I tell my children that it's all more complicated than it looks. We don't know the whole story. Period. I actually have told my children that our President wanted Sadaam out of power because of the people he killed. Our intent was never to "kill children" but to capture Sadaam. The next strategy after that was to stabilize the country. Millions of Muslims hate Americans, and many have flocked to the area to make it difficult for our nation. This is a consequence of our actions, yes, but this does not mean our President was wrong for going in. If it is true that we were lied to by our leaders who knew there were no WMD's, then that's a shame and it is a problem. However, I do not think getting Sadaam out was a bad move. I am praying for Iraq to stabilize and for them to be blessed because we were there. I really think President Bush was hoping to free this nation, I really do.
American dealings in the world prove all the time to be complicated and difficult. I did tell our children how we want to help the children in Sudan, and that a group of Sudaneese were quickly brought out of their country and flown to America by our state department. These people actually live in my county, and go to my church, and they are alive because our govt. rescued them. With the situation, we couldn't just go in and start a war there, but we did go in and rescue people. Someone from the state department called our pastor just to tell him to keep up the good work on projects we are doing at our church to help these people. See, George Clooney is out there trying to help those in Sudan and makes it look like the USA isn't involved, when all along we have been. It's all so much more complicated than anyone can imagine. One Sudaneese man spoke at our church (hope I'm spelling Sudaneese right), and he told us of his horrible childhood seeing male members of his family die. He walked for miles on foot and eventually ended up in a camp. One day many were rescued, they didn't know who would be helping them, but they found out it was America. His last comment was, "Thank God for America, please do not let her enemies defeat her." His ultimate goal is to go back to his country with others like him living here. They want to make Sudan a better place when the time comes. Some are even going and helping Muslims who persecuted them...Muslims who are now being killed by different Muslims. Our country is helping these people.
There is something more to this story in Iraq, something prompted the whole thing. The truth is out there. God knows what it is. It is not as simple as "we're the bad guys in the USA" and "sometimes adults do stupid things." No, sometimes adults do things based on what they know, and sometimes not everyone can see why. Maybe we should just pray for our leaders whether they have sex with interns or start wars in countries for whatever reason. War is hell, that's for sure. I do not advocate war. Still, I think there's more to it than we've been told. Also, God is watching and he does have a plan. No matter what man does, God is there somewhere in the midst of it making things go this way or that to let it all come to some kind of conclusion...
Christianlady: I appreciate the thought you put into this (by "this" I mean both your response and what you tell your children). I think what struck me the most about Jana's post was how startling a different perspective can be. It wasn't so much that her son asked about the war, it was that he asked who the good guys were that we were siding with. Because when you look at it like that, suddenly the sound bite answers don't work anymore. Sure, there are reasons, but when we tell our kids to walk away from fights, to not get involved in other people's fights, it becomes a lot harder to explain what we are doing. Because really, there are no good guys we are siding with, just us. It's our fight. And that's a lot harder to explain.
Twilighttreader: I think you've touched on one of the unpinpointable differences between Canada and the USA that has always been a vague spot at the edge of my vision. Memorial day and Veterans day here are a time to wave flags, celebrate victory, and hero worship (and drink and eat BBQ). Rememberance day in Canada is a somber, solemn day when we remember the dead, go about our normal lives but remember the tragedy of war throughout, taking an hour out of work or school for a solemn ceremony which always includes a moment of silence. We take memorial seriously. We really regret the deaths that war has caused. But it's healthy discourse that we are lacking here. Far too many of us jump on either the "good" train or the "evil" train. And we don't seem able to have a conversation that doesn't involve pointing fingers or hating. In fact, if you had been able to visit Jana's post before she had to put an end to the comments, you would have seen an unfortunate amount of "I can't believe you think X, you moron". When we tell our kids, "Actually, the president is evil and all we are doing in Iraq is murdering kids", we aren't helping. All we then do is create robotic little repeaters that get into schoolyard fights over whether or not the president is a god or evil incarnate. But he's neither. He's human, and has a lot of responsibility. And, like him or not, he is the leader of our country (I refuse to say "free world", because he is not president of Canada, or England, or Holland), and civic duty demands that we give him at least some measure of our support. But we don't seem capable of disagreeing with the guy and still letting him lead. I guess that's another difference between Canada and the USA. A big part of Canadian identity is comprised of questioning and criticizing our leaders. In fact, our Parliament not only has, but occasionally uses, the vote of no confidence to get a leader that we have lost faith in, out. But it's not a daily occurrence. And we seem better at being able to back our complaints as well as praises up with reasons. We love Canada because of X. Not just blind patriotism or partisan partiality.
Phil: I don't have a lot to add, but I wanted to say I'm impressed with your response. It reminds me of a quote from Catch 22 that I can't seem to track down at the moment - Basically, an old Italian man is discussing the fall of Rome with a young American soldier, and he asks him what makes him so confident that America won't fall; the Romans thought they were invincible too, and Rome fell. Maybe too much confidence will be our downfall. But I agree, I'd rather go down in the flames of too much freedom.
