my reply to senator edwards letter below
Dear Senator Edwards,
In response to your automatic reply about my concerns regarding Bush’s strategy on the proposed war with Iraq, I must say you’ve completely missed the point.
I do not dispute that the issue is complex, that inspections have proceeded only grudgingly (how would you act if Hans Blix was rifling through your underwear drawer?), and that as a sovereign nation we reserve the right to use military force to protect American security.
I don’t think anyone disputes any of that.
The issue I am asking that you very seriously consider is the effect this unpremediated attack will have on America’s position in the rest of the world. Russia, France, Germany, and China all seriously question and criticize Bush’s war posturing and abandonment of diplomacy. Yet that total lack of solidarity seems totally lost on you and on President Bush. The muslim world, already miffed by American arrogance around the globe, is clearly not keen to watch America steamroll over a practically defenseless arab state (no matter how rogue) with no clear and present provocation.
America is a country of ideals and principles, and the road you are allowing the president to take the country down is fraught with peril. What if President Bush had been around during the early years of the Cold War? Would he have become frustrated and impatient with the decades long process of nonviolent containment and instead waged first strike nuclear war against the evil communists? Were the Soviets any less inhumane to the citizens of the USSR than Saddam to the people of Iraq?
I am asking you to take a stand, draw a line between a sane and rational approach to Iraq, and Bush’s self-destructive war-posturing.
Sincerely,
Justin C. Watt
