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Editorial: A time of war It's on. The marches, the protests, the broken alliances - in the end they didn't matter. President Bush has walked a path, that, in a nobler cause, would have been heroic. A man who knew best. A man who saw the world like no other, and did what was right - even when so many were trying to turn him around. Yet, the horrible war is being waged. There is no question that Iraq is guilty - perhaps not of harboring weapons of mass destruction or funding (or even directing) al-Qaida. Instead, Iraq is damned to the gills by reports from an Amnesty International document that verifies the unthinkable treatment of Iraqi citizens by intelligence officers, and the military junta that dominates their political scene. Multiple cases that challenge the imagination abound: The beheading of women suspected of prostitution. A former intelligence officer imprisoned in a red room, where he was sodomized with a stick, as well as shocked and beaten. These are the humanitarian atrocities, and their sheer number and variety is beyond nightmarish. It is clear that a regime change is necessary, and not just in Iraq - but in any country that fails to recognize fundamental human rights. China, North Korea, as well as a variety of Latin American and African countries the U.S. enjoys cozy commercial ties with, are leading candidates. What is troubling is the flimsy casus belli the best and brightest minds in our government today have been able to cobble together. Even the CIA has complained it has been forced to "cook its books" to suggest a variety of threats Iraq may or may not have had up its sleeve. What is troubling is this step of war, coordinated exclusively by the Bush administration which has inexorably coopted the war-making powers of Congress to the highest degree since the Truman administration. What is troubling is the silence of Democrats who have feared opposing a popular president - zealously protecting their onerous program of re-electability - and thus sealing their own political destinies, regardless of their personal convictions. What is troubling is the ham-handed diplomacy which has eroded our national dignity, even as it has enhanced America's ability to go it alone. What is troubling is how dissenting views have been ignored by a president who failed to garner the popular vote in his so-called election. This is a president without a foreign policy. If we are truly a nation that stands against weapons of mass destruction, we should disarm. If we are against human rights violations, and for this new form of preventive interventionism, then we should consistently target nations who violate human rights, and seek to put their houses in order. Only in this way can we regain the goodwill of the world community on whom we will continually rely on for natural resources, economic resilience and aid in time of crisis. But now we are at war. Any chance that this administration could pull off a diplomatic coup has gone by the boards - by one fell swoop of a Tomahawk missile and a single sortie of a stalwart Marine unit. The world's history is now being written - by the most unlikely of authors: George Bush and Saddam Hussein. The readers pray for the lives in jeopardy in this poorly produced novel. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -