meghan. Not a day went by that they didn't come up in the news. Now they are shoving the thread of world war 3 down our throats.

It is the governments fault that this has happened, they have cut resources for everything, police, the forces, NHS. I want to know where the money has gone because they can find the money to send abroad to help countries that do not need our help. They can afford the special pivate planes to take them to god knows where for their meetings that can be done on a ZOOM meeting in their own offices.

The only time that people should agree to fight in the war is if the powers that be are standing in the front line with their soldiers etc. and not sitting behind a desk giving orders.

If every single soldier refused to fight then there would be no wars at all.

I also would have anxiety and high blood pressure if I got my news from the Daily Mail and Express😄😄

Try casting your net wider when taking in the news.

I use as many sources as I can, including news from foreign outlets like Europe, USA the Middle East. I even watch stuff from Russia English speaking media. You will be surprised how much easier it gets to be critical over what you are reading or hearing.

Even if you just read a newspaper that is more left leaning, it will help to widen your critical thinking and lesson your anxiety.