My question is, exactly what are you waiting about for? Your president unwrites your constitution, tramples your rights and leads your nation into a war that will unleash pain of Biblical proportions. Yet you go about like nothing is happening and the world is fine.
The war with Iraq will be worse than Vietnam. There the nation learned that you could not go into war with half your guns blazing or with a half a heart to do what needs to be done. Once again it is being done and this time in a situation infinitely worse. Questioning remains and even those who have joined the war party wagon still have doubts. The first casualties will come in and people will talk of pulling out and some will be pulled out. And then more will be sent because the war is being lost. And at no time will there be enough soldiers or enough consent here to ensure that the war is fought with America’s full might.
And that is only the first of the perils. The nation asks if it is right to go to war against Iraq as if retaliation is not a consideration. What of these arsenals we speak of? Will they be allowed to lie dormant while a war is being fought? Or will they be smuggled out and used where they will be most effective in creating terror and anguish for Americans? Will Saddam leave his chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in hiding places while his country is ransacked and destroyed? Americans here will die in this war, both in Iraq and at home. The enemy will bring the war where it hurts and the nation will be in no state to prevent it.
And do you know what the voices on the street there say? When an invasion against your country is debated for months by nations around the world, do you not prepare in some way for this? The people of Iraq will rally behind a president that they hate to fight a country they hate even more in exactly the same manner Americans rallied around a president they didn’t trust after September 11. They will fight tooth and nail to prevent the West from taking over their country. And they will be aided by the myriads of Muslims who see this not as a fight against terror but one against their religion. Your president neither has the charisma nor the good sense to convince them otherwise. His actions will only reinforce the hate that already exists and bring more pain to a people who have suffered enough.
And while Iraq be aided and will fight with a hate and passion that most Americans cannot even understand, America wants to go it alone. The world has not rallied to your cause and there will be much hesitancy in supporting the country when soldiers begin to die. Countries will not come to your aid because your soldiers are dying unless they feel like your cause is just. And they aren’t certain of that now so why would they be then. And so the dying will continue and it will be Americans dying.
Saddam Hussein’s possession of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons is not the point of debate here. If he does possess them, he has possessed them for a while. The real question is why fight a war now. And why fight it alone? While much noise has been made, the White House has provided little evidence that anything has changed in Iraq in the past year to warrant waging a war right now. The president’s thirst for war is all that drives this campaign. For political and personal reasons with little sound logic, the president will lead the nation into the most terrible war it has experienced in a long time. And the reason that you all allow him to is unclear. President yes, dictator no. That is one of the claims for ousting Saddam. Yet it seems that the nation is being dictated to and no one is standing up to challenge. So once more I ask, what are you waiting for?
Tomiwa Aladekomo SMG ’03
