The United States cannot fight a successful war in the Middle East without the full support of Americans and the United Nations and sound evidence that Iraq is a threat.
These are the concerns President Bush needs to address in his speech tonight from Cincinnati. Bush will attempt to show Iraq is an imminent threat to the nation and how its history of striking other nation’s first makes an attack by the United States now even more important. The administration also will try to make the attack more appealing to the world.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told The Associated Press that the war “is about how to preserve peace, by removing the greatest threat to peace.”
But the Bush administration has not proved it is imperative to attack Iraq. It has yet to prove the overthrow of Saddam Hussein would be worth the loss of lives a war would inevitably bring.
In the past, reasons to fight wars have been clear - the South fought the North for its right to succeed; World War II was fought to help stop a genocide. In these wars, people felt a duty to preserve the country, even if it would cost them their lives. The public doesn’t share those sentiments in Iraq’s case.
The United States does not have the support of the world, either. If the United Nations does not support the war against Iraq and the United States still attacks, it sets a poor example for the rest of the world.
“We don’t want to do something alone ... and then, three years from now, have China or India or Russia or somebody else say, ‘You did it, we can do it,’” U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., told The Associated Press.
The House minority leader is right. If the United States goes to war alone, it will encourage other nations to do the same and, perhaps, raise arms against America.
No matter what spin U.S. leaders try to put on the war with Iraq, they need the support of the nation and the world before it strikes. Bush has his work cut out for him tonight in Cincinnati. This war could cause more world problems than it would solve.
