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Thursday, January 17, 1991 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
War
The United States is at war with Iraq. Although the reasons remain unclear, the goal now is to end it as swiftly as it began and bring our troops home.
The editorial board
Tiananmen massacre
We should remember students who died for peace while the dissidents are brought to trial in China
est we forget
A lone man in a white shirt stood in front of an endless line of army tanks his fist raised in defiance. A watching world marveled at the Chinese Communist party's apparent patience with the pro-democracy demonstration. A peaceful youth revolution gave all people hope for the future. The government eventually erupted and sent students' blood streaming through Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
On June 4, 1989, soldiers, under government orders, opened fire on student protestors holding a peaceful pro-democracy sit-in at Tiananmen Square. Soldiers, who had claimed they were one with the people, shot bullets and tear gas into the crowds, beating anyone who stood in their way. Officials estimated that 5,000 died within a few hours of the initial shooting. Afterward, Chinese government officials denied the deaths, and praised the soldiers for their bravery.
Now, after 19 months of imprisonment, the Chinese dissidents are being brought to trial at the Beijing Intermediate People's Court, only a few blocks from Tiananmen Square. There is no hint of the court's activity except for a simple, handwritten sign outside the door. The government has barred all foreign
diplomats and journalists from the courtroom.
The court has found several dissidents guilty and has sentenced them to prison terms of two to four years.
Many have questioned the timing of the dissidents' trials. The trials began at a time when the world's attention was focused on the Persian Gulf, although the Chinese officials have denied that the trials started at a prejudicial time.
Yuan Mu, China's chief representative, said in a television interview last week that he hoped people would forget the matter.
"I don't much want to mention it — that June 4 disturbance — and I hope people gradually forget it."
Forget it? Humans who die so tragically should not be forgotten. They should be glorified for their commitment to peace. The trials should not pass by unnoticed. In 1989, the Chinese government brought the anger of the world against itself. But what has happened to that anger?
The dissidents fought for freedom in the spirit of youthful idealism. Lest we forget. Lest they have died in vain.
Jennifer Schultz for the editorial board
Armv reserves
Physician breaches contract by not going to gulf
Implicit in the agreement to be a reservist is the understanding that at any moment the nation could become involved in military confrontation.
Becoming a reservist includes, or should include, a realization that the reserves could be called into action at any time.
The past military actions of the United States and the actual preparation that reservoirs undergo should serve as just warning that a day may come when reservoirs may be called to action
It is unfortunate that Kansas City, Kan. physician Yolanda Huet-Vaughn was so short-sighted concerning her decision to become a reservist, especially when her country needed her the most.
Huet-Vaughn is a captain in the U.S. Army Reserve Medical Corps. However, because Huet-Vaughn considers the United States' involvement in the Middle East to be an immoral, inhumane and unconstitutional act, she refuses to serve in Operation Desert Shield.
Huet-Vaughn and those reenging on their responsibilities as reservists should re-examine their principles. In Huet-Vaughn's case, it was OK for the Army to pay for medical school when she needed help. However, when she was called upon to fulfill her part of the contract, she refused
Regardless of whether she thinks the Persian Gulf conflict is moral, she is the one who signed the contract and she is the one who should answer to it. Huet-Vaughn probably did not count on the United States going to war. And she did not plan on being called to duty. But those are the risks that are taken when signing with the reserves.
Huet-Vaughn claims that her actions are supportive of the U.S. troops deployed to the gulf region, and she calls herself a patriot. A true patriot would not turn her back on her country when it needed her. Her support would be better felt by the troops if she fulfilled her contractual responsibility to the reserves.
Brent Maycock for the editorial board
Vietnam War reflected upon as war with Iraq commences
This column first was published Jan. 24, 1973, shortly after the United States began to withdraw its forces from Vietnam.
Mike, the newsstand man, was alone at State and Madison, shivering in the cold night.
"Nah, nobody's been around celebrating," he said. "What's to celebrate?"
The end of war. Mr. Nixon said it on TV, half an hour ago.
He shrugged "That so?" Now
now he care of things in this
country, his life!"
A young couple came around the corner, heads down in the wind. They disappeared down the subway ramp, and the corner was again empty.
It wasn't like 1945, when the end of the war brought a million people downtown to cheer.
It is hard to see the honor.
"Peace with honor." He had to use the wilted phrase that has been with us most of the way. He said we obtained it.
We have just finished 10 years of pounding a little country that most of us hadn't heard of until we were there.
Now the president comes on TV, reads his speech, and without a sound the country sets the clock and goes to bed.
