Make no mistake. War with Iraq will be long and protracted, and we’re going to bleed.

Afghanistan was a cakewalk. Iraq is Vietnam.

But is it worth it? Saddam Hussein will fight like a cornered animal, and that means dirty war.

It means that our troops will face chemical and biological weapons and an enemy that is just crazy enough to use them.

Almost everyone, including opponents of the Bush administration, such as Al Gore and Ted Kennedy, agrees that some action must be taken. The only debate is how and when to do it.

We don’t have to do it now. We could ignore it for ten years, or we could wait for the impotent and passive United Nations to deliver an ultimatum that it can’t enforce.

But the longer we wait, the closer Iraq gets to adding a nuclear weapon to its arsenal.

Chemical and biological weapons are dirty, but we can deal with them and maintain a conventional war on our side.

We have suits that can largely insulate our troops from whatever they can throw at us now, but there is no suit that can protect a young Marine from a blinding flash of light as hot as the sun that consumes and disintegrates everything in its path.

In as soon as three years, we could face nuclear blackmail.

By then, our only option would be to nuke them before they nuke us. Perhaps this concept sounds vaguely familiar.

If we wait, we will have an Adolf Hitler, sitting in the middle of the desert, armed with camels and ballistic missiles, surrounded by some of the richest neighbors in the world.

He wants Saudi Arabia. He wants Kuwait. He wants Israel. He’s tried it before.

If we invade, he’ll start using everything he’s got, not just against soldiers, but also against women and children.

Iraq used chemical weapons against civilians during the Iran-Iraq War. Saddam used chemical weapons against Kurds in northern Iraq during the Persian Gulf War, and they are his own people.

The last time we went to war with Iraq, Saddam launched SCUD missiles into Israeli residential neighborhoods.

This time, they’re going to have anthrax in them, or possibly plutonium, but who are we to speculate?

For better or worse, Israel is our political ally. They have vowed to retaliate if they are attacked.

Will that retaliation include one of their thermonuclear pride and joys?

In case you didn’t notice, Israel isn’t exactly the hippest kid on that block.

If they bomb even the most extreme Islamic state in a time of war, they are going to have some trouble on their hands. And where would that leave us?

So, we can wait ten years, just like last time.

We can let bygones be bygones because war is evil. We can ignore this problem and debate because it’s an election year.

Just give me a call when Saddam blitzkriegs Poland.

Dodd Newton is a communications freshman.