War with Iraq?

Hank Greely says: "My thanks to General Sullivan for sending on that fascinating situation report. I think this will be a foolish and possibly a disastrous war, but that in no way detracts from my respect and admiration for the men and women who will be asked to fight it. To the contrary, as General Sullivan's reporting major, who supports the war, wrote - "If you are questioning U.S. motives and feel that we really shouldn't use military action in Iraq, you are right to question the government anytime they send your local high school graduates into the breach."

I recently read the memoir of mystery novelist Tony Hillerman, "Seldom Disappointed." A good chunk of it is devoted to his service as a frontline infantryman (mortar) in Eastern France in late 1944/early 1945. I recommend it for what seemed, to this outsider, to be a compelling view of life in combat. We should require an awfully good reason before sending young men into that - and before inflicting it on the other side. Reversing the invasion of a neighboring sovereign state, especially one in an economically vital area, seemed to me such a good reason. Stripping Saddam Hussein of weapons of mass destruction - and, perhaps more importantly to the Administration, of power - does not seem to me to be such a good reason. I worry that our policy is being driven, or at least heavily influenced, by three additional, unstated factors. First, I think some in this Administration affirmatively want to throw America's weight around, to demonstrate, with an exclamation point, that we are the world's greatest power and that we don't have to listen to anyone. Second, I fear that the President is influenced somehow by his father's experiences, both in not pursuing the Gulf War to Saddam Hussein's destruction and in being a subsequent target of an assassination plot. Filial obligation is a strange thing. And third, I do not believe it has escaped the attention of some of the political folks in the Adminstration that, with the economy in the doldrums and Osama bin Laden alive, uncaught, and vocal, a splendid little war might pay electoral dividends in 2004. The stated rationale for the upcoming war is plausible, though not (to me) close to convincing considering the many certain costs. These three unstated rationales, if they are influencing policy, seem to me quite inappropriate. I am very worried about the crop that this war's seeds will produce".

RH: This is very reasonable statement. We can only hope that this war is not a repetition of "The Charge of the Light Brigade".

Ronald Hilton - 2/25/03