The War on The Road

The War on The Road

When you start driving, you are usually taught the idea of “defensive driving”. This technique of driving is used to help protect yourself from other drivers. Despite this technique, there are still, on average, 34,000 people who die each year due to driving. This is more than the amount of American soldiers who died from war in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. This is disturbing because it has been described by former General, Robert E Lee, “it is well that war is so terrible…”. War is already a terrifying image to see, but when you realize an activity we use everyday casually is essentially worse than being in a war, you can’t help but ask, “where is the real war?”.

In war, you can normally trust the person on the side of you because both of you have the same goal. When you’re driving, you don’t know what the other driver is thinking or what is going on in their lives. For all you know the person in the car next to you may be in a rush or in a very dark place. Another person you have to look out for, if you live in a place like Texas, is the person in front of you. They can slam on their brakes and make you hit them from behind, This means you are responsible for the accident. These are just some of the lengths people are willing to go to get money or to just mess you up. The person behind you may not be paying attention at all and can hit you from behind which can leave you dead or paralyzed. When you are driving, it’s almost as if you are surrounded by unknown enemies.

To compare, war is a place where you may be killed, but at least you have a team of people you can count on to protect you whereas when you are a driver, you have nobody but yourself to count on. This can lead to a lot of accidents and deaths. For example, when a soldier is attempting to run out of the trenches, they have others giving them feedback and covering fire, but when a driver attempts to merge into another lane, the other drivers may speed up or slow down too much. This can cause many problems and many deaths. In a way, driving is more dangerous than fighting a war. There have been times that innocent civilians have died during a war, but many innocent people die every year from driving to and from work. To summarize, the roads are a very dangerous and unpredictable place.

In conclusion, war may be an evil and hellish place, but driving has become the same in a way. Some may say war cannot be compared to driving because war is being fought for a reason. However, many wars are fought with hardly any reason resulting in many soldiers drying for no reason. These deaths can be compared to the many innocent victims who die on the road every year.