The War For '04

About the Book

In September of George Bush's first year in office, the World Trade Center was destroyed by terrorists. Osama Bin Laden was credited with masterminding and financing this crime, and we promptly responded by attacking his camps in Afghanistan. The rebel camps were destroyed, and Bin Laden fled into the mountains bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Then a strange thing happened. President Bush turned his attention and fervor on Iraq and Saddam Hussein- an evil man, and a tyrant! BUT, so too are rulers of Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Uganda, Sudan, etc., etc! With claims that Saddam was involved in the 9/11 attack, and that he had WMD's, and was a threat to America, we invaded; a "war of choice".

Anyone who has experienced the fear and horror of combat, the maiming and loss of comrades, would shun war. It would be a last, no other option, resort. Paradoxically, those in the Administration who launched this Iraq conflict, never went to war in their own youth (in fact, during Vietnam, they took steps to AVOID going) Though they continually term this sad quagmire a "noble cause", none have sent their own children to fight, die, and be maimed in the 120 degree desert.

Instead, it's the poor and the powerless! Kids of 18,19,20,and 21 years of age who hail from places like Goose Creek, KY and Coyote Bend, WY. So far, no casualties from Brookline, Scarsdale, Grosse Pointe, or Beverly Hills. Nor have we read of any folks who left Harvard, Yale, or Princeton, to go to Baghdad, Najaf, or Fallujah to "spread democracy".

And so, almost four years after "shock and awe" in March of '03, and President Bush's claim of "Mission Accomplished", in May of '03, Iraq is in Chaos - and on the verge of civil war. A recent report says that 600,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed, and over 1,000,000 more have fled their country. Over 3,000 American soldiers have perished, and 25,000 more were wounded; some limbless, blind, burned horribly, and in pain for life. To win an election, or so a man could say "I am a War President" ??

Before our "war" began, and as events unfolded, I wrote letters of protest and essays - about the people who have led us into this misguided "crusade" (as our leader initially termed it). And I said that: when the children of the powerful (who make the wars), and the children of the rich (who profit from them), have to go into combat FIRST- every last one of them - there will be no more wars!!

About the Author

The author is a retired University Professor who has published four "scholarly" books and many professional papers. A veteran of WWII, ages 22 to 26, he served in the Pacific Theater. The author has been increasingly alarmed by the actions of a small group of Administrations zealots; noting how they have divided our country, and incurred the hatred of the majority of the Arab/Muslim countries on this planet. Thus, they are destroying our hard-earned reputation as a 'beacon"; a society and a system to be admired and emulated. And so, I cry out.