Would you stay or would you try to run?

When ISIS takes over Mosul and the Iraqi army evacuates, Abu Laith and his family try to run away, though they have to go back. Hakam and his family don't even try to leave. Would you stay or would you try to run?

This is impossible to answer. I would want to leave to protect my family, yet if it’s the only place I’ve called home that’s tough. Besides, no matter what I say things sometimes change when you’re actually confronted with a situation. There’s no easy answer here

If I could take my family with me, I think I would try to run but if I had Abu Laith's level of devotion to the animals, leaving them would haunt me.

Never having been in a situation like this, it is impossible to know what I would do.

My instinct would say run but who knows unless you are in that situation. And where do you go?

Like many others here, I believe it is impossible to know for certain what I would do unless I was really in the situation. The answer then would depend upon what would be best and easiest and possible for my entire family. I don't think I can answer firmly.

I would hope that I would have someplace safe to go. I dislike calling it running, maybe leaving home for a bit until things were better. I am a home body so it would be a hard decision. However it would be difficult for me to be confined in a room, bathroom in my home as that one family was forced to do.

If there was a place to run to, run. If there was no plan for where to run to, I would stay. I am amazed the families had the resources to survive when they stayed.

Interesting question. Agree with other responders' comments, if I had somewhere better to run to, I would go, If I did not, I believe I would stay. But, one never knows what you would do unless you come face to face with the situation.

Such a tough question!

As several of you mention, it can be really hard to know for certain what we'd do in a crisis if we've never experienced it or something similar.

For myself, I know that I'd be tempted to stay put because leaving home would be incredibly hard.

But if things became completely unbearable, I would probably be forced to leave.

Leaving home is hard to do, even under distressing circumstances. I don't think I would go if I did not have another place to go that I knew would be safe. It's hard to know...

The attachment to one’s life in a certain place can be very strong. When life starts changing for the worse because of political ideologies of those in power or because of invasion, there is often a tendency to remain in place and believe that either “it will get better” or “things can’t get any worse.” For me, the best illustration of this resulted in the Holocaust. Some Jews chose to leave Europe in the 1930s leading up 1938 and the start of World War II, but overwhelmingly most of those with the means to leave stayed and ultimately died.

I honestly hope that I would look at history and make the decision to get out early, especially if I had a family..

I can understand the motivation for staying - a familiar place, one's own home and belongings, no where else to go, the hope that the war would end soon and everything would go back to normal. There's equal motivation to leave - safety and a better chance of staying alive.

As others have said, I don't know what I would do. My first instinct after reading the question was that I would leave, but as I think about it more I also feel a compelling pull toward staying in my home, hoping for a better future.

I'd hate to stay, but be afraid to run.

My decision to stay or run would depend on my family and if we could stay together. If staying together meant stay, I would do so. I can't imagine leaving anyone behind though I know it's a difficult decision many face and I would never want to disparage someone making a decision I have never needed to make.

I think Buffalogirl answered it perfectly. I would look at history. The Holocaust for one example. I would run and take my whole family.

This made me think of Hurricane Katrina. People were told to evacuate but several did not leave because they could not leave their animals behind. This may have played a part for Abu Laith. It would be hard to know what to do. For some people leaving may not be an option. Those who are sick or in poor health may not be able to physically leave. There is also the safety factor of leaving and where do you go once you leave. You would really need to be in that situation to know what you would do.

I would like to run, of course, but leaving the animals behind would definitely break my heart. I would be torn because I’d like to be safe and at the same time, I’d like others to be safe too.

I'm a big chicken, so I would have tried to run. That's why I was so fascinated by the father seemingly never really taking that option seriously. I realize he didn't want to leave the animals, but I honestly think even if the animals weren't a factor, he would have just wanted to hunker down and think the whole situation might just go away if he just waited it out. That lead me to think -- maybe when you are in an area with continual fighting, maybe you just become very practical about it all. Maybe you do get to the point where you just think this is life, I just have to hold my nose and it will be better tomorrow. Maybe you lose your ability to believe there is a better way to live somewhere and that you and your family deserve that chance.

This is such a huge question, with so many considerations to be made. On the one hand, running can mean heading straight into an even more dangerous situation, while staying put might mean being a sitting duck. What a dilemma...I hope to never experience such a situation!