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Wednesday, October 13, 1993
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
Clinton right to pressure China with nuclear test
We believe that President Clinton is correct in preparing to resume U.S. nuclear testing in response to Chinese nuclear tests. Early last
week, China ignored international objections and tested a nuclear device in its northwest desert. President Clinton responded quickly and asked that the U.S. Energy Department prepare for a resumption of nuclear tests within the next year.
We, along with President Clinton, think that China's refusal to respect the international moratorium on nuclear testing, to which the United States and every other nuclear power subscribes, is regressive and reprehensible. Just as China emerges from economic isolation, its antagonistic attitude threatens long-term stability in East Asia.
Clinton's response is an effort to check this attitude and ensure peace for the region and the world. Although we certainly hope that the issue can be resolved without new U.S. nuclear tests, all political and diplomatic resources must be used to combat the destabilizing force that China could represent. Clinton's declaration is the most immediate response available, and we hope that China is listening.
CHRIS REEDY FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Perot's NAFTA ideas unfounded, dangerous
Don't believe the anti-North American Free Trade Agreement publicity blitz. Ross Perot and his supporters' accusation that NAFTA is a "job killer" is dangerous and false.
No economist will support that free trade is detrimental to a nation. The United States, Canada and Mexico all will benefit from NAFTA. It will create better economies in all nations. And better economies mean more jobs—not fewer.
Perot's credibility as an expert on this issue comes solely from his billionaire status. For many Americans, Perot's money clouds his political motives.
Before listening to Perot, look at who is behind the megaphone. Perot's goal of defeating Clinton's free trade plan is in his best interest, not the nation's.
TERRILYN McCORMICK FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
U.S. needs to forego Aidid capture
A year ago, Somalia was a staing country. Today, it bleeds.
A year ago, Somalia was a voting country. Today it feeds. The Americans who stormed ashore as saviors, now find themselves cast as destroyers. There is more than enough misunderstanding and anger on both sides of the emerging conflict in Somalia. Unless action can be taken quickly to cap the violence, the United Nations' operation there will be doomed.
At the root of the problem lies American straightforwardness. It is the "good guy, bad guy" confrontation.
The U.S. and the U.N. are being drawn into a vortex of violence that will resolve nothing and may lead to an enforced withdrawal of all U.N. peacekeepers, leaving an even worse mess than they found when they arrived.
The violence is largely confined to the area around Mogadishu where Gen. Mohamed Farrah Aidid's faction is strongest. Elsewhere in the country, the aid effort continues to be effective.
No one should doubt that the Americans only want what is best for the people of Somalia. But they are allowing themselves to be maneuvered into doing the very worst. The taking of American hostages will only inflame passions at home. This will lead to pressure for abandoning the mission and wishing a plague on all of Somalia's houses.
It is time to put away the big stick and start talking. Withdrawing the wanted poster and the bounty on Aidid would be a useful first step.
Arab News
Jiddah, Saudi Arabia
KANSAN STAFF
KC TRAUER, Editor
JOE HARDER, CHRISTINE LAUE Managing editors
TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser
BILL SKEET, Systems coordinator
AMY CASEY Business manager
AMY STUMBO Retail sales manager
Assistant to the editor ... J.R. Clairborne
News ... Stacy Friedman
Editorial ... Terrilyn McCormick
Campus ... Ben Grove
Sports ... Kristi Fogler
Photo ... Klip Chin, Renae Knoosber
Features ... Extra Wolfe
Graphics ... John Paul Fogel
JEANNE HINES
JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser
Business Staff
Campus sales mgr      Ed Schager
Regional sales mgr    Jennifer Porter
National sales mgr    Jennifer Evenson
Co-op sales mgr     Blythe Focht
Production mgr     Jennifer Blowey
Marketing director  Kate Burgeses
Marketing director  Shelley Floode
Creative director  Brian Fuoco
*settled mgr        Janice Dave
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 must include class and hometown, or faculty or staff position. Guest columns should be typed, double spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be photographed. The Kansasans should the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be brought to the Kansas newroom. 111 Staffer-Flint Hall.
Graffiti signals unrest, answers save the world
I have saved the Earth. Through secret keeping skills I learned in middle school and procrastination skills I learned right here at the Big U. I saved your butt. Don't thank me just yet. Don't you at least want to know how I did it first?
See, it's like this. I was outside Lindley Hall a couple of weeks ago, and I was looking down, and I saw an astonishing spectacle. On the sidewalk had been stencilled probably 20 cows, each with two or three Greek letters on its side, in spray paint. They were lined up on the sidewalk there, each with its nose in the rump of the next, and I supposed this was probably some graffiti meant as a slur to fraternities and sororites. Everything took on a different meaning, however, after I had taken a couple more steps and saw what else was spray painted on the sidewall: "Free Palestine."
Then it was clear that I was not dealing with a simple case of anti-Greek graffiti, but with something far bigger, far more dangerous, far more insidious. I was dealing here with Satanic Graffiti Writers From Outer Space.
STAFF COLUMNIST
"Yes," I thought, "it's obvious that this is not spray paint at all, but burn marks put here so that we on Earth may be forewarned that the Satanic Graffiti Writers From Outer Space (SaGWFOS) have been watching us, and are not happy with the situation in the Middle East. And who can blame them? Sure, they don't live there, but there's a lot of prime graffiti space there, and they probably don't want us humans messing with it anymore."
