Page 4--Sunday, January 27, 1980-The Michigan Daily Gbe StEigan iai1o Ninety Years of Editorial Freedom Afghan invasion is a message about shifts in world alliances Vol. XC, No. 96 News Phone: 764-0552 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan L Carter's C N POKER TERMS, the Kremlin has put all of its cards on the table in Afghanistan, trying to force President Carter to show his hand. They know that all the cards are stacked against the Carter ad- ministration in the Persian Gulf-Afghanistan is on the Soviets' own border, while the U.S. is half a world away. The only trumps the president has in response are an Olympic boycott, grain, -and a technology embargo.. But now, President Carter, taking under-the-table cues from his national security advisor, has reached into the deck and pulled out the needed ace to complete his hand. Carter is playing the China card. In this deadly superpower game of high-stakes poker, the decision to sell rilitary support equipment to the Chinese suddenly introduces a new partner into the balance. By building bridges to the Chinese, we are, in ef- fect, playing the hand that the 'Soviets ,fear most-opening a second front in .the cold war by building a new alliance : with the one enemy the Kremlin dreads even more than the U.S. Carter had kleen reluctant to "play the China card" earlier on, back when the U.S./China dialogue was first t opened and when the United States had hoped for improved cultural and ' technological tieswavith Peking without : broadening the Cold War into a three- ring circus. But by their naked I omen and A LTHOUGH REGISTRATION for possible draft is not an ap- propriate plan for the country at this time, if such a registration program is enacted; it shuild certainly include women. . It is very likely that Congress will go along with President Carter's call for a draft registration program. Carter has not yet specified if he will recommend that women be included in , his registration proposal; he is expected to make his position clear in his report to Congress due in about two weeks. As president, Carter . has the authority to order men to register, but the registration of women will require congressional approval. It is hoped that the Congress will not choose to exempt those eligible for registration merely on the basis of sex. There is no question that women deserve equal rights and that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) r should be ratified to affirm and clarify those rights. But with equal rights ° comes equal responsibility, and this responsibility extends to defense of the country. hina card aggression in Afghanistan, the in- vasion of a sovereign state, the Soviets' themselves have drawn the line by demonstrating that they will not play by the acknowledged rules of accepted international behavior. So, Jimmy Carter, suddenly realizing the Russians were there, has been forced to include the Chinese in the world balance of power. China has been granted most favored nation status, ang the administration will begin the sale of military support equipment (trucks, communications gear, and early-warning radar). It is important now to continue building bridges to Peking, in the wake of Russian aggression and the very real threat to Persian Gulf oil. The world has, in effect, returned to the old Cold War, except this time the U.S. can demonstrate that Western democracies can ally with communist countries when the enemy is a threat to civilized, peaceful coexistence. The difference between this cold war and the one of the 1950s is that this confron- tation is not between East and West, but, rather, between the naked bar- barism that an expansionist Russia represents on the one side, and the nations respecting self-determination and the sovereignty of all states on the other. The United States is fortunate to have China, a played feared by the Soviets, as its ally in the poker game of international politics. re gstration This is not to say that women should necessarily serve in combat units if a war breaks out: Such a question need not be answered at this time. However, there is no reason that women cannot and should not serve in the armed for- ces, and this fact has been recognized in recent years by the military bran- ches. Women's leaders and ERA proponents are generally opposed to any registration or draft program for either men or women. But if a selective service program were initiated, most say that women should be inchded Phyllis Schlafly, the leader of the ERA opposition movement, maintains, "Carter's proposal proves what we've been saying for the last seven years, that the ERA proponents want to draft women and treat them just like men in the military." Schlafly has her logic backwards. It's not that ERA supporters want to "draft women and treat them just like men in the military." Rather, ERA af- firms that women are equal to men, and the logical and fair consequence of that equality is service to defend the country. The sledge-hammer approach that the Soviet Union wielded against the former Amin government in Afghanistan has shaken the world's geopolitical balance of power. And that is precisely what it was meant to do: oust an overly brutal Soviet client gover- nment, and at the same time send a resoun- ding message to Washington and Peking that Moscow is unhappy with the emerging shift in world politics. THIS DUAL ASPECT of the Afghanistan invasion recalls the sudden Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in August, 1978, when hun- dreds of thousands of Soviet troops were airlifted into Czech airports within a matter of days, all for the purpose of ousting a liberal Czech leader. Then, as now, a much lighter touch at far less cost in world public opinion could have achieved the political aims of the Soviet Union. But in both cases, the massive nature of the invasions was dictated by broader con- siderations involving Soviet relations with the big powers. In the months preceding the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, U.S.