Editor,
Cold wars are typically fought for an audience. They try to show that one country has more power and potency than another. In short, they
try to make a point.
This is the absurdity of the war in Iraq that President George Bush started. It is entirely a hot war, and the only audience is there on the ground at the other end of the guns and weapons.
However, Bush repeatedly speaks of how Iraq is making a point and showing our enemies what we can do. Such points are never made in hot wars, only with strategic cold wars. Hot wars are simply brutal fights to the death.
World War II was a hot war. The United States and its allies weren't fighting to impress some distant audience. They were fighting for
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their lives.
Thus, the only justification for being in Iraq would be to win a hot war. As it stands, the justification is probably grounded in oil and Bush's religious fanaticism, but it certainly isn't convincing a larger audience
of anything.
The war in Iraq is like sending your children into a dangerous bar to have a life and death fight in order to convince your neighbors of something.
But your neighbors aren't watching, and our children keep dying and dying and dying.
W. Christopher Epler
UNM faculty
