Editor, Daily Nexus,

Bradley Dean asked me a question.

He inquired of “all Democrats and people opposed to the war in Iraq and pre-emptive warfare: What is the United States to do when threatened with blatant hostility?”

Bradley certainly has many ideas, such as “remaking the Middle East into democratic countries.” I worry that Dean has become a bit too indoctrinated by a very strong-mouthed administration. I wonder how we ought to remake an entire world region. You know, we may not agree any more with totalitarian governments than most of the world agrees with the unilateral Bush administration, but I hardly see that as license to play Sim City Middle East edition. There seem to be just a few problems with present-day Iraq.

Paul Bremmer has recently informed us that we will turn over the government to the Iraqi governing council in June. A new U.S.-imposed government made up of three ethnic rivals should have no problem establishing law and justice in a war-torn, angry nation. Most Americans are not eager to send their money and children off to remake countries that have never been a proven threat to the United States.

I would agree with Dean that, should we be faced with blatant hostility, we ought to respond. We do not have a real choice. This is why the Clinton administration launched a man-hunt for Osama Bin Laden. As I’m sure Dean would point out as a downfall of the Democrats, he was not caught. The following administration has not done a much better job.
Yet when we are faced with possible hostility, we do have a choice. I think we can all agree with President Bush that we do not, in fact, have credible evidence that Hussein was supporting terrorist groups. Of course, our post-9/11 mentalities have trouble shaking the fear that Hussein could be a threat. Perhaps he was developing weapons of mass destruction and that, just maybe, he had aspirations of destroying the USA. Similarly, many Americans had a feeling that he had ties to Bin Laden.

I, for one, am not willing to risk the lives of hundreds of Americans and our allies, along with thousands of Iraqi lives for a maybe-maybe not scenario. I would hope that others would seriously consider the morality of a war that has killed so many people for a cause that we are not positive exists.