Action in Iraq makes sense
By Pat McMonigle
When a nation finally decides to go to war, it is never a triumphant or joyous day. War is a terrible thing. But worse than war is not taking action. Recently a petition has been circulating asking for signatures against a possible war on Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq. A signature on such a petition is a signature for inaction. The worldwide protests which have occurred lately support this same ineffectively-passive course.
Inaction was the stance Europeans and Americans took for so long while six million Jews were exterminated throughout World War II, and while even more Muslims were "ethnically cleansed" in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Inaction can also be blamed for the 3,000 lives taken on Sept. 11, 2001. The world has too often sat idly by with shielded eyes.
Saddam Hussein is an evil dictator who threatens his people and the world through intimidation and terror, and he cannot be trusted. He has systematically murdered thousands of his own citizens who opposed him. He threatens the entire region and the world community through his possession of weapons of mass destruction and his undoubted ties with terrorist organizations. Must we wait until a "blood-brother" connection of Hussein to the al-Qaeda is found, or for a biological weapon to been placed in San Francisco to act? Then it will be too late. The 5,000 Iraqi Kurds gassed and the 180,000 others who have "disappeared" prove Saddam's resolve to use violence. Can we trust Saddam to have any more compassion for Americans, his sworn enemy, than he does for his own citizens?
These situations differ from the current crisis only in time, perhaps only the time of one day. On Sept. 10 most would not have supported action against a barely-known foreign terrorist organization, but little did we know evil was plotting against us. Let us remember that the target body count for Sept. 11 was 80,000, the estimated number of people in the towers on a normal working day. It was merely luck that saved 77,000 lives on that day - must we blindly rely on it again?
There can be no doubt the nation of Iraq will be better off after it has been liberated and rebuilt. The people of Iraq desire a representative democracy for their nation. The petitioners and protesters seem to want America to shrink from our responsibilities as a world leader, but I encourage both the U.S. government and the United Nations to stand firm - to do nothing would be wrong.
Our brave troops have already packed their bags and headed to the Persian Gulf, yet the petitioners and protesters march on. Hussein must surely thank them for allowing his Bathist regime to continue starving their people, raping and torturing women and children in front of their families and threatening the world. To the petitioners and protesters I say this: exercise your wonderful right of free speech, but make sure you really understand what you advocate.
The Iraqi people pray for liberation from Saddam's evil regime. Will the world once again turn her back on them like we have done so often before elsewhere? I respectfully disagree with the position of inaction, for I cannot trust a man like Saddam. I, too, pray for peace, but if action is our only hope I pray that it is swift and effective.