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Thursday, February 7, 1991 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Bush turns away
U.S. foreign policy never condemns its friends; good relations more important than democracy
The U.S. government struck a difficult compromise last week. It agreed to ignore Soviet president Mikhail Gorba chev as he sent tanks and troops into the Baltics in exchange for Moscow's continued support for the Persian Gulf War.
That's the official line from Washington, but war appears to be no more than a convenient excuse to allow the Soviets' abuses to slide.
Simply put, the Soviets are too big to scold. Of course, the rationale that calls for our government to condemn Soviet force while expecting encouragement for ours is weak.
Right or wrong, the Soviets can say that they, like us, wish to preserve a country — Kuwait in our case, their own in their own.
Kuwait in our case, U.S. leadership doesn't mind the Soviet argument. Our government has its own rationale that tolerates unjust violence in almost any case. Real U.S. policy is to allow others to run rampant over the helpless
whenever the aggressor's friendship is considered halfway important.
Consider U.S. policy in the past:
Container U.S. policy in the past Chinese aggression two years ago in Tiananmen Square against its own intellectual community was not condemned because relations with the Chinese power structure were deemed too important to jeopardize.
Bush, like Ronald Reagan before him, has placated the South African government as apartheid slowly fades.
- Filipino president Ferdinand Marcos' robbery of his own people was overlooked by his good friend Reagan. Governments in El Salvador and Chile also have benefited from strategic leniency by the U.S. government.
Kuwait is lucky that Saudi oil is so important to the U.S. government. Kuwait is lucky the United States does not, in this case, need the friendship of a tyrant.
Rich Cornell for the editorial board
No pass, no play
The Kansas Legislature would be wise to capitalize on the opportunity of its
Legislation should help athletes make the grade
1 second chance to take a tougher stance on academic standards for high school students participating in extracurricular activities.
Last Thursday, State Rep Michael O'Neal, R-Hutchinson, re-introduced an academic standards bill that the Legislature defeated in 1986. The "no pass, no play" bill would require students who participate in athletics or other extracurricular activities to maintain a 2.0 grade point average on a 4.0 scale, which is a C average.
By setting a required standard, the Legislature would be taking great strides toward better high school academics. A similar plan passed in Texas and has had positive effects.
Although the bill is a basic fundraiser, it can also be used to create loop boxes that could be taken advantage of. The
ou does not account for a person who might fail three classes and get A's in the other four. It also doesn't take into consideration that there are teachers who will give an athlete a passing grade for the sake of keeping him or her eligible.
Despite these setbacks, the bill is a start. If the proposed bill had called for too much reform at once, it would be certain to be vetoed. If the bill becomes a law, modifications could be made. Requirements concerning math, English, history and science classes and standardized testing for the classes are just a few proposals for strengthening the bill.
Kansas would not be doing itself any harm by passing this bill. Instead it would be taking a needed step in the right direction.
Brent Maycock for the editorial board
■ Editorialists reflect the opinion of the University Dalkan Kansan editorial board. Editorials appear in a box on the left side of the page. Editorialists reflect the majority opinion of the board but not necessarily the opinion of the signed editor.
Opinions expressed in guest and staff columns and cartoons are solely those of the author or artist. Views expressed in columns and cartoons are not necessarily shared by the Kansan.
FLAXMAN University Daily Kansas
LETTERS to the EDITOR
Salvadorians admired
I wish to take exception to the article in Monday's Kansas describing Jennifer Casolo's visit to Lawrence. The article explained Casolo's encounter with the Salvadorian Army in chronological order in 1989 when she was catapulted into the international spotlight. Unfortunately, the article entirely missed the point of Casolo's speech.
Casolo went to El Salvador in 1985 as a church worker. She developed a strong compassion for the Salvadorian people and their indomitable wills in the midst of a civil war that has raged on and off since 1979. She came here to speak against the continuing U.S. interference in the internal affairs of El Salvador. The U.S. government has pumped some $4.5 billion in the last ten years into a government suspected of murdering 70,000 of its own citizens.
