Price of war questioned</MCC HEAD>

Story last updated at 3:53 p.m. Thursday, April 29, 2004

Price of war questioned
It used to be in Mosel, Iraq, that families competed to have the nicest room for guests. An uninvited visitor could stay for three days without stating name or purpose. Anyone. After that they must declare or leave. I learned this from my Iraqi friend who was studying here in Ha Noi, Vietnam, until war drove him home to find out the fate of his wife and three children. I learned more: 12 ways to say water, to eat dates and eggs for breakfast. I learned that one camel feeds 100 people. I ate pastries his mother sent for his American friends. "Weapons of mass destruction," he would laugh. Before the war he gave a vision of what Iraq would be like today if the United States invaded. "I know my people. Though we like Americans we will never accept them as occupiers in our house." Prophetic words from an ordinary Iraqi. Donald Rumsfeld recently stated, "I don't know anyone who could have predicted what would be happening in Iraq now."

Well Don, perhaps you were busy dismissing everyone who opposed your invasion as unpatriotic, anti-American or irrelevant to your plans. Maybe you were so intent on war that you just weren't willing to listen. With the complete absence of WMD the Bush administration admission has admitted to a "lack of intelligence." Let's not forget Bush's statement: "Bring them on." George, they came. You went fishing, using young Americans as bait. How can you continue to be surprised? Who shows more concern for the lives of Americans? This administration who sends them to fight a war admitting that they didn't know what they are getting into or how to get out of it? An administration that changes its reason for going to war as its original ones evaporate. Or those opposed rushing to preemptive war?

In the last e-mail I got from Iraq my friend said he stays far from Americans. There are many more attacks than reported and "when there is an attack the Americans just start shooting." Who can blame them. They were put in a situation where they cannot tell who is friend and who is not. This is not their fault, though they are paying the price. They were sent under false and unrealistic premises. Do we want leaders who chose to be blind or worse don't realize that they are. For years to come Americans will pay for the Bush presidency. The price is huge, in lives, dollars and ultimately a less secure America and an unsafe world.

Peter Kaufmann is a summer resident of Homer who spends winters teaching in Vietnam.

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