4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, February 18, 2003 OP/ED Uble £wlttpud Ig 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 letters@michigandaily.com EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 LOUIE MEIZLISH Editor in Chief AUBREY HENRETTY ZAC PESKOWITZ Editorial Page Editors Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. NOTABLE QUOTABLE * (It is pretty. It is also very inconvenient and very expensive." - New York Gov. George Pataki on the approximately 20 inches of snow that fell on New York yesterday, according to the Associated Press. Cp*ZY our ABC.. JOEL HOARD AND SCOTT SERILLA STIci FIGURES ARE AwESOME I Lft E L j WWM rvo (au "tEit ____________________________________a wmTE CVA'., sAh aets s ,K 144bW HAVE AMI GAlm R .1 &5~e,. AI PROVIbs A S~ i NV~4a11 &asr .FaAkYKISS. "g 4b Met^A TifeS Fighting terror with terror AUBREY HENRETTY NEUROTICA ot wanting to appear out of touch with the terrorist community, President Dubya punched the national ter- ror-o-meter up from "Fear of God" to "Duck and Cover" nearly two weeks ago. Yes, it's time to renovate those dusty old fallout shel- ters, because the terrorists are here, and they've got four kilos of anthrax with your office building's name on them. They've got dirty bombs by the dozen, slated for arrival - any second now - at your apartment complex, place of worship, child's school and nearest national monument. Hey, friend, you're looking a little peaked. Don't worry; there's nothing you can do to help except place blind, unwavering faith in the president. And report any sightings of bipedal swarthy and/or bearded men to the local authorities, just to be on the safe side. And put that gas mask away; you look ridicu- lous. You need to get out of the house. Buy a car. Go to Disneyworld. Invest in the- stock market, for God's sake; that'll show 'em. In the meantime, your progressive and even- handed government is going to blow a small crater in the Middle East. For freedom, that is. And safety and love. Really. The problem with this apparently imminent military strike is not that Saddam Hussein isn't an evil dictator or at the very least a sneaky brute; it's not that terrorism isn't terrifying or that there aren't plenty of terrorists around. He is, it is and there are. The problem is that the television news media are devouring the Bush administration's every word, pausing only to let out the occasional satisfied belch. I don't care how good they think his reasons for war are; the way they've dismissed the opposition entirely, attempted to scare U.S. citizens into silent submission and set the linguistic stage for war deeply upsets me. The networks have been regurgitating pres- idential metaphors ever since Bush the Lesser declared war on terror. Not "terrorism" or "ter- rorists," but terror itself. I laughed when I first heard Bush say it because I thought it was a mistake, a TelePrompter typo or a typical Dubya-style grammatical blunder. Isn't that cute? He forgot the suffix. Ha, ha. Idiot. But as the months went by and no one bothered to correct him, it became increasingly clear that declaring war on a concept, a powerful emo- tion, was exactly what Bush intended to do. Keep the public on edge, convinced that the United States is teetering on the edge of chaos and the only way to make the world safe again is to fight this abstraction to the death (of mili- tants and civilians alike). Striking terror into the hearts of citizens is a sinister, cowardly and sadly effective politi- cal strategy. That's why I'm so excited to see that all these verbal scare tactics are finally coming back to haunt the Bush administration and its media subsidiaries. A few Washingto- nians start hoarding duct tape and bedsheets, and like magic, Homeland Security (gag) Sec- retary Tom Ridge speaks out, prompting the following CNN.com headline: "Ridge: No need to panic over terror alert." I jump out of my chair and point triumphantly at the moni- tor. No need to panic over terror alert? Ha! Fear campaign working a little too well, is it? Stum- bling all over your own rhetoric, eh? Before long, the American public is going to realize that no government can prevent terrorism any more than it can prevent rape or murder, and then you'll really be in trouble. Certain subversive members of the media have already caught on. During one prominent network's 17-second coverage of last month's D.C. protest, a bold young reporter tried to suggest that the protesters might not be a bunch of nose-picking, anti-American hippie- wannabes with no understanding of world affairs, that perhaps they had spent a good deal of time weighing the pros and cons of war and decided they wanted no part of it. The anchor - apparently not so interested in healthy debate - cut off the reporter as though she were attempting to say "fuck" or "the president is wrong" on live feed. He panicked, changed the subject ("Hmm, er, yes, very interesting report, thank you (nervous chuckle). Ahem. And now, some three-year-old footage of WTO protestors getting tear-gassed in Seat- tle") and cut to commercial. What a shame. The word "terror" used to mean "fright," "alarm" and "horror." I don't know how Tom Ridge and the rest of the gang would re-define it if they could, but for now, I wish they'd real- ize that creating more of something is not a very good way to rid the earth of it.