Even if it means the United States must disarm Iraq by force Saddam “will be stopped,” President Bush said Thursday speaking beside Secretary of State Colin Powell, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Sounds reassuring huh?

If Bush does give the OK to war and orders troops to disperse themselves within Iraq to dethrone Saddam, I’m guessing most of us will do anything but sleep with ease.

Initially, war seemed like something so distant, so daunting, I just wanted to deny the fact our country would entertain the idea.

When I was younger, war to me was the devastating plotline presented in the movie “All Quiet on the Western Front,” the 1979 film gruesomely depicting the experiences of a small group of German soldiers during World War I. Main character Paul Baumer watches as several of his high school friends battling in the trenches with him fall prey to the enemies. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque.

Obviously, I didn’t know anyone who had ever gone to war when I first viewed the realistic film in my sixth grade history class though. Now, with our country on the brink of war with Iraq, things have hit home in the worst way, and all I know I can do is pray a war does not materialize.

A couple of months ago, I was alarmed to find out several people I knew would be strapping boots and artillery on themselves and shipped to Iraq by their respective military organizations. The Catholic church my family attends in the suburbs of Chicago has several prayer requests pasted to a wall in the neighboring convent’s chapel listing prayer requests, and the several men and women from my hometown who were heading off to the Middle East to defend our country.

When I was informed over a phone conversation of a few of those names, my jaw dropped in disbelief. Startled and scared cannot begin to describe how I felt.

These were kids I would play freeze tag with at my parochial school just a decade ago; how could they suddenly be thrust into a place where a menacing war was impending? Why did those fresh faces, who always had kind words for everyone else and could make anyone laugh in a heartbeat during those endless waits at my childhood bus stop, have to possibly now step up to the frontlines?

I know some of the soldiers in Kuwait choose to be there because they love our country, and they want to defend it.

But too many more troops don’t want to be there and God willing they all will return home safely.

Just two weeks ago, one of the most talented people I have the privilege of knowing came to talk to me with a painful grimace on her face.

Taken aback, I asked her how everything was coming along. With her mother by her side, she unleashed the stunning news that The National Guard was sending her to Kuwait, and unfortunately she wouldn’t be around for the remainder of the semester.

As she let loose the heart wrenching news, I caught a glimpse of her mother’s distraught face, and was hit with a pang of emotion.

Somehow her mother’s face fully captured the emotional ramifications of war in a nutshell. Speechless, I wished her luck and fretfully said goodbye.

I know being millions of miles away from the problematic Middle East can sometimes make us oblivious and apathetic about world events. But please take a stand against the war, even if it that means simply expressing your opinion on the topic or perhaps attending the weekly campus peace marches.

The bottom line is: it doesn’t matter if you belong to an organized religion or you are an atheist; this is about peace and human lives at stake.