To the editor:

While President Bush threatens unilateral pre-emptive war against Iraq, columnist Cal Thomas (9/24 LJW) defends it in these pseudo-moralistic terms: “America is a good nation that can be expected to act out of pure motives and in the interest not only of its own people but of free people … everywhere. This will seem arrogant to some, but it is the only strategy that has a chance of putting America first …”

Morality and ethics refer precisely to the identification of situations where one should NOT put one’s own interests first. Thomas’ last sentence betrays a complete lack of intention to act morally. Instead he resurrects the selfish and shortsighted cry of “America First.” Thomas claims America has existentially “pure motives” that somehow excuse us from actual moral constraints. The correct description for people who think that way is “sociopath.”

I believe that accepting some degree of moral constraint improves people’s chances of achieving their long-term goals. In particular, sociopaths tend to end up in prison. While the analogy between individuals and nations is imperfect, a similar principle operates among nations. Sociopathic regimes in Japan, Germany, Italy, Russia, Cambodia, and, yes, Iraq have tended to suffer many defeats. Thomas’ advice for us to act like them is truly perverse.

War against Iraq could make sense if the U.N. agreed to it, if the war against al-Qaida were over, and if the circumstances did not have the appearance of another effort to steal an election. None of those conditions holds today.

David Burress

Lawrence