Below is a pro-Iraq-War email that I received. I thought it was offensive in many ways, not to mention a pretty bad example of how to teach your children. I forwarded this email to Ken, who said it got him riled and his response (also below) just sort of poured out. I think Ken's retort does a good job showing how ignorant the point of view presented in the pro-war email is.

The original email:

A LESSON TO MY SON
by A PROUD AMERICAN Irma S. Chambers

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 told him:

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

"I see trees and cars and our neighbors 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 see that
man come out of his house with his wife and 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 crying, they are
watching this but do nothing because they are kids and afraid of their
father. You see all of this son....what do you do?"

"Dad?"

"What do you do son?!"

"I 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 close the
blinds, Daddy."

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

"Because Daddy.....the police are supposed to help...people who needs
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 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 tells
him...."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
this 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 my son to his
chest and hugs him tight, and cries..."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. 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 is the greatest EVIL of all. Our
President is doing what is right. We, as a free nation, must understand

that this war is a war of humanity. WE must remove this evil man from
power so that we can continue to live in a free world where we are not
afraid to look out our window and see crimes on humanity.
So that my nine year old son won't grow up in a world where he feels
that if he just "closes" that blinds the atrocities in the world won't
affect him. Today the second day of "WAR on IRAQ" I felt compelled to
write this and pass it along. Hopefully, you will understand the lesson my
husband tried to teach our son.

"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 OF OUR PRESIDENT! BE
PROUD OF OUR TROOPS!! SUPPORT THEM!!! SUPPORT AMERICA!! SO THAT IN THE
FUTURE OUR CHILDREN WILL NEVER HAVE TO CLOSE THEIR BLINDS...."

Ken's Response Email
Now son imagine that Mr. Saddam the neighbor has a lot of really good stuff that we like and he is willing to sell it to us for less. Not only that, but these really nasty people moved in next to him, the Iran family, and we really don’t like them and our neighbor agrees to not like them too and to even start shooting into their house and try to take it. Now, since he is our friend and is selling stuff we really like for cheap we return the favor and sell him loads and loads of guns and ammunition and chemical weapons in order to help him with his attack.

Well, as it turns out, his wife doesn’t like how mean he is to all the children and how he treats her and doesn’t like the idea of attacking the neighbors so she tries to change things. Well the man then starts using all the guns and ammo and the chemical weapons on his own family to show them who is in control. So you know what I do son? Well, I sell him more of all these things since 1) He is our friend and 2) we make a nice little profit off all that stuff we sell.

Well the other neighbors complain and they take their complaints to the UN cops, but since the cops have no weapons to protect themselves they always call us when they do need help. So son we just tell them that everything is OK.

But then one day son, that Mr. Saddam comes out and takes the house of that other friend of ours, the Kuwait family, that also sells us that stuff we like for really cheap. Well now son we need to show that man (and the rest of the neighborhood) who is boss. So we go to the cops and point out the injustice of the take over and the entire neighborhood gets together and kicks him out.

Well we still don’t like that Mr. Saddam because he showed the neighborhood that he could stand up to us and there wasn’t anything we could do about it. So you know what I did son? I made up an excuse to go over there and take his home away from him, one that you and mom would believe, so that I could show the other neighbors that they should keep in line. Then here at home I have good buddies of mine who can make up cute little stories, like one about a dad showing his son why he took that mans house, to sooth everyone back to sleep so that they don’t have to worry why I used to be such good friends with the man, why I sold him all his weapons and used to ignore what he did to his family back then.