4 comments:
I tell my children that it's all more complicated than it looks. We don't know the whole story. Period. I actually have told my children that our President wanted Sadaam out of power because of the people he killed. Our intent was never to "kill children" but to capture Sadaam. The next strategy after that was to stabilize the country. Millions of Muslims hate Americans, and many have flocked to the area to make it difficult for our nation. This is a consequence of our actions, yes, but this does not mean our President was wrong for going in. If it is true that we were lied to by our leaders who knew there were no WMD's, then that's a shame and it is a problem. However, I do not think getting Sadaam out was a bad move. I am praying for Iraq to stabilize and for them to be blessed because we were there. I really think President Bush was hoping to free this nation, I really do.
American dealings in the world prove all the time to be complicated and difficult. I did tell our children how we want to help the children in Sudan, and that a group of Sudaneese were quickly brought out of their country and flown to America by our state department. These people actually live in my county, and go to my church, and they are alive because our govt. rescued them. With the situation, we couldn't just go in and start a war there, but we did go in and rescue people. Someone from the state department called our pastor just to tell him to keep up the good work on projects we are doing at our church to help these people. See, George Clooney is out there trying to help those in Sudan and makes it look like the USA isn't involved, when all along we have been. It's all so much more complicated than anyone can imagine. One Sudaneese man spoke at our church (hope I'm spelling Sudaneese right), and he told us of his horrible childhood seeing male members of his family die. He walked for miles on foot and eventually ended up in a camp. One day many were rescued, they didn't know who would be helping them, but they found out it was America. His last comment was, "Thank God for America, please do not let her enemies defeat her." His ultimate goal is to go back to his country with others like him living here. They want to make Sudan a better place when the time comes. Some are even going and helping Muslims who persecuted them...Muslims who are now being killed by different Muslims. Our country is helping these people.
There is something more to this story in Iraq, something prompted the whole thing. The truth is out there. God knows what it is. It is not as simple as "we're the bad guys in the USA" and "sometimes adults do stupid things." No, sometimes adults do things based on what they know, and sometimes not everyone can see why. Maybe we should just pray for our leaders whether they have sex with interns or start wars in countries for whatever reason. War is hell, that's for sure. I do not advocate war. Still, I think there's more to it than we've been told. Also, God is watching and he does have a plan. No matter what man does, God is there somewhere in the midst of it making things go this way or that to let it all come to some kind of conclusion...
Christianlady
What I would tell my children is the main reason I don't have any.
Justin
Christianlady:
I appreciate the thought you put into this (by "this" I mean both your response and what you tell your children). I think what struck me the most about Jana's post was how startling a different perspective can be. It wasn't so much that her son asked about the war, it was that he asked who the good guys were that we were siding with. Because when you look at it like that, suddenly the sound bite answers don't work anymore. Sure, there are reasons, but when we tell our kids to walk away from fights, to not get involved in other people's fights, it becomes a lot harder to explain what we are doing. Because really, there are no good guys we are siding with, just us. It's our fight. And that's a lot harder to explain.
Twilighttreader:
I think you've touched on one of the unpinpointable differences between Canada and the USA that has always been a vague spot at the edge of my vision. Memorial day and Veterans day here are a time to wave flags, celebrate victory, and hero worship (and drink and eat BBQ). Rememberance day in Canada is a somber, solemn day when we remember the dead, go about our normal lives but remember the tragedy of war throughout, taking an hour out of work or school for a solemn ceremony which always includes a moment of silence. We take memorial seriously. We really regret the deaths that war has caused.
But it's healthy discourse that we are lacking here. Far too many of us jump on either the "good" train or the "evil" train. And we don't seem able to have a conversation that doesn't involve pointing fingers or hating. In fact, if you had been able to visit Jana's post before she had to put an end to the comments, you would have seen an unfortunate amount of "I can't believe you think X, you moron". When we tell our kids, "Actually, the president is evil and all we are doing in Iraq is murdering kids", we aren't helping. All we then do is create robotic little repeaters that get into schoolyard fights over whether or not the president is a god or evil incarnate. But he's neither. He's human, and has a lot of responsibility. And, like him or not, he is the leader of our country (I refuse to say "free world", because he is not president of Canada, or England, or Holland), and civic duty demands that we give him at least some measure of our support. But we don't seem capable of disagreeing with the guy and still letting him lead. I guess that's another difference between Canada and the USA. A big part of Canadian identity is comprised of questioning and criticizing our leaders. In fact, our Parliament not only has, but occasionally uses, the vote of no confidence to get a leader that we have lost faith in, out. But it's not a daily occurrence. And we seem better at being able to back our complaints as well as praises up with reasons. We love Canada because of X. Not just blind patriotism or partisan partiality.
Phil:
I don't have a lot to add, but I wanted to say I'm impressed with your response. It reminds me of a quote from Catch 22 that I can't seem to track down at the moment - Basically, an old Italian man is discussing the fall of Rome with a young American soldier, and he asks him what makes him so confident that America won't fall; the Romans thought they were invincible too, and Rome fell.
Maybe too much confidence will be our downfall. But I agree, I'd rather go down in the flames of too much freedom.
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