Benigno lectori salutem

The idea of this special Journal of Thoracic Disease (JTD) issue was born at the European Society of Thoracic Surgery (ESTS) School in Kazan, Russian Federation in early 2016 and was completed at a roundtable discussion in the Hemicycle of Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France on the terror-related professional tasks of thoracic surgeons in November 2017. The array and scope of the questions to discuss were served on a silver plate by Mother Contemporary History. Our age of the war on terror or indiscriminate and seemengly random attacks on non-belligerents is a call for trauma awareness among all surgeons. Our professional, social and moral responsibilities are challenged and obligations of the global thoracic surgical society dictate the need to reply this dramatic question: mass casualty situation: are we ready?