She spoke of the resolve of the Salvadorian people to derive an inner power from the tyranny that surrounded them so that their own dignity could be preserved, and that the martyrs would not have died in vain. Though she never mentioned the term specifically, she frequently articulated how the struggles of the past have engendered within the Salvadorian people the values of promoting diversity, living cooperatively, realizing interdependence and a sense of unity with the earth, all fundamental
cornerstones of the feminist vision of life. Values by which all humanity can truly prosper.
Don Knutson Lawrence.1982 KU graduate
War is part of a cycle
It is common knowledge now that President Bush ignored warnings by the CIA that Iraq would invade Kuwait. The Bush administration and the State Department led Sadam Hussein to think the United States had no concern for Kuwait's future with Iraq. Now there is war. Did the president make a mistake, or was it more shrewd than that?
Was it lack of forethought, or did the U.S corporations and Bush decide the economy needed a boost? Were the hawks in the administration looking for a way to gain back what financing they feared would be lost from coming defense cuts? Remember the comments of Secretary of State James Baker. He essentially said that a military operation would stimulate the economy and create jobs.
President Bush has said in news conferences that the intended military plans for the liberation of Kuwait were not meant to destabilize Iraq. Does Bush believe what comes out of his mouth? Have those who believe this forgiven that the president of the United States is the former director of the CIA? Bush has every intention of destabilizing Iraq. The West created a problem for itself in the Middle East, just as it created a problem for itself in Panama with Noriage, Cuba with Castro and Chile with Pinochet. The list goes on. Is America blind, or does it just con-
time to ignore the fact that there is a cycle that involves the supply and support of popular regimes and then construction of those same regimes?
David McKinney Lawrence senior
Soldier knew obligation
My young brother, Dennis, is in the gulr region as a soldier with the 1st Cavalry Task Force, Field Artillery, of Fort Hood, Texas. He joined the Army by free choice three years ago.
He had attended Wichita State University for almost two years. Without the Army's money, he could not afford to continue. With the Army's money, he intends to complete his undergraduate degree and then study to become an orthopedic surgeon.
Although the United States had not declared war with anyone at the time he enlisted, he knew it was a possibility. The recruiter — to my knowledge — "We'll give you training and money, but we won't send you to war."
I support our troops and hope they will be home soon. I also know they have earned their college money by their own efforts. I don't believe they would appreciate current college students refusing to serve on the army, some soldiers are "using the military as a tool to access college."
Dan Consolver, administrative assistant Office of Academic Affairs
Not being at war doesn't equate peace
Often we find ourselves overwhelmed by the events in the Persian Gulf, the media attention and all that the war means, and those ramifications arising thereof in our lives presently, as much as in our futures.
We hear justification for military action as much as we hear the reasons for a cease-fire, the pullout of troops, and the resolution of the conflict. We hear of the insanity as much as the genius of both Bush and Hussein and the geopolitical reasons for the actions of both. We understand the economic ramifications and the ideological principles as well, and more likely, we all have an opinion as to what should be done, or better yet, what we think we would like to see happen.
Often the cry for war is as poorly founded as the screams for peace. It is as easy to say, "Fry Hussen," as it is easy to demand a bilateral pullout and the resolution of all conflicts. However, understanding the necessity for war and the principles driving the presidency into this venture is often not as difficult as understanding peace.
Understanding peace is the real
Jeronimo Gonzalez
Guest columnist
problem because our inability to live and foster that principle is what inevitably lands us in war and will do so again in the future. All Americans must remember the great nation the United States once was, the great nation of the past, the great nation the great nation that it sometimes is and can easily learn to be more often.
Peace is not and should not be defined as the period in which a nation or nations do not find themselves in a state of war or violent conflict either from within or with each other. World peace is a human concept that emanates from the soul of each and every individual and should be fostered daily and in all our interactions. The human ability to live in a state of peace within our surroundings is something that must be fostered with great strength of character as much as with great
strength from the soul and spirit through the selflessness of all.
