I was watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart one day last week and his guest was John Mueller, the author of a new book entitled, "Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them."

I have not read the book. Apparently, however, the premise of the book is that at least this administration has overblown the threat of terrorism to Americans.

Of course, if the book is any good at all it will make the point that, yes, most politicians (and a book could be written about ministers who do this also) do have a tendency to blow things way out of proportion.

In the interview with Stewart, Mueller said that the average American's chance of being killed by a terrorist was about 1 in 80,000. Furthermore, he asserted that an American is just as likely to get hit by an asteroid as to be killed by a terrorist. So why, he questioned, are we fighting a war against terrorists?

Okay, what was the average American's risk of being killed by a German soldier or a Japanese soldier during W.W.II? My guess is it would also be somewhere in the ballpark of 1 in 80,000, or higher.

Obviously, the reason America should or should not be engaged in any war has nothing whatsoever to do with risk to an average American. Why, then, should America go to war anywhere anytime?

Whatever the reason, it extends far beyond whether an average American may be killed by an enemy combatant.

Perhaps Mueller should ask a family member of one of the thousands killed in the destruction of the Towers in New York about risk.

Perhaps he should ask a family member of one of the soldiers killed at Pearl Harbor about risk.

The reason a nation goes to war reaches far beyond the risk to any one person to the risk a nation would face if, for example, terrorism became commonplace within its borders.

The reason has to do with small matters like freedom, liberty, human rights, and dignity. Of course, most Americans feel so absolutely safe and protected from losing freedom, liberty, human rights and dignity, that they can not even comprehend the possibility of losing them.

In my book, the reason we are at war is not overblown and this is a risk that is best managed on another nation's shores rather than our own.

Jack Rollins is the managing editor of the Daily Dunklin Democrat.