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Tuesday, January 22, 1991 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
War censorship
Press activity is limited, coverage incomplete; citizens deserve fuller, more accurate reporting
Readers beware. Articles published in this newspaper may not contain complete information from the war with Iraq. The U.S. Department of Defense has been censoring war coverage without giving the press or citizens adequate justification.
The department's latest orders require reporters to form press pools that military escorts will lead to locations the department deems newsworthy.
The department also requires that all written information, whether for print or broadcast, be reviewed by military officials before being approved for readers, viewers and listeners.
Except for exact troop and artillery locations, reporters in the gulf should be able to cover events as they occur, without being edited by the government. The U.S. Constitution does not state that citizens have "a right to know." But allowing the government to decide what information citizens have access to imperils a fundamental concept of democracy in the United States — the right to check the power of the government.
During the Vietnam War, reporters could cover much of the war without military
guides or press pools. Breaches of security were minimal, according to Washington officials, and the abundant television and print coverage from the battlefields changed the way Americans viewed war. Unlike press coverage in World War II and the Korean War, when censorship was similar to that of the war in the gulf, press coverage in Vietnam allowed viewers an honest look at the horrors of war.
Without a written account of the Vietnam War, U.S. citizens might look back on it with the same nostalgia many have for World War II.
Violence and bloodshed are atrocities and should not be romanticized.
There is some information that should not be published. When information jeopardizes U.S. troops or military strategies, it should remain unknown to the enemy. But the U.S. government has gone beyond protecting vital strategic information.
U. S. citizens have a right to know the actions of a government waging war in their names.
Carol Krekeler for the editorial board
Soviet crackdown
Gorbachev under fire for inconsistent policies
How can a Nobel Peace Prize winner and a frequent appellant for peace in the Middle East justify the atrocities that are going on in his own country?
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev claims that he did not give the order for the bloody army operation in Lithuania on January 13 that left 14 people dead and scores wounded. Yet he has expressed little regret over the action.
Nothing has been said about the shooting of 39-year-old Robert Murnieks in Latvia last Wednesday by Soviet Interior Minister troops as he was driving through Riga, the state's capital. Murniek is now being hailed as the people's martyr for Latvian independence.
Less than 12 months ago, Gorbachev was everyone's favorite statesman. Everywhere that is, except in his own country. Since his rise to power he has enjoyed a lengthy honeymoon with the rest of the world. But now, events within his own country are having negative repercussions around the world — and rightly so.
Beset by deepening economic and political crises, the man who spawned the ideas of perestroika has opted for a dictatorial crackdown on social unrest. The people of the Baltic states have borne the brunt of this new approach.
The domestic roles of the Soviet military and KGB have been enhanced. Hardliners have been placed in control of the police. Troops have been given blanket approval to use force. Journalists and broadcasters have been muzzled, and the Soviet state broadcasting company has canceled its most controversial programs.
It would appear that the most tangible
evidence of glasston, namely a more open press, is being dismantled. Instead of making progress, Gorbache seems to be making concessions to the hard right.
He is afraid of losing control. Yet it would appear he already has lost it to the old-guard Communists. He is determined to see his vision of a new USSR through to the end. But it would appear that his vision has become somewhat clouded under the pressure of the reactionaries.
There is every reason for us to be disturbed. The resignations and outstandings of Gorbache's more progressive colleagues in recent months are worrying, as is the decision last week by Andrei Sakharov's widow to return the Nobel Peace Prize her Soviet dissident husband won. Her protest against Gorbache's leadership and the hypocrisy of his accepting the 1990 award have done much to damage his already doubtful credibility.
Though, from a global point of view, it is too early for us to demand Gorbachev's removal. A less sympathetic successor is likely given the current political climate.
Nevertheless, some sort of pressure has to be put on the Soviet leader to show that double standards are not acceptable in the international arena. Preaching peace abroad when it is not practiced at home is hypocritical.
President Bush should consider boycotting February's summit in Moscow if the Soviets continue their retreat toward dictatorship. Special food shipments and trade concessions should be reconsidered in light of the evidence of Soviet disregard for the most basic human rights.
Clare McGinn for the editorial board
LETTERS to the EDITOR
Student wants support
Before I went to register for this semester, I hoped that there would not be any peace activists protesting U.S. involvement in the Persian Gulf.
Unfortunately, I saw these radicals hopelessly protesting our country's right and duty to defend the Middle East from Saddam Hussein and his
ruthless regime.
If the United States had not sent troops to the gulf in August, Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries could have been overtaken by a ruthless dictator, who has used military weapons against his own people.
Since these protesters ignorantly think that the U.S. is in the gulf and attacked Iraq only for economic reasons, they had signs like "No Blood for Oil."
Iraq can survive a long time with the U.N. sanctions imposed against it, while our economy worsens. If the U.S. troops were removed from the gulf, the Middle East could be overtaken by the ruthless Iraqi regime, just
Many of the protesters are comparing this crisis to Vietnam. This is not accurate since the U.S. is joined by 27 other countries, including the U.S.R. and Syria, who want to free Kuwait from Iraq. Also, the U.S. had an all-out attack to weaken the Iraqi defenses. The allied air fleet outmaneuvered four to one, and this advantage can help resolve this crisis through a war in which allied casualties would be minimal.
like Europe was overtaken by Hitler 50 years ago.
