Make the case for war
This holiday
season finds us on the brink of war with Iraq.
Iraq reports that
it has met the demands of a United Nations resolution and has no weapons of mass
destruction.
U.N. weapons
inspectors have not yet found the proverbial smoking gun in their visits to
various Iraqi sites.
British Prime
Minister Tony Blair says Iraq is lying. He says he has the information to prove
it.
U.N. chief
inspector Hans Blix says Iraq’s report left out a lot of essential
information. He wants Britain and the U.S. to tell the world what they know
about Iraq’s weapons.
U.S. President
George Bush says it can’t be done because the countries must protect their
sources.
This leaves
ordinary Americans—the ones who pay the bills, build the weapons, fight the
wars, and feed the kids—in a terrible quandary.
Americans had no
qualms about going into Afghanistan, bombing Al Qaeda to rubble and launching
the still unsuccessful effort to unearth terrorist Osama bin Laden from his
underground lair. We knew why American sons and daughters had to go and fight.
The sons and daughters knew it, too. All had seen the bombing of the World Trade
Center.
The situation
with Iraq is not so clear. It’s muddied by the fact that the U.S. government
is playing nice with Iran, a country that harbors and promotes terrorists, and
with North Korea, which recently acquired nuclear weapons.
Americans will
willingly go to war, but only if we understand why. We’re not good at blind
faith.
Mr. President? It’s
time to make the case.