Warmonger: Some will die if we invade Iraq, but millions will die if we don’t and Saddam employs biochemical weapons!
Peace Lover: U.N. inspectors haven’t uncovered such weapons, but let’s pretend Saddam has them. Why hasn’t he used them to subdue his neighbors and kill millions? Well, I suspect Saddam would invite total annihilation if he did. He is a megalomaniac interested in self-preservation. Do you think he’d be suicidal enough to offensively employ ‘illicit’ weapons without provocation? I doubt it. However, I reckon that Saddam would unhesitatingly use illicit weapons out of desperation and with nothing to lose if America attempted to conquer Iraq.
And don’t be too sure that there will be ‘some’ casualties in a war; Iraqis are people too. Over 100,000 died during Desert Storm and its aftermath. The film Hidden Wars of Desert Storm reveals that American forces littered Iraq with uranium-enhanced ammo, which remains radioactive for billions of years, and may have contributed to high rates of Iraqi birth defects and cancer – and Gulf War Syndrome.
Warmonger: Saddam used chemical weapons against his own people and has Al Qaeda ties!
Peace Lover: Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons against the Kurds and Iranians during the 1980s, and America did nothing; it supported Iraq at the time, and even sent Donald Rumsfeld to meet Saddam! It may shock you that America tolerated a tyrant, but we did. And there’s no evidence suggesting that secular and socialist Saddam has Al Qaeda ties.
Warmonger: U.N. inspections and the United Nations are a farce, but since Saddam has violated U.N. Resolution 1441, we should attack him!
Peace Lover: Do you really think the U.N. is a farce? Do you seriously want to live in a world without a forum for international dialogue? Well, if you truly believe the U.N. is a farce, then you should scrap the gripe about Iraq’s noncompliance with U.N. resolutions. It’s logically inconsistent to state that the U.N. is a farce and concurrently suggest that Iraq should comply with farcical resolutions. If you really believe the U.N. is a sham, then give credit to Iraq for agreeing with you!
If America dedicated itself to spending resources on promoting constructive and rehabilitative dialogue both at home and abroad, future generations would reap the benefits. The U.N. was established after World War Two with future generations in mind. Learn from the past; war is not something we should strive for.
R.S. Jolly is a senior philosophy major.