Paterson on Refusing to Go to Saudi Arabia

Paterson’s searing essay was emblazoned with the eloquence and fervor of youthful, though entirely rational, idealism. Paterson’s clear-minded commitments to what is right and what is fair are a most welcome rejoinder to the cynicism and apathy that pervade youth culture in America today.

President Bush claims also to be committed to ideals, the notion that Hussein’s aggression against Iraq has no place in today’s world. But who appointed the U.S. global policeman? Bush’s arguments in this vein are appealing, for they appeal to our universal sense of justice--to feel secure within one’s own borders. But as more and more U.S. servicemen die before war even breaks out, what justification can Bush offer?

It is cynical political jockeying which is taking place on an unprecedented scale in the Middle East, and once again it is the U.S. taking the biggest risks with the least to gain. As long as the right wing dominates in Israel, no Palestinian accord will be reached regardless of the outcome of Iraq’s folly. All that will change as a result of the conflict in the Middle East is a redrawn map of a defeated Iraq, a gutted Kuwait, a teetering Jordan, a newly militarized Saudi Arabia, thousands of Arab dead and many dead Americans whose living relatives will still be paying more than $30 a barrel for oil.

Peterson’s is a lonely voice of conscience, but thank God it’s there.

JEFFREY R. SOFTLEY

Los Angeles