It is somewhat chilling to watch all the summer soldiers and sunshine patriots root for Bush and war.

The big news is that war is not a football game and we don't need cheerleaders for death and destruction of our fellow man.

It was said well, and wordlessly, by Pablo Picasso in his painting of Guernica.

In 1937, Adolph Hitler bombs the civilian population of Guernica, a tiny Basque village in northern Spain. This first-ever aerial bombardment of a civilian population center was viewed by the Nazis as bombing practice for the Luftwaffe.

Sixteen hundred people perished as the high-explosives and incendiary bombs set Guernica to burns for three days.

The people of Paris were revolted by the newspaper accounts and rioted in the streets protesting the war. Picasso saw the black and white news photos and was inspired to create what was to become his masterpiece.

In 1985, Nelson Rockefeller donates a reproduction of Guernica to the United Nations building in New York City. Ever since, it has hung at the entrance of the Security Council, serving as a stark reminder of the kind of horror the United Nations was created to help prevent.

On January 27 of this year. Picasso's Guernica was hidden away behind a large blue curtain so it couldn't be seen.

When Collin Powell and United Nations ambassador John Negroponte plead Bush's case for a pre-emptive attack against Iraq - which the military proudly admits will begin with a punishing onslaught of up to 800 cruise missiles sent into the heart of Baghdad - the last thing they need is that damning canvas looming behind them like some grim specter of the unimaginable horrors they seem so desperate to unleash.

No matter how hard you cheer, there is no honor, no glory to be won by the most powerful nation on earth unleashing its military might via a fire-storm against an annoying, miserable but realitively weak opponent.

Do not be proud of the devestation that will result. Do not rejoice in the misery that will be visited upon Iraq.

Of course we will win this war. But turn around and ask WHAT it is that we will win?

Publius