David Schuster Overland Park, senior
Class boycotts would renew, not resolve,mistakes of past
On January 16, as the Persian Gulf war ignited, these words from the lips of President Bush shook the world: "These are the times that try men's souls." Although months of growing hostilities in the Middle East had prepared me for this climax, I was shocked. From rumors of war, we had gone to actual war.
Ndomby
Fhunsu
Staff columnist
Still meditating on this development, I went to class the following day trying to concentrate on my academic duties. However, as I walked to my 8 a.m. ethics class, dozens of fliers were scattered along Jayhawk Boulevard declaring, "Now is the time to boycott classes." And in my classroom I found the same message written on the board.
In moments like these, when my soul is tried, politics — whether originating from Baghdad, the White House or a white room in Lawrence
- nauseate me, and ideologies exasperate me. I need a less hypocritical approach to find answers to questions and light for my decisions.
Lost in my thoughts, I found myself reading in the Bible, "Therefore, you are inexusable. O man, whoever you are, who judge, for in whatever you judge another, you condemn yourself, for you who judge practice the same things." (Romans 2.1)
Inexcusable? Condemn myself? In
condaining one type of war, should I make myself guilty of another form of destruction, with the inherent anxieties and sorrows? Should I accept the invitation to boycott class? Who would win? Who would lose?
More than a hundred nations are represented among the students at KU. We are the world; tomorrow's leadership, Today among us are tomorrow's Saddam, Bush and Perez de Cuellar.
Instead of thinking of ways to boycott classes, why not meditate on our responsibilities for war or peace? If we have acted if we had the power of war?
Well, we are all being prepared at KU, and the day is coming when we will be given that power. How will we use it?
Now is the time to answer these vital questions. We need to know, and we need to know now. We need to know how to react if whatever we will have war or peace.
The future of the world is in our hands.
We can learn from the mistakes of the past. If we estimate that another mistake of history was made January 16, could this then be an indication that peace does not necessarily start with the United Nations? Is it possible that peace starts with you and me, in the daily decisions we make?
Today, if we boycott classes and fail to take time to think creatively about peace so that we can generate attitudes and lifestyles of peace, then tomorrow our own Saddams and Al Qaeda will attack children and grandchildren, in turn, will have to boycott classes in protest of war.
Like begets like. With the ink of responsibility and commitment to our studies (not to our own boyfriend), we can see pages of peace in tomorrow's history.
we it to those who are now in the Middle East, to the poor families, to our parents, to our friends, to our children, to our nation, to our world and, especially, to those we have declared guilty of the present war.
- Ndomby Fhunsu is a freshman in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Subtle stereotypes still dangerous
There I was enjoying a pea's conversation with some acquaintances during the holidays. I couldn't tell you exactly what we were talking about at first, but by the end of the conversation, my good-natured disposition had taken a turn for the worse.
The topic of the first part of the conversation was typical of all holiday-break discussions. How is college? What are you going to do after graduation and what set cetera. But then the subject changed to business, real estate in specific.
Suddenly, I was an outsider. The conversation kept going, but now I was not a part of it. Neither of the two men came out and said, "Sorry, Carol, we're talking about some complicated business you are doing that we understand as well understand it, though. Their bodies now turned toward each other, and when one man talked, his eyes were directed only toward the other man.
My first reaction was disbelief. I thought someone had sent me through a time warp to the 1950s. I may be at this party, but it had to be 1954. How could this kind of stereotyping, subtle though it may have been, be happening in the 1990s? People have always said I resemble June Cleaver, but this was ridiculous.
Maintaining as much composure as possible, I tried to make some physical gestures — nodding and attempted eye contact — to let these two people know that I indeed fully understood the topic of their conversation and might have something interesting to add.
CHRIS SIRON
RICH CORNELL Managing editor
KANSAN STAFF
General manager, news adviser
Women victimize men, also Why is an advertisement of a woman patting a man's buttocks acceptable while an advertisement showing the opposite side of a woman patting a baby in a babiay tone to people who are disabled? The list goes on and on.
These subtle stereotypes cannot be tolerated nor ignored. In hindsight, I should have let those two men know how hurt and offended I was. Frustration and amusement often allow for stereotyping to slip into the nature it will be certain to make clear my abhorrence for stereotyping.
RICH CORNELL
TOM EBLEN
Carol
Krekeler
Staff columnist
AUDRA LANGFORD Business manager
- Carol Krekeler is a senior majoring n journalism.
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Managing editor
JEANNE HINES
Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number. Writers affiliated with the University of Kansas will not be typed.
Subtle stereotypes, I'm convinced, are the most dangerous of all. Society, more and more, will not accept these stereotypes. Subtle stereotypes have gone underground.
must include class and hometown, or faculty or staff position.
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Sketch
My communication attempts failed, and I walked away.
By David Rosenfield