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HOW MANY TIMES does the United Nations have to reprimand Iraq before they disarm? Since 1990, 11 U.N. resolutions, including Resolution 1441 of 2002, have been passed.
These are 11 resolutions that all direct Saddam to prove he does not have any sort of weapons of mass destruction. These are 11 resolutions that state that he must restore international peace by cooperating. These are 11 resolutions that, since 1990, Saddam has ignored.
The U.N. has given Iraq chance after chance, and each time, Iraq has failed to comply. It is not the job of U.N. inspectors to prove Saddam Hussein doesn't have any weapons of mass destruction, it is Saddam Hussein's job to prove he does not have them.
The U.N.'s simple request has been ignored for 12 years. Now, it is finally time for something to be forced on Iraq.
President Bush, the leader of the free world, is tired of waiting around, repeatedly asking Iraq to do what was promised. He is not letting another moment slip by in which Iraq makes excuses, buying time. He is taking this day and putting his foot down. He will not let Iraq dawdle and deceive anymore.
If the United States could speak to all the nations, it would shout, "Carpe Diem! Seize the day!"
Was it wrong to go to war with Hitler? Absolutely not. The Versailles Treaty prohibited Germany from rearming itself. Likewise, after the Gulf War, Iraq was prohibited from having weapons of mass destruction in its possession. Hitler built V1 and V2 rockets and attempted to make nuclear weapons. Saddam has built illegal rockets, and has acquired all the materials to make nuclear weapons.
Hitler tortured, gassed, and killed his very own people. Saddam Hussein has tortured, gassed, and killed the Kurds and Shiites, his own people. Hitler invaded and killed the citizens of neighboring countries. Saddam Hussein invaded Iran in the early 1980s and then invaded Kuwait in the early '90s and killed many of both countries' citizens.
If we went to war with Hitler and stopped his evil decades ago, why wouldn't we go to war with Saddam Hussein and stop his evil now?
People in opposition to war have good motivations. They associate war with brutality, violence, and death, and understandably so. However, how moral would we be if we sat back and let brutality, violence, and death go on in the Middle East?
Does anyone think that if we don't do anything to end this evil it will stop on its own? That it will not spread into other lands? That it wouldn't kill even more than if we would just intervene and cease it now?
Christian morals are based on the Bible. In Psalms it says we are to "Defend the poor and fatherless, do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked."
Saddam is overbearing, tyrannical, and despotic. It would be only right to save his people from his rule.
Likewise, Romans says: "He bareth not the sword in vain: for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil."
The United States and its allies are not going into this war for selfish reasons. We are not going to war with Iraq because we want their land or their natural resources. The United States gets only about 18 percent of its oil from the Middle East and, prior to the Gulf War, only about 4 percent from Iraq.
We are going to war with Iraq because it is the right thing to do. Saddam made a promise to the world through the United Nations after the Gulf War that he would prove to us he didn't have any weapons of mass destruction. He has not done this for 12 years. What would make anyone think he is going to do it in the near future without us forcing him to do so?
Seventeen hundred years ago, Christian philosopher St. Augustine stated, "True religion looks upon as peaceful those wars that are waged not for motives of aggrandizement, or cruelty, but with the object of securing peace, of punishing evildoers, and of uplifting the good."
Not all war is wrong. We are not attacking Iraq for worthless causes. We are not the bullies; we are the heroes. The purpose of the war is to end the cruelty and injustice Saddam inflicts upon Iraq, to strengthen the ties of peace not only among Middle Eastern countries, but also the whole world, and to ensure he does not gain any weapons of mass destruction that could terrorize the world.
In the mid-1930s, the world sat back and watched Adolph Hitler build up an illegal army and weapons. What was the result? The death of over 60 million people in World War II. People waited from 1933 to 1939 to do anything about Hitler. We have already waited 12 years with Saddam Hussein.
He is the world's hyena. The sick and helpless are his prey, he is cackling hysterically at all the nations.
Why wouldn't he be? This tyrant has been able to put the conflict off for 12 years.
The world learned an important lesson in World War II. That lesson was to not let tyrants continuously build up evil power. The same lesson applies today.
President Bush, the Congress, and many countries believe we should not let Saddam Hussein become another Hitler. His growing evil is like a cancerous tumor, growing bigger and bigger, spreading more and more, and we must operate soon.
I can write for days listing a million reasons why going to war with Iraq is without a doubt, absolutely 100 percent necessary.
If it takes a war to stop this evil, then it must be done.
HAYLEY ORCUTT, age 15, is a student at James Monroe High School.