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Aug 29, 2003 I missed most of the coverage of the war with Iraq. Troops were almost to Baghdad when I boarded an airplane, flew over the big blue ocean and landed in South Africa for a month long school trip. Thirty days later, after camping for a month in southern Africa we landed in New York City and raced to a newsstand. Guess what? The war was proclaimed over (although that didn't seem to get nearly as much news coverage as the whole Dixie Chicks fiasco.) Now, almost four months later, I am still hearing about the unjustified war. Unjustified. Perhaps there is something I am missing, for I am unable to understand how the Iraqi war was anything but justified. I tend to be against war in general. I believe most people are. However, I believe very deeply that there are things worth fighting for, and things worth dying for. A three year old child being brutally tortured to force a confession and death penalty of their innocent parent is one of those things. People being gassed by the thousands and murdered in horrendous ways is another one of those things. I read a book about the history of Iraq, which mentioned some of the things Saddam Hussein had done to his own people and to the Iranians and I didn't sleep for several days, after which I concluded that the mindset of the anti-war folks is that they simply don't want to know. Iraq is a long way away from here, certainly far enough away that it is easy to look the opposite direction. Perhaps that is why the United States did look the opposite direction for the eight years that Bill Clinton was President. It turns out that there are many who don't like a President who calls attention to the problems in the world and demands that they be solved. A couple of the problems were that the Iraqis were being murdered by the thousands. Saddam Hussein killed more Iraqis than Hitler killed Germans. He murdered more Moslems than any man in history. He tortured people in the most unimaginable ways possible. He also happened to be helping out Osama bin Laden and creating various weapons of mass destruction, which were unsurprisingly gotten rid of in the months during which the United States debated the war. None of those reasons were justified? I beg to differ. World War Two was justified, and I fail to see the differences that makes this one "unjustified." Adolf Hitler vs. Saddam Hussein. Exterminating Jewish Europeans vs. Exterminating Iraqi Moslems. Apples vs. . . . . More apples. While I was in Africa, I visited the home of a girl in the small village of Ondangwa, Namibia. During the course of that afternoon she showed me her bedroom, a tiny cement block room with one bed and a shelf with a few possessions, among them a newspaper with coverage of the war in Iraq. The newspaper was outdated, and contained news that I had heard before I left the United States, but it at one point stated that the United States had been considered a hero throughout Europe and the rest of the world since WWII, but we were ruining that image with this war. Excuse me? I was shocked that the atrocities being committed in Iraq were considered so much less terrible than the atrocities that were committed in Europe in 1941. (It is also news to me that the Europeans have considered us 'heroes' all this time.) While WWII and the Iraq War were undoubtedly very different, the similarities lie in the extermination of innocent people, and the price that was paid to ensure peace. Before we went to war with Iraq, as well as the whole time we were there, thousands upon thousands of protesters flocked to the streets to stop traffic, inconvenience people and scream about peace. Peace? Peace for whom exactly? For the Iraqi citizens who have watched their own people murdered by the hundreds of thousands? No, I believe they meant peace for the United States; to sit at home and watch Joe Millionaire and not have to worry or care about a war, and to turn our backs and not have to know about things that go on around the world. To let it continue on as it did for years. Well I'm sorry, but I don't consider that "peace." It is interesting how the Democrats, a party which has traditionally stood up for human rights, are now the most vehemently opposed. Peace is one of the most wonderful ideals, and people of the United States should realize that nothing so wonderful will come easily. We fought and continue to fight for freedom, civil rights, justice and equality, and surely if peace is worth having it's worth fighting for. As the strongest nation on earth we should rise up to protect our country, to help others in the world, and to lead the world towards peace, which cannot occur when power is held by a tyrant such as Saddam Hussein. Unfortunately, that belief doesn't seem to be as popular as it should. It is much hipper and sexier to act like a Hollywood celebrity, bash Bush and flash a peace sign. Just be sure you don't think too hard about the Iraqis when you do it. ------------ About the author: Natalie Amethyst is an opinionated high school sophmore who loves to write, travel and debate politics as well as ski, horseback ride and read. She hopes to become more involved in politics, as well as spend her life writing all over the world. Email Natalie Amethyst: natalie3_8@hotmail.com Comment on this column in the forum. Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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