The War in Iraq is Not a Graphic Novel

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.