Why The War Is Justified

As I was driving into work this morning, I decided to challenge one of my beliefs; to kind of run through a mental exercise to reexamine the viability of my position. After last night’s discussion with the girlfriend, I decided to test my belief in the justifications for war with Iraq.

My first, overriding, belief is that the US will only send our military into battle in order to defend our founding principles and beliefs. It may be a case of the best defense being a good offense, but there is always some underlying justification for our fighting. I believe that every time since the Revolution we have sent our men off to fight and die, they were fighting to defend the sanctity of life or to protect liberty. I believe that every war we have fought can be boiled down to defending one of those two principles (usually both of them). Sometimes, it is our life and liberty that is at risk; sometimes it is the life and liberty of our allies. But it is always to defend those principles.

Iraq is a clear and present threat to American life. Saddam has weapons of mass destruction, he has an evil heart, and he has a desire to kill as many Americans as possible. He does not have an effective delivery system for hitting the US with a WMD, yet. But even an ineffective system, one that works 1% of the time, will still eventually yield results for him. And many Americans will needlessly die a horrible death. We know that with the evil in his heart, it is only a matter of time before the unthinkable happens – unless he disarms, either voluntarily or by force of arms. Saddam with WMD is an unacceptable threat to the sanctity of American life.

There are some who believe that he does not possess WMD or that he would not use them against us. I believe that they are wrong. He has WMD and has already shown a willingness to use them. His blustering threats of using them against our military, belie his gleefulness at the possibility of being able to use them again. Saddam doesn’t use WMD because he has to, he uses them because he wants to. He hides them because he cannot bear the thought of not having them. To Saddam, a WMD is the equivalent of an American wanting to own a home of their own. A WMD is Saddam’s version of the Iraqi Dream.

Saddam is a very real threat to American life. He is also a threat to the lives of our allies around the world. We must not forget that.

Saddam is also a threat to liberty. He denies people the right to dissent. He denies them the right to seek happiness. He denies them the right to make choices. And in many cases, he denies them the right to live. The Iraqi people deserve to have those rights. They deserve the opportunity to be contributing members of world society. They deserve the right to provide a better life for their children. They just don’t have the means to change their situation. We do and we are duty bound to help. We owe it to the multitudes of soldiers who have died defending our principles.

We don’t ask that Iraq become a Middle Eastern version of the United States. We only require that they not threaten the principles. Not because they are our principles, but because they are universal principles. Everyone is entitled to live. Everyone is entitled to be their own person, which comes about only from making your own decisions. Saddam is diametrically opposed to these principles and that is why he must go.