As a veteran of Operation Desert Storm, I find our complacency on Iraq naive. What "debate"⢠The honest truth is that we have been at war with the Baghdad regime since Saddam Hussein failed to honor the surrender mandates in 1991.
It is naive to think his ambition has dimmed since, or that he will not continue to challenge the son (President Bush) of his old enemy. As was demonstrated in World War II, such ambition is dangerous when personified in a man at the helm of a nation seeking what it perceives as lost world respect. Neville Chamberlain waved a "peace in our time" document he thought he had secured — while Adolf Hitler acted upon something vastly different.
How long will Saddam be allowed to play the diplomatic shell game⢠Do we really believe inspectors will "find" something that Saddam does not wish them to?
I wonder if we as a nation will ever learn that only the nature of "the threat" to our national security has altered, not the fact of it.
It is past time to complete our unfinished business with Baghdad — and remove Saddam Hussein from power.
Waynesboro
The writer retired from the U.S. Army as a staff sergeant.
