Jonquil Wegmann said it right on Friday. Yes, Iraq should lose the weapons of mass destruction, and so must Syria, Iran, Israel… and Russia… the U.S…. the loons from Las Vegas? We claim that Saddam, Stalin, and Hitler are the only leaders to use mass destruction against a population, and that is our justification to strike before he can do it again. Our allies and his own people lay at risk to horrible attack, that is clear.

But, if WE establish that this type of preemptive military initiative against a general population is an acceptable policy to punish such a leader, even if it is a known dictator and genocidal monster, who next will take it upon themselves to bomb the U.S. into “reason?” We have those weapons ourselves. How, then, shall we explain this action to the world, having been the only country ever to unleash nuclear weapons against any population, civilian or military?

Will this also establish, then, that the same response is acceptable against the American government by the Lakota or Nez Perce, the descendants of African Americans enslaved, the Americans of Japanese lineage who had their lives robbed in the 1940s? The next is all politically, religiously, financially or socially “disenfranchised?” Are we not implicitly condoning a perpetual series of Oklahoma City-type answers to our responses in political conflicts?

I do fear for your little brother, Jonquil … and for my own children and many yet to be born, because the war and the terrorist responses that we will precipitate will escalate endlessly.

If we initiate this attack without Saddam Hussein having first made a direct and obvious attack himself, we are the villain. If we sit back and allow him to strike anyone, specially if it is one of our allies, then we are not their protector.

But which of those awful choices allows us to show more humanity, more conscience? It is not simple and clean, but it should be clear.

Sorry, hawkish readers and innocent victims of Saddam that may yet suffer at his maniacal hand, but we must wait for him to play his hand, spades or bluff, before we are to answer it with our horrific military might. Elsewise, we can NEVER be accepted as right.

Please! Let us exercise the difficult judgement toward restraint, lest we add a new and horrible mark in eternal history against us.

Tommy Shaw

ISU graduate