FOCUS
Too many questions still unanswered

By George W. Ashford Jr.

George W. Ashford Jr. is a Honolulu lawyer.

• Saddam Hussein is an evil man.
• Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons.
• Saddam Hussein may use these weapons against the United States, other countries or both, in the foreseeable future.
• Iraq has materially failed to comply with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441.

Do these facts justify the United States now initiating a unilateral war against Iraq?

Let's go back to an early morning in July 1945, to a desert in New Mexico, when and where the United Sates successfully tested the world's first atomic bomb. From that point forward, the United States' policy has been to limit the number of countries capable of delivering in anger a nuclear weapon to another country.

Few Americans would disagree that this policy is and has been in the best interests of the United States. Yet, the nub remains: How much should we risk to enforce that policy?

Shortly after World War II, the United States executed Julius and Ethel Rosenberg as an example to the American people that U.S. citizens providing information to another country, which might be used to develop a nuclear weapon, was not acceptable.

Years later, in 1962, in an admittedly different situation, John F. Kennedy risked bringing us to the brink of war with the Soviet Union to successfully prevent Cuba from being able to strike U.S. soil with nuclear-armed missiles.

In a war with Iraq, questions remain unanswered to the satisfaction of many Americans:

• What will such a war cost us in lives? In dollars?
• Who will control the government of Iraq after a U.S. victory? Will they be evil?
• How may U.S. troops remain in Iraq, and for how long, to ensure that Iraq cannot use weapons of mass destruction? What will that cost in lives and dollars?
• If the U.S. initiates a war, will Saddam use his weapons of mass destruction against our troops — or others in the war — and if so, at what cost in lives or injuries?
• Will initiating such a war turn large numbers of Muslims against the United States? Will it escalate into a holy war between Christians and Muslims? If so, will God really be on our side?

Do President Bush and his advisers have answers to the above questions? Since Bush probably believes that politically he may not unilaterally start a war with Iraq without a majority of Americans backing the decision, where are the answers to these questions? Are patriotic citizens to assume that our president and his advisers have sound and well-reasoned answers that justify our now initiating a unilateral war with Iraq, but that the answers are not being provided to us because of national security interests?

One wonders.