The time for diplomacy might be over for President Bush, but for some international students, diplomacy still remains the best way to solve the Iraqi crisis.

“If you give up on diplomacy, you are basically giving up on many of the values you are trying to teach people,” said Miguel Becerra, a music major from Peru.

For him, the way the United States is handling the situation can send the wrong message to other countries that might be in a similar situation.

“This war is based on fear and if you let this happen anywhere in the world, any country can just start attacking any other country based on that same fear,” he said.

For him, due to the lack of solid arguments and the lack of a link between Iraq and al-Qaida, this war is not necessary. Instead, Becerra said the United States should have let the United Nations take care of the situation.

“(The United Nations) was not made to just help the U.S. and whatever problem they have, but to solve political international problems, because that is the main reason why it was created.”

Another international student, who asked that his name not to be used, agrees with Bush.

“Saddam Hussein is a threat to world peace,” he said. “Every alternative possible has been used and there is no other way to remove him. War is necessary.”

On the other hand, he admitted that changing the Iraqi government will be challenging, because “people’s mentality cannot be changed quickly.”

For Mehtab Singh, a business major from India, changing the governmenr in Iraq is not the best option because of the way Iraqi people are going to view Americans, he said.

For Singh, the United States should opt for a more diplomatic method instead of military means to gain international friendships. “They are rushing into fighting somebody whom they are just accusing. They don’t have sufficient proof of it,” he said.

Singh does not believe that the empty containers the U.N. inspectors found necessarily means that missiles were in them and points the finger at Bush.

“President Bush is saying that we are going against terror. What is terror?” Singh asked. “There are several definitions of what can go under terror, and you can also say that President Bush is making terror for Iraqi people.”

But since the country is already engaged in the war, Singh hopes that the United States will not only reform the Iraqi government, but also ensure that the new one functions correctly.

Patience is the approach Cheikh Dicko would like Bush to have adopted, even though he admits that Saddam should disarm.

“I truly believe that if you can wait for 12 years and you are really thinking about a peaceful solution, the few months the U.N. inspectors are asking for is nothing if the conflict can end with a pacific solution.”

Dicko, a business major from West Africa, strongly believes that this conflict can end with a conciliatory solution.

That is also the reason why he wishes this war ends quickly.

“The only thing we can do is to hope that it will come to an end very quickly with as (few) casualties as possible on both sides,” he said.