Molnar feels that the president of the United States is using his son's life, and the lives of many other soldiers, as a tool to further his own political career. He feels that the United States had a shoddy foreign policy for more than a decade and, just as the pressure cooker began to explode, began to try to remedy the situation with a bandage. Molnar contends that the United States is not behaving in the best interest of the people, but is only acting to secure cheap oil and continue using 25 to 30% of this natural resource. The alternative view is that the president had the welfare of the people in mind when he sent soldiers off to the Persian Gulf, and that it was necessary to send troops to the Gulf in order to avoid the possibility of an oil shortage in the United States. In his argument, Molnar omits the advantage the United States will have after defeating Saddam Hussein. (Group 2): Specifically, Molnar is concerned about his son's life and the lives of the other young men and women who were sent to the Persian Gulf. He feels that the president would call for a war in order to save his political career. He doesn't feel that the president is taking America's children's lives into consideration. Molnar is against the military action and he states that he will do all he can to oppose it.

3. (Group 3): Molnar uses comparisons to illustrate power. Firstly, he describes how the young men are powerless. He describes how the president's son could sit on a board that many of the young men in the military could not be appointed to. He describes how most of the young soldiers do not have parents who could "pull...

Bush and Quayle are powerful, the young men in the military are powerless. Financial wealth was used to measure power in the open letter. Many of the marines were not from powerful families, and entered the marines so that they could earn enough money to go to college.
Molnar also expresses that the parents are powerless. As he says of his own son, "you have ordered him to Saudi Arabia." Despite his own opinions about this Molnar is not able to prevent his son from going. This illustrates the power that the president has that Molnar and other parents do not. Molnar also expressed this same difference in power when he described the politicians and policies as holding them hostage. Molnar then says in closing "I'm afraid that...you will wager my son's life." This again shows that while Molnar clearly opposes the action and his son going, he is powerless to prevent it, only the politicians have the power to prevent it. Another clear sign of Molnar's lack of power is where he writes, "none of them have parents well enough connected to call or write a general to insure that their child stays out of harm's way." In short, this sentence is communicating that the parents are powerless to do anything. While Molnar does not express that he feels powerless, these lines express that he does. It is likely that he realizes that expressing how all parents are feeling is more persuasive than just expressing his own personal feelings.

Molnar does state that he will "support my son and his fellow soldiers by doing everything I can to oppose any offensive American military…