In response to Rachel Faber Machacha’s column on Monday, I would like to express my opposition to the possible war in Iraq. Machacha states that, judging from letters to the editor, war on Iraq must not be as important to students as religious debate, marijuana legalization, and football. While these are indeed important topics to students, I think many ISU students feel just as strongly, if not more so, about war as these other issues. I, for one, find the possibility of war distressing.

There are a variety of reasons to oppose a war on Iraq. For one, Bush has not proven that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, nor that Iraq has any plans to use these weapons against the United States.

In fact, an attack on Iraq might provoke Hussein to use unleash weapons, which he might otherwise be hesitant to do. There is also no guarantee that the next regime in Iraq will be any friendlier to the United States or have a better human rights record. The United States has an awful record of installing regimes in other nations that are dictatorial instead of democratic, have human rights violations, and eventually oppose the United States.

Our installation of Hussein into power in Iraq in the 1960s is indicative of this record. In addition, a war would risk humanitarian disaster, as many thousands of civilian Iraqis would die due to starvation, bombings, and other war-related incidents.

I ask readers to take two minutes out of their lives and call their senator or representative and express their opposition to the war.

The Capitol switchboard can be reached at 1-800-839-5276. If you are from Iowa, ask to speak to Tom Harkin or Charles Grassley’s office, or to speak to your respective representative: Leonard Boswell, Tom Latham, Greg Ganske, Jim Leach, or Jim Nussle. If you are from another state, I urge you to find out who represents you, and then call and ask to speak to his or her office.

Michael Faris

Senior

English