We join our fellow Utahns in sorrow at the death of Sgt. James Wilford Cawley -- the first Utahn to die this year in Iraq, and probably not the last. We sorrow for the waste of Sgt. Cawley's life, and of so many other lives.
   
    Had he lived, Sgt. Cawley could have used his command of Japanese to foster understanding in our divided world. Instead, he was sent to kill and to die in an unnecessary war that is further dividing the world, inflaming religious hatreds and the blind passions of nationalism in the Middle East and in our own country.
   
    His death is a symbol of what is happening to the world as the juggernaut of war gathers speed. Saddam Hussein and his supporters spent decades running over the rights and lives of the people of Iraq. Now the empire-building zealots in the Bush administration are running over the rights and lives of their own people, and over the rights and feelings of peoples of other lands, including our own allies.
   
    Instead of the "decent respect to the opinions of mankind" invoked in the Declaration of Independence, they are showing an indecent contempt for everyone who opposes their reckless ambitions. They are uniting the world against our country. They are driving us into a spiral of violence in which killing leads to more killing.
   
    Unless we stand up and take back control of our country from the masters of war who sprawl at the wheel, drunk with power, the bell that now tolls for Sgt. Cawley may soon toll for us all.
   
    Patrick Diehl and eight others
   
    Salt Lake City and Escalante