[LETTERS TO THE EDITOR]Why troops should go to Iraq

The young people of Korea are vociferous and ranting. One might notice my negative connotations, but those are the words I would use for the group. They light candles and wait outside buildings, they protest that the war on Iraq is silly and based on fallacious evidence.
There were no weapons of mass destruction. Correct. There are troops constantly under siege from mounting guerrilla attacks. Yes. The United States is spending around $1 billion a day just to keep the military presence active. Yes. The thought of our dispatching troops to the country seems like the most idiotic act of political suicide that President Roh might make. But those things have come to pass. We cannot change them. The war on terrorism is not only supported by the United States. It is an issue that is looked upon with seriousness and concern globally.
Terrorism poses a potential threat to the very human race. Terrorism means that the action is done in a cowardly way, affecting both military personnel and innocent civilian lives as well. Not only that, the actions of the terrorists in Iraq have shown that they will attack an organization such as the United Nations, which has been disagreeing with the United States on the need for war. These terrorists are not romantic people with a just cause. They are striking targets without any political consideration, only those that seem like the big fish.
The United States has no choice but to remain in Iraq and occupy the country until the people of Iraq have a full-fledged self-determinant government and the terrorist presence is eradicated. Does this not justify why any country should aid the United States? Now, take those reasons and look at certain reasons that apply to us. Apparently, some members of the horde against the dispatch of troops forget the very reason that we are independent from the tyrannical rule of North Korea.
Nearly half a century ago, American soldiers came to a land as foreign as Cuba or Vietnam, countries that they could have left to fend for itself, and fought courageously for the freedom of the people of a nation that is remote from its homeland.
Tens of thousands of American soldiers died in a land that was not their own, simply to uphold the ideals and rights that they felt every man was born with equally. They continue to station a military presence and separate soldiers from their families to constantly guard our country from a nation that has cannons within firing range of our capital.
They continue to give us enormous financial and economic aid to nurture our economy even in these dark, foreboding times. This is surely a justifiable reason for a number of our troops to go and fight a practice that threatens the human race itself.

by Stephanie Song