LETTER: War is unjust, immoral

Editor,

This is in response to “Criticize the War, Get Pre-Emptively Punched” of April 13. After listing some good reasons why we should despise this war and bring our troops home safely right now, Cox comes up with a confusing semi-conclusion. Cox writes that we shouldn’t be too quick to criticize the president because his plan to “spread democracy” just might work. If someone punches a man in the face, should we wait to press assault charges just in case the attacked man’s nose heals straight? It’s called assault regardless of how straight the punched man’s nose heals. In this case, our president’s pre-emptive strike on Iraq isn’t a broken nose, it’s a documented minimum of 17,384 Iraqi civilians killed. The medical journal “Lancet” puts this figure at more than 100,000. No one knows exactly how many Iraqis have been killed because, as General Tommy Franks said, “we don’t do body counts.” Our own cost has been 1,551 American servicemen and women killed. War Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, when asked why the Pentagon doesn’t provide kill figures for enemy combatants, replied, “Because death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war.” He’s never been more right.

The Iraq war has cost more than $150 billion, including allocated funds. This means that for every dollar we spend on Homeland Security, we spend $3 in Iraq strengthening anti-American attitudes and swelling the ranks of those willing to die fighting us. The projected cost of the war for the next 10 years has been put at more than $500 billion, which is more than the cost of a new Medicare plan. I’d rather let Grandpa get cheap Viagra and a second shot at being a teenager than spend it on the neo-conservative’s wet dream of American hegemony.

The reason it’s easy to criticize the president and his war is not because we can’t yet see the results. The reason is because the war is unjust and immoral.

Ryan Smith