On the way into Pattee Library on Friday I passed a crowd claiming to be demonstrating their support for our troops in the gulf. They chanted, "Saddam Hussein has got to go./Yay-hey, whoa-ho." I have two suggestions. Firstly, might it not be easier to clap and chant "DE-fense?"

I have another suggestion for those people on the steps so excited about a glorious, bloody war to topple a tin-plated Hitler who can hope to do no damage to us greater than raising the price of oil.

Why don't the thirty-some demonstrators, along with the millions across the country agree with them, enlist immediately? And the parents of these protesters who agree with them, perhaps they could write to congressmen to speed up their training and ship them to the gulf. With enough popular support and political pressure, I'm sure we could have these people in uniform in the gulf, with guns and gas masks, in just a couple of months.

Just think, instead of just watching television and cheering, you could be right there, killing and dying for such a great cause. If wars weren't such a spectator sport they wouldn't happen as often. War is never football; it is always murder. And war is never a noble cause. Future generations will again be ashamed because we merrily murdered our children and those of Iraq, this time for the cause of economic power.

Do not misunderstand me. I fully support the men and women we've shipped to the gulf. I have several friends serving there. Not one word I've said argues against my support for them. I know what a 5.56 bullet does when it enters a body and bounces off a bone. I know what a blister agent does, and how it's treated. I have great sympathy for the men and women from America, Britain, Iraq, and the ten other countries killing and dying there right now. This sympathy is why I support peace as soon as possible. Compassion will always wins more influence than violence; murder got Saddam where he is now.