'Before the War' is a collection of articles published on Temenos before the War in Iraq began. These pieces are being re-published to remember where we have been and reflect on where we're going.

The Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Saud, said Wednesday that his government is opposed to a U.S. strike on Iraq and will not allow its soil to be used as a base for such an attack.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said this week that a U.S. attack on Iraq could destroy the international coalition against terrorism.

French President Jacques Chirac said last week that he could only support an attack on Iraq if it had advance approval from the U.N. Security Council.

Even British Prime Minister Tony Blair, America's strongest ally, is facing anti-war opposition at home.

So why are we going to war with Saddam Hussein?

In a meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah last week, Bush explained, "Saddam Hussein is a man who poisons his own people, who threatens his neighbors, who develops weapons of mass destruction."

Even assuming that Bush is correct, is that a reason to start a war with Iraq? Hardly.

First, it's probably true that Hussein poisoned his own people, but he did so with the support of the United States government when Iraq was our ally because it was fighting our enemy, Iran. This simply underscores the long history of hypocrisy in American foreign policy.

It's okay if a dictatorial government engages in abuse so long as the dictator supports the U.S. But once the dictator no longer supports America, we convict him in the court of public opinion by citing the same abuses that we ignored when he was our ally. As the old saying goes, "He may be a sonofabitch, but he's our sonofabitch."

Second, if threatening your neighbors is a cause for invasion, then several countries would be targeted for invasion. North Korea routinely threatens its neighbor to the south, but the U.S. has never seriously considered invading Korea. Pakistan and India, both nuclear powers, threaten each other every month, but the U.S. has no plans for an invasion there either. China threatens Taiwan on a regular basis, but again there is no plan for an invasion.

In fact, the U.S., with its virulent anti-Castro policy, threatens Cuba everyday, but to follow the Bush doctrine, that would give other nations the right to invade America. It hardly seems to make sense.

Third, if developing weapons of mass destruction is a crime, then the U.S. is the biggest criminal in the world. After all, we have more weapons of mass destruction than any other nation on the planet. And we're the only nation in the world that has used these weapons to kill tens of thousands of innocent civilians. It was 57 years ago this week when the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Our policy toward these weapons is wildly inconsistent. The only consistency is that we, as the leader of the nuclear power club, don't want any new nations to acquire nuclear weapons. We, as the enlightened despots of the world, know best how to use these weapons, despite the fact that we are the only nation that has ever used them against civilians.

The three reasons listed here are the only three reasons Bush has given to justify an invasion of Iraq. Notice there is no September 11 connection here. Despite desperate efforts to make Iraq the culprit, even the U.S. State Department acknowledges that there is no evidence that Saddam Hussein was behind the attack.

Since Iraq didn't attack us, and we sat back while they poisoned their own people, and we allowed other nations to threaten their neighbors and develop weapons of mass destruction, Iraq is really no more an enemy than any other nation with which we disagree. The whole case against Saddam Hussein crumbles under inspection.

In truth, we have no business launching an attack at all. It's time to go back to the drawing board and figure out why Bush wants this attack in the first place. Settling scores for your daddy is no reason to plunge a nation into war.

© Copyright 2002 by Keith Boykin.

• For more information on the LGBT community's efforts to stop the war on Iraq, click here.