To go to war or to not go to war?

A few months ago, President George W. Bush decided that it was finally time to deploy troops to the Middle East in preparation of dethroning Saddam Hussein. The question that everyone has been asking is: Why? Why is war necessary? Shouldn’t we be focusing on al Qaeda first, thus dismissing any thought of future terrorism? The answers to the first two questions, ladies and gentlemen, I do not have for you. The answer to the third question, however, is yes (there aren’t many people saying no out there). Yet, Bush believes that in order to rid the world of terrorism, he must start with Iraq first. Excuse me, but what terrorist group attacked the World Trade Center on 9/11? It was al Qaeda, not Saddam Hussein and his army.

The decision that Bush made to try to go to war with Iraq is obviously not a very fruitful one. According to www.CNN.com, he has said that here at home we are doing fine and that disarming weapons in Iraq was his top priority. Pardon? Last I checked, the United States was in a recession and statistics recently came out stating that the economy has “lost about 2 million jobs” since Bush took office. If you ask me, President Bush is just trying to finish what his father started back in 1991.

Since the talk of war, consumer confidence has plunged. According to www.CNN.com, it has dropped to 64 points this month, down from 78.8 in January. On average, consumer confidence remains steady at 77 points. The reading is the lowest since October of 1993, about a year into Clinton’s presidency. The stock markets actually rose Tuesday with the Dow climbing 51.26 points to close at 7,909.50 and NASDAQ was up 6.60 points to 1,328.98. That proves that although consumer confidence is shaky, the markets are making modest recoveries en route to possibly recovering before Bush leaves office in 2004.

Don’t get me wrong now, ladies and gentlemen, Bush did a fantastic job of holding this country together during the 9/11 crisis. I have said that before in earlier articles and I still believe that now. His handling of 9/11 will certainly be his legacy when he leaves office, but unfortunately, if we go to war with Iraq (which appears imminent), I do not believe he will be remembered entirely for holding this country together but also for going to war when we didn’t need to go war. Bush himself said that he “doesn’t want to go to war” because “war is my last resort” yet he doesn’t acknowledge the protesters. That sends mixed signals to the people of the United States, wouldn’t you think ladies and gentlemen? Let’s hope that President Bush makes the right decision as per whether we should go to war.