Good reasons for U.S.
to lead coalition in war against Iraq

Dear Editor:

I am writing this letter in response to that of the Rev. Edward J. Mills, III, of Kingsport, Tenn., in the March/April issue of the East Tennessee Episcopalian. ...

The Just War Theory developed in the West over the past two millennia was based on the theory that two, or more, world states were at war with each other. September 11 changed that for all times. There are now non-governmental groups – like Al Quaida – that are more than willing to use weapons of mass destruction against America without warning and without any qualms about the death of innocent civilians – in fact the death of innocent civilians is the goal. ...

The kind of weapons of mass destruction that Saddam Hussein has specialized in, primarily chemical and biological, can easily be transferred to terrorist groups and then used against America and its allies ... A small jar of weaponized anthrax would be very easy to smuggle into the United States and could produce more deaths than the 9/11 disaster. ...

If the world is ever going to evolve from its present good and evil countries, someone is going to have to start converting the evil countries into good countries, and it is clear that the United Nations is just not up to the task. That leaves the only super-power left in the world to do the heavy lifting. ... Surely it is a Christian thing to want to liberate 24 million people from the kind of sadistic, terrorist state that we can only dream about in our worst nightmares and to share our liberty, democracy and economic well-being with the rest of the world.

This war is a good idea in terms of both morality and political realism. ... Freedom is not free; in every generation some will have to pay the ultimate price to keep us free from foreign domination. That is what is happening here, and we should all be extremely grateful that they are willing to do so.

The real war on terrorism is now, and will be for the foreseeable future, a combination of law enforcement and military action – as in Afghanistan and Iraq – and neither one alone will ever be effective.

excerpt from a letter by
Edwin J. Stuart
Greeneville, Tenn.

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