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Editor, The Letter
Pres. Bush needs to come up with better reasons to invade Iraq and remove its
leader, Saddam Hussein, than what he's given us so far. If he can show that
Saddam's actions are a clear and present danger to the safety, peace and
security of the world, then we say, sure: go in and nab the bastard.
But even at that, we need to tread cautiously, particularly if none of our allies support us and it looks like other Middle Eastern nations might interject themselves into the conflict on the side of Iraq. So far, we're not impressed we need to do this. For starters, Bush is saying the decision to go to war is his. Bullshit! It's up to the Congress and the American people, not some third-rate president. He needs to look at the Constitution more closely. This is not a big oil corporation, and he's not its CEO. If he wants war, Bush is going to have to convince the rest of the country it's needed. At first, the Bush administration said it was going after Saddam because it had proof he was linked to the Sept. 11 tragedy. When that proved erroneous, it said he's developing weapons of mass destruction and is poised to loose them on us. When that argument fell through, it finally admitted it wants Saddam out because...well, it wants Saddam out. Why doesn't Bush just admit it: the only reason he wants to invade Iraq is oil. A successful war with Iraq will just make it easier for America's oil giants to explore, drill, and export oil from that region of the world. Never mind that, with a few simple conservation measures instituted by the government, we wouldn't need Iraq's oil. But our greedy corporations want no part of that.
Going to war with Iraq would be a catastrophic precedent that will do nothing for our international prestige. Nay, our standing among the nations of the world is already being questioned by our allies, who see an imperial Brooks Brothers bully running amok, playing by its own rules and ignoring all established standards of international conduct. Talk about your rogue nations! A war with Iraq might prove successful in attaining its goal of toppling Saddam, but by interjecting our ground forces in an unstable part of the world, we risk not only a widening of a war we're ill equipped to handle, but loss of world admiration in our system of government and our cultural values. All for a few extra drops of oil for the administration's bloated corporate contributors. |
Never in the history of the US has our military struck first. We've gone to
war only when attacked or provoked. While some of our wars may have started
on flimsy pretexts-the Mexican and Spanish-American Wars come to mind-the US
has never declared war on another sovereign nation with the intent of
removing its leaders and installing someone more to its liking.