40 4A - The Michigan Daily - Friday, November 21, 2003 OP/ED Ulie £fIktmz aUtad 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 Use your loaf, have another slice." - The Federation of Bakers' slogan to promote British Bread month, launched to counter the Atkins effect that is believed to have caused a reduction in bread consumption, as reported Thursday at Independent.co.uk. 1w-- U mw-I I SAM BUTLER THE SOAPBOX a,',,1 ;:,, v _,11t s . a, Tyr 1 1953 II I t f s y 4 2003 No o Goh' - - ge-1- wtiacs +ed , t I I The stir of echoes DANIEL ADAMS I WIN he day after the deadly suicide attacks on the Red Cross facility in downtown Baghdad, a picture of an American soldier appeared on the front page of The New York Times. He was leaning against a tele- phone pole, clutching his rifle with both hands. Behind him, a cloud of black, ominous smoke was drift- ing above the wreckage of the Red Cross facilities. Though slightly out of focus, his facial expression was clear: The jingoistic emotions that many would expect of this unnamed soldier - resolve, courage, patriotism - were absent. Instead, I saw the glare of a single tear rolling down his cheek. He was afraid. A wash of emotions engulfed me. The injustice! A twentysomething in a flak jacket halfway around the world, fighting the heat, sand, an enemy that doesn't seem to know he's beaten and a civilian popula- tion that doesn't want to be saved. He probably has family at home - a girl- friend perhaps - who misses him terribly. Yet there he is in Iraq of all places, resplendent in his government-issued Kevlar, hoping to God that the next child he meets doesn't have a hand grenade. And then I stopped. I felt it. Judging by the articles that are beginning to pop up in newspapers across the country, others are feeling it too. As the body count starts to rise, the comparison is being made: Is this .another Vietnam? It's a different war, we're told. We're winning this one. Fewer Americans are dying. Maybe. But the character of this war that is starting to set in - the desperation in our enemies, and the tone in the media - reeks of Vietnam. We aren't making mea- surable progress, and there is no front line. There are only news stories of helicopter crashes and suicide bombers. Pictures of young men, afraid and alone. Though it has been said that the first gulf war "cured" America of its psycho- logical scars - President Bush is quoted as saying in 1991, "By God, we've kicked the Vietnam Syndrome once and for all," - I somehow doubt that this is the case. Since the gulf war, our prescription for any nagging foreign policy issue has been consistent. Cruise missiles. Air strikes. If you carpet bomb a problem, it goes away, right? No, but it was a convenient solu- tion. It kept us from doing the one thing we had reservations about: Losing Ameri- can lives. So the symptoms persisted: When 18 U.S. Army Rangers died in the streets of Mogadishu in 1993, President Bill Clinton was quick to recognize the disaster for what it was and pulled the U.S. forces out. The government largely ignored the widespread reports of geno- cide in the Balkans throughout the 1990's - they knew that we couldn't handle the burden of inserting the U.S. troops it would have required to stop the killing. Even in the first Persian Gulf War, it seemed too easy: nice, neat front lines, clear advances, surrenders, even little cameras on the ends of our bombs to show how many tanks and buildings we were destroying. We fought the Iraqi army in the desert, where our superior tank, air- craft, and missile technology could be used to its fullest extent. The shaky confi- dence of America in its fighting ability was bolstered by the notion, accepted early on, that the war was. going well, and that the fighting would be over soon. Now, as casualties mount, Americans are counting the days until that exit strate- gy kicks in. Q - "Didn't the war end in May?" A - Tell the Iraqis that. Q - "When will we get out?" A - Not in the near future Q - "Are we even wanted there?" A - Maybe not. Oh man. Is this war starting to stink. I saw into that young man's world. I saw a place where the enemy is nearly indistinguishable from a civilian. A place where just about anyone could kill you. A place where the list of possible targets now includes the Red Cross. The Red Cross! The expensive stealth technology, missiles and radar now don't seem to mat- ter - none of it will stop a car bomb. American soldiers will in the coming months truly confront the echoes of Viet- nam, one suicide bomber at a time. Adams can be reached at dnadams@umich.edu. 0 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Reader: Hypemeter, Michigan Claw dumb ideas To THE DAILY: I just read the comment that was written regarding the poor quality of the Daily this year and especially Weekend Magazine (Too much liberal drivel, not enough sex in Daily, 11/20/03). I think that this reader is unjust in his comments, because he forgot to mention how horrible the sports section has been this year also. The fact that the sports columnists have spent this whole entire football season preaching to the readers on how to be good Michigan football fans is petty. The Hypemeter and the Michigan claw are two of the dumbest things I have ever seen produced in the Daily since I have come to this university. With the exception of J. Brady McCullough and a few others, some of what I have read in the sports section boggles my mind. I'm sick of being told that I am not good enough of a fan to be at a Michigan football game. Maybe those columnists should think about dropping the "We're smarter Michigan fans than you are" approach and write