“Tell me about the war, Daddy”

  Once again I am gone from home. Come the end of this fiscal year, I will have been away 10 of the last 12 months. Luckily I’ve been able to talk to my big five year old son every night so far though. Last night took a different turn. I was blindsided when Stephen said, “Can you tell me about the war, Daddy?” Gulp. How do you even begin to explain 9/11, Bin Laden, terrorism, and the war in Iraq to a five year old whose dad is about to go over there? Wisely (so i thought) I explained about the World Trade Center and how bad guys flew planes into a building. I said that daddy was going to do his part to stop more bad guys from doing bad stuff like that. Didn’t work. Immediately a ton of non-five year old  questions began to flow and if I didn’t get down to the 5 year old level fast, he’d never get on a plane again.  So I said, “Well, where daddy’s going, it’s really hot.” That did the trick. Stephen quickly and sweetly assured me that Puppy (his best friend and stuffed animal that he’s sending with me) cools off when you’re not holding him and when you pick him up again he feels nice and cool. Good advice, buddy, the Army hadn’t taught me that one.

So to those who are in Stephen’s sphere of influence, please help me teach him. Find out what’s going on. I watched one of those ‘man on the street’  interviews last night and the host was picking people out of the street to ask who we’re fighting in Iraq. The whole charade was meant to make our President look stupid and the acts of our Soldiers seem in vain.  I’m sure he hand picked the ones that aired and of course the ones he showed all gave gobbledly gook for answers. I don’t care if a person is for or against the war in Iraq. Honestly I don’t. I think compelling arguments can be made by intelligent people on both sides. But we’re not pigs on a farm yet to be committed, we’re bacon dude. We’re in this thing and that’s the bottom line. So please help those who are for the war support it for the right reasons. And for those against it, please articulate why you are without reguritating the talking points from the liberal media. Be able to state what would happen if we weren’t there and know the differences between the Sunni, Shia, and Kurds and what their stakes are in this. Whatever your position, I’m like DeToqueville, “I may disagree with what you say, but will defend till death your right to say it.”

I think times like this require us all to relook our own history. Iraq is now in its infancy as a nation and yet we expect it to function like a mini-USA. Well how long did it take us to realize that men shouldn’t be slaves? Or that women should have the same rights as a man? That all men are equal regardless of thier skin pigment? We’re pushing 300 years and we’ve got a long ways to go ourselves.

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