Iraq: Here's an Explanation

[T. Rex]

The other day, my nine year old son wanted to know why we were at war. My husband looked at our son and then looked at me. My husband and I were in the Army during the Gulf War and we would be honored to serve and defend our country again today. I knew that my husband would give him a good explanation.

My husband thought for a few minutes and then told my son to go stand in our front living room window. He told him: "Son, stand there and tell me what you see?"

"I see trees and cars and our neighbors houses." he replied.

"OK, now I want you to pretend that our house and our yard is the United States of America and you are President Bush."

Our son giggled and said "OK."

"Now son, I want you to look out the window and pretend that every house and yard on this block is a different country" my husband said.

"OK Dad, I'm pretending."

"Now I want you to stand there and look out the window and see that man come out of his house with his wife and he has her by the hair and is hitting her. You see her bleeding and crying. He hits her in the face, he throws her on the ground, then he starts to kick her to death. Their children run out and are afraid to stop him, they are crying, they are watching this but do nothing because they are kids and afraid of their father. You see all of this son....what do you do?"

"Dad?"

"What do you do son?"

"I call the police, Dad."

"OK. Pretend that the police are the United Nations and they take your call, listen to what you know and saw but they refuse to help. What do you do then son?"

"Dad, but the police are supposed to help!" My son starts to whine.

"They don't want to son, because they say that it is not their place or your place to get involved and that you should stay out of it," my husband says.

"But Dad...he killed her!!" my son exclaims.

"I know he did...but the police tell you to stay out of it. Now I want you to look out that window and pretend you see our neighbor who you're pretending is Saddam turn around and do the same thing to his children."

"Daddy...he kills them?"

"Yes son, he does. What do you do?"

"Well, if the police don't want to help, I will go and ask my next door neighbor to help me stop him." our son says.

"Son, our next door neighbor sees what is happening and refuses to get involved as well. He refuses to open the door and help you stop him," my husband says.

"But Dad, I NEED help!!! I can't stop him by myself!!"

"WHAT DO YOU DO SON?"

Our son starts to cry.

"OK, no one wants to help you, the man across the street saw you ask for help and saw that no one would help you stop him. He stands taller and puffs out his chest. Guess what he does next son?"

"What Daddy?"

"He walks across the street to the old ladies house and breaks down her door and drags her out, steals all her stuff and sets her house on fire and then...he kills her. He turns around and sees you standing in he window and laughs at you. WHAT DO YOU DO?"

"Daddy..."

"WHAT DO YOU DO?"

Our son is crying and he looks down and he whispers, "I close the blinds, Daddy."

"My husband looks at our son with tears in his eyes and asks him... "Why?"

"Because Daddy.....the police are supposed to help...people who needs it....and they won't help....You always say that neighbors are supposed to HELP neighbors, but they won't help either...they won't help me stop him...I'm afraid....I can't do it by myself ..Daddy.....I can't look out my window and just watch him do all these terrible things and...and.....do nothing...so....I'm just going to close the blinds....so I can't see what he's doing........and I'm going to pretend that it is not happening."

I start to cry.

My husband looks at our nine year old son standing in the window, looking pitiful and ashamed at his answers to my husbands questions and he tells him...."Son"

"Yes, Daddy."

"Open the blinds because that man.... he's at your front door..."WHAT DO YOU DO?"

My son looks at his father, anger and defiance in his eyes. He balls up his tiny fists and looks his father square in the eyes, without hesitation he says: "I DEFEND MY FAMILY DAD!! I'M NOT GONNA LET HIM HURT MOMMY OR MY SISTER, DAD!!! I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM, DAD, I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM!!!!!"

I see a tear roll down my husband's cheek and he grabs my son to his chest and hugs him tight, and cries..."It's too late to fight him, he's too strong and he's already at YOUR front door son.....you should have stopped him BEFORE he killed his wife. You have to do what's right, even if you have to do it alone, before......it's too late." my husband whispers.

THAT scenario I just gave you is WHY we are at war with Iraq. When good men stand by and let evil happen is the greatest EVIL of all. Our President is doing what is right. We, as a free nation, must understand that this war is a war of humanity. WE must remove evil men from power so that we can continue to live in a free world where we are not afraid to look out our window. So that my nine year old son won't grow up in a world where he feels that if he just "closes" that blinds the atrocities in the world won't affect him.

"YOU MUST NEVER BE AFRAID TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT! EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO DO IT ALONE!"

BE PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!

BE PROUD OF OUR PRESIDENT!

BE PROUD OF OUR TROOPS!!

SUPPORT THEM!!!

SUPPORT AMERICA!!

SO THAT IN THE FUTURE OUR CHILDREN WILL NEVER HAVE TO CLOSE THEIR BLINDS...."


