War and peace

Editor's Note: These Our Generation essays debating the use of force in Iraq were written prior to President Bush's decision to go to war.

Iraq would never voluntarily disarm. And because of this, war was the last, unavoidable resort.

An evil dictator with weapons of mass destruction, with terrorist connections, with conquering ambitions and with no chance of peaceful submission has to be removed.

The United States expended all other solutions but came up with empty hands. War is now a necessary, grim reality. Saddam cannot continue his "game of deception."

In theory, respecting national sovereignty is a good idea. But when national sovereignty means Saddam can gas populations of Kurds at will, blackmail the rest of the world with weapons of mass destruction and potentially obliterate cities, respecting national sovereignty is not a good idea.

The Iraqi people need liberation. The citizens of Israel, Kuwait, Britain and the United States need protection. Saddam's sovereignty cannot compromise the safety of people around the world.

President Bush, quite simply, has proven that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. His proof rests in Saddam's failure to prove he doesn't. We could not allow Saddam to reverse the roles of responsibility and put the burden of proof upon the United States. He literally has "tons" of unaccounted-for weapons and chemicals, a fact he disclosed after the Gulf War. Saddam can't even give us decent excuses as to why his government has no evidence of supposed weapons destruction. His unacceptable excuse is that the evidence would be "too bitter" for the Iraqi people.

On the contrary, what is "bitter" is the life of an Iraqi citizen. The fact that freedom-loving, anti-war sign carrying Americans are using our freedoms to keep the Iraqi people oppressed is ironic. If anti-war Americans love free speech so much, why shouldn't we extend that right to Iraqis, who under Saddam have to worry for their lives and those of their children if they so much as utter one negative remark about Saddam?

Alternatives to war required something that all too many Americans overlooked: a sane leader. Did you honestly think Saddam would voluntarily give up weapons he spent millions of dollars building and years developing? Of course he could just hide them, invite inspectors in, buy some time with his French allies and wait for his lucky day. He couldn't prove he had destroyed them because he hadn't.

Despite having few allies, the United States had no choice but to act. It lacked only a useless coalition of nonexistent French and German soldiers. U.N. resolution 1441, passed last fall by the council, ordered Iraq to surrender chemical, biological and chemical weapons. Many of the same nations who supported that resolution are the ones destroying the U.N.'s relevancy - not the United States. If those countries wanted a "smoking gun," they could look to the illegal missiles found by inspectors that exceeded the 93 miles agreed upon by the United Nations.

But wait, I thought that in those thousands of pages of weapons reports Saddam so generously gave us, he said he didn't have any illegal weapons, missiles or chemicals. These missiles, with a range long enough to hit Israel or Kuwaiti oil pipelines, should not exist. Yet they are only the tip of the iceberg. You want proof that Saddam is a liar - look to the missiles. He lied about that. Why wouldn't he lie about even bigger projects? The answer is that he would!

The United States could not wait until a nuclear bomb on board a freighter made its way into New York Harbor. A pre-emptive strike could save thousands of lives, so who cares if we replace a tradition of unsuspecting helplessness by attacking Iraq first? Many of the same people who criticized the government for not acting before Sept. 11 are demanding that we don't act now to avert an even more grissly terrorist attack by Saddam. Take a consistent stand! Should we give lip service to action while we wait in inaction?

War is a reality. Saddam must go.

Copyright 2003 Cowles Publishing Company
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