It is often difficult for a 24-year old Canadian male who has never travelled to the Middle East, witnessed a person die in an armed conflict, or even visited Ground Zero (let alone been pulled out of airport line) to fully grasp the visceral reality of international terrorism, war, and violence — I am drunk, if you will, on the plush, numb comforts of Western materialism.

Occasionally, a moment of sobriety sets in.