Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

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An honorable and just battle

In recent days, the staff of the other campus newspaper questioned the honor and dignity of the United States. The staff opinion essentially said going into Iraq is one of the worst things this nation has ever done.

Concerns about the situation as it stands and progression toward an independent Iraq are legitimate. Congressional members on both sides of the aisle share this concern, as does the president. However, it is unreasonable to argue the administration could have had an exact and perfect plan for rebuilding before war even started.

War and creating the peace are two very unpredictable situations. Notwithstanding these difficulties in rebuilding, withdrawing is not an option. Ceding power to the United Nations is also not an option. America learned that lesson the hard way in Somalia.

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And while reasonable people could have even arguably disagreed with going to war in Iraq, to argue that Iraq and its citizens are not better off now than they were under the previous regime flies in the face of reality and the opinions of the Iraqi people.

Natiq Naoosh, an Iraqi candy-store owner, certainly disagrees, according to an article published in the Chicago Tribune. “To be free of Saddam, what more can we ask for this Ramadan? We should kiss the Americans and thank God for them.”

Iraqi citizens speaking out against Saddam and in favor of his removal is nothing new since the removal of the B’athist Party.

The United States went to war in Iraq because of Saddam’s failure to follow 18 U.N. Security Council Resolutions. The reason for making the incredibly difficult decision to go to war was primarily because of Saddam’s support of terrorism and a lack of evidence that he had destroyed the weapons of mass destruction the world knew he had, and also for humanitarian reasons.

The staff opinions questioning America’s honor and dignity are interesting. Is their concern about the dignity of our soldiers in the way they fight or the honor of the United States’ mission?

Our soldiers are fighting for the security of America, the safety of the world and particularly for the security and freedom of the Iraqi people. There is nothing more honorable than the work of these soldiers, and nothing has been reported to suggest the soldiers have behaved in an undignified manner.

Iraqis were freed from someone who gassed his own people when they tried to rise up against the government. Saddam would allow his sons to rape Iraqi women and put people through meat grinders. The honor and dignity of this mission cannot seriously be questioned, because what is more honorable than liberating more than 20 million people from the constant terror and oppressive rule of an evil dictator?

Similar support suggesting this war was just can be found among Iraqis. Results of the most extensive scientific poll done in Iraq, conducted by the Gallup Organization and released in late September, found 62 percent of Iraqis surveyed believed “the ousting of Saddam Hussein was worth any hardships they might have personally suffered since the U.S.- and British-led invasion,” compared with only 30 percent disagreeing.

Even though this is a just and honorable war, it does not mean people are not dying. People are dying in this war. Coalition troops and Iraqi citizens, as well as terrorists, are dying. No one can deny this fact.

But terrorists murdered people Sept. 11, 2001; terrorists murder people on an almost daily basis in Israel; and Saddam, a terrorist in his own right, murdered people on a regular basis in Iraq when he was in control.

The fight the United States is engaged in has already probably saved more lives than would have been lost if Saddam was still in control. This war is making the world safer and bringing freedom and democracy to a nation that has not seen freedom in 25 years.

This exemplifies honor and dignity — it should not be attacked thoughtlessly.

Matt Modell ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in journalism and political science.

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