Adam Shoneck [email protected] 617-699-5982 CAS ’06

Is no one keeping up with the news around here? Did no one see Colin Powell’s address to the UN? Does no one feel the same way I do, that Saddam Hussein is a tyrannical dictator who needs to be eliminated? In the past few weeks I have heard many unfounded arguments against going to war with Iraq.

A few news channels have shown interviews with Iraqi citizens saying they love Saddam Hussein and they love their current conditions. Some people use this as proof that the situation in Iraq is all peachy keen and therefore war is not necessary. With Saddam’s history of brutally torturing those who speak out against him, why would anyone openly oppose him and his regime? Saddam Hussein even routinely kills members of his regime who have not spoken out against him, just to keep the rest of the officials on their toes. So when I hear the argument that it is the responsibility of the Iraqi people to rise up against Saddam, I am baffled. The Iraqi citizens have no weapons, they have no money, and most importantly, they have no courage. Saddam has raped these people of the will to rise up against him.

Some people have called Bush a war-monger, and I will admit, I was not a Bush fan until recently. But if anyone is to be called a war-monger, it is Saddam Hussein. America has the proof that Saddam’s arsenal exists, just read a transcript of Colin Powell’s address to the U.N. Saddam Hussein is worth somewhere in the vicinity of ten billion dollars. Would it not then be quite easy to pay a country such as Syria to hide his weapons for him? Saddam may be a Tyrant, but he is not stupid. He knows how to play his cards, and the U.N. is just making it easier for him.

Saddam is not just going to decide one day that he wants to comply and give up all of his weapons. Saddam will continue to build up his arsenal of lethal weapons and his army. The diplomacy demanded by the U.N. and so many Americans is merely delaying the war against Iraq. Our delay now merely defers advantage to Saddam Hussein; it gives him more time to prepare for this war, and thus an easier chance at defeating the United States and her allies.

And this war is NOT about oil. But it is about protecting our interests. Those interests include living in a peaceful society and not one where people and their families are forced to live in complete terror of a power-hungry dictator. Yes, Saddam is power-hungry, otherwise, why would he have all of those weapons?

I have seen the groups who string paper cut-outs across Marsh Chapel square, complaining that those cut-outs represent the children who could be killed in the war with Iraq. To them I say this: yes, innocent people will die, but after the war their sacrifice for a free and open society will be honored. If America does not eliminate Saddam, however, and we merely sit here letting his reign continue, innocent people will continue to die each day, because Saddam will be killing them. The killing will not end until we end it.

A final word: I do not think that war is the solution to all of the world’s problems, but when a greedy, selfish, power-hungry dictator is threatening the rights of all people of the world, a solution must be found. Unfortunately, sometimes that solution is war.