[Jeff Higgins]

I don't think anyone can stand in those ruins, thinking about the innocent people that lived there, and not be moved. I have been there and seen that, spending summers in the '60's abd '70's with my Oma and Opa in Germany. They made it a point to show us, to try to make us aware of what had happened on a very personal level. My German mother, a young girl during the war, continues to reinforce their message to this day.

So the German people were indeed victims, but of whom? Their own government far more so than of their foes in the war. Their government started that war and left the rest of the world no choice but to fight. Their own government had no concern for their well-being, just as modern day Iraq had none for its people. In a similar manner, the Iraqi people are victims of their government's ambitions far more so than they are victims of our invasion.

The rest of the world did share some of the responsiblity back in the 1930's, as they stood by and watched while Germany re-armerd herself. The same is true today, with some of our "allies" even going so far as to illegally help in Iraq's re-arming.

It probably would have looked as unreasonable to attack Germany in about 1937 as it did to some of you to attack Iraq today. Why, some of you even appear to think we did so because we love war. How simplistic and absurd.

Most of us are "peaceniks" at heart; no one loves war. There are, however, men of power and influence that stand to gain personally, (either power or wealth, or usually both) by picking a fight. It then becomes necessary, as detestable as it is, for the "peaceniks" to go to war and resist. It appears in the case of Iraq, we were simply too quick to do that for the Monday morning quarterbacks' tastes. Because we did not let the threat mature into a real one, demonstrated by a horrific attack somewhere on innocent people, the naysayers will forever second guess what might have been.