Up until three weeks ago, the war in Iraq seemed somewhat plausible. We had invaded this foreign country in order to liberate its people from the shackles of oppression and cruelty.

Even for a hard-core liberal like myself, this siren song was quite seductive.

Then, I got word my friend was being called to active duty. In an instant, the high-minded objectives, the rhetoric about “freedom” and “liberty,” the flags prominently displayed all over the country — they all seemed hollow.

Now that I personally knew someone whose life is on the line, the price was simply too high.

The only reason my friend joined the National Guard was to pay for school.

He had no delusions about glory, honor or duty. A few years back, he examined his options and decided he was willing to trade one weekend a month and two weeks a year in order to put himself through college. Tossing sandbags in a flood or handing out food to tornado victims was a chance he was willing to take.

Now, he has been uprooted from his life as a hard working student and thrust into a war that none of us understands.

We are about to send him halfway around the world to a hostile land where the everyday citizens want him gone, and the extremists are willing to kill him in order to drive the point home.

Are the lives of our brothers and sisters worth what we have accomplished in Iraq?

The infrastructure is in shambles; suicide bombers kill more innocents every day, and our exit date is still unknown.

Weapons of mass destruction remain ever elusive, despite the fact that before we arrived in Iraq, our leaders assured us that canisters of nerve gas and plutonium would be stacked to the ceiling in every warehouse.

Worst of all, our actions have created an environment much more conducive to terrorism than ever before.

In effect, we created a breeding ground for terror while at the same time putting our brothers and sisters within the terrorists’ reach.

My friend’s life is in your hands. Pick up the phone and call your senators, your representatives, your president and anyone else you can think of. Tell them you are not willing to send your friends off to die for nothing.

Our citizen soldiers are not political capital to be spent on personal agendas. They are our brothers and sisters, our friends, our neighbors, our lovers. Would you risk any of them for the mess that is Iraq?

I know I wouldn’t risk my friend.

Micah Wedemeyer

Decatur, Ga.