-Soviet and Chinese- Soviet relations were worsening. The U.S. was moving toward development of an Anti- Ballistic Missile system that could have nullified the Soviet missile deterrent against the U.S. And just one week before the in- vasion, the U.S. successfully flight-tested a multiple warhead, thus greatly increasing its offensive nuclear capability. In the Far East, the Soviets and Chinese were rapidly building up frontier forces that led to a shooting mini- war in March of the following year. THUS, THE SOVIETS' intent in the massive occupation of Czechoslavakia was two-pronged. It aimed to oust the Dubcek regime, but also to force the central geopolitical issue of the time: real detente, or back to the cold war. Just as in 1968, U.S.-Soviet detente has been coming apart in recent months. The U.S. has been accusing the Russians of pushing a military modernization program that istilting the balance heavily in favor of the Warsaw Pact forces And the Soviets accuse the U.S. of upping its military posture through the big new MX missile program, creation of a Mid- dle Eastern strike force and a new Indian Ocean 5th fleet,and especially,athe NATO decision to install Pershing and cruise nuclear missiles in Western Europe. Par- ticularly unnerving to the Soviets-who have always been more concerned by political than strictly economic or military factors-was the unexpected support for the NATO missile decision by West Germany's Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, with whom the Soviets have been attempting to reach separate accom- modations. But these destabilizing developments alone probably would not have moved the Sovietsto the point of carrying out so massive an in- vasion. It took more-and there was more-striking the Russians right in their political solar plexus. WHAT TIPPED THE balance was the recent swing in the triangular balance that governs U.S .Sino-Soviet relations. Sino- Soviet relations have been worsening since the breakdown of the Moscow talks last November. And-even more alarming to the Soviets-U.S.-China relations have been evolving towards what looks increasingly like a de facto military alliance, despite Secretary of State Cyrus Vance's denials. Since 1959, only one power in the world has upset, frightened and confused the Soviet Union, and that is China. It is the spot of irrationality in an otherwise cautious a n d c a lc u l a tin g Soviet foreign policy. China has been an unsettling factor for the Soviet Union in many ways: on the geopolitical level, on the problem of border tensions, and lately over Afghanistan. Even sin ce the Taraki coup in Afghanistan in April, 1978, the Soviet Union has accused the Chinese and the Americans of abetting and aiding Afghan rebels along the Afghan- By Franz Schurman Pakistan border. Moreover, with the com- pletion of a new highway from Chinese Sinkiang scross the Karakorams into Pakistan, it is possible to drive overland from Peking to the Indian Ocean, passing close by the Afghan frontier. BUT IT IS not the economic nor the military aspects of the road that worry the Soviets-its capacity to carry traffic is limited. It is its political significance. The road symbolizes the fact that the Chinese regard their alliance with Pakistan of central importance. For many years,. the Chinese have been slowly weaving a belt of de facto alliances with Pakistan, Iran (before the Islamic Revolution), and Egypt-all designed to form an arc of containment against the Soviet Union's southern flank. The U.S., meanwhile, from Moscow. Aside from the Soviet anxi about so strange a revolution as that in Ira, there is the Soviet's fear that the CENTO are, once conceived as hemming them in bat gradually viewed as a means of stabilizirg the region, has become fluid and uncon- trollable, and nothing so terrifies the control- minded Soviets as a situation out of contr . And no revolution in recent times has been, deliberately or not, so fluid and uncoil- trollable as the groundswell rising of Islamic Iran. THE IRANIAN Revolution is not a simp power vacuum caused by the collapse of one strong regime and ensuing chaos. It is a pulsating force sparking flames of Islamic revolt and consciousness in other countries, notable Afghanistan, where the diverse anti- Kabul factions at least agree of their Islamic identity. The fact that there is no functioning government in Teheran unnerves all powers that have dealings with Iran, including the Soviet Union. Ar rn~t' CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTER Huang Hua assures the Afghan refugees last week that hisW country will send relief supplies in view of their sufferings at the hands of the Soviet-installed regime in Kabul. Many believe the U.S. and China are forming much closer ties partly in response to the Soviet invasion. relied on its own alliances, embodied in CEN- TO, to separate the Soviets from the oil fields of the Persian Gulf. It has been a cardinal principle of U.S.- Soviet detente since the Nixon ad- ministration's opening to China that nor- malization of U.S.-China relations was accep- table, but alliance was not. Secret U.S. breakthroughs on detente with both Moscow and Peking occurred almost simultaneously in December, 1970. No such simultaneous agreements would have been possible without an understanding.,-however tacit-that in no case would the U.S. line up with one against the other. ALL DURING THE Nixon years, the even- handed approach to both Moscow and Peking prevailed. It wavered a little during the Ford years, but not much. Under Carter, it first seemed as if National. Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzesinski's anti-Soviet line would tip the balance, but then U.S.