I usually don’t talk about my kids here on She’s Right because, well, if you wanted to read about my kids, you would read my homeschooling blog, but tonight we were talking with my 8-year-old son about the war in Iraq.
Unfortunately, the boys were in public school when the war started, so it is not one of those things we can shelter them from while we let them be innocent kids for just a little bit longer. No, sadly, they got to hear all about it from their first- and second-grade classmates.
Even more unfortunately, kids at that age cannot understand the intricacies involved in the politics of war.
You see, age 8 is during the superhero phase. That time when a young boy still wants to save the world and hasn’t yet realized that he can’t. His toy chest is filled with Power Rangers and other action figures. His room is adorned with posters and bedding of spider-man and batman. He’s even recently taken to checking out graphic novels at the library, which is the grown up word for “comic book.”
Tonight he wanted to know why the United States can’t help everyone in the world that is being unfairly oppressed (my term, not his).
We said that we just can’t do that.
But, he reasoned, we went into Iraq to get rid of Saddam Hussein.
Well, we tried to explain, not everyone thinks we should be in Iraq and depending on how many people think we should leave, we might leave. In the US, we make decisions together by voting, so if most people want us to leave, we will.
But what will happen when the bad people try to take over? We have to stop them. There was a look of desperation in his eyes.
How do you tell an 8-year-old that it is not that simple? How do you explain that the majority of Americans want to pull out our troops and leave the Iraqis to fend for themselves amidst the onslaught of insurgents?
For starters, why don’t you just explain it to me. Then maybe I will be able to put it in terms he can understand. It’s kind of hard when I don’t understand it myself.
Don’t tell me that we shouldn’t have gone in there in the first place.
Don’t tell me how bad it is over there.
Don’t tell me that Bush should be impeached.
Don’t tell me that you don’t like the situation that we are in over there because none of us do.
Tell me how we can – now, today, in the situation we are currently in – pull out and leave the Iraqis to fend for themselves.
And, take my advice, try to avoid the topic of war around 8-year-olds.
January 2nd, 2007 at 10:47 am
Regardless of where one stands on the war, I can’t imagine how talking about it to an 8-year old can be easy. But, unfortunately, the things you don’t want us to tell you are the things that your child should know about if you chose to talk about this with him further. It’s obvious that he’s buying into the bogus reasons in the first place. It could also be a good learning moment for him about how it’s not always so good to trust the government.
We went over there for none of the reasons weve been told. There were no WMD’s and they knew that. Saddam was contained. We went over there for profit and power, no other reason. It wasn’t about ’spreading democracy’, because you don’t do that at the end of a gun barrel. Besides, if it were about that, why didn’t we attack China or North Korea? THat guy you voted for lied, lied, lied, and continues to do so.
We need to leave, there is going to be bloodshed whether we are there or not. We are not keeping them any safer. That should be obvious. And Americans, all Americans, need to acknowledge that this is OUR fault. WE f-ed up as a people by allowing ourselves to be so easily manipulated after 9-11 (which we also reacted to like a bunch of children), and by taking Bush seriously to begin with. But, unfortunately there is a large contingent of Americans who continue to believe this country can do no wrong. And unfortunately, most of em voted for Bush so now we’re all paying for that stupidity.
January 2nd, 2007 at 4:14 pm
I just found your blog while surfing the blogosphere. It seems as if you might be a christian or have some faith in God.
Whenever we talk to our kids about injustice in the world, we always couch it in the worldview that this is an imperfect, sometimes wicked, world. We give them hope to trust in God. We tell them that, in the end, the wrongs of this world will be righted…Kind of heavy for kids, but it comforts them to know that Evil will not be triumphant.
January 2nd, 2007 at 10:49 pm
Tell me how we can – now, today, in the situation we are currently in – pull out and leave the Iraqis to fend for themselves.
How? With helicopters and airplanes of course. The Iraqis can “fend for themselves” just fine.
How do you tell an 8-year-old that it is not that simple?
I don’t know. How do you tell George Bush?
***
Koko saw a picture of a Sunni protesting the killing of Saddam on the net yesterday and asked why the man was crying. I was totally stumped for how to explain it to him. He’s only 2. Poopsie had my back and quickly said “because somebody hurt his friend.” I thought that was a pretty good answer.
I think by eight kids should definitely be reading newspapers and discussing the news. I watched John Chancellor’s NBC Nightly News practically from birth, visited the House of Representatives when I was ten and rallied at Memorial Auditorium for Geraldine Ferraro when I was eleven. Bernie came to my classroom when I was around eight. Yay! The mayor!
Oooops. I reverted to childhoold for a second.
My point is- you can’t keep them sheltered from reality. You just have to teach them how to have a sense of humor about it. Balance.
Good post.