Cynthia Rebecca Nine Days Old

Jumping Into The Fray

I told myself I wasn’t going to get into any debate over the topic of war in Iraq. Partly because I haven’t been following the news all that closely and I don’t have all the facts, partly because I respect other people’s opinions and its not my place to tell them their wrong but mostly its because I’m completely on the fence on this issue. I can argue both sides and frankly I don’t have the strength of will or moral fortitude to take a stand and stick to it. I said last Fall that the Bush administration should put up or shut up. I didn’t see the point of the weapons inspections. Of course Saddam has weapons of mass destruction and of course he was not going to disclose them. Why should he? The Bush Administration made it perfectly clear last Fall that they were not going to settle for anything less than a complete regime change in Iraq. If an aggressive military is saying that you, as the leader of your country, need to vacate power and you have no intentions of peacefully doing so, would you hand over your means of defense? If we have always been intent on ousting Saddam, we should have gone in a long time ago and skipped this whole charade of obtaining approval from the UN Security Council. We just gave him more time to prepare for an imminent invasion.

Here is my concern, for what’s it worth. The UN was established to maintain order, diplomatically if possible, among the worlds’ governments. If an aggressor country willfully and unprovoked attacked another country, as Iraq did to Kuwait twelve years ago, UN forces would step in and counterattack. By proceeding with our war plans despite our failure to obtain UN approval, we are effectively demonstrating the UN to be irrelevant. Are we setting a dangerous precedent here? Will other countries follow our lead when they want to proceed with military action the rest of the world condemns? America is already despised in many parts of the world for its power and arrogance. Jealousy is often given as the reason. I think it is fear. Other nations fear us because they know we have the military and economic power to do whatever we want, including regime change. Instead of using America’s power to foster diplomacy and good will around the globe, the Bush Administration has used it to coerce and bully other countries. France is standing up to the US not because they’re great friends of Iraq or lovers of peace but because they resent our current government’s attitude of “F**k all y’all, we’re doing what we want because we can.” France is also wrong in using this opportunity to prove a point. With that being said, I totally support our countries right to defend itself, as we did against the Taliban and Al Qaiddah. I realize Saddam is a monster and a threat, to his own people as well as the rest of the world. He’s not the only such world leader. Are we taking on North Korea as soon as we’re done in Iraq? I just don’t see the need for military action right now. I hope that this war will be swift and short. I hope we will quickly and forcefully obtain our objective and oust Saddam. I hope we will uncover evidence such as weapons of mass destruction and torture chambers that justify our actions to the rest of the world and redeem our position as a sponsor of global good will. I just don’t see it happening. I support our troops 100%. I don’t agree with our government’s methods and policies. That’s it. I’ve said my piece and I’ll be quiet now.