War

It is important to be sensitive to the reactions of children as they continue to ask questions about the war in the Persian Gulf, just ended. During the first few days of the conflict, Cable News Network (CNN) brought us up-to-the-minute coverage, live from Baghdad as the bombing raids began. To a small child, this must have been an awesome and unbelievable display of the forces of war.

A network radio newsman reported the following request from a five-year-old girl to her mother as they were watching CNN the night after the war began: “Mommy, can I watch my show after your war show is over?”

Another confused child was reported to be crying uncontrollably at her school-bus stop. When a mother from the neighborhood asked the little girl what was wrong, the child responded, “Didn’t you hear? They bombed ‘the rec’ last night.” (When she heard the newscasters saying “Iraq was bombed,” she thought they were saying “the rec” — the neighborhood recreation…