Our reticence in the face of international conflict is pathetic

THE rescue photos were heartwarming. Children smiling. Grandparents hugging them. Parents looking tired but relieved: we’re out of the war zone and home safe.

The expedition and efficiency of the operation mounted by the Department of Foreign Affairs in the Lebanon is admirable — and typical. The one thing we can be sure of is that if we get into trouble overseas, individually or in a group, whether that trouble is of our own making or arises from uncontrollable circumstances, the DFA will move in to assist us and, if necessary, get us out.

What’s bothersome about the rescue photographs is our collective response to them: a sigh of generalised relief. As in: that’s grand, that’s all over. Our own have been got out, uninjured, unmaimed. They all lived happily ever after.