week of 1/15/03
 
 
 

What are we doing, Mr. President?
By Marshall Frank

Dear President Bush,

As much as you may believe you have mustered the full support of the American people for initiating an armed conflict with Iraq, think again. I’m one American who fears you are making a humongous and potentially tragic mistake. I think there are millions just like me.

Once again, in less than 40 years, we Americans find ourselves on the brink of an unpopular war. A war that will fracture this nation and polarize many allies.

Once again, we will suffer division as a people; one side pumping fists in support of your toughness, the other side in dire fear of what looms ahead, asking why we are attacking people who have not attacked us.

Once again, we will bear witness to marches, sit-ins, seas of placards in protest, people on both sides spewing anger and hate while the world community sits back condemning our actions. And, once again, we will watch in utter grief the return of flag-draped caskets, graveside tears and 21-gun salutes while families suffer without fathers that should have been.

We don’t know everything you know, Mr. President. We are sure your intentions are pure and based on solid sources of information that Saddam Hussein has, in fact, amassed terrible weapons inside his domain. The U.S. and the world of nations, is right to condemn and exert pressure, to inspect, to admonish and to build coalitions against such evil.

But in its 214 years of existence, the United States has never outright started a major war. This will be the first. Regardless of all the criticism of past conflicts, we never entered into such a war until another nation had been attacked or invaded. Imagine that, Mr. Bush. This may become your legacy, as the only president in history to start a war, invading and killing people of another country, not in clear defense of aggression.

You’ve certainly rallied a huge swell of support from the American people who admire your no-nonsense style. But I fear you have been unduly emboldened by admiration and blinded with power. And the results might not be as you expect.

I sense being caught within a powerful movement, cleverly manipulated by our leaders who have a predetermined agenda. We are part of a stampeding herd of animals blindly following its leaders. But is it to the edge of a cliff?

In the year 2000 you took office when the world was at relative peace, inheriting a healthy economy with low unemployment, no inflation, and the greatest budget surplus in history. Two years later, unemployment is rising, the economy is teetering, the surplus has been transformed into a deficit and we are on the cusp of global war on no less than three fronts.

Seems something is wrong here.

The horrible attacks on America on Sept. 11, 2001, were unprovoked and justified a swift, harsh and decisive response. You rose to that occasion and did the right thing by mobilizing forces, dismantling the Taliban, crushing the heart of Al-Qaida, adjusting our intelligence and immigration priorities, and strengthening homeland security. But invading another nation without clear provocation, is another issue.

You see, the moment we drop the first smart bombs, we will be giving Mr. Hussein exactly what he’s after: justification. And when he releases those deadly weapons of mass destruction against our military, against our allies and, perhaps, even against our citizens at home, he will bask in the world community who attribute his horrid actions to the best excuse of all time: self defense.

And when all is said and done, and the bodies are buried, and the cities smolder, you will not only be remembered as the state governor who signed more death warrants than any other in history, you might be remembered as the president who set the record as well. I hope — with all my heart —I am dead wrong.

Marshall Frank,
Maggie Valley