War with Iraq looms over our heads like a great shadow of uncertainty. Our generation has yet to see or experience a prolonged, full-scale war.
America has been attacked, like Sept. 11 and the Oklahoma City bombing, and many remember the Persian War. However, a war on the scale of Vietnam or World War II is foreign to this generation.
But war is about to happen and America will discover again what war means.
Saddam Hussein must be removed from power. The world will be a safer place when this happens. So it seems obvious that America should load up semi-automatics and march straight into Iraq, with or without support from the United Nations.
Soon all of that will happen and we will again create history with the sacrifice of lives.
But the lost lives will not only be of our enemies, but of their families. Innocent women and children scrape by in Iraq, trying to survive while American troops set up camp on their borders. Their lives are about to be shattered.
Regardless of how they may they view America, we have no right to hate or hurt them. American’s only quarrel is with Hussein and his followers. He’s the man with the price on his head.
So while war may be necessary to make the world a safer place for everyone, it should be a war confined to those who are making the world an unsafe place.
Reality tells us that innocent lives will be lost, and both countries will experience tragedy in one way or another.
But we must restrain American tendancies of dominance that rise up and entice us to “just kill them all.” It’s Hussein we want, not the entire country.