I would like to take a moment to respond to Ramsey Tesdell’s letter published in the Daily on Tuesday. In it he, listed five reasons not to go to war with Iraq and I would like to dispute each of those reasons.

1. The Iraqi government may not pose an imminent threat to the United States right now, but an Iraq with nuclear weapons will pose a direct threat to regional and world peace and stability.

2. Why does a pre-emptive attack set a bad precedent? Using that logic, if the United States had spotted the Japanese fleet sailing towards Pearl Harbor on December 6, 1941, we would not have attacked them before they attacked us.

Why must Americans die before we respond?

3. Iraq is already a humanitarian disaster, made that way by Saddam Hussein, who has gassed thousands of his own people.

4. International pressure can obviously not deter Saddam from acts of military aggression; otherwise, the Persian Gulf War never would have happened.

5. The United States has had great success in promoting regime change in places like Japan and Germany after World War II and relatively good success in Afghanistan, which is still in the process of changing. Why would Iraq be any different?

Mr. Tesdell, I respect your opinion, but in the future, please do your homework more thoroughly before voicing it.

Chad Hayward

Junior

Chemistry