The author of a recent letter confessed his lack of understanding as to why some might not wish to continue our occupation of Iraq. He asserts that requesting just a timetable for withdrawl from Iraq constitutes giving aid and comfort to "the enemy", which is, of course, the defination of treason.

It seems that the "enemy" listens in when a Congressman requests a plan to bring the troops home, but then becomes strangely deaf when the President says we'll "stay the course" and continue to keep our troops in place as targets.

Furthermore, killing civilians is "bad" when the enemy does it, but is excusable when done by our forces. After all, war is all about killing,
isn't it! One just cannot understand how the Iraquis would be so irrational as to get upset and seek revenge when their sons, daughters, spouses, or neighbors get killed. After all, it was an accident, wasn't it, and they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. They'll just have to get over it, won't they!

He brings up the spectre of Adolf Hitler. Yet it was our ignoring George Washington's admonition to stay out of Europe's wars which resulted in the imposition of so much misery on Germany after World War One that it was easy for a Hitler to rise to power. A much more equitable peace would have esulted had we not become involved. Washington and Jefferson were no fools.

He wants "The Politicians" to keep their hands off the conduct of this
"war". Yet, we note that Article I, Section 8 of our Constitution gives the "Politicians" in Congress the power "To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces". No, not the President, not some general, but to Congress! The President is the "Commander in Chief" of the armed forces; not a King or an Emperor.

Nowhere does our Constitution authorize our government to expend American blood and treasure to "enforce UN mandates', to spread "democracy", or to remove the bogeyman of the week in a country on the far side of the globe.

As the excuses for this war have fallen by the wayside, it becomes
increasing apparent this war was more than unnecessary.

Thomas Paine ("These are the times that try men's souls...") wrote:
"When we take a survey of mankind we cannot help cursing the wretch, who, to the unavoidable misfortunes of nature shall wilfully add the calamities of war. One would think there were evils enough in the world without studying to increase them, and that life is sufficiently short without shaking the sand which measures it. ... To see the bounties of Heaven destroyed, the beautiful face of nature laid waste, and the choicest works of creation and art tumbled into ruin, would fetch a curse from the soul of piety itself.
... If there is a sin superior to every other it is that of wilful and
offensive war. Most other sins are circumscribed within narrow limits, that is, the power of one man cannot give them a very general extension, and many kind of sins have only a mental existence from which no infection arises; but he who is the author of a war, lets loose the whole contagion of hell, and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death. ... ".

It is stylish in many circles to condemn the "isolationism" advocated by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and countless others from when our country was founded. But such a policy has much merit.

President Benjamin Harrison seemed to understand when he told Congress in 1888 that "We Americans have no commission from God to police the world."

But many do find an Imperial Foreign Policy , as compared to a
Constitutional foreign policy, much more satisfying. As John Jay, one of the authors of "The Federalist Papers" and our nation's first Supreme Court Chief Justice warned us; "While there are knaves and fools in the world, there will be wars in it."

Rich Beecher
Chattanooga
rbeecher@hotmail.com