The Golden Rule is not to do unto others what they do to you

To the editor,

I am amused by writers who chide me for violating bad laws like the one that would allow students to carry guns in class but have no problem with the U.S. government violating good laws like the ones against preemptive and preventive wars.

It is a fact that the war against Iraq was illegal, and the illegality of it is not debatable. The U.N., did not, I repeat, did not authorize military action against Iraq. All the excuses in the world won’t erase that fact. In fact, one of the reasons that the U.N. is not as effective as it could be is that many powerful countries do whatever they please and do not follow rules intended for the common good. That war was as illegal as the attack on 9-11 and the 9-11 attackers believed strongly in preemptive war. The rare exception for allowing a preemptive strike is that there be clear and undisputable evidence that an attack is imminent such as troops and tanks amassed at one’s border.

Several decades ago, the U.S. was fined 2-million dollars by the International Criminal Court for interfering in the internal affairs of Nicaragua. The U.S. response was that it would not pay the fine and that no one could make it pay. This is another case of might makes right and scoffing at international law.

I am certain that these same writers believe that African Americans should have followed the Jim Crow laws and then waited around for some white guy to change the law out of the goodness of his heart. The only ways that bad laws are changed is when people start breaking them in large numbers. Unjust laws are trumped by conscience, period. I recommend that the writers read about the Nuremberg Trials.

One writer says that he does not care about anyone but “us, our people, our soldiers”. The problem is that many people feel that way about their own countries and that’s the problem. Everyone can’t be right. This kind of mentality will get us all killed.This same writer uses examples of what others have done to Americans to justify inhumane treatment of them. The Golden Rule is something I believe in and it doesn’t say, do unto others as they do to you.

Leo R. Sandy

New Hampton