3/18/2003

Who's Next?

President Bush's speech on March 17th seemed to be proclaiming that the US has taken on the role of defender of the world from terrorism. It seems he intends for this defense to be largely pre-emptive with the US and its allies destroying threats before they become serious. If this is the case, who will we target after Iraq? How will we determine which countries have weapons of mass destruction and, more importantly, how will we determine which countries are a threat? It seems to me that North Korea, with its recent flaunting of its nuclear capabilities, would be the obvious next target. I think that an attack on North Korea has a significant chance of provoking them into retaliating with nuclear weapons. Are President Bush prepared to take this chance in the name of peace? I am afraid that he might be. If we do manage to defeat North Korea and presumably to bring about "regime change" in that country, who would be next? Where would we stop? Iran is the last of the "axis of evil". Are they next? Will we then move on to change the regimes of all other countries with weapons of mass destruction and human rights violations? That would include most nations of the world! Although Saddam Hussein and others of his ilk are certainly threats to humanity and to the whole world, we need to make sure that our zeal to combat him and others like him is not an even greater danger.

Ethan Strauss