How do you prepare for war? When a severe thunderstorm is imminent you keep the weather radio on, find the flashlights and candles, and, if necessary, go to the basement. When heavy snow is in the forecast you go to the grocery store and stock up on food for a few days. But what do you do when the forecast is for war? Most Americans have lived through at least one war. I have lived through three. And, yet, I’m still not sure what I should do as the forecast seems to be “90 percent chance of war.”

We Americans are not a warrior race. When we are forced we fight, as tyrants have learned for more than a century. We’ve also been lucky, at least between the Civil War and 9-11, to have been far from the fields of battle, unlike our allies and our enemies. Ask any Briton over the age of 65 for instance, and he or she will tell you how to prepare for war. But what do we, here in our beloved Kansas, in the heart of America, do to prepare for war?

The United States has taken, or, perhaps, has had thrust upon it, the burden of becoming the first empire of the 21st century. We have asserted the moral and legal right to intervene anywhere in the world to maintain and protect our country, freedom, and democracy around the world, even if this means taking pre-emptive action.

In the past, war has been thrust upon us and we have not had to take the first step. In the past, we have gone to war quickly and reactively, so there was really no time for normal citizens to get prepared (as opposed to the generals who must always be prepared).

But this time it’s different. In one sense, we have again had war thrust upon us by the dastardly attacks of 9-11. But the enemy this time is not a single nation but a shadowy coalition and we are forced to be more cautious and calculating. Now, there is time to contemplate the specter of war. Every day we are told war gets closer. Every day more young men and women are shipping out to face the peril of combat. Our great ships are sailing to far off places; our troops are massing in far off lands. War is on the horizon. So how do we prepare for war?

I must confess that I feel no immediate sense of personal danger. Yes, I know that terrorism may increase, that biological and chemical horrors may come our way, even here in Kansas. But I haven’t gone online to purchase protective suits or quack medicines to protect myself or my wife. I haven’t even thought about the smallpox vaccine, because I know I cannot be vaccinated because of eczema.

These personal dangers still seem too speculative and, perhaps, simply too horrible to contemplate. Preparations of these sorts I leave to the government and those who know better than I. So how do we prepare for war?

I’ve thought a lot about this question of late. I find myself watching the news more and more, wondering when what seems now to be inevitable will come. I’ve gotten out my old shortwave radio and put up a new antenna so that I can listen to foreign broadcasts and find out what other folks are doing to prepare themselves.

I’ve heard that the people in Iraq are buying kerosene and in Israel the government’s distributing gas masks. In Turkey, they’re worried about their borders and in Kuwait they’re beefing up security. But all of this still feels rather remote to me here in Lawrence, Kansas.

So how do I prepare for war? First of all, when I pass someone in uniform these days, particularly if they’re with family, I find myself making sure I smile warmly at them and say hello because soon they may be in harm’s way. However one may feel about our country’s policies, it seems to me that the young men and women who make up our military deserve our respect and our kindness for they and their families will soon be at great risk. Indeed, when I pass anyone under the age of 40 I wonder if they, too, may soon find themselves caught up in this war in the making. Already, 95,000 reserves and National Guard members have been called up. Surely, more will follow.

Second, I have found myself talking more to my foreign friends and students, trying to understand their points of view in the belief that, perhaps, if enough of us can understand each other maybe there may come a day when tyranny will become unacceptable and war unnecessary, when reasonable people can settle their differences without bloodshed.

I fear that we are very far from that point now. Men who can build and stockpile weapons of mass destruction are seldom reasonable and peace-minded. But as war grows nearer each day, I’ve decided that the best way a 50-something law professor in Lawrence, Kansas, can prepare for war is to begin and end each day with a simple prayer, a prayer that if there is a way to avoid this war, let us find the wisdom and courage to find it, and, if none is to be found, let us hope that this war is swift and that there is as little suffering as possible on both sides. They say that prayer can work miracles. That’s how I prepare for war.

— Mike Hoeflich is a professor in the Kansas University School of Law.