Author: ALVARO LOZANO ROBLEDO SCHOOL: GRS 04 EMAIL: alozano@math.bu.edu PHONE NUMBER: 617 7879061
War. This is an extremely grave word of terrible consequences. Nobody should treat this issue with levity. Whichever side you are on, pro-war or anti-war, please take a minute to consider the gravity of the situation, or the gravity of your statements. I fear that many people are not regarding the situation as critically as it deserves.
The U.S. has declared war, and it is attacking Iraq. People are killing people. People like you are holding guns and killing people like you. If this does not make you shiver, then you have not thought about this for long enough. Now, you are an adult and citizen of the U.S., a democratic country. Well, welcome to democracy. You voted. Now you are responsible for the actions of your country. This means you are involved with the war directly. This also means that you are in part responsible for the death of hundreds of Iraqis that the U.S. troops have already killed and for the American soldiers that have already died in combat.
So the question is: do you support the war in Iraq? This is not an easy question to answer. The fact is that Saddam Hussein is a dictator who may have weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), and might use them. Unfortunately this means that his army may be formed by people who are ‘hostages’, as somebody put it. Regarding the WMDs, the government affirms that Saddam has those weapons. On the other hand, after sharing the evidence with other nations, they did not arrive at the same conclusions. Also, Saddam has been accused of being a possible threat, accused of having connections with Al-Qaeda. So if you do not support this war, you might be endangering your country, if this was true.
Do you have enough evidence to support the war? A friend of mine suggested this moral test. Please be honest, since you are the one looking for an answer. Is the situation so grave that you agree on sending troops to Iraq? Are you prepared to be responsible for hundreds, thousands of killings? Would you send your brother or father to war to possibly be killed in action? Most relevant, would you go yourself to Iraq, to kill people, people with families, who might be forced by their leaders to fight back? It is a cowardly position to send troops to do what you would not dare to do yourself. Yes, some would say that the U.S. army is formed by volunteers who are trained for combat. However, most of them come from poor families, and did not have many more options available. Also, they may be trained, but they are not killing robots. So if you would send these people, similar to yourself, to risk death, would you yourself risk dying for this cause? Another important question is: are you ready for a war in U.S. territory? Declaring war is dangerous, and might have unpredictable consequences. It seems very easy to agree on a far away conflict, but what if the open conflict were here? Would your opinion change?
To conclude, I would like to point out that not supporting the war is not the magic solution to the moral dilemma. Not taking action might also have grave consequences. But, is this the case now? Is the situation so critical? Thank you for your time. Your opinion counts and should be heard.
Alvaro Lozano Robledo GRS 04
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