"The liberty we prize is not American's gift to the world, it is God's gift to humanity." George W. Bush

 

[Rick van Opbergen]

RE: Iraq: Here

Now replace America with Iraq, American with Iraqi and George W. Bush with Saddam Hussein and you know the basics of nationalistic propaganda :wink:

 

[fubbleskag]

Re: RE: Iraq: Here

Now replace America with Iraq, American with Iraqi and George W. Bush with Saddam Hussein and you know the basics of nationalistic propaganda :wink:

preach on brother!

 

[Rick van Opbergen]

RE: Iraq: Here

:mrgreen:

 

[Jillyvn]

Re: RE: Iraq: Here

Now replace America with Iraq, American with Iraqi and George W. Bush with Saddam Hussein and you know the basics of nationalistic propaganda :wink:

It always amazes me that people can accept such glurge at face value, and then become enraged, accusing the other side of propaganda when they spout the same stuff.

I think you really put it in perspective for T. Rex here.

 

[Andem]

RE: Iraq: Here

That's the biggest load of completely twisted BS that I've read in quite a while... It's sad how in the modern age of computers and the Internet that people actually still buy into this stuff. What amazes me more is how it's actually distributed in a means like the Internet.

 

[eastcoastrob]

RE: Iraq: Here

That was the worst propagandist swill I have ever read!
Bush "closed the blinds" on his own people by fabricating inteligence for going to war.
His daddy provided Sadam with chemical and biological weapons to use against Iran. He put his buddies in charge of the Iraqi people. It was never about removing evil! It was about oil- plain and simple.
When at war people tell themselves whatever they have to in order to keep up support for sons and daughters.
As touching as that story was it made me wanna puke and then mop it up with Old Glory. The next time your kid asks you why you're at war tell him the truth-"BECAUSE OUR PRESIDENT IS A GREEDY LYING SACK OF CRAP AND HE"LL SACRIFICE AS MANY OF US AS IT TAKES TO MAKE SURE THAT HE AND HIS FRIENDS HAVE NICE BANK ACCOUNTS WHEN THE OIL FLOWS FREELY AGAIN"
It's times like these I'm not so embarassed of Canada's armed forces. I'm glad we had nobody to send.

 

[Haggis McBagpipe]

Re: RE: Iraq: Here

That was the worst propagandist swill I have ever read!
Bush "closed the blinds" on his own people by fabricating inteligence for going to war.
His daddy provided Sadam with chemical and biological weapons to use against Iran. He put his buddies in charge of the Iraqi people. It was never about removing evil! It was about oil- plain and simple.
When at war people tell themselves whatever they have to in order to keep up support for sons and daughters.
As touching as that story was it made me wanna puke and then mop it up with Old Glory. The next time your kid asks you why you're at war tell him the truth-"BECAUSE OUR PRESIDENT IS A GREEDY LYING SACK OF CRAP AND HE"LL SACRIFICE AS MANY OF US AS IT TAKES TO MAKE SURE THAT HE AND HIS FRIENDS HAVE NICE BANK ACCOUNTS WHEN THE OIL FLOWS FREELY AGAIN"
It's times like these I'm not so embarassed of Canada's armed forces. I'm glad we had nobody to send.

Well said, and damn true.

 

[eastcoastrob]

"YOU MUST NEVER BE AFRAID TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT! EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO DO IT ALONE!"

Sounds like the definition of a rogue nation to me.

 

[moghrabi]

RE: Iraq: Here

T. Rex,

This is the saddest story I've ever heard. It is sad because you believe in it. I am sad for you.

 

[eastcoastrob]

RE: Iraq: Here

Holy crap! You're in Red Deer! Anybody tell you that Canada's not actually in the war? We just threw some money at 'em to ease the tensions.

 

[eastcoastrob]

RE: Iraq: Here

I am writing this under my husbands name but I want to make it clear that I am not Eastcoastrob. I am Eastcoastmar and these are my thoughts:

I don't feel sorry for you. You have the right (because we live in a "free" country) to believe whatever you want. I do feel sorry and frightened for you nine year old son (and your daughter for that matter) and I can't believe no one has mentioned this as of yet. He is only nine and to make him go through the pain of this which is not his war is despicable. We are in fact supposed to protect our children and this was far too brutal a lesson for him to learn at such a young age. I can't believe that he wasn't affected by this "lesson" and doesn't have trouble sleeping at night now. I am also concerned that he might now believe that we can take the law in our own hands if we feel someone is doing something wrong and we can't get help from the proper channels. Which in a sense is what Bush has done except it wasn't as in your husbands "lesson" happening before our eyes but in fact was based on a hunch that was completely unfounded.

 

[Isengard]

RE: Iraq: Here

Oh my!! Please someone, deliver us from... from... well whatever you can call this!! I can't even start to understand how someone can come out with BS like this!!

