Is Time on the Side of Iraq?

Note

The following letter was written in response to David Brooks' op-ed "The Past Meets the Future" which appeared in The New York Times on April 13, 2006.

To the Editor:

Is waging war the only way to oppose tyranny? If we are prepared for a "long, troubled march to freedom," then why, in our haste to topple Iraq's dictator, did we devastate the social fabric that supported at least a tentative cohabitation in Iraq?

David Brooks cites the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: Dr. King indeed changed history, but peacefully. He knew that violence almost always causes more suffering than it alleviates and that patience is a virtue if it saves lives.

As difficult as it is for a people to try to solve their own "great historical problems," as the Jews in Egypt did, it is more arduous still to try to solve others'. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try; but we should do so sanely. Opposing violent intervention does not necessarily equate with "cold-hearted acceptance of the status quo."

Robert Stowe
Cambridge, Mass., April 13, 2006