4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 4, 1996 U E , iC i IT I)tflt 420 Maynard Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michlgan RONNIE GLASSBERG Editor in Chief ADRIENNE JANNEY ZACHARY M. RAIMI Editorial Page Editors NOTABLE QUOTABLE, '(The youth vote is) damn important.' - Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), at the Democratic National Convention last week. Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of the Daily',5 editorial board. All other articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. FROM THE DAILY Risky, raid JIM LASSER csioy...-MMM... YOU WERE JUST GREAT, BABY... SHARP AS TOAST - EHROUGH -TICK AND THIN Iraqi bombing was premature St's an election year. Americans can tell defense of non-Americans because this morning the working men mate the arguments for and women awoke to newscasts announcing Kurds, Clinton's decisions a U.S. missile attack on Iraq. Saddam well. Clinton claims Sadd Hussein is terrorizing his people again, it agreement that ended the seems, and President Clinton is ready to Saddam's staff claims thai reap the political rewards. "productive" - so the argi After all, it worked for then-President and the Iraqis hold that the3 George Bush in 1990 - for a while. Bush Clinton's interpretation. made the mistake of engineering his mini- Clinton and his staff co war too far in advance before the election, educate the the public as t and lost to the nation's current leader. is necessary. First mentio President Clinton has been working a the attack seemed to come one-tracked election scheme: Win the However, Secretary of Republicans over. The attack on Iraq Christopher said in a telev appears to be another step in that direction; terday that the Clinton ad Clinton lacks foreign policy experience, been eyeing Saddam as and this gives him a good opportunity to August. Furthermore, the demonstrate strength. Even Republican given to Saddam on how to presidential candidate Bob Dole will have a sion will not be released to hard time denouncing Clinton's attack on Most of the public is c the familiar bogeyman Saddam - it's an administration has not dot awfully Republican action to take. cate them. Yesterday morning's attack will surely Despite citizens' ten establish Clinton's international libido - around a president in war o . However legiti- protecting the don't juxtapose dam violated the Gulf War. But I their move was ument is circular, y are confused by uld at least try to o why this strike ned on Monday, out of nowhere. State Warren vised speech yes- dministration has early as mid- "private guide" end U.S. aggres- the home public. onfused and the ne much to edu- dency to rally r near-war times, U _h)KNOW YOU WERE THE ONLY ONE CO THALWAY E STOOD i3EHIND ME... YLV Iv.t E1 . LLMAKE IT THRO U THIS ELECTION BECAUSE 2Z KNOW 1YU'LL LOVE ME NO MATTER WtIAT... .E.t3ABY, YOU WANT A C16AKET TE?.. . 00P5. 50 SZRY VIEWPOINT Five years ago: U.S. at war in the Persian Gulf a:ut at the expense of lives. If his reports are accurate, Saddam's F body count as of yesterday morning was .five, with 19 injured. That is five too many to prove that Clinton does not have a for- eign policy weakness. In fact, Clinton's air strike and enlarged no-fly zone raises more questions about his foreign policy judgement. The United States sat dumfounded at human rights vio- lations in China. Then China presumed to s criticize a Taiwanese speaker in the United States - and detained human rights activist -and American Harry Wu. The United States kept its open-door trade policy with China. '?f And now the president is jumping to the y- Clinton's home support - especially from the Democrats, who have been disappointed in him for some time - may be shaky. And foreign support is shakier. Nearly all major countries disapproved of the attack. Several Arab countries denounced the attack. Egypt has yet to comment and Congress and the United Nations have yet to vote on any res- olutions. A French citizen on National Public Radio pointed out that the world no longer approves of violence as a way to solve con- flicts. But Christopher said that Saddam only understands the language of force. So that's the language Clinton will speak, despite its enormous risks. T he United States is at war. President George Bush, despite mixed opinions from citizens around the country, last night authorized an air attack on Iraq and Iraqi-con- trolled Kuwait. On national television immediately after the strike, Bush vowed to con- tinue attempts to forcibly "lib- erate" Kuwait through mili- tary might. No one yet knows the number of casualties, either of the American soldiers or of Iraq and Kuwaiti civilians. Further, no one yet knows how long the war will last, or how many more will die. It is shameful that Bush, while speaking. of peace, would launch an attack with- out first exhausting all possi- ble diplomatic options. Even economic sanctions, which the president assured us would force Saddam- Hussein's hand, have not been given enough time for an ade- quate assessment of their effectiveness. Bush's action has put hun- dreds of thousands of people at risk. He was aided by a U>5.