LETTER: Peace not won through war

Dear Editor,

Most recently in the drama that continues on in ignorance and haste, the president of the United States of America declared war upon terrorism.

I understand wanting justice for those responsible for the deaths of many. However, to rush after a cause with no ending is foolish. Does no one see that to enter a war of no foreseeable ending is a suicide mission? Not only for those whom our leaders send to fight but to our country as we have known it for more than 200 years. The president did not call only for justice against the actions of those responsible, but to eradicate all terrorism around the world.

If it is the loss of American lives we are so upset about why send more to their deaths? Doing so only serves to fuel our animosity toward a moral cause of defeating evil. Terrorism is a long-standing evil in the cultures of the world, one we fortunately avoided until recently. To eradicate evil from the world is an impossible task, bad things happen and no matter how we try to protect ourselves they will continue to happen.

The terrorism in September was not the act of unorganized stupid people. They spent years training and planning the attack, and it frustrates me to no end that the United States, in our supreme arrogance, believes these terrorists believed we would do nothing. What lesson will we teach them if we do exactly as they expect? Americans are so predictable.

Justice is blind and carries scales and a sword and contrary to American opinion we are not immune to the sword and scales of justice. To you warmongers on the campus of Utah State University, peace is not won through war. The only reality of war is loss of life and that reality is greater than any civilization can overcome. If we hope to defeat this enemy by understanding them or by becoming them I want no part in it. I believe what happened was wrong, and if we act in the same manner, I believe we achieve only tyranny.

Tyson Crosbie