Upon reading Bryan McKinney's letter to the Collegian last week, I felt it necessary to address arguments for support of the current aggression of our government in Iraq. While the actions of Saddam Hussein in regards to his people are unconscionable it is necessary to look at the facts of the matter.

During the Gulf War, our government had every opportunity to depose the head of their brutally repressive regime; however, Colin Powell and George Bush Sr. decided not to do so and to rely solely on the defenseless Iraqi people to defend themselves against an unruly U.S. client dictator. The result of these actions was brutal repression of the Iraqi people by the very Republican Guard units that were not engaged by the allied military at the behest of the Pentagon.

Jingoistic appeals to garner approval for our continued human rights abuses in Iraq are entirely without merit. For the past three years, U.S. and British air forces have been bombing Iraq, resulting in countless civilian casualties. That, the impoverishment of the Iraqi people, inadequate health care in Iraq, heavy metal poisoning of Iraqis from residual-depleted uranium used in armor piercing ammunition by American forces, and the continued hegemony of Saddam Hussein is the result of American trust in the actions of our government in respect to Iraq. Anything beyond a cursory look at the results of American aggression in Iraq quickly brings these circumstances to light. It is not only the right but also the responsibility of the American people to examine the actions of our government, and this responsibility is of utmost importance in regard to the actions of our military.