BYU NewsNet - Letter to the editor: War, what is it good for?

As an all-out war with Iraq seems to be drawing closer, I want to take this opportunity to protest it. War in Iraq cannot be justified by 9/11. Many innocent people were killed, but killing more innocent people in Iraq cannot change that, nor prevent future terrorism. On the contrary, terrorism will only increase if the U.S. continues to bully smaller countries.

Bad U.S. foreign policy led to resentment and indirectly to the events of 9/11, as terrible and unwarranted as they were. A change in foreign policy is a better response than simply amplifying the bad decisions that helped cause anti-American feelings to begin with. Increased diplomatic efforts and unity between the U.S. and Arab nations would have a better chance to pacify and root out terrorism. Al Qaeda may be extremist, but their resentment towards the United States is not wholly unjustified.

President Bush should leave the matter to the United Nations. No single nation should have the right to overthrow the government of another established state. If gross humanitarian misconduct is taking place, which may be the case in Iraq, then it is the United Nations' responsibility to solve the problem. The United States is not the policeman of the world.

I hope the fact that the United States is about to initiate war is not lost on most of its citizens. People die in war - Innocent civilians as well as members of the military on both sides. Let us not forget, there has so far been no proof that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, unlike North Korea, the U.S. and other countries.

Are President Bush and his cabinet acting merely out of a vendetta held over from his father's tenure as President? Are oil, the economy and the military-industrial complex the underlying motivation for an attack on Iraq? These theories are just as plausible as the ones Bush suggests.

Attacking a country is wrong. Read D&C 98 if you are LDS if you don't believe me. Defending our nation is one thing. Initiating a war is quite another.

CHRIS VERMILLION