If you are American, what do you feel about a war starting and being attacked? I’m from the UK and do feel worried but think I’d feel more scared being from America?

[-]

AskAnAmerican-ModTeam@reddit

Thank you for your submission, but it was removed as this topic falls under the auspices of a current event or off-limits topic at this time.

If you have questions regarding your submission removal - please contact the moderator team via modmail.

[-]

I think the experience of war for US citizens is vastly different from that of other countries. Unless you came from another country, Americans have never experienced war on our own soil for generations. But we’ve always been in conflict somewhere in the world during that same time. My partner was military. Friends and family are military. Fighting overseas in rich people’s wars is just kind of a part of most peoples lives.

As far as being attacked on US soil, it could happen. Invasion unlikely without mass destruction first. Emergency response and resources are pretty fleshed out in most of the populated areas of the country.

I was an emergency responder for years and at one training for school shootings I think, we did a classroom group exercise where we were given an area of the state (I was in Missouri at the time) and based on what we knew about the resources available in that area, how would we decimate emergency response from happening for an incident like a college campus active shooter. We thought up some really twisted albeit clever shit. Even then, in most cases the instructor was able to point out the flaws of our plan and fail safes that exist to prevent x y z thing from happening.

Listen I’m not a fan of what my country is doing right now on almost all fronts, left, right, purple, green. Idc where people are standing. It’s all so fucked up.

So I guess with all that said I just feel numb honestly. And I acknowledge that’s 100% a privileged response.

[-]

Sacred_succotash@reddit

Nuclear warfare is another discussion.

[-]

Otherwise-OhWell@reddit

The responses to this post prove that this subreddit makes r ShitAmericansSay redundant. Fantastic!

[-]

sendme_your_cats@reddit

It'll never happen. Our geography is too op to be invaded.

[-]

Funny_Inspection6893@reddit

It's ironic that the country with the largest armed forces is the one that needs them the least.

[-]

sendme_your_cats@reddit

Industrial military complex goes brrrr

But no really I'd rather we leave that shitshow half of the globe alone and focus on us. We need to invest in the country more than ever

[-]

Hopeful_Fig9571@reddit

I mean we could be attacked…9/11, Pearl Harbor style but the war would never be fought here…in all honestly the war would probably end up being fought in the Middle East or Europe after we got attacked.

[-]

smurphy8536@reddit

The only war fought over truly American soil was the Civil War and that’s the only way it’ll happen again.

[-]

Hopeful_Fig9571@reddit

True but I think we are smart enough to know our enemies would take advantage of a civil war here. We’re stuck with each other

[-]

smurphy8536@reddit

We did that 100 years after founding the country. Now it’s been another 150. People weren’t dumb back then and I don’t think we’re any smarter now.

[-]

Current_Poster@reddit

I'm not in favor of it.

[-]

EagleCatchingFish@reddit

Like, am I worried that it will happen? No. We're very far away from countries who could do us harm.

The bigger danger for an American perspective is being attacked by someone and then waging war in response. If you look at Pearl Harbor, 9/11, and the "attack" on the USS Maine (seems not to have been an attack, but a magazine in the ship blowing up on its own), we immediately went to war. Public sentiment in America can shift from isolationism to extremely aggressive at the drop of a hat when we feel attacked.

But the thing I'm actually afraid of is that with Trump pissing away our enormously expensive and long lead time strategic anti-air assets on his stupid war of choice in Iran, Xi Jinping will decide the time is right to invade Taiwan. That could trigger a worldwide depression if Taiwanese chip production ceases, and if we don't support Taiwan (and I'm not sure that we will, given the strategic schizophrenia in the White House), our entire system of alliances will collapse in the Western Pacific. Knowing that they can't depend on the US to honor defense treaties, the likelihood of nuclear proliferation will increase.

[-]

ThePickleConnoisseur@reddit

If the US is attacked by a nation on home soil chances are nukes may get involved. Assuming NATO doesn’t fulfill their role, all resources would be on the war.

