Now that we are at the brink of war, it is pretty hard to tell my 9-year-old daughter that the U.S. became the bad guys. I am just telling her that G.W.Bush is: He is willingly going to drop several thousand bombs on inocent people, by inocent meaning that they have not done anything, are incapable of doing anything, and, for the most part, do not want to do anything against the U.S. (that may change after the U.S. attack them, but then they will be justified!).
The U.S. have many (or at least several) times the massive destruction weapons the rest of the world has. They have used them against much weaker, defenseless “enemies” many times. They are the only ones who have ever used the nukes against an enemy!.
The CIA has employed in the past (and with no doubt is currently employing) such characters as Saddam Hussein, or Manuel Noriega. And has, when the wind changes, turned against them and either killed, imprisoned, disgraced or satanized them.
And now this “preventive war” GWB came up with seems to be the ultimate excuse to even more unilateral actions against anybody the U.S. feels may someday, somehow, grow dangerous.
Until yesterday, the movie “Minority Report”, was science fiction…
As a fellow parent of a 9 year old, I’d recommend exercising caution in what I tell children of that age. Politics is a fiercely complicated thing, and seldom if ever are things so black-and-white as “good guys VS. bad guys”. Right now, kids need to feel safe more than anything else, and telling them that we’re the “bad guys” would IMHO confuse them and lead them to fear that we’re going to get our just desserts in the end (after all, the “good guys” always win, don’t they?).
Best at that age to simply say that war is bad and hope (and pray, if that’s part of your belief system) that peace comes to the world soon.
Elementary schoolers now have 9/11 as a frame of reference and they ask tough questions. “GWB is the bad guy” might elicit some tough questions for you, too, especially if he wins the next election.
Caution is a rather scarce luxury, since the news of GWB “ultimatum” is a little bit hard to conceal. She knows your president wants that war, but she doesn’t understand why he does not care about all the deaths, innocent or not.
Is it an excuse? I hope my soon-to-be teenage girl won’t say to me that is a fiercely compicated thing for parents to understand…
For the sake of clarity, I am not one of “you” meaning I am not an American. If American kids find it difficult to feel safe, try to imagine what it is for the rest of the world when we see that the “big guy” is starting to shoot “preventively”.
My girl’s reasoning is simple: if war is bad, why get into it?
It is quite rare that people are entirely “good” or “evil”. What’s dangerous is people, who want to sort other people into these categories. Labeling Saddam as “evil” would automatically make Bush “good”. And while I can’t say that Bush is evil, I’d feel uncomfortable seeing him as the good guy. His conviction to be “right”, “just” and the “good guy” coupled with the power he holds, makes him a very dangerous man with the potential to cause great “evil”, despite the will to do “good”.