-pressured . United;: Nations resolution, which set Jan. 15 as the arbitrary dead- line for Iraqi withdrawal. The deadline allowed those hun- Editors'note: This editorials ran in the Daily on Jan. 17, 1991, the day the United States declared war on Iraq. In light of the present threat of war in the same region, the review seemed appropriate._ gry for war, like Bush, to abandon dialogue and negoti- ation in favor of aggression. U.. Unfortunately, lamenting last night's attack will not change the fact that the coun- try is at war, nor will it bring, back those people who have already been killed. Though many Americans have already expressed opposition to war, we must now focus our atten-, tion on ways to halt the mili- tary conflict. Even those who were in favor of an attack must now see that the importance of any It is shameful to launch an attack without first- examining all pos- sible diplomatic options. subsequent attack has been diminished; clearly, Bush's, promise of an attack on Iraq lad no :longer been; seen as an,- unsubstantiated threat. Saddam must surely hold no illusions about why U.S. troops have been sent to the Persian Gulf. The United States should halt bombing and give Iraqi troops a chance to withdraw from Kuwait. The United States should also seek to reopen negotiations, confi- dent that Saddam now recog- nizes the willingness of the United States touse force. Ultimately, it will be dis- cussions and dialogue that end the aggression. Bush said he would attack "sooner rather than later." The longer the attacks continue, both by the United States and by Iraq, the more people who will be unnecessarily killed. If Bush means what he said last night to a national television audience, he will demonstrate his commitment to human life with more than rhetoric. Talking, and not vio- lence, is the best way to solve problems. Here in Ann Arbor, people must think of and support U.S. troops, many of whom are our friends or relatives; it is not the soldiers' fault the country is at war. Students and members of the community must also demonstrate their opposition to continued military conflict. There will be a rally at IlIa m. today on the Diag, and anti- war leaders will announce subsequent rallies at that time. Go, and make sure your voice is heard in Washington. Whether we like it or not, the United States is at war. And though anyone can resort to violence, it takes strong- willed people to make peace. Americans must now make it clear we support peace through negotiations, not more killing through war. Mnm ON TAP Rebellion does not come in a can orfrom East Quad E AST QUAD - Coming fro Ann Arbor, I thought I had see every kind of freak that ever walked God's earth. Granola crunch- ers, hipster doo- fuses, raver infants and every other manner of social oddity that hops, crawls or walks. I was not ready for this. It occurred to me the second time I saw * JAMES two guys walking MILLER around, one wear- ing a dog collar and the other holding the leash. It wasn't the collar that dis- turbed me so much. It was the fact that I looked at the guy and thought, "Oh yeah, that's dog collar guy."~ "Dog Collar Guy." I live with "Dog Collar Guy." I will say this: Living in East Quad has taught me quite a bit about the supposed liberal attitude toward peo- ple. I always thought liberals were accepting people, ready to embrace all manner of humanity; crayola hair and septum rings be damned. Much of the style in this neck of the woods is based around rebelling against the notion that different is automatically bad. Unfortunately, this has gone streakin21 all the way across the spectrum to "di - ferent is automatically good." Apparently, prophets of our generation won't be wearing swaddling clothes, but rather jack boots and ska T-shirts. Guess what? The people that got the snot beaten out of them in junior high are now the grand arbiters of taste and culture. Whee. Try this. Find someone wearing a Saran Wrap shirt or with pink hair an ask him/her/it why they choose to loo this way. Invariably, they will respond with a look of dibelief, as if the answer was painfully obvious and you are a huge golf pants-wearing, Perry Cuomo-loving, station wagon-driving dork for not grabbing it immediately. The answer is painfully obvious. In lieu of actual original thought, which takes brains and time, not Ani DiFranco records and $45 bags of ditch weed, the horribly misguide8 will resort to altering their appearance to whatever attracts the most attention. Apparently, some people are under the impression that rebellion comes from CD jewel cases and bottles of Rit dye. So I don't get lynched in my sleep, let me make this very clear: This is not an indictment of East Quad. Not all of the fair citizens of East Quad are this confused. Not everyone who livesi EQ is an alternateen. But it is impor- tant to realize that the hippie and goth- ic-punk cultures have the same band- wagon tendencies that the Abercrombie and Fitch legions have. Brainless conformity knows no cultur- al boundaries. Style is no measure of a person. The most snotty child of the urban East can put on Birkenstocks, a sundress and toe rings and be considered a loving, accepting hippie when really she suc4 ceeds only in looking like something Janis Joplin threw up. Everything has politics; try buying hippie clothes at Urban Outfitters for less than $50, if you don't think so. The social movement on this campus is the insanely