Here's some food for thought

[SoylentGreen]

(From SSgt 18 MUNS/MXWPD) ---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
UnitedStates 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, and 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
husbandsays.

"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
youto 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 the 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
hesays: "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
chestand 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

 

[jackschmittusa]

Should have asked the kid if he was willing to lose his sister in the fight.

 

[dahunan]

It sounds great.. I just wish we would fix our own communities and families and employment and hunger and healthcare and education before we try to fix everyone else's problems.

 

[JHoNNy1OoO]

Originally posted by: dahunan
It sounds great.. I just wish we would fix our own communities and families and employment and hunger and healthcare and education before we try to fix everyone else's problems.

:thumbsup:

 

[imported_Condor]

Originally posted by: dahunan
It sounds great.. I just wish we would fix our own communities and families and employment and hunger and healthcare and education before we try to fix everyone else's problems.

So after trying to do that since 1964 with no perceptible results, how much longer should we have kept our heads in the sand? We did have good employment under B. C. That was good. you are probably thinking B.C. is Bill Clinton. It was Bill Gates that gave us that. Bill Clinton just rode the horse Bill Gates provided.

 

[Moonbeam]

YOU MUST NEVER BE AFRAID TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT!

But before you do you must know what is right.

EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO DO IT ALONE!

If you are alone with your right and millions say you are wrong, pause and think could I be wrong.

BE PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!

Be proud to be you. Then you will act with real dignity toward all things. There is a thin line between real pride and vanity.

BE PROUD OF OUR PRESIDENT!

Be proud of no man who is a fool no matter what his position for then you are a robot and not an independent thinker

BE PROUD OF OUR TROOPS!! SUPPORT THEM!!! SUPPORT AMERICA! SO
THAT IN THE FUTURE OUR CHILDREN WILL NEVER HAVE TO
CLOSE THEIR BLINDS...."

Support what is just and true. A sheep will support his flock as it goes over a cliff. Only he who is free of false attachment to people time and place can see what is real.

Resist emotional bullsh!t designed to pull at what is worst in us. Know yourself so you can't be played like a fiddle.

 

[Zysoclaplem]

I agree. George W. Bush does have the understanding and intelligence of a 9 year old.

 

[imported_Condor]

And that puts him years ahead of Kerry. What a dufus! Clinton lied! Kerry isn't sure whether he can lie or not or whether it is all true or not or what planet is this anyway or where is my fourth mansion I'm high or God!, it's the VC again! or is this the lake or the river or why wasn't PO jones holding on now we have to go back and fish him out oh I can get a medal for that stem cells oh, who cares what you do with the stem of a plant Theresa wants our next house to be white or "Wake up John, you were having flashbacks again!".

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Originally posted by: Condor
And that puts him years ahead of Kerry. What a dufus! Clinton lied! Kerry isn't sure whether he can lie or not or whether it is all true or not or what planet is this anyway or where is my fourth mansion I'm high or God!, it's the VC again! or is this the lake or the river or why wasn't PO jones holding on now we have to go back and fish him out oh I can get a medal for that stem cells oh, who cares what you do with the stem of a plant Theresa wants our next house to be white or "Wake up John, you were having flashbacks again!".

Uhhhhh, you do know you're supposed to take the plastic wrap off the cigar before you smoke it, right?

 

[marcello]

And then my husband said, "And son, if you think that man accros the street has WMD's, but you don't know for sure, what do you do?"

And my son replied, "You say DAMN the UN, and DAMN logic and reason. You attack because you never know what they might have and when they might use it!"

My husband said, "I'm proud of you son. Then what do you do when you were proven wrong and were using false information to attack that man?"

My son replied, "You find a scapegoat and let him take the fall, and you never admit you were wrong. Just keep digging that hole, there has to be and end to it somewhere."

My husband replied, "Atta boy. Shirking responsibility is the next step to becoming a man. Not a wussy man who'll admit he was wrong and change his decision to a better one; that's called a flip-flopper. We're talking about a man's man who never admits wrong, takes blame or responsibility."


Your story is a terrible, oversensationalized piece of garbage. It is devoid of fact and only relies on pulling the "heart strings" of the sheep. So, I added my part. I can just see the kid in this story growing up to be the American equivalent of a kamikaze bomber. Good job.

 

[ReiAyanami]

Team America - World Police

10,000 Iraqi civilians have been liberated from existence.

