Letter to the Editor: Professor criticizes Friedman's stance

The Chronicle reported that in Thomas Friedman's lecture here Wednesday he justifies the real reason for United States action in Iraq on two bases--"defense of an open society" and "because we could." 

But these were not the reasons presented to the American people, and since when does a democracy deceive its citizens as to the real reasons for sacrificing its young ones by going to war? Such disingenuous rationalizations may sound good on paper but it is small solace to those who have lost loved ones in Iraq.

One of the most fundamental tenets of a democracy is that its citizens must believe the leaders when they are presented the reasons to sacrifice life and limb. Perverting the truth in order to save a democracy is a contradiction in terms.

Thomas Friedman and others might have realized this more if they had actually lost someone in a war. But then he and the Bush Administration don't have to worry about that. Especially in the latter case virtually no one in the administration has actually been in a war except for Colin Powell --who despite his reasonable image was involved in the coverup of the Mi-Lai massacre in Vietnam.