- 9 0 Henretty can be reached at ahenrett@umich.edu. VIEWPOINT War in Iraq is so 12 years ago BY ARI PAUL The real question that decides the 'should we attack Iraq' dilemma is whether or not Saddam Hussein is a real threat. News flash: The answer is no. Like many of the world's leaders, Sad- dam is guilty of ruthless genocide against an indigenous population within his own coun- try and of illegal aggression toward innocent neighbors. Like other world leaders, he has built a regime devoid of a real democratic process and civil liberties, and he has direct- ed the wealth of the country to the ruling elite, leaving much of his citizens to starve. This is a scenario we have seen in countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. We have even seen some of it here. But while the Bush administration uses Saddam's past and the possibility of owning weapons of mass destruction (that he proba- bly bought from the United States during the war with Iran in the 1980s) as indicators that he would plan to harm American citizens or American interests abroad, a deeper under- standing of Saddam's motives makes this idea unconvincing. Saddam has never committed an atrocity on ideological principle. He has only used such means for political and economic strength to stay in power. For example, he gassed innocent Kurds because their inde- pendence movement posed a threat to his stability. The invasion of Kuwait was to control oil and secure more commodities for Iraq. All of this resulted in Saddam holding a tighter grip on power. However, an attack against America, would not further his interests in keeping power. He knows that if he were to strike, America and its allies would most certain- ly defeat his defunct military, topple his regime and very possibly kill him. Unless he has suddenly become suicidal, such motivation would be a complete reversal to how Saddam has conducted power for his entire reign. We have also heard rumors that Iraq sup- ports al-Qaida. While American officials can only verify this by proving that Mohammed Atta once had lunch with an Iraqi, there are other regimes that have more acutely support- ed terrorism. For one, Saudi Arabia, our ally, has had more proven al-Qaeda involvement than Iraq. Furthermore, Saddam's Ba'athist philosophy is strictly opposed to fundamen- talist Islam. He knows that if he strengthens that movement, it will be a threat to his sta- bility as well, and he cannot afford that. Sadly, even our closest allies have been complicit in sponsoring terrorism. Even the United States has aided terrorists, including al-Qaida and the Taliban, by granting them money, intelligence, training etc. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder proposed the well-thought out and histori- cally-accurate argument that attacking America would not be in Hussein's inter- ests. While he brought a clear political analysis to argue against war, the only response the Bush administration could come up with were a huff and an insulting remark about Schroeder acting on behalf of "Old Europe." How mature. There is no altruism involved in the argument for this war. Pro-war advocates base it on a threat that does not exist, for they are either not intelligent enough to understand this logic or blinded by national- ism. Whether the real reasons for war are oil, a distraction from a falling economy or a need for higher ratings for CNN and Fox News, it will be unnecessary motives that will result in our brothers, fathers and best friends returning home in body bags and more innocent Iraqis dying under our guns, bombs and sanctions. Currently, we are living under a Code Orange terrorism alert. Unless this is a false alarm to install a state of fear, the rise in ter- rorist activity is a result of this aggression, which is based solely on the superfluous interests of this administration and its sup- porters. If an attack occurs, it will be evil and unforgivable, however it will be brought on by our arrogance and our fear of a threat that does not exist. Paul is an RC junior and a member of the Daily's editorial board. LETTER TO THE EDITOR Michigan Student Assembly is fighting for a superior Student Legal Services TO THE DAILY: On Friday, the Daily published an editori- al titled Tenants' Time (02/14/03), arguing that the Michigan Student Assembly should prevent the extinction of the Ann Arbor Ten- ants Union. The Daily's editorial comments were uninformed and ignorant of the facts regarding the relationship between MSA and the AATU. Let's clear some things up. First, the AATU is horribly inefficient at providing counseling services to students. Every time the AATU counsels a student, the student body pays $85 to the AATU. This number is actually an improvement; last year, the student body paid $103 for every AATU counseled 45 students per month on average. This year, at the William Monroe Trotter House, the number is exactly the same: 45 students per month. Moving out of the Union has had zero impact on the AATU's services. Third, Student Legal Services is a better place for tenant counseling services. Since February, SLS has agreed to expand its ser- vices to include advice to students on land- lord/tenant issues. And, since SLS is already paid for by students, this presents no addi- tional cost to the student body. Better yet, the lawyers at SLS are actually lawyers, unlike the volunteers at the AATU who come dan- gerously close to the practice of law without a license. SLS can provide better service to more students at lower cost. It's that simple. Fourth, no one on MSA has suggested or wants the AATU to disappear. In fact, MSA has repeatedly asked the AATU to be involved in other projects, like a "rate-your- ing student money on programs which bene- fit students. Spending $85 per email is sim- ply not good enough; MSA should not be criticized for finding a better and cheaper way to help more students with their land- lord/tenant problems. And the AATU, if it truly wishes to help students, must find a more cost-effective way to work with the stu- dent body instead of against it. SARAH BOOT MSA president JOE BERNSTEIN MSA student general counsel FEELING LEFT OUT? NOT FUNNY ENOUGH FOR THE GARGOYLE? 1 THE BOONDOCKS TOM RIDGE SAID THis MORNING THAT A ~ N c i --" "IF NOT YOU,_THENSOMEONE (LOSE I