about what people would rather read. PETER BROWN LSA junior Daily should present dangers of plastic surgery To THE DAILY: I must say, I'm a little surprised and a little disappointed with one of the cover stories from Thursday's Daily. I'm talking about Making the cut: More students opt for cosmetic surgery as stig- ma fades (11/20/03). First of all, this story is less journalism than it is almost a front page endorse- ment of cosmetic surgery. I mean, the Daily basically lets your interviewees (including spokespeople from American Society for Aes- thetic Plastic Surgery) paint a "roses and sun- shine" picture of cosmetic surgery with absolutely no critical investigation of the reality of plastic surgery. I find it a little strange. Strange, because the Daily always seems to pride itself on its social progressivism, notably in areas of women's issues, and the Daily is pro- moting an industry that feeds off the unrealistic body expectations and objectifications you would normally decry on the Daily opinion page. Such uncritical reporting on an issue that relates so directly to health decisions of the stu- dents reading your paper is not just bad journal- ism - it is also irresponsible. don't ever address the fact that as with any medical procedure, there are some risks asso- ciated with cosmetic surgery. The Daily just goes on about how "acceptable" it is. The Daily should at least give the readers a bal- anced idea of what they could be getting into if they opt for a cosmetic procedure. As for the picture the Daily chose to go with the article - that is just as bad as the text. The girl on the table, all laid out and "mapped out" for liposuction, does not need any cosmetic surgery. I don't care if she's a real patient, a model or the reporter herself posing for an example shot, this image pro- motes cosmetic surgery for people who look just fine. What kind of message does that send? Ridiculous. In the end, I suppose the Daily is free to write or depict whatever the Daily wants, but I just expected a little more critical investigation of something that, as I said, you'd normally be tearing into on the opinion page. TREVOR STRICKLER Rackham Candidates' tactics waste of time, should debate issues To THE DAILY: I really liked Wednesday's article, Candi- dates get personal (11/19/03). Just for the record, I have never voted in a student election; I never felt any reason to. However, upon reading this article I realized that it is a shame I haven't. The article has a lot of truth in it about how the aver- age student feels about student politics. One of the interviewees phrased it best, "I don't know any of their policies. So why should I vote?" Face it, the end of the semester is looming ahead of us and nearly everyone is feeling the stress of final papers, exams amongst other pressures. And while student government may be very important and worthwhile for the main student body to participate in, it is just not accessible to the busy college student. The candidates, as the article pointed out, are obviously not using their time, or the rest of the student body's, very well. New campaigning strategies are clearly needed. It is time to throw out those meaningless small pieces of paper that just end -up littering university buildings. It is tiuelo put the chalk to rest. It is time to stop just disseminating your name and political party and to start really informing the students. More effective tactics would be based on real-world political campaigns. Just imagine how we would all laugh if President Bush never announced his political platform for the and civic involvement. What better way to get involved than to vote? MELISSA AcnRAN LSA junior Ask Detroiters what is best for their city To THE DAILY: Although I didn't grow up in Detroit and would never claim to be from there, I have spent time living and working on the city's southwest side, and I found Lauren Strayer's column frus- trating, although well intentioned (Between a rock and a Hard Rock Cafe, 11/20/03). Listen, I don't know what Detroit needs, either - I'm not even going to try to guess. I've never been a fan of gentrification or chain stores, either. However, I do know exactly what Detroit doesn't need: young, white college stu- dents who live in Ann Arbor (myself included) talking about "what Detroit needs." This is a question that should be asked of Detroit residents, who live, work and pay taxes there and are directly affected by whatever hare- brained scheme that (mostly) white policymak- ers who live in Bloomfield Hills come up with next. Believe me, they'd be happy to talk. In the words of my old neighbor, "If gentrification means that there'd be a goddamned grocery store in the neighborhood, I'm all for it!" If every journalist and pundit who has ever expounded upon what Detroit "needed" actually moved there and tried to change the city in their own small, but important way - now, then we'd be getting somewhere. SHEILA MCCLEAR - Music senior Michigan fans should be 'as loud as possible' this weekend To THE DAILY: I must commend the Daily on doing a good job trying to get students ready for the Ohio State game this weekend. I want to comment on the hypocracy that has been the criticism of Michigan fans this year. For the last several years, we have been criticized for being quiet fans, and the Big House for being about as intimidating as a library. People demanded fans to get back homefield advantage, and this year we did. We cheered loudly with Notre Dame and possibly louder with Purdue. Unfortunately, with both of those wins can criticism that our cheering and language was "un-Michigan like" 0 0 0 ; :. : ;<