To the editor:

I was awake at 4 a.m. last night, worrying about Bush’s Iraq invasion. Reported contacts to congresspersons are running 8 to 1 against war (Washington Post 9/22), yet mainstream media would have us believe there is broad support.

Last night, my snoring 5-month-old beside me, I came to understand an innocent life and what the loss of such a life might mean. Last night I had a vision of my baby son in Iraq, living with an Iraqi family, cuddled by an Iraqi mother. I see my son look up at his mother and smile he’s getting teeth. I see my son, intense and curious, giggle and coo as U.S. military jets fly over his home. Only when he sees the fear in his mother’s face does he begin to cry. Then suddenly I see my son’s legs blown off by a U.S. bomb, terror in his mother’s eyes.

According to the Washington Post, 70 percent of U.S. bombs missed their targets in the Persian Gulf War. If the U.S. invades Iraq, injury and loss of life to innocents, like my son, will be massive. The security of American lives will also be compromised.

Last night, I understood that an innocent Iraqi child is also my child. Bush wishes to wage an unpopular war based on the suspicion that Iraq has nukes. Yet even Kansas congresspersons acknowledge no supporting evidence for this claim. If imagining your child blown apart is more than you can stomach for such a cause, tell President Bush not in my name!

Lora Jost,

Lawrence