It is really scary!!! Hope you won't ever be in charge of more than your own family! Poor kid, 9 years old and instead of learning the pleasures that life can brings, you stole it all and put only delusions in his head. Couldn't you have let him go and find it by himself like we all do past a certain age??

You have to take lessons to drive a car but any living human, when he feels like it, has the right to make children? Did I miss something??!!

 

[Jillyvn]

Re: RE: Iraq: Here

I do feel sorry and frightened for you nine year old son (and your daughter for that matter) and I can't believe no one has mentioned this as of yet. He is only nine and to make him go through the pain of this which is not his war is despicable.

I don't want to step on any toes, but I think this is a mass e-mail posting from glurgy types in the US, not the words of T-Rex personally, otherwise we should pity his son. I saw this posted at the snopes boards:

http://www.snopes.com/message/ultimatebb.php?/ubb/get_topic/f/15/t/001762.html

It's terrible, but not original, thankfully.

 

[eastcoastrob]

RE: Iraq: Here

True or not, original or not it doesn't take much to get me goin' on the whole Iraq/War on Terror subject.

 

[Isengard]

RE: Iraq: Here

Jillyvn, that's exactly what I thought while I was replying, but I told myself that I would post anyway, since there is indeed people that thinks like that! :roll:

 

[Jillyvn]

RE: Iraq: Here

I do find it unfortunate that T-Rex cut and pasted the glurge into the post, but didn't add their own commentary. I wonder if T-Rex sides with this glurgy crap, or was posting it to show how outrageous it was? I can't imagine anyone lying to their child like this, and if they did, I would expect them to face the consequences of the terrible person they raise. I don't think a parent has a right to force their extremist political ideologies down their rather moldable child's throat, regardless of the leaning.

Perhaps there is something to be said for fubbleskag's licensing parents idea.

 

[TenPenny]

The other day, my nine year old son wanted to know why we were at war. My husband looked at our son and then looked at me. My husband and I were in the Army during the Gulf War and we would be honored to serve and defend our country again today. I knew that my husband would give him a good explanation.

My husband thought for a few minutes and then told my son to go stand in our front living room window. He told him: "Son, stand there and tell me what you see?"

"I see trees and cars and our neighbors houses." he replied.

"OK, now I want you to pretend that our house and our yard is the United States of America and you are President Bush."

Our son giggled and said "OK."

"Now son, I want you to look out the window and pretend that every house and yard on this block is a different country" my husband said.

"OK Dad, I'm pretending."

"Now I want you to stand there and look out the window and you don't know what's going on in that house, but you suspect he is a bad man. So you call the UN (police), and they start to investigate. But you don't think the UN is doing it properly. And you KNOW he is up to something. So what do you do? You tell your brother and your sister and your children that the man in that house has weapons of mass destruction. And that he plotted with your other neighbour to raid your garden. And that he really, really is a bad man. After all, last year he had a fight with your own father.

So you decide to take things into your own hands, and you set his house on fire. But that's okay, because you'll hire your friends to put out the fire, and in return, they can take all of his toys.

That's what being Right is all about, son. Even when no one else can see it, you can rest easy, knowing that you are right, and everyone else is up to evil things.

 

[TenPenny]

The other day, my nine year old son wanted to know why we were at war. My husband looked at our son and then looked at me. My husband and I were in the Army during the Gulf War and we would be honored to serve and defend our country again today. I knew that my husband would give him a good explanation.

My husband thought for a few minutes and then told my son to go stand in our front living room window. He told him: "Son, stand there and tell me what you see?"

"I see trees and cars and our neighbors houses." he replied.

"OK, now I want you to pretend that our house and our yard is the United States of America and you are President Bush."

Our son giggled and said "OK."

"Now son, I want you to look out the window and pretend that every house and yard on this block is a different country" my husband said.

"OK Dad, I'm pretending."

"Now I want you to stand there and look out the window and you don't know what's going on in that house, but you suspect he is a bad man. So you call the UN (police), and they start to investigate. But you don't think the UN is doing it properly. And you KNOW he is up to something. So what do you do? You tell your brother and your sister and your children that the man in that house has weapons of mass destruction. And that he plotted with your other neighbour to raid your garden. And that he really, really is a bad man. After all, last year he had a fight with your own father.

So you decide to take things into your own hands, and you set his house on fire. But that's okay, because you'll hire your friends to put out the fire, and in return, they can take all of his toys.

That's what being Right is all about, son. Even when no one else can see it, you can rest easy, knowing that you are right, and everyone else is up to evil things.

 

[eastcoastrob]

RE: Iraq: Here

Don't forget to tell your son that his family, friends and neighbors will go to battle while he stays in the safety of his home. Some of them will die because the bad man's children will protect themselves and listen to their father and believe that what they are doing is right.