[-]

PinchedTazerZ0@reddit

I'm not a fan of the american war machine but that coupled with a shit ton of ocean between a lot of the world would make it a suicide mission for a group of countries, even more so for one. Not to mention that the US is fucking huge, multiple fronts would be extremely difficult and if you don't go that route what do you do? LA? New York? Texas alone has 20k troops in its national guard. Over a million in active military on the federal level

They keep trying to make it harder to get food and healthcare but the feds aren't slacking on feeding the machine

More worried about the internal threats than the external, truthfully

[-]

Odd-Significance-17@reddit

my life sucks this country sucks, i’m ready for it to collapse

[-]

Remote_Ocelot9600@reddit

My life is fantastic and I love this country. We balance each other out.

[-]

CheeseEveryMeal@reddit

This sounds like a you problem.

[-]

Remote_Ocelot9600@reddit

I have a faint understanding of what America does when attacked.

Starting a war with America, especially attacking us on our soil, would unite the entire nation behind the idea of gloves off unleash the full might of the us military upon the enemy.

I saw what the USA did after the towers. Today, it would be even worse.

[-]

xeno_4_x86@reddit

At this point I wouldn't be surprised. We kinda deserve it.

[-]

Soggy_Cup1314@reddit

What a weird thing to say.

[-]

Into-Imagination@reddit

Nobody is invading America.

What worries me (personally) is:

Terrorism
A bolt from the blue attack (Nuclear, cyber, biological)

Risk of both has risen, due to:

Current US administrations policies (ie starting a kinetic conflict with Iran.)
Current world powers that may feel like taking advantage of current disarray could be their only generational opportunity.
The lack of credible expertise at the bureaucracy, that’s been whittled down in the name of loyalty to the administration.

The 3 factors put together, absolutely scare me.

I’d be a lot more scared of a conventional invasion if I was in a EU country neighboring Ukraine, or in South Korea with North Korea right there, or so on.

[-]

Mysterious_Bus7320@reddit

I think the worst thing that could happen to America is terrorist attacks similar to 9/11. It’s nearly impossible for anyone to attack us the normal way.

So, I'm sort of worried, but I feel like our government has gotten too good at spying for anything like 9/11 to happen again.

I’m more scared of experiencing a shooting at a mall than anything happening to me cause of a war...

[-]

Fyaal@reddit

Historically the only country we really need to worry about invading and fighting on our land is you.

Practically, no. Not worried about it in the least. Besides the world’s largest military, we’ve got a better defense, the Atlantic and Pacific.

[-]

MarkyGalore@reddit

I'm not afraid of being attacked here at home. Im more afraid of what security measures our government could take that would limit civil liberties than i am of Iran.

[-]

SummitJunkie7@reddit

I don't know... constant existential dread is my new normal. It's not that I'm not worried about war, necessarily.... but the "extra" worry just isn't making much difference.

[-]

pulchritudinousprout@reddit

Perfectly stated. I’m in a state of (maybe voluntary? I don’t know anymore) dissociation. If I give everything the emotional energy it requires to fully process I won’t have any energy left to raise my children or make my lunch or do much of anything.

[-]

Graflex01867@reddit

I’m not really worried about it.

We’re very physically isolated, basically being a large chunk of our own continent. There’s a large ocean you have to cross to get here. None of our close neighbors would attack. An attack from overseas is highly unlikely.

There might be some countries that would try, but most of them would get flattened shortly thereafter, so an attack is unlikely in the first place. No one wants to poke the bear and have the bear bit their head off

There are other countries that could launch a serious attack that are large enough to not get flattened in the 24 hours after, but a war on that scale would very quickly become global and reach a scale that would end the world as we know it, and I’m reasonably certain none of the countries that could do it want to. It would be one of those situations where there really wouldn’t be any winners or losers, it would just start chaos. (And yes, I understand our current leadership could be equally unstable in that regard.)

[-]

IndiaEvans@reddit

A war with whom? We'll be fine.

[-]

OmericanAutlaw@reddit

each of all my friends and i are more well outfitted than the next three militaries are after the United States, and we aren’t even that into prepping or guns or the like. anyone coming here would have a hard time because even the most anti-war anti-gun citizen would not stand for their home being invaded + the actual military response.

[-]

SnooGoats7454@reddit

If I die, I die. Being scared isn't gonna do anything to change it. Most of us normies are the same I think.

If you're afraid you're gonna die soon turn it into a drive to do things that make you happy more and do things that make you unhappy less.

[-]