I sat down on the sidewalk to get a
closer look, maybe get some samples to take back to the lab, and the more I sat there looking at the symbols, the more it all fell into place. The SaGWFOSN didn't like the situation in the Middle East, so they came to KU's closest connection with the heavens, Lindley Hall, home of the Tombaugh Observatory, and left a message on our cosmic answering machine when they got no answer. The message, of course, said this: "If you don't get something done in the Middle East, we will take all your cattle and brand them with Greek letters so that you will be confused and not know which ones are whose anymore because you are not used to Greek letters." Having deciphered the message, I understood why they had come to Kansas to leave the message. They obviously didn't have the technology or the know-how to do anything other than re-brand cows, and thought their threat would be most effective in Kansas, whose residents are known to be, without exception, cow lovers.
This conclusion reached, I decided I'd better get right to the *Kansan* newsroom and write this whole thing up so as to get the warning out to the
rest of the no doubt anxious and befuddled public. I was sidetracked, however, by something else very important which I can't remember right now. By the time I had the opportunity again to sit down and write the warning that would save the Earth from certain cow re-branding, I had thought about the situation a little bit more, and it's a lucky thing I did. You see, that was exactly what the SaGW-FOS wanted me to do. They obviously had new cow re-branders and wanted to try them out, so they left the message in hopes that I would tell everyone else and they would get anxious and all the commotion would cause Yassir Arafat to lose sleep, and he would be tired and grumpy at the peace talks and this would cause a huge fist fight over whose glass of water was whose and an agreement would not be reached, and the SaGW-FOS would have an excuse to rebrand all our cows.
So, being the responsible citizen I am, I sat on it until everything had been settled at the talks, and even waited a while after that just to be sure. Then, the other day, I went back to Lindley Hall to look and make sure I had the message right (boy, would the SaGWFOS be mad if I screwed up the message), and found nothing but a blank sidewalk. Slapping myself on the forehead, I thought, "Of course it's gone! Peace in the Middle East means their little plot is foiled. I've saved the Earth!"
You're welcome.
Ryan McGee is a Worland, Wyo,
sophomore.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Capital punishment not a fair deterrent
In response to Anne Bailey's Sept. 30 column regarding capital punishment, she makes an appealing but idyllic answer that only works part of the time.
Bailey asserts that capital punishment is a "fair" deterrent for committing crime. But it is fair when a Black criminal gets sent to the electric chair for the same crime that a white criminal can more often than not plea bargain for a lesser penalty? Is it fair that the rape and murder of
a middle class white woman carries the death penalty while the rape and murder of a Hispanic or Indian woman carries a penalty of life imprisonment? Is it fair that those who can't afford better legal help in a criminal trial go to the chair while somebody who can afford better representation can plea down the same crime.
Bailey obviously believes that the reinstatement of the death penalty is a true test for sufficient guilt and looks impartially on who is being tried. She should think again.
Nobody is weeping over the plight
of imprisoned convicts. But too often it seems that the death penalty, when used, is more or less society's way of getting rid of its dregs rather than serving justice. Suppose the aforementioned who can't afford good legal representation are innocent, then what? Since capital punishment is the cruel and unusual punishment that it's supposed to be, shouldn't there be tight scrutiny on this method of justice? I'm sure that "Discovery Journal" thought so.
Robert Dipaling
Topeka senior
STAFF COLUMNIST
ANNE BAILEY U.S. soldiers can't afford to cure all world's ills
Is Somalia our problem? Almost a year ago the UN, with the help of American and other foreign soldiers, attempted to feed the starving people of Somalia. It was a humanitarian effort that seemed gracious at the time. Because it was a dangerous area threatened by vicious warlords and their followers, a relatively small group of soldiers was sent to help in the distribution of food and supplies.
But that was a long time ago and American soldiers are dead, a particular warlord has spurned horns and now carries a pitch fork, and their is still no clear-cut mission in regards to the whole issue.
The success of Desert Storm is partly attributed to a stated mission with certain objectives that was followed flawlessly by a well trained armed forces. Not to mention the importance of the support of the American people and the fact that American interests were involved.
So what are we doing in Somalia? There are no interests other than humanitarian, and I don't think helping a country eat is worth soldiers dying. One man may be saved, but another is killed.
I won't pretend I know all the issues surrounding Somalia, but I do know what I see on television. I will never forget the image of a dead soldier being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu. The man had a broken hand cuff on one off his hands which confirmed the fact that he was tortured to death. Does this sound like a people we want to save?
The fact is: the game has changed. It is no longer a humanitarian effort and that fact will lead us into deeper trouble. Clinton continues to skirt the issue and the only definite decision he was made to declare an official out-of-country date. Now, Aidid can just lay low until March, when forces leave and regain power. He offered a cease-fire and why not? He just has to get along with American forces long enough for them to leave.
So, where does the nation go from here? We need a mission, we need objectives, and we need a goal that is clearly stated in order for our soldiers to succeed, and come home alive.
As of Monday, Oct 11, 15 American soldiers have died in Somalia. The forces that have been sent are a necessary group that are crucial for the safety of the soldiers already in the country. But the President and Congress either need to pull out all forces now, or send in soldiers with straight forward objectives so they can solve them, and get the hell out.
America can't afford to be the world's cure-all or mother. What has to be understood is that the United States is the central power of this world, and along with that comes obligations. But when do we say no? If we continue to be sucked into every problem countries can't seem to solve on their own, America won't have enough money or lives to solve its own problems. As a power, we can not ignore the world, but realistically we can not help them all. I can see hungry people outside my door. We don't need to go half way around the world to feed starving people.
Anne Bailey is a Denver sophomore majoring in psychology.
University of Mars
by Joel Francke
Ya see, there has been a new sin added to the original seven deadly sins. That new sin being
"procrastination"
But due to Dankes law of symbolic retribution (as you sinned so you are punished)
We in hell have decided to put off your punishment indefinitely.
wow, there is something good to be said about procrastination