“War for oil justification is lame.”

Get a clue. It’s been used before. The United States is one of the most powerful economic forces in the world. If we need oil, we can buy it from anyone who wants to sell it. We could have gone anywhere else in the world to seize oil if that were the goal of this conflict.

This war is about national security. Here are several facts: it takes 70 billionths of a gram of botulism toxin to kill a person. How many people will be killed with a properly dispersed amount the size of a can of soda? Ten milligrams of VX is lethal to anything that respires. Once again, one person with a soda can sized charge in a crowded area. Assuming your VX weight/volume is 1, then you can kill at least 35 people with your soda can-sized device.

Now place these weapons in the hands of fanatics with truck loads of the stuff.

Chemical and biological weapons are not tinker toys to be taken lightly. They are smaller and deadlier in some cases then a nuclear bomb.

Why didn’t we move earlier against Iraq? I don’t know. Perhaps we felt the leaders of the nation would eventually fold from the U.N. implemented embargoes (which the United Nations could lift at any time if cooperation were made). That didn’t happen so we’ve taken things to the next level.

Maybe we made a mistake by not being more aggressive earlier. You’d have to discuss that with our previous political leadership.

Remember one thing. The media is biased. Individual people are biased. The president makes his decisions based on information that no one else has. His information sources are diverse and broad. While no one can ever get perfect, complete information, you can bet that the president’s is as close as our nation can get. He has made this decision because he felt that our national security (the safety of American citizens) was threatened. If we help a poor nation out on the way, then that’s a bonus.

If you continue to believe the military only moves to steal oil from poor people then research the oil production ability of Indonesia, then take a look at their military force. Three words, “Easier than Iraq.”

Brent Hayward

Senior

Engineering Operations