To understand war, we must know that no one is better than the rest. Most of all, we must treat everyone with the warmth and open-heartedness that we would give in the greatest instance of love, which we would show with the openess of our spirit and all our living strengths.
To foster peace, we must feel that we are beyond the personal need for conflict.
Wars are conflicts between nations; the slaughtering of our brothers and sisters for the economic sustenance of our livelihood and our fears of losing what we have. Yet, war is also a global depiction of the singularity of all; the disregard of human life for economic purposes and imperialism, as well as the inner expression of discontent with our souls and the hatred we have for all human life, including our own. Bush and Saddam are only the human representations of what we are and what we have become as a brotherhood of mankind.
The Persian Gulf is no more than the representation of the collective soul of humanity and the efforts of
mankind in the 20th century. Hunger, famine, war and conquest are more than what the selfishness of modern societies was based in global politics and economics
To fight and speak against the war, one also must learn to fight and strive for growth and the dignity of our thoughts, feelings and actions as much as our sharing and giving to others.
The war, which is beyond our immediate influence and control, if nothing else, could teach us to become better and learn more — and much more purely — how to love the brotherhood of man and all we come in contact with, wishing to touch each soul with gentleness, positiveness and the soft careful whispers we all need for the sustenance of our spirit.
As much as it is regettable and presently unchangeable, we could choose to learn from the ugliness of death and the coldness and cruelty in the disgregard for human lives. If nothing else, we could more freely and more freely as we might not have that much time still for love.
- Jeronimo Gonzalez is a Topeka transfer student.
Self-defeating new tax
Other Voices
The absurdities of last fall's budget agreement come in all sizes.
The obvious big one is that this "historic" deficit-reduction deal is the prelude to a record-breaking deficit. But there are microabsurdities, too, including this dandy. It is likely that the new company will be in bureaucracy operations that it will earn in new revenue.
These things happen when laws are written fast and in secret without hearings, as the luxury tax was.
Original forecasts said the excise tax on pricey automobiles, private planes, pleasure boats, jewelry and furs would fetch $9 billion. But once congressional negotiators got through excluding items that were made in their districts, revenue projections had shrunk to $1.5 billion over five years.
From the Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.
Don't forget the U.S.
Two major conclusions can be drawn from President Bush's State of the Union address and its aftermath: The nation is united behind its troops on the battlefield. And it remains divided at home.
Delivering the first wartime State of the Union address since the Vietnam War, Bush said, "This we do know." Our cause is just. Our cause is moral. Our cause is right." Although some disagree, the president received enthusiastic bipartisan support from members of Congress and other governmental leaders.
But, as Rep Joe Mookley, D-Mass., said, "We've got two battles — one in the Persian Gulf and one in this country."
While the eyes, ears and hearts of the nation are focused on the war, there are stomachs at home that need feeding, hands that need to be put to work, bodies that need decent housing.
From the Hattiesburg (Miss.)
American
KANSAN STAFF
CHRIS SIRON
CHRIS SIRON
Editor
RICH CORNELL
Managing editor
TOM EBLEN
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by David Rosenfield
Sketch
YOU CAN'T LIVE YOUR
LIFE WITH YOUR NOSE
IN A BOOK. YOU NEED
TO GET OUT AND
EXPERIENCE THE
WORLD FIRSTHAND...
THERE ARE PLENTY OF PLEASURABLE EXPERIENCES TO BE HAD - IF YOU HAD ONLY LOOK FOR THEM.
SIGH ⇐
ALL RIGHT, ALL RIGHT,
I'M GOING OUT INTO
THE WORLD TO FIND
A PLEASURABLE
EXPERIENCE...
YOU ARE? REALLY?
THAT'S WONDERFUL!
WHERE ARE YOU
GOING TO GO?
TO THE LIBRARY...