Nigeria, April 18 -- This was the question a friend of mine in his late 20s asked me when we woke up on April 14to the news that Iran had launched over 300 drones and missiles towards Israel.

Apart from video war games, the young man has not seen any wars. Nigeria's civil war ended nearly two and a half decades before he was born. Of course, you don't have to experience war to feel it. There's a sense, for example, in which the more recent wars in the West African subregion or the more distant ones in Northeastern Africa or Europe tend to reach us, wherever we are.

Our televisions and phones bring the horrors of war right into our living rooms. A generation for which these smart devices have become a playground is right to be concerned ...