Letters, letters, letters

The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer's name, address and phone number. Letters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor. The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is noon Monday.

To the Editor;

Mr. Addison's observations in the March 26 Nugget bring up some salient points about the motivation for the present war, saying it is not for oil. I think it is, but needs to be viewed from a different perspective.

The first priority of any government is to provide for the security of its citizens. The major portion of this country's wealth is geared to do that through the strongest military organization in the world. Without a secure environment, a free market system stands on shaky ground, as recent stock market fluctuations reflect.

The major destabilizing force in recent history has been the unpredictability of oil supplies, especially in the Middle East.

If we ask ourselves "what is the self interest of the U.S. in conducting this war?" the answer would be to provide a stable energy supply for the industrial nations of the world. I doubt that anyone believes that our present standard of living would last very long if oil supplies were threatened or actually restricted.

It appears to me that the Bush administration has correctly focused on the need for political stability in the Middle East to ensure that our economy can function in the near future. Without a stable energy supply, this country simply cannot prosper.

Iraq's developed supplies of oil are, as Mr. Addison points out, not particularly significant. Iraq's geographic location is. The U.S. cannot rely on any nation in this area to provide even overflight rights let alone staging areas for the military force needed to stabilize the area. The real fight for Iraq is to provide a military presence in a strategic staging area for long-term protection of our energy supplies.

We will have troops there for a long time to come.

An editorial in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, September 29, 2002, by Jay Bookman made a strong case for such a plan. He thought the goal was for the U.S. to become the "Constable" for the world. He stated, "It would be the culmination of a plan 10 years or more in the making, carried out by those who believe the United States must seize the opportunity for global domination... Among the architects of this would-be American Empire are a group of brilliant and powerful people who now hold key positions in the Bush administration: They envision the creation and enforcement of what they call a worldwide 'Pax Americana' or American peace."

The tragic flaw in this plan is the destabilizing effect of the war itself. The volatility of the Middle East has been significantly increased. We may have opened Pandora's box instead of providing a Pax Americana.

Charles O. Kuzminski