The most vocal war critic in our house is my 83-year-old father-in-law, who stops by two or three times a day. He was drafted for WWII and was taken from his 3-month bride for three years. He served in Africa and Italy. "War is a terrible thing," he says. "They should do everything they can to avoid it." He is a highly lauded past bank president, but has not a clue about how to use a screwdriver. War frightened him no end.

I wonder if the most vocal critics of the war in the public sphere are people who don't do mechanical things (apart from the Germans)?