U.S. should stand up to Iraq
Campus Times
November 14, 1997
cartoon by Stephanie Lesniak
It has been nearly seven years since the Gulf War ended. Since that
time, President Clinton was elected to office and every now and then, Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein still seems to have problems with the way our country
operates. It looks like this matter is going to be a never-ending problem
that will not be resolved with Iraq and now it appears we could be on the
verge of yet another encounter with them.
Recently, President Clinton asked the United Nations to take "very
strong and ambiguous action" to force Iraq to meet with international
weapons inspections. He also stated that the United States would go to war
if Iraq continued to threaten to attack American spy planes.
Clinton said, in an interview on the NBC's "Meet the Press,"
"We will not tolerate his efforts to murder our pilots acting on behalf
of the United Nations, under United Nations Security Council resolutions."
He vowed to pursue the matter in a "very determined way."
It is good that President Clinton is continuing former President Bush's
tough stance against Iraq. If the U.S. and United Nations is any softer
on the Middle East bully, they put the safety of the world at risk.
Hussein has promised to continue to expel American inspectors from Iraq
and last Sunday, turned away U.N. weapons inspection teams with American
members.
So what seems to be a minor disagreement has now turned into verbal
attacking between the two presidents. From many sources and interviews conducted
with Hussein, he shows no signs of changing his mind.
According to the Iraqi News Agency, Hussein said, "Iraq has been
put in a situation in which it has to choose between a life with dignity
and honor or confrontation of all possibilities."
It is simply amazing to see and hear that Hussein is still choosing
to challenge our country, our government and our citizens. He obviously
will not give up until he either gets what he wants or is killed. He does
not seem scared because he insists on threatening President Clinton, but
when we send our troops to the Middle East, he tries to make peace and compromise.
Why can't he just stop wasting our time and try to negotiate in the first
place when he knows that President Clinton will take action if necessary?
America is a country of freedom. We Americans must abide by a system
like every other country in the world and if we do not, we have to face
the consequences. We certainly will not let somebody else take over our
precious land or try to hurt us. If worse comes to worst, we should fight
again but we will not run.
