The War in Iraq

John Fitzgerald Kennedy wrote that "A man does what he must — in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers, and pressures — and that is the basis of all human morality." -Profiles in Courage (1956) We as Americans feel united under our liberties that we receive just by being born in a free country. Americans are brought up in not knowing consequence. On September 11, 2001 we learned that our actions do have consequences. We start to take our civil liberties for granted at an early age and I do not believe that we fully understand them. We are never really taught what we have been born in to. Americans do not fully understand their rights under the Constitution, and the rights of our government under that same Constitution. A few days ago in Minnesota a bill was passed through legislation that banned all smoking in public places. I believe that this is some what unconstitutional. Just by saying that it was a matter of public health. The same goes for the War in Iraq. Our president said that invading Iraq was in the interest of Public Safety. He said that he had intelligence on weapons of mass destruction, what he didn't say is that he had the proof of purchase from when America sold them the WMDs. We sold them Poison gas and other destructive chemical compounds along with guns and accessories. We have been brought into a war that is completely unjustified. It greatly worries me that the president is trying to increase the troops being sent to Iraq because in all other major wars this has led to a draft. Being seventeen, the idea of a draft scares me. I would never be willing to kill another person. It is completely against my morals. I am also afraid of dying. Some of my family members are fighting in the war. I support them in their decision to fight for our liberties, but I do not agree with the reason behind the war. The money that is being spent on the war could be better spent on things here in the homeland. It seems to me that we are wasting our time in Iraq. Didn't the President already say that the mission was accomplished?

"Let us learn our lessons. […] Never believe any war will be smooth and easy or that anyone who embarks on that strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events… incompetent or arrogant commanders, untrustworthy allies, hostile neutrals, malignant fortune, ugly surprise, awful miscalculations."-Winston Churchill; quoted in Fein, Leonard, "This Time It's Our War"

"War does not end strife - it sows it. War does not end hatred - it feeds it. For those who argue war is a necessary evil, I say you are half right. War is evil (where strife, there every evil work: Bible, James 3:16). But it is not necessary. War cannot be a necessary evil, because non-violence is a necessary good. The two cannot co-exist." -US Congressman John Lewis