I am writing to the NU community to raise some questions about the possible war on Iraq. I hope through this to incite some reasoning among readers, as well as to establish some of my personal views. Moreover, I hope to begin a debate over this issue – one which would bring further clarity on such a delicate issue.

Throughout the past couple of weeks, I have read several commentaries about the war with Iraq in The News, national newspapers, as well as International news agencies. I have read questions over the intentions of this war, questions about the danger presented by Saddam, and also questions about who our allies are.

I have given the subject some serious thought, yet I have failed to see a true interest by the majority of our society on the subject. I have listened to people talk about this as a threat that is far from here, with an interest common to those who feel as if they will not be affected by this war. The world “out there” is not a common topic on people’s minds, as opposed to the Red Sox spring training or Kobe’s latest dunk.

I have read the opinions of the same people, and the same media, debating over this issue, but I feel that the majority of our society has failed to pay attention to an issue that could reshape our current world order. People have failed to stop and think about how this war will affect their own roles as members of this society.

I constantly hear a lot of criticism of our leaders and politicians, but I believe we often forget that we are the ones who put them into power. Actually, I want to correct my last point, since only about 40 percent of our eligible voters actually exercised their civil duty in the past November elections. How can we complain about something when we have failed to exercise our only medium to change it?

The American society needs to think about this and to reason over whether this war will bring more violence not only upon innocent lives in Baghdad, but also if this would bring more terror upon ourselves. Aren’t these types of acts on our part used as arguments by terrorist leaders to recruit new members to their organizations? Are we not harming our relationships with so many of our current “allies” that are siding against us?

In regards to the so called Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), I wonder what the U.S. stance would be if the UN passed a resolution calling for the disarmament of ALL nations. Would our society comply? If not, what would that tell us about ourselves? Why should we feel we have the right to tell others what to do, but not the duty to abide to democratic international laws ourselves. Are we not a nation that has tested WMD on innocent civilians in the first place? Remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki? What about Vietnam? Since when is Napalm not a chemical weapon?

Lastly, many have argued that the war has nothing to do with oil. When one claims that the oil prices will probably not change to us, the end-users, I agree. However, I wonder if President Bush’s big-oil campaign financiers would not have any upper-hand on the exploration of Iraq’s reserves. If this is a war for the rights of the innocent, why are we not getting involved in Congo, Rwanda, or Palestine? Why do we support the Turkish persecution of the Kurds? Don’t we need to house our troops in Turkey? Maybe oil does wash away from our conscience easier than blood …

We need to think about some of the questions above. I have my own answers, but I believe we need to collectively think about them. Are we truly considering the repercussion of our actions? Are we truly fighting for the so called freedom? Democracy? Whose blood will be spilled? What can we do as a society? Perhaps, we can make our opinions heard, perhaps we can march down our streets … Perhaps …

– Felipe Basso is a middler

electrical engineering major.