The other day at school I heard a kid talking aboutfighting me, so I walked up to him when he was buying lunch and punched him inthe neck. He fell down and I kicked him in the stomach and then grabbed the backof his head and slammed his face against my knee three times. I would have keptgoing if some kids hadn't dragged me off him. Later that day I was in theprincipal's office to talk about the seriousness of what I had done. Mr. Jones,the principal, said I faced expulsion. He said there was a "zero-tolerancepolicy," which said that if you're in a fight, you automaticaly getexpelled.

"But, Mr. Jones, it was self-defense," Iargued.

"What are you talking about?" he asked. "'That kiddidn't even get a punch in."

"Yeah, but he would have reallyhurt me if I didn't stop him first. I didn't think I was doing anything wrong. Iwas just doing the same thing that President Bush is doing. If we don't get Iraqfirst, they'll get us. And if I hadn't gotten that kid, he would have gottenme."

"Listen, don't go bringing the President into this,"Mr. Jones said. "That's different. Our country thinks Saddam Hussein hasweapons of mass destruction."

"Yeah, well, I think this kiddoesn't like me. And he certainly had the capability to do me harm. Someone toldme he has really hard knuckles."

"If you thought he was going tohurt you," Mr. Jones said, "then you should have told me or a teacherand we would have made sure you were safe."

"Listen," Itold him, "I was just following the example of the President. He went to theU.N., but they can't find any proof that Iraq had bad weapons, so they're notdoing anything! Since Bush knows Saddam does have weapons and will use themagainst us, he's taking matters into his own hands. And that's exactly what Idid. I knew that if I told the school someone was planning to beat me up, theywould ask for proof. They'd say, 'Just because someone doesn't like you doesn'tmean they are going to beat you up.' But I knew that this kid might hurt me, so Ijust hurt him first." Mr. Jones agreed that all I was doing was followingthe President's example, but he also said I would be expelled anyway.

Ifwhat I did was wrong, then is it possible that what the President is doing iswrong too? ?