While I wholeheartedly agree that war is reprehensible, I also believe it is sometimes a necessary evil when peaceful means of solving a conflict fail. Imagine how many lives would have been saved if the United States had stepped into World War II sooner.

The Holocaust could have been prevented for the most part. Now fast forward to the present: Saddam Hussein has been killing his own people for years now. However he has done it, through death squads starvation or any other means. We know it happens and still we sit around under the cover of diplomacy.

Did you know that in Iraq, there is a government position known as a rapist? That’s right, government sanctioned rapists.

Imagine this: You say something about President Bush or the government and somebody finds out about it. So they send someone out to rape your wife, sister or daughter. They tape it and send you a copy of the tape. Pretty hard to imagine, but it happens in Iraq.

Then again they could simply take you into custody and torture you day after day. We sit around and complain about our country and all of the injustices that happen here. While I agree that it is not a perfect nation and that some people don’t get justice, at least we have the right to complain about it without being considered criminals.

Sanctions are not what are starving the Iraqi people. It is the continued defiance by Saddam of the U.N. resolutions. I hope that the current resolution for weapons inspections can help to avoid going into a war. But if Hussein goes back on his agreement to allow weapons inspections once again there should be consequences for such actions.

More sanctions obviously won’t work because Saddam couldn’t care less about the well- being of his own people. The only way to insure that he is no longer a threat to the world is to remove him from power.

Eric Baack

Senior

Mechanical Engineering