The issue of United States security and our president’s military move to disarm Saddam Hussein’s regime has direct correlation to FDR’s search for security prior to World War II. Then and now, destabilizing forces jeopardize peace and world wide commerce.

In a Oct. 5, 1937 speech President Roosevelt warned: “If [another major war] comes … in other parts of the world, let no one imagine that America will escape, that America may expect mercy, that this Western Hemisphere will not be attacked and that it will continue tranquilly and peacefully to carry on the ethics and the arts of civilization. It seems to be unfortunately true that the epidemic of world lawlessness is spreading. When a epidemic of physical disease starts to spread, the community approves and joins in a quarantine of the patients in order to protect the health of the community against the spread of the disease.” Today it isn’t a fascist foe, but a hegemony of terror — epitomized in Hussein’s reign. Both presidents sought American security in the face of real threats. Bush’s efforts in Iraq are an effective quarantine against the future of terrorism.

Ian Anderson

Senior

History