Letter: War is death, not a macho exercise

Wednesday, April 2, 2003 | 8:50 a.m.

There is an irrational explanation for everything. The "reasons" for the war on Iraq are irrational and fluid. The latest is that we are in a war now, so shut up!

The real reasons have to do with power and control of the world, but the phony ones are mostly supported by testosterone.

Some argue that Saddam is a Hitler. While this does not stand up to analysis, it reveals a motive for war. It is that negotiation and inspections are seen as "appeasement," which is weakness. After 9-11, it is better to be strong and wrong than unmanly.

How dare the Dixie Chicks not stand by their man Bush? How dare those cowardly French dispute us? Now Rambo Rumsfeld has taken in half the number of troops needed to do the job and that number was a compromise. Rumsfeld wanted a quarter of the number needed. There is arrogance in macho.

So now what? A siege of Baghdad is not macho. Should we fight house to house or just obliterate the buildings of Baghdad? House to house would be more macho, but we will lose more of our people that way. Either way, we'll lose a lot of innocent Iraqis.

That's what war is and why we should not rush into it, even if it does make us feel more like real men.

JERRY BITTS