Here's my letter:

Mr. President:


I want to let you know that I support you, but not the U.N. The U.N. has shown itself feckless for far too long to be entrusted with any hope that it can secure peace or prevent corruption. You and Secretary Powell have shown it for what it is.


I also want to go on record as being frustrated with the wait before we take military action in Iraq, but I realize that these things take time. Nevertheless, I hope that you will not wait one second beyond what is militarily required.


Third, I believe it would be ill-advised to accept a settlement under which Saddam is allowed to live in exile. He is a war criminal and a criminal against human rights. I realize that he may be as difficult to track down as Osama bin Laden has been, but I fear that if you were to assent to granting him a life of comfortable security, your Presidency would be doomed, just as your father's was by his failure to finish the Gulf War in a manner seen by the American People to be resolutely opposed to evil.


This issue has grown from one about tactics or strategy in dealing with terrorism to one about what America stands for and believes. You have made the case brilliantly for ridding the world of Saddam Hussein, but now your actions must conform to your rhetoric. I have sons of military age, and I know how concerned about their lives I would be if they were in Qatar or Kuwait today. But if they were to die, I would rather it be in a noble cause, a fight for freedom, than in a "holding action" or a "police action." No greater love hath any man than to lay down his life for his friend.


I know that we are marching into grief. How much is unknown, but I would rather accept the proud grief I felt over flight 93, than the humiliated and senseless grief I felt after Viet Nam.


Let's roll!