Lt. Commander Bill Goss, USN (Ret)
Recently 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 our young son 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 told him: "Son, stand there and tell me what you see." "I see trees and cars and our neighbors' houses." he replied.
"Okay, 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 "okay." "Now son, I want you to look out the window
and pretend that every house and yard on this block is a different
country."
"Okay Dad, I'm pretending."
"Now pretend you see a man come out of his house, dragging his wife
by her hair. That man represents Saddam Hussein. He is hitting her,
and you see she is bleeding and crying. He hits her in the face, he
throws her on the ground, then he starts to kick her. He keeps
kicking her and kicking her until she loses consciousness. Their
children run out, and they are crying and screaming for him to stop,
but they can do nothing because they are just little kids. They are
afraid of their father because they have seen him beat up their
mother before, and he has beaten them up too when they tried to
protect her. Son, you see all of this....now what are you going to
do?"
"Dad?"
"What do you do son?"
"I call the police, Dad."
"Okay. Let's pretend that the police are the United Nations and they
take your call, listen to what you tell them, but they refuse to
help. What do you do then son?"
"But Dad, the police are supposed to help!"
"They don't want to help, son, because they say that it is not their
place or your place to get involved. They tell you that it is none
of your business and that you should stay out of it."
"But Dad, he's killing her!" my son exclaims.
"I know, son, but the police tell you to stay out of it. Now I want
you to look out the neighbor who you're pretending is Saddam. He
turns around and starts doing the same thing to his children."
"He's killing them?"
"Yes, son, he is. What do you do?"
"Well, if the police won't help, then I'll go to our next-door
neighbor and ask him to help me stop him," our son says.
"Son, our next door neighbor sees what is happening, but he refuses
to get involved as well. He won't even open the door," my husband
says.
"But Dad, I need help! I can't stop him by myself!"
"Are you just going to watch out the window while he kills his
family? WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO, SON?"
Our son starts to get upset.
"I'm sorry, son, but no one is going to help you. The police won't.
Your neighbors won't. The vicious man across the street SAW you ask
for help, and he saw that no one would help you stop him. Guess what
he does next son?"
"What Daddy?"
"He walks across the street to Mrs. Brown's house. He breaks down
her door and drags her out into her yard. He hits her and kicks her
until she stops moving. He goes into her house and starts stealing
all her stuff. Then he drags her back into her house and sets it on
fire. He turns around and sees you standing in the window. He laughs
at you because he knows that no one is going to stop him from doing
this to all the neighbors. WHAT DO YOU DO?"
"Daddy..."
"WHAT DO YOU DO?"
Our son looks down and he whispers, "I close the blinds, Daddy."
My husband looks at our son with tears in his eyes and asks him. "Why?"
Our son starts to sob. "Because the police are supposed to help...people who need it....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's not happening."
Now I start to cry.
My husband looks at our nine-year-old son standing in the window, our son looking ashamed at his answers to my husband's questions. Then my husband says, "Son, look at me."
Our son looks up from his tears.
"Son, that man is at our front door. There is no one here, but you
and your mom and your sister. And now he's breaking down the door.
What are you going to do?"
My son looks at his father, anger and defiance in his eyes. He balls up his little fists and looks his father square in the eyes. Without hesitation he says: "I'm going to fight him, Dad! I can't let him hurt my mom and my sister! I have to fight him now. I'll get my baseball bat and when he comes in the door, I'll hit him."
I see a tear roll down my husband's cheek and he grabs my son to his chest and hugs him tight and cries..."It's too late to fight him now, son. He's grown too bold and too strong and he's already at your front door. You should have stopped him BEFORE he killed his wife, BEFORE he killed his children, BEFORE he attacked the neighbors. You have to do what's right, even if you have to do it alone, before it's too late," my husband whispered.
What I just described to you is why we are at war with Iraq. When good men stand by and let evil happen, it's the greatest evil of all. Our President did what was right. We had to remove Saddam from power, so that we can continue to live in a free world. A world where we have the courage to look out from our windows and, when we see crimes against humanity, we take action against them.
So that my nine-year-old son won't grow up in world, where he feels that if he just "closes" the blinds, the horrible things happening to other people in the world won't affect him or his family."
I hope you understand the lesson my husband tried to teach our son. And I hope you continue to support our President, our country, and our troops
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