Stole this from Pirate. Its good!!!

[Phillippi]

Interesting illustration....

Don't Close Your Blinds

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 said "Son, stand there and tell me
what you see?"

"I see trees and cars and our neighbor's 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 pretend you
see Saddam come out of his house with his wife, 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
screaming and crying, they are watching this but do nothing because
they are kids and they are afraid of their father. You see all of
this son.... what do you do?"

"Dad?"

"What do you do son?"

"I'd 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'd close the blinds, Daddy."

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

"Because Daddy.....the poli ce are supposed to help people who need them...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 says..."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 our son to his
chest and hugs him tight, and says... "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, and his children and the old
lady across the way.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 son, THAT is the greatest EVIL of all.

Our President is doing what is right. We, as a free nation, must
un derstand 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 the 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 OFOUR TROOPS!! SUPPORT THEM!!! SUPPORT AMERICA!! SO THAT IN THE FUTURE OUR CHILDREN WILL NEVER HAVE TO CLOSE THEIR BLINDS..."

[b2binbad]

[TNMAN]

Thank you.

[OCD4B2]

Rock the house George

[AlbertaBoy]

I know I am about to step on some patriotic toes here but my question is...where is it gonna end? Does Bush keep on killing all the evil, opressive leaders in the world until there are none left? I am by no means against the Iraq thing, I am just wondering, where from here? It also seems that this was a little random...like, "where's Osama? I don't know but this dude has a turban and is an ass to so lets just kill him instead." Seems like a distraction to appease a nation. A good distraction and a good thing but a distraction none the less. I just want to know you guy's feeling on this.

[Nobody]

I know I am about to step on some patriotic toes here but my question is...where is it gonna end? Does Bush keep on killing all the evil, opressive leaders in the world until there are none left? I am by no means against the Iraq thing, I am just wondering, where from here? It also seems that this was a little random...like, "where's Osama? I don't know but this dude has a turban and is an ass to so lets just kill him instead." Seems like a distraction to appease a nation. A good distraction and a good thing but a distraction none the less. I just want to know you guy's feeling on this.

1st, in regards to that story, I think it's kind of lame. Everybody crying and shit, give me a break I guess I don't appreciate fiction very much.

It does however drive home the point that evil thrives when good men do nothing. If only it were that simple.

In regards to Osama, the mission was never about him. It was about disrupting terrorist networks and the folks that harbor them. So where does it stop? Well, when they are all dead. Shocking isn't it. You can thank 9/11. And Osama is going to get his. We are still actively hunting him.

Fighting terrorism doesn't require us to remove leaders from power. Many countries welcome our help/support in fighting terrorism in their own land. Removing leaders is a last resort. So they can either do it themselves, ask for our help, or we'll do it for them.

Now in regards to Iraq, despite popular belief, Bush does not make all the decisions. Not even close. We have this thing called the Congress, 535 members strong which gave the current administration the power to take Saddam out of power. This will be required for each nation we wish to go to war with. In the case of Iraq, the overwelming majority agreed that Saddam was a threat. This was based on WOLRD intelligence at the time. It's no seceret that Saddam has possessed, and used WMD in the past, and desired to do so again.

Despited years of diplomacy, Saddam still chose to disregard UN resolutions. Even up to the last minute, he was given the opportunity to walk away peacefully.

Beyond WMD, there were many many more reasons to go into Iraq. And yes, oil is one of them, but not for our personal gain. For WORLD stability. That whole region is the birth place of terrorism, and I agree with Bush in that the best way to fight terrorism is with freedom.

So why Iraq first? Iraq was at the top of the list and diplomacy failed. What about North Korea, and Iran? Diplomacy still has a chance, and it must be given that chance as the cost of war will certainly be much higher. We will need more world support if it comes to war.

This is a complex and currently thankless job. But progress is being made, and despite what much of the world thinks, we are making the whole world safer, and we've put some backbone back in the US and hopefully the UN.

The popular thing isn't always the right thing to do. That's what sets the USA apart from the rest of the world.

There is no distraction. The lines have been clearly drawn. Are you with us or against us?

[plowboy]

Very well said Matt.

[AlbertaBoy]

Well that is an answer that I will choose not to argue with. Sometimes it seems to me that Americans follow whomever gets "elected" leader as God. I am cool if you want to support some one but dammit, have a good reason. And Matt, that is a good reason. You have obviously thought about your reasons for supporting what you believe in and that is very cool. Especially in these days of blind faith. Thanks for that answer. You may have renewed some of my faith in your great big country to the south.

[AlbertaBoy]

Well that is an answer that I will choose not to argue with. Sometimes it seems to me that Americans follow whomever gets "elected" leader as God. I am cool if you want to support some one but dammit, have a good reason. And Matt, that is a good reason. You have obviously thought about your reasons for supporting what you believe in and that is very cool. Especially in these days of blind faith. Thanks for that answer. You may have renewed some of my faith in your great big country to the south.

[plowboy]

Sometimes it seems to me that Americans follow whomever gets "elected" leader as God.

There is a lot of truth to your statement. Mostly because people are too lazy to educated themselves. They take what ever the media wants to feed them, or the empty promises of a canidate trying to get elected as "gospel truth". They forget about the legslative processes involved that they learned in school. Sometimes it can be scary living in America. You have to look past the facade that you see on television and find out what some of these people running for office really stand for.

[DBrown]

there is a statement that I have always gone by:

"belive none of what you hear and half of what you see"

in other words.......do the research yourself, and take everything with a grain of salt. lets face it if you watch the news on 3 different stations you will here 3 different spins of what they call the "truth". I tend to pic threw what they all say and find the common ground.

[marinebroncoii]

Being in the military you get to see alot of stuff that you guys don't see on the news. All they report is american deaths and negatives of war. When you have friends on the front lines and in rear with the gear you see pictures and hear stories of how much different it is over there. You here about the people that come up to a marine everyday and thank him for being there, stories of your buddy giving half his lunch to a homeless kid everyday and keeping his eye on him. You guys here about a soldier shooting another wounded soldier, but don't here that the day prior three more marines got wounded by a booby trapped wounded soldier. As far as when it will end, I hope it goes on as long as need be for us and everyone else to feel safe. I will volunteer to go to any country to fight on the front lines if given the chance, that is half of why I chose overseas as my duty station, I am on a forward deployed base, directly supporting the war in Iraq. I've rebuilt helicopter engines covered in Iraqi sand, and was damn proud to be helping my fellow devil dogs. If anything goes on in Korea, us here in Japan will be the first on the scene to kick some ass. Sorry I got off on some tangents, but all the troops need is support, not any of this when will it end stuff.
LCPL Mintern, USMC