EDITORIAL
exed its' roilit ry
might with awe orne we ponry
nd tounding technologic I
uperiority. The "victory" w
all the more It ati fying" be­
cau e the ground war wa hort
nd the U.S. casualilie were
"amazingly light."
PRESIDE T BUSH, the
euphoric commander-in-chief,
declared that the U.S. ha final­
ly buried the "Viet Nam
syndrome".
U.S. power reigns supreme
again. Lost in the euphori of
the victory celebration are the
que lion of the necessity nd
morality of the war in the first
place.
As the quote by Martin
Luther King suggest, it is the
mea ure of a great nation that
it uses its power with COMPAS­
SION. MORALITY and SIGHT.
Certainly Saddam Hus ein's
inva ion and occup uo n of
Kuwait and the crimes com­
mitted against the Kuwaiti
people were wrong and clearly
unacceptable to the internation­
al community. But the U.S.
resp"on, e, �,. s,..t�t�H ,...o�t ,.�f
proportion to IraqIs acts of ag­
gression.
cenario"
de cri bed it?
Fin lIy, e mu t
elve nether it nece ary
to brin uch deva t tin
de truction nd de th on the
Iraqi people includin iU
milit ry?
A the
pro ecuted
preci ion nd the round
a initiated ( fter the U.S.
tily ignored the Soviet peace
pian), it bec me incre in ly
cle r th t the U.S. anted to
pun h the Ir qi people and to­
tally humili re Saddam Hu -
ein.
The U.S. w s hell bent on
ending a cle r signal and w rn­
ing that the U.S. i now the
world' only uper power.
Third World nation mu t
play by U.S. pon ored rule
within the "New World Order"
or suffer the arne fate was Sad­
dam Hus ein and Iraq. A terrible
number of c uattles were in­
flicted on the Iraqi people to
make this point.
THE GREAT tragedy of the
war in the Gulf i that
American eem incapable of
seeing beyond "our" casualties.
As the celebration continues
there i little empathy for the
"enemy' and the horrendous
loss of life and suffering which
the victorious American led for­
ce inflicted on a nation of 18
million people who e bellico e
leader commanded a third rate
ilit 'I foree at b t.' 1
I t�lnm a CT a mas-
8ft am .co plere with
world accuse "American char­
acter in action" for creating a
butcher in Baghdad from a
clump of rationalizations,
tereotypes and ethical
bl i nders. Bush's' new world
order'. many claim, is the old
face of global white supremacy
in a new wrapper, ensuring
dominance over the third world
into the next century.
EVEN A haphazard reading
of U.S" History will uncover
.. American Character ill action"
as it openly or covertly put
down non-white efforts to throw
off the shackles of white
up re m ac y, ome African-
Americans now insist. Since
World War II, Korea Guyana,
Guatemala, Chile, � onduras,
Cuba, the Dominican Republic,
Vietnam, Cambedia, EI Sal-
ador, Nicaragua, Grenada, and
Panama have been recipients of
disruptive .f American character
in action." Invaded, occupied,
or manipulated, each were used
to further America's illusion of
invulnerabili ty.
Meanwhil both Arab and
African-Ameri an ob ervers in­
ist, inequities of opportunity
P HA NOTH
250,000 Iraqis ere ounded.
Ho c n e Justify tbis ta·
gering and untbinkable human
c rnage?
Are American immune from
y OD t
ar, but in t proce ,t US.
may bave 10lt itl .oul. 0
parapbra e a p a e fro t
Bible, hat profit a naUoD to
conquer tbe orld and 10 e ita
oul?
ROil Dtulieb serv« II Prul­
tkllt 0/ the llUtitute lor Co -
mUllity Or,lIlIizatioli "lId
Developmellt ill YOM 11,610,.,11,
Ohio. He may be cOlltacted
(216) 746-5741.
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Peering beyond the Per ian Gulf
for non-white in this country
have forced the enlistment of
our best and brightest into a
military that is used primarily to
enforce a ratt t status quo. Fur­
ther, in order to maintain thi
over-representation of non­
whites in harm's way, these sol­
diers and their families are
spoon-fed sanitized versions of
the conflict through a lily­
white, male-dominated news
media.
Bush's justification for
pounding Iraq, liberating
Kuwait and punishing aggres­
sion, was never taken seriously
by some in African-and 'Arab­
American communitie. They
understood that, much like the
Europeans carved up the
African continent in the 1800's
dividing it among themselves,
European designs on the Per­
sian Gulf were naked self-inter­
est. Many Kuwaitis, it has been
reported, sweated out the war in
Cairo nightclubs rather than
fight for what they obviously
recognized wasn't theirs to
begin with.
