Trying to prevent huge loss of life

To the editor:

Alan Journet has fallen prey to a shamefully selfish and simplistic view of the current Mideast situation. One need only look to the very war he alluded to for a clearer picture of the true task at hand.

Neville Chamberlain, Great Britain's prime minister before World War II, was instrumental in allowing Hitler to conquer Czechoslovakia in an attempt to appease Germany in the name of peace. Chamberlain returned from the Munich Conference in 1938 and proudly pronounced to the people of England: "My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British prime minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honor. I believe it is peace for our time. ... Go home and get a nice quiet sleep." Eleven months later Germany invaded Poland, which vaulted the United Kingdom into World War II. That war ultimately claimed 40 million lives -- nearly 300,000 of which were American.

No, World War II was not justifiable. It was preventable. Our participation in it, however, was justifiable. The same shortsighted hand-wringing Journet promotes made it necessary. Fortunately, our government has the unpopular foresight to try to prevent the same tragedy from occurring today. There is a long battle ahead, and proaction has to become the order of the day for our free society to exist. At a cost? Most certainly. At a cost of scores of millions of human lives? That is what we're trying to prevent.

TONY L. SMEE

Cape Girardeau