Opinion

Congress speaks with one voice with resolution

Friday, October 11, 2002

Historically, the United States has shied away from making a first strike. It took a Pearl Harbor, an invasion across the 38th parallel, a Gulf of Tonkin incident to force the U.S. military reluctantly into action.

On the surface of it, a first strike is just what Congress has just voted to allow the president to do.

There is validity in the argument, however, that what President Bush proposes is just enforcement of the agreements Saddam Hussein signed at the end of the 1991 Gulf War.

Weapons inspectors were hindered every step of the way before finally pulling out all together in the mid 1990s.

Only the most naive among us could actually believe that Hussein delayed for a minute his effort to build or obtain nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.

Which brings up a second valid argument. Times have changed, and we cannot afford to risk hundreds of thousands of lives that would be lost if Hussein is given the chance to use whatever weapons he has. As a parallel, imagine Hitler with nuclear or biological weapons. Would a first strike have been justified in 1939?

As U.S. Rep. Tom Osborne said, "we would be foolish not to heed the lessons of history." Nebraska Reps. Doug Bereuter and Lee Terry joined Osborne and Senators Chuck Hagel and Ben Nelson in voting with the majority to give the president the broad authority he sought to use military force in Iraq. One thing is for sure, it is right that Congress and the president speak with one voice when it comes to dealing with Iraq.

"The message is that it's time for Saddam Hussein to comply with the resolutions for disarmament in order to maintain peace in the region," Nelson said.

"This is the only message (Hussein) seems to understand," Terry said. "I don't take lightly the prospect of sending young Americans to war."

Now we can only hope and pray that the despot in Baghdad can somehow be neutralized without the loss of more American lives.

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