President Bush has now authorized 4,700 more troops for Iraq in addition to the 21,500 he ordered with his announcement of an escalation of military force in January. He is also ordering an additional 3,500 troops into Afghanistan. Stretching ourselves a little too thin? When did the rest of the world become our first priority? From Iraq to Iran and now to Afghanistan, our military is being dangerously subjugated for reasons even the general public is unaware of. It is our general public whose sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, etc. whose paying the consequence for HIS decision.

As I am writing this entry, I am dumbfounded on how my views have completely altered in the course of months. But I have a question for President Bush: How strong is your fate that peace will actually be the outcome of this war. To have world peace, it would require everyone in the world, fundamentally, to respect every other human being in the world. But today many religions are teaching intolerance rather than respect — and in some cases, advocating violence against others who do not share their beliefs. If a group does not respect the right of another group to exist, obviously the two groups will never be at peace; if people do not respect the rights of other people to live and believe differently, there will always be the threat of oppression in the future. So, until these religions start teaching respect instead of intolerance, or until they fade away because people realize the inhumanity of what they are teaching, we will never achieve true world peace. Is the cost of death worth the SLIGHT chance of resolution?