By: Regina Dennison
This is in response to Amanda Crawford’s article “Quit waiting for justice to happen.” First off, I would like to congratulate you on your active participation in a march. I agree with you that there are not enough people, especially young college students, voicing their opinions. However, this is about all I will agree with you on, and seems to me that you have some facts confused and need to be clarified so you do not look embarrassed again by seeming to be the only student from SHSU.
Let history teach us a lesson. At the end of World War I, the Versailles Treaty was signed by several nations. This treaty placed restrictions to the tonnage of ships for mainly Germany along with other various nations; also, it strictly prohibited a military aviation program for Germany. In 1935, Nazi Germany in opposition to the Versailles Treaty renewed their military aviation program, the Lufrwaffe, under super secret conditions, whose pilots were trained in the German commercial airlines years before. For years Britain, France, and the United States had suspicions that Germany was building an Air Force, but they did nothing, nor could. By 1939, Germany had an operational Air Force of 1,000 fighters and 1050 bombers, with more superior aircraft than the United States and Britain. Many years after the war with unclassified documents from the United States, Britain, Russia, and Germany, we have found out many interesting and scary facts. One is if Hitler waited just a few more months before he started the war or continued funding in his military research and development programs, he could have had the Lufrwaffe equipped with jet fighters and bombers. These aircraft could be capable of delivering bombs to the continental US. In addition, Hitler was just months away from developing the atomic bomb.
The notion that the United States would never do a preemptive attack of aggression came from the late 1940’s to early 1950’s when President Truman was in office. The United States, as a show of responsibility and a benchmark for the world concerning nuclear weapons, promised never to use them as a means of aggression for a preemptive strike. Also, at this time it is worth noting that the Department of War was changed to Department of Defense. We used this doctrine to justify for the United Nations which countries should be allowed to have nuclear capabilities. That is, only stable responsible governments should be allowed to develop and explore nuclear capabilities along with chemical and biological ones. Russia, Britain, France, and others during the cold war showed this responsibility, by realizing the high risks of these weapons falling into the wrong hands. All these nations understood the Theory of Total Global Annihilation if just one nation acted as an aggressor to any other nation in the world.
Understating this is the key to understating the justification of why rogue nations or persons with one agenda must never have weapons of mass destruction. Nations like North Korea, and Iraq, and persons like Sadam Hussein, and Osama Bin Laden must not have such weapons because all have shown irresponsibility to their respected countries or respected agendas. North Korea wants nuclear capabilities to blackmail the west, Hussein wants any weapon of mass destruction to both suppress his people and strike fear in the west, and Bin Laden just wants any weapon of any size to cause the collapse of American society.
Yes, you could argue that the UN inspectors has not found any nuclear, biological, or chemical agents in Iraq and we have no justification for war there, so we should try to calm North Korea down first. Well, here is something ponder. You live in a house with two neighbors, the question is which neighbor would you be most frightening to you? The one that tells you he has weapons and even shows you he does or the one that is not telling you; however, you can see weapons through his front window. Personally, I would be more scared of the one not telling me he has something but I can clearly see them. What the United States and the United Nations can see is empty canisters and warheads where chemical or biological agents could have been. That is like seeing an empty gun rack though the front window of your neighbor’s house. You know no one would have a gun rack without guns, so no one would have warheads or canisters without something to put in them. The United States is not acting on assumptions they are acting on logic.
This notion of President Bush finishing “Daddy’s war” or he wants the US to have control of the oil for more money is crazy to say the least. Sorry to say Bush Sr. did not finish the job by taking down Hussein when he was so close is because the threat of Saudi Arabia and other collation countries of the time breaking away from the collation if such actions were taken. They felt it would weaken the Middle East if Hussein were toppled. Many countries thought that since the US slapped Hussein so badly he would comply with the international community. Today the same countries Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Turkey, and others realize Hussein will never comply, and wants him removed. Now that is about all they agree too, some want a war others want him elected out, others want exile, but Hussein himself said he would never remove himself from power.
President Clinton never took such actions as President Bush does today because during the mid 1990’s Hussein looked as if he was complying with UN resolutions. However, in 1998 when Hussein kicked out the UN inspectors, President Clinton was quoted to saying that Hussein does have capabilities of biological, chemical, and perhaps even nuclear weapons and should be taken care of. But 1998 was the year that President Clinton thought he would leave tough issues like this to the next guy because after all Clinton himself was caught up in one of the biggest presidential scandal’s in US history. If Clinton suddenly started bringing up Iraq to the American public and congress we all would of saw right through it as if he was trying to divert our attention to something else while he was being investigated. President Clinton tried to look strong by confronting the scandal straightforward instead of looking like a coward by diverting our attention.
By the way, if President Bush wanted cheaper oil from Iraq he would have Iraq explore for it, pump it, and refine it if necessary, because, after all, Hussein with his people could do all of that much cheaper then any of America’s oil companies could. They could even sell it to us cheaper then we could do all of that and ship it to the United States. If you do not believe me, look it up and see for yourself. It takes a lot for Chevron, Exxon, Shell, or any other oil company to do it because of regulations they must follow to stay in compliance with US law and company safety policies. Hussein does not need to follow law or safety restrictions.
Also, there is no need to rehash old issues of the presidential election by saying the “president select.” If you do not want him in office, you have a chance in 2004 probably to try to get him out. Also, please look up facts before you make assumptions. These Middle Eastern and Asian persons you make reference to are not complying with US immigration laws, thus must stand in long lines to renew their visas and register with the INS. In any other country, if you were more then 10 days expired, officials would be at your door to take you down to reregister or kick you out of the country. This INS registering is not trampling on the constitution. It is in fact enforcing it in these fellow citizens and showing that no one should skirt the law.
On a final note, you may not be aware but there are about a million men and women in the military on active duty and about another three million in the reserves. Just go ask any upper class person in the ROTC on campus. The chances of the government reissuing the draft by using the selective service is in a low percentile range, like 5% or less. The fact is during the 1991 gulf war there were fewer then 500 causalities. That is 147 causalities during Operation Desert Storm, and 289 Operation Desert Shield, of which were accidents because during Operation Desert Shield we were on the defensive. There were about 300,000 men and women over in the Persian Gulf in 1991 so that is a very low causality ratio.
With the knowledge now known about Nazi Germany, maybe you and others can understand we can see a familiar sign between Sadam Hussein and Hitler. Americans need to wait no longer to see what the inspectors would or will turn up. We have history and logic to tell us that he probably does not have guns on the gun rack but that does not mean he does not have them. During WWII, it was apparent Hitler was not complying, now in the 21st century it is apparent Hussein is not complying. As you may have noticed, I never have said Hussein has weapons directly but said it indirectly just how the United States government is saying also. This time around let us not repeat history and let the person we logically know has some type of weapon use them before we, as the strongest nation on earth, smite evil when we see it before the evil attacks us. Hopefully, you or maybe others reading this will now appreciate the fact that there were no SHSU students at this anti-war protest thus showing how much smarter we Bearkat students are then those at SFA.