Wednesday was the "books not bombs" national day of protest by students. Instead of dropping bombs, students protested the government's stance on Iraq by dropping their books and leaving class. At Cal, the protest was quiet for Berkeley standards. Ironically, it started at noon with the campus fire drill, every first Wednesday of the month. More than half the crowd was high school students and even so, the protest was so small that the Daily Cal had written that Stanfurd's protest was bigger. What's wrong? Is it devoted students who chose not to go to a protest and instead to class? Is the student population turning conservative? Do they want a war? It's not an easy question to answer. But suffice it to say, only outspoken critics of the war are making any noise. The others are either for the war or are against it and feel there's no way to stop the Bush administration.

Right now, I'm beginning to see things in a Bush light. U.N Resolution 1441 ordered Iraq to give up all its weapons and it was up to inspectors to confirm this. They weren't sent there to go on a treasure hunt for weapons, which is exactly what they're doing over there. Iraq's 10,000 page report basically stated they destroyed their weapons and don't have any. Instead, the inspectors have found empty chemical missile casings, and other missiles that can travel farther than the limit allows. Full cooperation was ordered but with this and the many conditions the Iraqi government has placed on scientist interviews, it's clear inspections in this light are not working. Yes, inspections are working in the form of containment but with intelligence indicating that Saddam is continuing to build the same missiles he's destroying in front of inspectors, we can't be assured that inspections alone will prevent Saddam's weapons buildup. Nobody wants a war but the military option must be open to both provide validity to the inspections for the time being and to fully execute that option once the time comes, which isn't long now. It's been 3 months since inspections began, 6 months since President Bush made his first speech to the U.N. about Iraq, and 12 years since the end of the Gulf War.

People say we should be worried about North Korea more than Iraq since they have nuclear material and the facilities to create nuclear weapons. But people must understand North Korea does this for the money and aid since they're very poor. Saddam's pretty rich from the oil he's sitting on so money's not the problem, it's power that he wants and he may choose to gain that power by using his weapons on the people around him. He's already tried that in Kuwait and luckily, the world managed to stop him there. He'll be smarter the next time out and that's why the U.S. and the world must not give him that chance. At some point, North Korea will be desperate to the point that they may consider using their nuclear weapons, but now is not the time. Iraq is in the spotlight now. Because the war drive seems unstoppable, it must happen sooner than later, both to calm fears of an Iraqi attack and to calm Americans, whose uncertainty about the future has driven down consumer confidence and the economy with it.