"The disarmament of Iraq has begun" -- Ari Fleischer

I just turned off the TV at 1:02 am on Thursday morning after watching the beginnings of the military action in Iraq for several hours. As Katie put it in her blog we were too young to really understand the first Persian Gulf War. As a 5th grader I collected Gulf War cards, kind of like baseball cards, but with military apparati and leaders, as some of you know I have the George Bush and Saddam Hussein cards and as I write this I also remember that I have a Peace card with a dove and I think the UN logo in the background.

Where am I going with this? Twelve years later and now a senior in college, the gravity of the situation really starts to set in. A majority of the soldiers being interviewed on tv are several years younger than me but probably more mature than I'll be for many years to come. The experiences they have had and will have will most likely far surpass anything I'll ever do. As for my opinion on the war I'm still forming it. My mom asked me tonight and I said I don't have enough information and she said she knew that's what I'd say. I guess with my public policy training I've learned to be diplomatic and cautious in my statements, but I think it is also important to have an opinion. Forming opionion on controversial topics is a subject I've been striving to improve on the past year or so, hopefully this situation and the constitutional issues class with its challenging topics will help in this area. It's just difficult to form a concrete opinion about something when it doesn't directly affect oneself. However, it must be done. So...after much contemplation I think I've come to terms with the military action in Iraq. Sadaam is a bad person that should not be in power and it appears that force is the only way to reckon with him at this point. Does that make me a war monger? I don't think so. As Bonhofer professed, it's something you have to do when the result of inaction would be far worse than the sins of the action. I think we've come to the point where inaction would lead to terrible outcomes. Hopefully, and that's a big hopefully, the outcome of this war will be what the U.S. and the supporting coalition intends and it won't turn into another Vietnam. The people of Iraq and the Middle East seem to want free societies and as it did in the U.S. it might be costly but well worth it in the end.