Calling Jack Bauer...Calling Jack Bauer...

My nine-year-old daughter, G, walked into my bedroom as I was watching "24." I turned it off, of course, and she asked me a few questions.

G: Do people like the President?
I: You mean President Logan or the real President?
G: Our real President of the United States.
I: Well, some people like him very much. Other people don't like him because they don't think he's very smart, and they think he's made a lot of mistakes with the war.
G: Who are we fighting?
I: Terror. We're fighting terror.

I couldn't really think of how else to explain it to her. We aren't fighting Iraq, because the country as a whole isn't our target, right? And we aren't fighting Muslims, of course. We aren't fighting just one rebel group either. So if we are in fact fighting a war on terrorism itself, I guess that means we should be fighting here, as well. And also in Darfur, in Uganda, in Zimbabwe, in Equitorial Guinea, in Burma, in Uzbekistan, in Turkmenistan, in Saudi Arabia and in North Korea. Probably a bunch more places, too. But we aren't. Maybe between George Clooney, "ER," Oprah Winfrey and Angelina Jolie they can get someone to pay attention to those places. Darfur is a start. But I couldn't explain all of that to G. I had to finish watching "24."

- Inda