I am responding to Mike Murvihill’s letter that appeared Nov. 1. In the letter, Mr. Murvihill argues we would be justified in making a first strike against Iraq because we are already in a state of war with Iraq according to Lockean political theory.

Furthermore, this “war” is a just one because our nation is simply helping our “little guy” ally Kuwait win its freedom from Iraq. I disagree with both of these claims.

First of all I’m glad Locke’s political theories live in the ivory tower and are not the sole basis of foreign policy. Mr. Murvihill assumes because Locke’s theories were influential at the founding of our nation they must have equal force today.

But both America and the world have progressed beyond the eighteenth century. In reality, the world doesn’t operate in simple Lockean terms.

One must remember that Locke, like all philosophers, can have his theories both used and abused. A theory is often used to justify political ends.

Mr. Murvihill plays a cute word game: without Locke a U.S. first strike begins a bloody war of intervention; with Locke it becomes a justified response to Iraqui aggression.

But despite Locke, the reality of the situation hasn’t changed: our nation is on the brink of war with Iraq. If we launch a first strike I doubt many will buy the Lockean argument.

Furthermore, the reasons we are at the brink of war are not as simple as Mr. Murvihill suggests. This is my second point.

We may be helping the helpless Kuwait, but this is only a side effect of our nation’s true aim. We have deployed our armies because of the importance of oil in the world economy.

Middle Eastern oil is a precious commodity to our nation and our major trading partners (Japan, Canada, Germany and the UK). If the world economy were to be affected adversely, our nation’s economy would suffer in turn.

Our standard of living is tied to the health of the economy. Hard economic times in America means our standard of living would decline.

I contend we are in no wonderful crusade, no quest for democracy. Our armies have been deployed to protect what may be most important to Americans: the capitalist economy which supports our hedonistic lifestyle.

Whether this is right or wrong is up to the individual. I only want to urge we must not submit to pseudo-intellectual propoganda like Mr. Murvihill’s or greed shrouded in patriotic rhetoric like Mr. Bush’s. When lives are at stake we must be cautious and realistic.

Bryan L. Burgett

Political Science–Public Law/Philosophy

Senior