204                                     U.S. MARINES IN THE PERSIAN GULF, 1990-1991


     What should the United States do now? There are some very hard questions
to answer about how to deal with a murderer.    The best way I know how to
answer this is to try to answer the following questions:

1. Should the United States let Iraq destroy other nations?
2. Should the United States let Iraq inflate the price of oil or let it cut oil off
from nations it does not like?

     When Iraq destroyed Kuwait, great numbers of people were, and are still,
killed. The taking of human life is the toughest subject there is to discuss. I am
an officer in the United States Marine Corps.   My personal belief is that the
preservation of human life is the absolute most important value.     As a Marine,
part of the most successful war fighting forces in the world's and United States'
200-year history, this value may seem a contradiction. Just like a police officer
breaks the speed limit to catch a speeder, I may be forced to kill a killer.  All
the wishing, hoping, praying, and protesting by anyone does not change the fact
that Saddam Hussein considers murder an acceptable act.         If someone was in
your classroom trying to kill you, I would stop them.       I would do so even if it
meant I had to die in the process.  Your lives are that valuable to me, and I do
not even know you.     I do not know the children of Kuwait either.     Are their
lives any less valuable than your own? No, they are not.      All lives are of equal
value.  This presents a problem.   What about Saddam Hussein's life?
     I am so close to where Saddam Hussein's army is killing people that I could
be there in the time it takes for you to read this letter.  I constantly think about
justifying his death.  My own possible death makes me very sensitive to how
precious life is.   I would like some day to have a son or daughter in Mrs.
Dyer's classroom.    How do I justify being here? Imagine a large shark.    To a
shark, it is not a murderer. It does what it must to stay alive.  It does not think
it has done anything wrong when it hurts a person.   Sharks have their place in
the world; you must respect them when in their domain.        However, what if you
found a shark in your swimming pool?     Would you invite your friends over to
come swimming and have them eaten?        You have the power to protect your
friends. Saddam Hussein is a shark in the world's swimming pool. Unfortunate-
ly, and against our strongest value, removing the shark from the pool will kill
it.
     To answer your second question, you must understand the role oil plays in
your world.   If I could snap fingers and make everything disappear that either
directly or indirectly needed oil for it to exist, you would be sitting naked in the
dirt.  I am not here in Saudi Arabia representing American oil companies; I am
here by choice to protect lives.  However, I understand the direct impact oil has
on human life.    It keeps us warm, fed, housed, and free to move.      Its uses in
producing electricity, heat, lubrication, medicine, and plastics affect everyone
directly everyday. Those few Americans who protest my being here forget very
quickly.  Without oil they could not drive to where they protest or get their
opinion on TV, radio, or paper without the oil to provide power to do so.      If
the price of oil gets too high, they cannot then afford to even express their