Bush didn’t go to war about oil
COMMENTARY
Chris Suffron

It is the middle of March and that means that it is the season for talk of college basketball and the Academy Awards.

However, the news this March is not dominated by brackets and dresses. No, today the television and newspapers are instead full of the news of war.

Everyone seems to have their own opinion on the war and college students are no exception. Some TCU students were in the news Friday giving their opinions about the war. Yet while most of the older people I hear speak about the war tend to be in support of the effort, it seems as though most of the college students I hear are against it.

They say things like “We should have gotten more support from other nations” or “I don’t think war is ever an option that we should ever take.”

While I do not agree with those views, I respect them and I can understand why people might carry those viewpoints. What bothers me are those who say this war is only about oil. With all due respect, that’s an opinion usually guided by ignorance.

President Bush has repeatedly stated that this war is about taking weapons of mass destruction away from an unstable and dangerous government. He said that when he went before the United Nations in September, he said that in his State of the Union address and he has said that in every speech he has made over the past year. There is no reason to believe that he is lying to us. This is a man of principle and integrity; he is not going to tell us and the rest of the world that he is doing this for one reason and then have a completely different reason for doing it.

Even if you think that this man is a lying snake consider this: President Bush is a man who stood on the piles of rubble at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He attended memorial services for the victims of the attacks and spoke personally with their families. Although he should not, he may feel somewhat responsible for those attacks, simply because they happened when he was in charge of the nation.

Now he sees a regime in a country that has a history of hatred toward America, which continually breaks international weapons agreements and lies about it, which has ties with terrorist groups and tried to murder his father. In effect he is saying, “That is not going to happen again. Not while I am in charge. Not when I can do something about it.”

If he does have a hidden agenda to this war, it is not oil but a personal vendetta against the man that tried to kill his dad. Gas prices aren’t high because Saddam Hussein is making them high. They are high because there is uncertainty about the oil supply due to a war in the Middle East and the political turmoil in Venezuela.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not completely against all people who are anti-war even though I do not agree with them. I believe in freedom of speech and everyone is allowed his or her own opinion.

What I do not like is people jumping to ungrounded conclusions simply because it sounds good and they are too lazy know what is really going on. President Bush is simply looking out for the safety of the country that he has been entrusted with because that is what he was elected to do. I am thankful that my president knows his what his job is.

Chris Suffron is a senior accounting major from League City.