Last month I submitted a sample column to The Daily Pennsylvanian. I argued against the war in Iraq, trying to write with eloquence and humor tailored for a college audience.
But much has changed since last month. The time for eloquence is past; it is a time of desperation. And humor in the face of this seemingly inevitable war would only desecrate the graves of its many victims.
I am not a religious man, but increasingly this war seems not just wrong, but genuinely evil. Evil because we know the likely consequences of this invasion and blindly pursue it anyway. The last war in Iraq killed tens of thousands of soldiers, many as they fled, an act of violence so horrific that even then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney agreed it had gone too far.
These were not Saddam's loyal volunteers; they were draftees whose desperation to surrender became notorious, burned and buried alive.
And the killing continued after the war, once the civilian infrastructure had been destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of children in Iraq are dead as a direct result of the war and sanctions, according to conservative United Nations estimates. Before the war, Iraq had the lowest child mortality rate in the Middle East. Now children starve to death.
Depleted uranium ammunition left the equivalent of radioactive fallout there; it is still contaminating the people of Iraq, as well as American veterans of that war. American soldiers who returned with Gulf War Syndrome have had extraordinary rates of cancer and other diseases, as well as birth defects in their children. As many veterans have discovered, the horror of war does not always stop at the ceasefire.
And so when I see that the optimistic prediction for this second war in Iraq is that it will go much like the first, my heart sinks. My fingers tremble as I type this, for I know millions of lives will be lost and I can't stand to see even one.
I want to believe that our leaders are basically good men who simply do not understand what they are doing. But I see them lying their way into this war. The Bush Administration's claims that Saddam Hussein is close to having nuclear weapons, that he has ties to al Qaeda and that he is about to attack other nations are flatly contradicted by the very experts they cite: by nuclear weapons inspectors, the CIA and the military respectively. I cannot forgive lying: Bush knows what he is doing.
I want to believe that if I call Senator Arlen Specter and argue for peace, it will have an effect on whether he votes in favor of a blank check for war. I did call his office, and with a lump in my throat I explained why this war is so wrong. And the receptionist admitted that almost all of her callers agreed with me.
But the pundits say he'll just vote with the rest of the Republicans because of the upcoming election. I know there's a lot of cynicism about war and electoral politics, but I really never imagined that a president would start a war in October just to help his party win.
I am not a religious man, but I believe one eventually has to face the consequences of his actions. It is an open secret that this war will probably destabilize several other Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. It is apparent that every action we take toward war makes us more unpopular with the rest of the world. It is acknowledged that it will probably provoke more terrorist actions against the United States.
Israel's policy of "pre-emptive defense" has produced more suicide bombers, not fewer; should we expect different results if we imitate it?
In Afghanistan the Bush Administration created a corrupt and unpopular government to serve oil companies, while the warlords maintained true control over the country. I wanted to believe some good would come from deposing the Taliban, but I see that crime there is rampant, the drug trade is thriving and Afghan women still live in fear.
Ahmed Chalabi -- friend of oil companies, convicted of embezzling from a Jordanian bank, popular with the Bush Administration and nobody else -- is now the most likely candidate to follow Saddam Hussein, if all goes according to Bush's plan. The optimistic prediction is that he will replicate Hamid Karzai's performance in Afghanistan.
Pity the Iraqis who hope for democracy.
This war will be a tragedy of immense proportions and will in turn set in motion even greater tragedies. The lovers of peace will protest this Sunday in Washington and I will join them, in desperation, because I still want to believe we can be heard. I encourage you to join me.
I am not a religious man, but for the love of God, please help me stop this war.
Stephen Preston is a lecturer in Mathematics.
