In response to "Saddam the Muslim Killer"

Submitted by Spencer (Canada), Nov 19, 2002 at 05:43

...You're right to condemn Saddam, but we must be aware of the ramifications of military action in Iraq. The simple truth is that hundreds of thousands have died as a result of the first war (few actually on the battlefield, most of starvation and disease afterwards) and many more will die if there is war again.

These deaths are the responsibility of the U.N. and of America, because they were and are the foreseeable result of our military action and the ensuing sanctions. These actions are carried out in our name; the military is, or at least should be, an extension of the democratic will of the people.

So is it the will of the American people to kill half a million Iraqis?

This is the question that has to be asked.

As far as oil goes, that's only the tip of the iceberg of motivations that are drifting us to war. It's not so much a conspiracy as an inevitablity that we've arrived at through a matrix of bad decisions, conflicts of interest, short-sighted pragmatism and simple greed.

The path leading to this conflict has stretched through presidential regimes of both parties, through administrations that supposedly held to heart our best interests and the best interests of the world as a whole.

Now that we're again on the brink of war, it only seems sane to examine closely how we got here, as well as where we go from here.

Our colleges and universities, symbols of the freedom of thought and expression that we hold so dear, seem like a good place to do it. At least people thought so a couple of wars ago.

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".