Upwards of 100,000 nOD­
whites have been killed or
maimed recently in their back-
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By Danny R. Cooks
Correspondent
Prior to Operation Desert
Storm President Bush boasted
that the "conviction and
courage we sec in the Persian
Gulf ... is the American charater
in action." ..
However, a few days after the
start of what military leaders
described as a "virtually flaw-·
less campaign," Bush sputtered
that he had no idea about what
post-war Iraq or the Middle East
would look like. -I have no
._, _j_���.�hat Saddam i thinking,"
he said·,-· ._"- -. ... '.
Diplomats familiar with the
Arab world 'believe Bush knows
exactly what he's doing. Ac­
cording to Marshall Wiley, a
former U.S. envoy to Baghdad,
the Bush administratio.n's
refusal to consult with
diplomats knowledgeable about
the Arab world prior to Desert
Storm was telling. Others
called it racist. "The 'we're
going to kick his ass' approach
is counterproductive" to peace
in the region, Wiley was quoted
I saying prior to the air assault.
Leaders throughout the
It i contr d clion to c
poli e brut lity. e dev t tion e rou ht on Iraq i t e me
v t t on rou ht on Rodney Kin . It c me from the me
motivation, for th arne purpo e and in the me euing.
In Oulf ar, U.S. plane dropped bomb nd hot crui e
i ile at t e Iraqi
population for ix con-
t n ee ithout end
and i thout mercy. The
military told that the
bombi eJ'$ mili a....._. � ........ __
tar ets for military pur­
po , to cut off t upply
route . But never did we
ee th Ir qi army put up
any defe e other than the
cd. Lon after the Iraqi
airforce as rendered
defen cle s, the bomb
rained do n. Now the
women and children of
Iraq who urvived the bombings have no cle n running water,
no electricity. Many f ce tarvation, di e e and death.
The r�ad out of Kuwait to Iraq i littered with vehicles and
bodies bombed they tried to flee. Witne ses y there are no
Inti-aircraft capon mong the st tion wagons, cars and few
military truck trewn along the road. The fleeing Iraqis were
defen eless under the pray of bombs. Thousand -died:-
I the exces 'American military force any different than the
exce s police violence? Both spring from the attitude of supe­
riority. Both find their
root in the ability to see
some people as less than
human. The "we'll kick;
your butt" mentality of the
American Rambo's
manifested itself in the
desert of Saud! Arabia as
clearly as in the streets of
Los Angeles. The tone was
set in the White House.
I
�. J Int
; • t ."
even tal with Saddam
Hu_ss�in- n�t t� mention
pronounci ng his name cor-
rectly - portrayed perfectly the white male superiority to
which Blacks and women work continuously to sensitize
America.
The very r ct that there was an expression of outrage over the
Rodney King beating is tribute to the long struggle by Blacks
to educate America about racism, violence, and jusuce.But the
struggle continues. Now it must be extended to U.S. foreign
.policy. Racism, Imperialism. Two sides of the same coin, H.
Rap Brown aid it in the 60's, "Violence is as American as apple
pie.- ,
Blacks, who have been the target of that violent history at
home, have brought the country a great distance toward the
truth. The frequency and i�tensity of attacks on people of color
abr��� -G.re�ada, Pana�a, Nicaraga, EI Sal ador, Libya, Iraq
- IS antenslfyang. We must work as hard at educating America
bout racisr violence -abroad.
yard for no other reason tha6 to
further white supremacy. d oil
companies. A Busb official in
the energy department made no
apologie for Exxon 1990
fourth-quarter profits of $1.56
billion-up 121 percent:
"Whether we .like it or not, the
world economy still runs on
oil," William Ramsay said.
ldan
Many of my friends
were silenced
by advocates of nonviolence;
an older generation of .
people committed to fals�
love.
All my role models were
bru t lly slain
by animal with European
names:
beasts with burdens such
as false pride,
who are hurting deep
down inside;
humans quite like you and me
yet, out of touch and do not abe
we have a common destiny:
All of my heroes
were murdered
because of actions
that furthered
the arrival of the hour
of the reign pf Black Power­
the beckoning of the day
,our enemies start to pay­
the coming of the year. ,
we collect for every te�-
the dawning of the decade
when dues are at last paid­
the entr�nce onto the stage
of the final act of r ge,
and the flouri hing of a time
when we use our
backs nd minds
to make ju tice prevail
where aw and order fail • •
Neither our ilence or
anton death
can provide evil with
extra breath
of life among God's
choson one
cause Hi will hall be done,
0,0 earth as up bove ...
and it i truly love.
- A REAL-LOVER