So when do we police Iran and North Korea out of existence? If we're gonna do it in Iraq, then we should be doing it in Sudan, Iran, NK, Colombia, or do they not have enough oil?

Who will police the police?

 

[GrGr]

Dad ... what's a terrorist?
By David Campbell
April 23, 2004

Surely even a child can understand the difference between good and evil.

Dad ... what's a terrorist?

Well, according to the Oxford dictionary a terrorist is "a person who uses violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims". Which means that terrorists are very bad men and women who frighten ordinary people like us, and sometimes even kill them.

Why do they kill them?

Because they hate them or their country. It's hard to explain ... it's just the way things are. For many different reasons a lot of people in our world are full of hate.

Like the ones in Iraq who are capturing people and saying that they'll kill them if all the soldiers don't leave?

Exactly! That's an evil thing called "blackmail". Those innocent people are hostages, and the terrorists are saying that if governments don't do what they want the hostages will be killed.

So was it blackmail when we said we'd attack Iraq and kill innocent people unless they told us where all their weapons were?


No! Well ... yes, I suppose. In a way. But that was an "ultimatum" ... call it "good blackmail.

Good blackmail? What's that?

That's when it's done for good reasons. Those weapons were very dangerous and could have hurt a lot of people all over the world. It was very important to find them and destroy them.

But Dad ... there weren't any weapons.

True. We know that now. But we didn't at the time. We thought there were.

So was killing all those innocent people in Iraq a mistake?

No. It was a tragedy, but we also saved a lot of lives. You see, we had to stop a very cruel man called Saddam Hussein from killing a great many ordinary Iraqi people. Saddam Hussein stayed in power by giving orders that meant thousands of people died or were horribly injured. Mothers and fathers. Even children.

Like that boy I saw on TV? The one who had his arms blown off by a bomb?

Yes ... just like him.

But we did that. Does that mean our leaders are terrorists?

Good heavens, no! Whatever gave you that idea? That was just an accident. Unfortunately, innocent people get hurt in a war. You can't expect anything else when you drop bombs on cities. Nobody wants it to happen ... it's just the way things are.

So in a war only soldiers are supposed to get killed?

Well, soldiers are trained to fight for their country. It's their job, and they're very brave. They know that war is dangerous and that they might be killed. As soon as they put on a uniform they become a target.

What uniforms do terrorists wear?

That's just the problem ... they don't! We can't tell them apart from the civilians. We don't know who we're fighting. And that's why so many innocent people are getting killed ... the terrorists don't follow the rules of war.

War has rules?

Oh, yes. Soldiers must wear uniforms. And you can't just suddenly attack someone unless they do something to you first. Then you can defend yourself.

So that's why we attacked Iraq? Because Iraq attacked us first and we were just defending ourselves?

Not exactly. Iraq didn't attack us ... but it might have. We decided to get in first. Just in case Iraq used those weapons we were talking about.

The ones they didn't have? So we broke the rules of war?

Technically speaking, yes. But ...

So if we broke the rules first, why isn't it OK for those people in Iraq who aren't wearing uniforms to break the rules?

Well, that's different. We were doing the right thing when we broke the rules.

But Dad ... how do we know we were doing the right thing?

Our leaders ... Bush and Blair and Howard ... they told us it was the right thing. And if they don't know, who does? They say that something had to be done to make Iraq a better place.

Is it a better place?

I suppose so, but I don't know for sure. Innocent people are still being killed and these kidnappings are terrible things. I feel very sorry for the families of those poor hostages, but we simply can't give in to terrorists. We must stand firm.

Would you say that if I was captured by terrorists?

Uh ... yes ... no ... I mean, it's very difficult ...

So you'd let me be killed? Don't you love me?

Of course! I love you very much. It's just that it's a very complicated issue and I don't know what I'd do ...

Well, if somebody attacked us and bombed our house and killed you and Mum and Jamie I know what I'd do.

What?

I'd find out who did it and kill them. Any way I could. I'd hate them for ever and ever. And then I'd get in a plane and bomb their cities.

But ... but ... you'd kill a lot of innocent people.

I know. But it's war, Dad. And that's just the way things are. Remember?

 

[chess9]

Does his son have a spare $200 billion available for sticking his nose in someone else's business? Is he willing to have his children's children die trying to bring democracy to a culture of camel herders and tribal fascists?

Sheezh....

-Robert