Foreign Policy

Today at lunch, the Things and I (Sweetie) started talking about wars in which the United States is currently involved. Hobbes was confused about which war was which... He knew the two countries involved were Afghanistan and Iraq, but not the rationale behind why we invaded each of these countries. I explained the different situations to him and reassured him that this was a common source of confusion in the minds of many people, not only nine-year old boys, but also those who should know better.

We talked about the attacks of September 11, 2001 and who was responsible and why we invaded Afghanistan in response to those attacks. I showed them the pages from my scrapbook that included newspaper clippings and my personal account of that day and the days that followed. Both Things were surprised by the ferocity of the terrorist attacks and wondered why anyone would do such a thing. This led to a discussion of repressive religions and how they prey on the poor, disenfranchised, and uneducated members of their society, creating an environment in which flying airplanes into buildings seems like a reasonable way to get one's point across. Both boys were amazed to learn that education was forbidden most people in the Taliban-led Afghanistan, including boys, but especially girls. I was so proud when Hobbes pronounced this "Stupid." The Things asked why the Taliban attacked us and I said that they thought that the Americans were bad people and that the United States was bad. Calvin piped up with a gem: "Dude! Don't they know? We've won, like, a thousand soccer games." [Eds note: That's my boy!]