-China relations. were put on the backburner. When diplomatic recognition of the U.S. and China coincided with the fighting between China and Vietnam, it again seemed that an alliance was in the making, but then U.S.-Soviet detente made a comeback with the signing of the SALT II agreement. But in the last few months, something hap- pened to chance all this. And among the many vortices of change, the central historical event is the Iranian Revolution. Iran's 'Revolution not only toppled the Shah. It also cracked the central link in the CENTO arc from Turkey through Pakistan. While the Shah's collapse-a major blow to the U.S.-might have been considered pleasing to the Soviets, in fact there have been no hosannas of acclaim for the Ayatollah However, ever since the Islamic Revolution erupted a year ago with its clear and present danger to all the key foreign interests in the region, the three big powers, the U.S., China, and the Soviet Union, have been drawn deeper into its politics. The U.S., historically never a Middle Eastern power, now has military presence in the Indian Ocean an may son have mainland bases. Chine is aiding the Afghan rebels, and the Soviets claim the U.S. is, too. More importantly, China and the U.S. are clearly acting in closer and closer accord, as witnessed by the "shared in- terests" rhetoric of U.S. Defense Secretary Harold Brown and Chinese leaders, who were meeting in Peking evei as the Russians made the biggest move of all, staking out all of Afghanistan. If the Ayatollah should prove incapable o holding Iran together, even more dangero big power moves could occur-Soviet oc- cupation of Iranian Azerbaijan, U.S. seizure of the oil fields. For the Soviets, the uncontrollable situation in the entire Middle East has been a key fac- tor in pushing the . U.S. into closer collaboration with China, strengthening NATO, and raiding its defense effort. The Soviet strike into Afghanistan, aside from the aim of ousting the Amin regime, can thus be seen as a shrill-if dangerous-warning to t U.S. and CHina to go back to detente or face ' Cold War II. } Franz Schurmann is a professor of history and sociology at the University of Califonia at Berkeley. He wrote this piece for the Pacific News Service. YI'T E I ? S T o T :E 1 ) :1 1 1 : No publicity about rate hike meeting Power r-oM'TNE AJ! 'fl L~oOIC, 5ta ! pow RFgOM" rt'k 4R ~(fb4 aa' -t, r 4 ,,., ' - -- ?ro wuaJR~. I q1GL& 1 /., /I j' ..,. - , /' 'T EXOC'"~ TO .~~ I" To the Daily: While reading Friday's Daily, I found, to my surprise, an article reporting that an open meeting on Thursday night, Jan. 24 to discuss the report of the Single Student Rate Study Committee drew zero participation. Beyond my initial incredulity that students were not interested in a study that would implement a 13.2 per cent increase in their room and board fees, I was distressed that-even though I am president of my House Coun- cil-I had heard nothing about the open meeting. Mosher-Jordan Hall, though representing a small number of students (about 500 residents), is at the center of several of the issues studied by the Rate Study Committee: both weekend con- solidation and water saving measures (low-flow showerheads) were implemented in the building this year. Many may recall that Mosher-Jordan last year was at the hub of the protest against meal con- minutes for the open meeting in November to discuss weekend consolidation will show that the vast majority of opinions voiced were made by Mosher-Jordan residents; dissatisfaction with. the new showerheads, albeit not universal, is widespread within the formitory. I find it hard to believe, therefore, that not even one resident from Mosher-Jordan much less from the entire Residence Halls system, would be interested in the final decisions of the Rate Study Committee. Whether or not the interests exist, it is still the students' prerogative to have access to the report of the Rate Study Commit- tee. The resident tends to. have limited access to the goings-on of the Committee because copies of the minutes and final report are distributed only to staff and House Councils; Mosher-Jordan House Council posts its copy of the minutes, but understandably hs diffizeulty reaching 5d0 show than anything else. At any university, especially one of the size of Michigan, there is a com- munications problem between the adnmiistration and students; that problem, however, does not mean that the administration should not strive to communicate as best it can. Two inconspicuous advertisements in the Daily-one tucked in the lower corner of the Classifieds page one day, and the other sandwiched smong similarly inconspicuous adver- tisements the next-is definitely not an ideal mode of com- munication. In Mosher-Jordan, apparently none of the Resident Advisors nor individual residents were notified of the meeting, and House Coun- cil and its officers definitely received no notice. The Building Director apparently heard something "through the grapevine" before receiving of- ficial notification, but apparently did not treat the matter with munh imnainc and ainwed lit- Advisors, House Councils, and others; and a publicity cam- paign, 2) list the meeting in the University Record calendar or the Happenings column of the Daily, and 3) include a time an place of such a meetin somewhere in the Rate Study Committee minutes and final report. The Rate Study Commit- tee seems to have either chosen the wrong methods of approach, or simply to have ignored them. Since much time and deliberation has already been spent by the. Rate Study Commit- tee in preparing its final report, the open meeting obviousl should not be used to try an change the proposals. Rather, the importance of an open meeting lies in its role of providing the Committee with a wider context for its report by guaging student reaction, while simultaneously offering students an informative and educational opportunity. Speaking for the students that my House Council represents, I'