Campfyre Stories

As you may know I’m a news junkie.  Which means that Spawn winds up reading/watching/listening to a decent amount of current events.  I also talk to him about what’s going on and he’s shown an interest in world/national events since right around 9/11.  It’s impressive how aware he is for a 7th grader.  I haven’t known very many young teens to take such an interest and he’s a smart enough kid to ask questions when he feels he doesn’t really understand what is going on, or, more often, WHY.

Please try to keep 3 things in mind.  1) This is not the actual conversation we had.  It has been paraphrased.  2) It was several days ago and my mind is still reeling, so I may have added or omitted pieces.  3) I did the very best I could.  It was late and I was blindsided.

Scene:  Saturday night, watching the news.

So, Mom?  Why are we in Iraq anyway?

*phew*  (This is a hard question, how do I answer it simply and accurately without getting into some really muddy waters and messy territory?)

Well, we went to Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein from power.

But he’s dead now, right?  How come we’re still there?

*phew*  Well, yes, he was deposed, tried, convicted and executed, but we left the Iraqis without a viable government and now we need to help them set up something that will be stable.

So why haven’t we just done that?  I mean, we’ve been there long enough.

*phew*  Well, we have been there for a while, but there are a whole bunch of different factions that can’t agree on what they want, so no one is happy with the governments that they’ve elected yet.

Ok, but why do we have to be there?  I mean, why is it our job?

Ugh.  Well, two reasons.  One is that we were responsible for taking down their old system of government, but also we want to make sure that the government that comes to power next is one that we support and can work with diplomatically.

Hrm.  Well I guess that makes sense (he’s all about things making sense), but we don’t have enough troops, right?

Oh jeez.  Well, yeah.  The problem is that we don’t have the manpower we really need at this point, so what they’re doing is extending tours of duty and cutting the amount of downtime that the soldiers get.

Well, do you think there’s going to be a draft, then?

(Oh gods.  These are not questions I want to be answering and I don’t know where it’s going to lead.)

I honestly don’t know, hon.  There’s a Congressman who keep proposing a draft bill, but so far it hasn’t passed.  No one really wants a draft.

Why not?

Do you know what a draft means?

Not really.

Ugh.  Ok, well, basically, it means that they essentially put everyone’s name in a hat, Rangel’s draft bill specified men and women 18-36, and then they choose from that who is going to serve.

Whoa.

Right.  So that means that basically, me, your dad, Chaos, RC2 (in 2 years), all my friends, and on and on could be drafted and sent to Iraq.

That’s bad.

Well, yes and no.  There are some people who think it might be a good thing, since a draft would almost certainly ensure that the war would end faster.

How so?

There are three lessons that we, as a country, learned from Vietnam.

1. Never televise your war.  (Leading to a discussion of how Vietnam was, in fact, televised and made it all seem more real to everyone watching while they ate their dinner).
2. The soldiers are not to blame for foreign policy and it is wrong to attack them when it’s really the policy makers that you’re mad at. (Leading to a discussion of how Vietnam vets were treated upon their arrival home).
3. If you send unwilling people to die in a war they don’t believe in, their families get pissed the hell off and you may find your country on the verge of revolution/civil war.

 ******

At this point I realized that Spawn had no real grounding in any American history more recent than World War II, very little understanding of the flow of US foreign policy and I had no idea where to start.  I mean, events in history do not stand alone.  Every single event is effected by something that came before.  Any delving into what led to what is beyond me, especially as unprepared as I was.

Also, I mean, come on.  This 7th grader is asking me questions that most kids don’t start thinking about until High School at the earliest and he keeps following up!  Next thing I know, he’s going to be asking about Vietnam and I don’t know where to start.  My parents were activists and grew up in the 60’s.  I was watching television and movies dealing with Vietnam, since the 60’s were in vogue in the 80’s, but Spawn hasn’t been exposed even to the pop culture aspects of it!  Where do I even think about starting???

Thankfully,  that was where his head exploded.

But it only bought me time.  I don’t know how much and I’m not entirely sure how to bring myself up to speed.  Not in terms of historical knowledge, but in terms of political analysis and the ability to TEACH it.  To a 13 year old.