Editor,
As an American who happens to support U.S. military action in Iraq, I am appalled by columnist Richard Berthold’s arrogance and sense of moral superiority in “War Barters with U.S. Values.”
Just so Berthold and others like him know, that war is a horrible affair does not escape most Americans and especially not those who support military action in Iraq.
In fact, most Americans desire peace but we also realize that at some point evil maniacs who produce weapons of mass destruction must be stopped — even if it means war. This is supposed to change our values! The same way our values were changed when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor; when we found out that Hitler had killed six million Jews; when Iraq invaded Kuwait over a decade ago. Values for peace tend to lead to values of war when lives are at stake, a fact that seems to escape Berthold and many like him.
Yes. War means death and innocent people will die. They always do. Those of us who support the war in Iraq aren’t stupid. But we know that Hussein has lied to the United States and the international community for the last 10 years, used chemical weapons on his own people and to this day he will not come clean despite numerous opportunities.
What exactly are we supposed to do? Let Hussein do what ever he wants? Let the United Nations and its meaningless rules dictate our foreign policy? Should we renounce our own values, drink French wine and take yet another vacation? Maybe we should wait until the spring when Iraq is in charge of weapons inspections?
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I forgot, let’s wait for Hussein to launch chemical weapons at us or our allies before we act because Mark Rudd is being hassled by the FBI. Mr. Berthold didn’t offer a solution. He was too busy writing about how Donald Rumsfield attended the “Hitler school of international law” because we support Israel.
Yes. Our support for Israel and lack of it for the Palestinians is a double standard but so is our immigration policy. There just happens to be a reason for it. It would be nice if we could all get along but our values tend to change when PLO members strap bombs to their chest to kill women and children because they hate Jews.
Sadly, Berthold and others like him don’t differentiate between terrorism and justified retaliation nor the values that define a nation. It’s not that war barters with U.S. values, it’s that war barters with his utopian vision for America’s future.
Those who believe in military action have good reason for it. Berthold’s concern and compassion for the innocent civilians of Iraq does not mean that his opponents could care less about the suffering that will ensue should the United States strike.
It doesn’t mean that we want more terrorism. We are no more insensitive to other countries than they are to us. We are not evil. We are not living in sin. We don’t need to be “enlightened,” to become more “aware” or have our “consciousness raised” by well-intentioned tenth wave flower children — blindly motivated by a vision that reality does not offer. It is a vision that holds America in contempt at every corner and to a standard that most can’t even define; a vision that provides a special state of grace for those who believe in it. It is a vision that is so powerful, so consuming, that those who believe in it no longer can make a distinction between President Bush and Adolph Hitler; between murder and war.
It is a vision of peace and goodwill that just goes too far and eventually leads to hate and contempt for those who oppose it.
Nevin Marquez
UNM student