Mike
Royko
Syndicated
columnist
We threw everything, short of The Bomb, at them. At one point we put
And that's as it should be. There is nothing to cheer about this time, except that it is finished. Even the announcement could have been put more simple. Mr. Nixon's efforts to inject glory into our involvement were hollow. All he had to say was that it is finally finished.
more than half a million troops into it. We killed them up close on the ground and from high in the air. We used old-fashioned infantry tactics and modern electronic warfare. We scorched their forests and bombed their cities. Nobody will ever know how many of them we killed.
With all that we got a draw
Before it ended, the word "frag" was introduced into our vocabulary. That's when enlisted men murder their own officers. Drug addiction replaced VD as the GTs' aliment. The police stopped men on trial for murdering civilians; pilots were refusing to drop any more bombs.
After all that,why even talk about honor?
"Let us be proud," he said, "of those who sacrificed, who gave their lives that the people of Vietnam might live in freedom."
More hollow words. Almost 20 years ago another war ended in a draw, and we were told that our boys had died for somebody's freedom. Now the South Koreans live under a dictatorship.
And so will the South Vietnamese. If it isn't communism, it will be some other form of iron rule. They will be told what they can say, write, read, and tell them more than there already. When they step out of line, they will be tossed in jail.
Why kid ourselves? They didn't die for anyone's freedom. They died because we made a mistake. And we don't need to beg, muggians and phrases from other times.
It was a war that made the '60s the most terrible decade in our history. It tore us apart internally. It left many with a aust for revolution, and others with a boredness. We lost young people crossing borders or going to prison rather than fighting.
If we insist on looking for someone's value in this war, then打算让 $M$ 购买。
Maybe we finally have the painful knowledge that we can never again believe everything our leaders tell us. For years they told us one thing while they did another. They said we were winning while we were losing. They said we were going in. They said the end was near when it was far.
Maybe the next time somebody says that our young men must fight and die somewhere, we will not take their word that it is for a worthy man. Maybe we will ask them to spit in our nose, nice and slow, and nice and clear.
And maybe the people in power will have learned that the people of this country are no longer willing to go abroad, having their questions answered first.
I hope we have learned these things, because there is nothing else to show for our longest war. If we haven't, then we are as empty and as cold as the intersection of Madison and State.
- Mike Royko is a syndicated columnist with the Chicago Tribune.
LETTERS to the EDITOR
Soviets' timely attack
The morning after Congress committed our national attention to what the Soviet Union knows from Afghanistan will be years of urban guerrilla holy war (for the United States in the Middle East). Soviet leaders know that if we are committed to a long-term war and attempted occupation of Iraq, our resources won't be available to help
stabilize the democratic movements in Eastern Europe. So what's to lose? Depriving Iraq of a rudimentary nuclear weapon is an unbelievably bad trade for the return of hardliners to the Kremlin or continued chaos in the only other country able to turn our world into rubble.
I think the timing was no accident. The Soviets also know we need their support to keep the United Nations sanctions operating and spare parts from arriving in Baghdad. It may come out in historical perspective that Lithuania was afraid for support. It would be ironic if we ve traded Lithuania's new democracy for a return of the monarchy in Kuwait.
Bush's policies skewed
Bill Dorsett Manhattan, Kan.
■ You said, "We seek the immediate, unconditional and complete withdrawal of all Iraqi forces from Kuwait. My question is why should the U.S. use itself in this conflict between two Arab nations? And if we don't want to win, did the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq inform Saddam Hussein that "We have no opinion on Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait."
You have sent about 500,000 American men and women to Saudi Arabia, and it appears that your intention is that they kill Arabian people. You know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know why to know the following reasons:
Dear President Rush
■ You said, "Second, Kuwait's legitimate government must be restored to replace the puppet regime." My question is, why is it in the interest of the United States to replace one dictator with another?
You said, "And third, my administration . . . is committed to the security and stability of the Persian Gulf." My question is, what stability? The Middle East has been one of the most turbulent areas on earth for decades.
■ You said, "And fourth, I am determined to protect the lives of American citizens abroad." The hostage situation could not have justified your decision to deploy
'My question is why should the U.S. involve itself in this conflict between two Arab nations?'
troops. Mr. Bush, because any U.S. citizens held against their will were not taken as hostages until after U.S. troops arrived.
In November 1990 you warned that Hussein might be able to develop a nuclear device much sooner than had been estimated. The truth of the matter is that such a threat is not imminent. As one intelligence official quoted by Time magazine said, "You can't bomb
their enrichment or weapons fabrications plants, because they don't exist."
If the above excuses are phony, why are you so eager to go to war? You provided the real reason in a subsequent speech before a joint session of Congress on September 11, 1990, in which you stated: "Out of these troubled times our fifth objective is to erase the energy. We are now in sight of a United Nations that performs as envisioned by its founders."
Why don't you bring the U.S. forces home where they belong and stop entangling the United States in foreign conflicts?
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By David Rosenfield