Why War?

This is a new creative piece that I have written. It is a short story narrative from the point of view of a thirteen year old girl on the day that World War III is declared.


My name is Cindy Walker and I am thirteen years old today. However, today, May 8th, 2018, will not be remembered as my birthday. It will be remembered as the day the United States and Israel declared war on the entire Middle East. Already, it’s different from the wars past that we’ve learned about in history class. According to my parents, this war began a long time ago. They claim that we’ve been at war with the Middle East since they were my age. They still remember the day the world changed – the day two planes were hijacked and flown into the Twin Towers. My parents took me there last summer, to the Freedom Tower and the World Trade Center Memorial that sits where the Twin Towers once stood. Sometimes As I stood there, on top of the 1,776 feet tall building, I tried to imagine the terror and fear that people must have felt on that day. The declaration of this war is the culmination of tensions that have been building since 9/11.

The news claims that the terror and fear of that day will not compare to what we are about to feel. They claim that the repercussions of the war will be felt not only in this country, but across the world. This war will surpass the casualties of World War II and the nuclear tensions felt in the Cold War. Everyone – the politicians, the news reports, the articles – keeps talking about how bad this is going to be. What I don’t understand is why the war has to happen. In Mrs. Gould’s history class last year, we learned that World War II happened because of Hitler and that the Civil War happened because of disagreement on the issue of slavery. All of the other wars had a direct cause, so then why doesn’t anyone mention why we are going to war? I asked my mom today, and she just shrugged her shoulders and said that as long as she can remember, we’ve been at war with the Middle East. To her, the official declaration doesn’t change anything. But I’m scared. I keep hearing words like “biological warfare” and “nuclear technology” on the news. In class, we learned that the world essentially has the capacity to destroy itself with this war. If this is true, then why are we at war? Doesn’t the President understand that he has put the entire world at risk with this declaration? I wish I could talk to the President and understand what issue was so important that he felt it necessary to risk the lives of billions of innocent citizens. But the fact is, that the world is at war and nobody really knows why.