War demands inquiry, debate

I found out about the war in LaGuardia Airport, standing in a crowd of New Yorkers who lived and worked near the Twin Towers, all wary of boarding an airplane on the day America declared war on Iraq. Years from now, I will tell the story of how I came to be in that airport, to watch President Bush announce our nation's intentions with those people. As young citizens, each of us will have a tale to tell future generations about these early days of the conflict. How our stories end is still uncertain. America's declaration of war was dangerous, not only for the men and women risking their lives overseas, but for all of us at home. We are fighting based on shaky reasoning, with little support, under the leadership of those who see war as a tool of foreign policy. While we hope and pray for the safety of those marching into Baghdad or launching bombs from the air above Iraq, Americans must be both thoughtful and vocal about what this war will mean for our future. If we are not, if we choose to follow the President simply because this is a time of war, we risk a future in which we will have far too many stories to tell.

The arguments about why we should not be at war with Iraq have been made by countless pundits, politicians, and commentators. Saddam Hussein poses no real threat to us. We lack international support. There is no proof of a nuclear program in Iraq. There is no link between Osama bin Laden and Hussein. The list goes on and on. The arguments are important, but we are at war now. It is too late to make them. What we ought to worry about is the precedent America has set. By going into Iraq with cruise missiles and tanks, we have proven to ourselves and to the world that our nation is more than willing to act alone on shaky evidence, to install a new government in any country that positions itself against ours and to use terrorism as an excuse to shape the world in our own image. Many foreign nations are frightened of this new doctrine; we should be too.

Administration officials have said that they will "deal with" Iran, Syria, and North Korea once they are finished in Iraq. If Saddam Hussein was threatening enough to justify an invasion of this cost and magnitude, who knows what President Bush and his allies will cook up for the none-too-friendly leaders of the other nations of the Axis of Evil. Diplomacy and prudence are so much less decisive, and so much less electorally appealing, than bombs and guns. Our leaders rejected a path of caution and compromise once. If the American people sit silent in support, what is to stop them from doing it again?

Many young people, whose sole exposure to war was the first battle in the Gulf, wrote off this conflict as a short, made for TV event that would be easily won. The reports of Iraqi soldiers surrendering to soccer playing American troops fueled the fires of flippancy. But people are dying, Iraqis and Americans. Even if they were not, even if we could roll into Baghdad and install whichever new leader Donald Rumsfeld selected from his book of Iraqi dissidents, this war would not be all right. The minute we decide to undertake a fight because it will not be difficult is the minute we lose perspective on just how tragic war really is — and how worthwhile it is to avoid. There are times when war is the only solution. Was this really one of them?

The criticism of protestors and antiwar commentators in the past few days has been sharp. There are those who believe that the time to question the Bush Administration has passed, that we must all support the troops by nodding in agreement with our President and sporting red, white, and blue pins on our lapels. To do so would not only be dangerous, it would be un-American. We should pray for the safety of our soldiers, who each day earn our respect and admiration by risking their lives in the name of their country. But we have no obligation to fall into line behind U.S. leaders who would take us to war without sufficient grounds or support. Now is the time to raise issues and ask questions. If we wait until another conflict is brewing or another war has begun, we will be too late. Our failure to inquire and to speak out could be the most tragic story we have to tell.