paradoxical, "Hey, be a non-conformist like the rest of us." People don't really want everyone to be unique and different. They want to be unique and different, and hav4 everyone else fall into line like little leather-clad sheep. This is more than a complaint about social differences. It's about human nature. Stick around; I think I can prove this. The hippie and freak hordes would have us believe than they are the sole bastions of non-conformity and acceptance left in America. They are not. A cultural movement is a cultur movement; be it hippie, skater punk, raver trash or otherwise. Nobody wants the whole world to live in peace as one big happy family. It's contrary to instinct. We all want to be the botti- savatta in the flowing robes who dic- tates the gospel to the rest of the world. And that's not the way things work. This world has winners and losers, geeks and popular kids. Junior high repeats itself until you are dead. So what's a rebel to do? I don t know. Try reading. Jack Kerouac is not still a best selling author because of his cool Gap khakies. A nation of peo- ple didn't follow Lenin into almost 80 years of collectivist silliness because Off to the races y. ., .Dole, Clinton must discuss substantive issues he conventions are over, Labor Day irresponsible tax cuts. He then selected his ,' T has passed, and the presidential candi- long-time rival, Jack Kemp, as his running pdates are off on the rough and rocky road to mate, further solidifying his election-year the White House. Along the way, the candi- conversion to supply side. dates will make promises and levy attacks Thus far, Dole has not told voters exact- against each other, but they must not forget ly how he will pay for the tax cuts. He has _the American people deserve a campaign vaguely suggested he will cut discretionary based on issues. spending. However, most economists - With about two months before the elec- and many Republicans - believe he would tion, Bill Clinton looks strong; he appears have to cut Medicare and Social Security to be gliding to a smooth victory. Thus far, funding, something he has promised not to he has set out modest proposals, such as a do. While Dole stumps around the country, targeted capital gains tax cut and new envi- he must not forget that people are listening r ronmental regulations. and not hearing much. y However, the president has failed to utter Four years ago, Ross Perot served a use- r a compelling vision for his next term. In his ful purpose: he helped then-Gov. Clinton acceptance speech last month, he said he and then-President George Bush focus on wanted to be a "bridge to the 21st century." substantive issues, such as the economy, the While the rhetoric may sound good, he has deficit and campaign finance reform. Perot not presented powerful reasons why the is back again this year as the nominee of his electorate should rehire him. newly created Reform Party. However, Instead, he has spent a lot of time telling Perot seems weak in contrast to his appeal A voters to re-elect him so he can protect four years ago. While he will spend a lot of r them against the "radical" agenda set forth time improving his standing in the polls, he by Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole. He was should, at the same time, assume the role he able to reinvigorate his presidency last year had four years ago, by keeping Clinton and by standing firm against Republican-pro- Dole talking about the issues. posed cuts in social programs. However, As the 21st century looms, so does running against "Republican extremism" is bankruptcy for the Social Security and only half the battle - he must offer positive Medicare systems. As Americans become reasons for his re-election as well. more disgusted with the electoral process, j Dole, the Republican candidate, has campaign finance reform is undone. As spent a lifetime preparing for the presiden- American troops are in Bosnia and else- cy, but has spent little time telling people where, the United States has not yet devel- why. His campaign has suffered from poor oped a clear foreign policy for the post Cold communication with the press and a lack of War world. Clinton's questionable missile vision. Last month, in a desperate attempt attack on Iraq has only clouded the United LETTERS POLICY The Michigan Daily welcomes letters from its readers. All letters from University stu- dents, faculty and staff will be printed, space providing. Other materials will be printed at the editors 'discretion. All letters must include the writer name, schoolyear or University affiliation and phone number We will not print any letter that cannot be verified. Ad hominem attacks will not be published. Letters should be kept to approximately 300 words. We reserve the right to edit for length, clarity and accuracy. Longer "Viewpoints" may be arranged with an editor Letters should be sent via e-mail to daily.letters@umch.edu or mailed to the Daily at 420 Maynard St. Editors can be reached at 764-0552 or by sending e-mail to the above address. JOIN THE MICH IGAN DAILY Interested in News? Sports? Opinion? Arts? Photo? Online? Copy editing? Graphics? Come to a mass meeting at 420 Maynard and find out what you can do., Wednesday, Sept. 11 at 7 p.m. " Tuesday, Sept. 17 at 7 pam. - Thursday, Sept. 19 at 7 p.mr.