| Frank: war with Iraq unnecessary
By Pat Healy About 300 people huddled together inside the sanctuary of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Wellesley Hills last night to listen to U.S. Rep. Barney Frank discuss his thoughts on the pending war against Iraq. Frank, D-4th, voted against the congressional resolution to let President George W. Bush wage war without further congressional debate, and in his 30-minute speech last night he touched upon several reasons why he thinks invading Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein from power is unnecessary. “He is a terrible man, but the country over which he presides is simply in no position to threaten the United States,” said the Newton legislator. Frank said the military power of the United States is more sophisticated than all of the armies in the history of the world put together, and that even if Hussein does have the weapons of mass destruction that the U.S. accuses him of having, he has enough sense to know not to attack America. “Saddam is vicious, but not suicidal,” he said. Frank not only discussed why he thinks war with Iraq is a bad idea, but also his theories on why others think it’s a good idea. “I disagree with my friends on the left that think this is about wealth or oil,” he said, but raised the possibility that the desire to go to war could be a matter of sparking our own patriotic spirit. “Some of these conservatives miss the cold war,” he said. “Not that they miss the Soviet Union, but they think we lost a sense of purpose when the Soviet Union collapsed, and thought that we were in danger of becoming a nation of bean counters, of shop clerks worried about only our own material well-being.” At the end of his talk Frank answered questions from members of the community, quelled concerns about a draft, and encouraged people to write letters to the President. Politicians don’t know who is out marching in demonstrations, he said, but they know who writes to them. A statement against a preventive war in Iraq, endorsed by Members and Friends of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Wellesley Hills was presented to Frank, who promised to enter it into congressional records. |
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