
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 9, 1991                   TAG: 9102110248
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

RIGHT ANGLE ON WAR BLOTS OUT THE SUFFERING

I CRIED the other night, listening to the news on the radio. The report was about a shaky-voiced Israeli military official assuring people that their gas masks would be effective against Iraqi chemicals.

I imagined friends and loved ones huddled in sealed rooms, waiting to see if the gasses in the streets would penetrate their walls and their bodies. I became a parent, seeing my child strapped into a gas mask, wondering what in the name of God was going on. I shut off the radio, sat alone in the dark, and cried.

It took this embarrassing outburst to realize that I was approaching this whole war thing all wrong. Those people are complete strangers, halfway around the world. I have no connection to their hopes and dreams. My duty as a true American is to support my country.

That means cauterizing my heart to the pain and trauma of my brothers and sisters, turning my mind off to the contradictions and hypocrisies of my government, and falling in line behind my president. Saddam is a bad man, and bad men must be punished. Our great nation has a God-ordained mission to make the world safe for democracy and the free market. Our impeccable history as a nation makes us a model for the rest of the world, and it is our sacred trust to lead other nations toward a New World Order.

I feel much better now. This war thing has become a grand Nintendo game, played out with high-tech weapons and dark-skinned bad guys being kicked out of a Shining Kuwait. I feel a part of a great movement. I feel righteous and strong. I feel - I feel desecrated. BRET NELSON CHRISTIANSBURG

by CNB