Following World War II, a number of plans for world governments were proposed. United Nations was criticized on the ground that an association of sovereign states would be inadequate to deal with problems of war and peace in contemporary society.

It seemed to me that the best thought-out plan for a world government was presented by an organization known as the World Federalists. It had a good-sized branch in Albert Lea and I’m proud to remember that I was an active member.

That was an era, though, when everyone was afraid of being suspected of being a communist. So, even though the FBI itself investigated and gave the organization a clean bill of health &045; and the Soviets wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot pole &045; it sort of fell apart.

The great and often repeated objection to it was that it was a threat to national sovereignty. National sovereignty being so dear and so important to us, I find myself somewhat at loss as to why we would deny it to others.

If I’ve heard once, I’ve heard a dozen times about how much France owes us and how much we’ve done for France. What? I know we’ve always felt that we practically won World Wars I and II, and thus rescued our losing allies.

For the record, France participated in the first war from 1914 until 1918. We were in it from April 1917 until November 1918. It’s true that France didn’t stay the course in World War II, but in its own way it still did its courageous best against our common enemy.

There’s no doubt that we gave assistance to our allies by our &uot;lend and lease&uot; policy, but we didn’t go into World War II to rescue either Great Britain or France. We went in because we were attacked by Japan and had no choice.

I’ve never met a stupid Frenchman, but the last time the White House was occupied by a president for whom I felt anything like respect was when Jimmy Carter was there.

Exclude Washington, Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and Franklin D. Roosevelt and you can’t say an awful lot about the presidents before Carter, either.

Oh, I’ve always had respect for the office, but being over the hill as I am, I’m something of a traditionalist. I prefer that the man in the highest office be elected, not appointed.

We are asked to support our soldiers and it seems the very least that we can do. I think we should have done more, not sent them into harm’s way. As for supporting the president, he has several times announced loudly and clearly that he needs no one’s support. Not that he lacks support. I read a comment in the news the other day by a man who says he is sure President Bush will go down in history as the &uot;greatest president this country has ever had.&uot; He may be right. I pray every day that the president will not go down in history as the man who started World War III.

Because I grew up in a family where political arguments involved table pounding and name calling, I try to remember that however passionate my convictions, the possibility that my opponent is right must always linger in my mind. Regarding the consequence of this war, I hope I am wrong.

I am haunted, though, by a fragment of a poem I once read: &uot;We are the masters of time and space and spheres/ We have been killing our young men marvelously for years.&uot;

This was not the column I intended to write tonight, but I watched the news before writing it, watched a reporter interviewing an old and seemingly frail couple, whose son is one of the prisoners taken by the enemy.

The grief and suffering of the parents was so intense that I wondered at the cruelty of those who use war to solve problems that it is still possible to solve without war.

There was also a picture of a group of people in Iraq, whose houses having been bombed to the ground, were fleeing to the mountains to take refuge in the caves there. They spoke kindly of the Americans, who in the first war against Iraq had brought them some measure of freedom. In fact, one of the children had been born during the 1991 war and had been named for one of the Americans, &uot;A brave man.&uot;

Their grandmother, they said sadly, had frozen to death en route to the caves.

Love Cruikshank is an Albert Lea resident. Her column appears Thursdays.