4 4A - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, January 20, 2004 OP/ED Ulbe1 £-.- --- -,I 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 letters@michigandaily.com opinion. michigandaily.com NOTABLE QUOTABLE COLIN DALY TE I M:ICIGANI TD.ALY EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 LOUIE MEIZLISH Editor in Chief AUBREY HENRETTY ZAC PESKOWITZ Editorial Page Editors C I did not invite 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. him." "I am convinced that love is the most durable power in the world. It is not an expression of impractical idealism, but of practical realism. Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer, love is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization. To return hate for hate does nothing but intensify the existence of evil in the universe. Someone must have sense enough and religion enough to cut off the chain of hate and evil, and this can only be done through love." -Martin Luther King Jr., 1957 01 44 - Former President Jimmy Carter on his appearance in a Georgia church Sunday morning with Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean of Vermont, as reported by The Washington Post. Choose your own adventure: the dread war caper JESS PISKOR JOIN THI PISKOR 4 ou are the presi- dent of the Unit- ed States. I. After an unprece- dented terror attack at home, you are faced with a tough struggle. Declaring this a war between good and evil, you invade Afghanistan and over- throw the Taliban. However, you are unable to catch the terror mastermind. With that campaign sputtering and democracy hard to install, do you: a. Decide to work with other nations as a partner to root out terror cells and build a worldwide alliance devoted to creating a peaceful world (go on to X)? b. Change priorities and invade Iraq (go on to II)? II. You attempt to rally worldwide sup- port for the invasion. However, many other nations and their citizens remain hesitant. Do you: a. Try diplomacy and wait a few months to get more allies (Go on to XI)? b. Forget about international support? Who needs it anyway (Go to III)? III. Without international support you slog on, but come across opposition to your plans even in the United States. It seems you will need real reasons if you want public approval. How do you justify war with Iraq? a. Suggest ties between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida operatives (Go to IV). b. Raise humanitarian concerns and cite a pressing need to end Iraqi suffering (Go to V). c. Talk about the need to create a stable democracy in the Middle East and how Iraq will serve as a model for other nations (Go to VI). d. Hype up the threat of weapons of mass destruction (Go to VII). IV. Despite the fact that no evidence of a link exists outside of William Safire's mad ramblings you press forward with the al- Qaida-loves-Saddam theory. A majority of U.S. citizens are convinced Hussein was behind Sept. 11. Yet this isn't enough to con- vince the public and the media doesn't really buy it. Without other reasons, your war can- not happen. (Go back to III.) V. Appealing to humanitarian necessity, you attempt to create a feeling of urgency in the U.S. population. That Saddam had once been a U.S. ally is irrelevant. Yet the public wonders what is so pressing that you can't wait a few more months for international sup- port. Moreover, the humanitarian argument doesn't really explain why the focus is only on Iraq - after all, plenty of other countries have evil dictators. You don't want too many peo- ple thinking about the deeper reasons why you want to invade Iraq. This option therefore can- not work. (Go back to III.) VI. Although this directly conflicts with your campaign assurances that the United States should not engage in nation- building, you feel that that was a few years ago and people will have forgotten. Unfor- tunately, since World War II, while the United States has won wars, it has largely failed at installing democracy. Without international peacekeepers after the war, you are unlikely to succeed. Having aban- doned the international community, it is unlikely to come to your aid now. Try another reason (Go back to III). VII. Exploiting post-Sept. 11 fears in a jittery populace, you raise the terror alert to orange and declare that Hussein could deliver WMDs in a few months if the United States does not invade immediately. Enough people are appeased by this justification and the war begins. After an easy battle, you scour Iraq but no WMDs exist. Do you: a. Stubbornly insist they must exist? (Go to VIII.) b. Declare the war wasn't about WMDs at all but about one of the other previously uncon- vincing reasons for war? (Go to IX.) VIII. Looking increasingly out of touch with reality, you face growing public outrage over your lies. Intense scrutiny is turned on you and your administration and more outrageous lies and shady dealings are uncovered. In a stun- ning reversal you lose the 2004 election and you spend the rest of your life trying to find forgive- ness for the thousands of U.S. soldiers and Iraqis your orders killed. The End. IX. Because you control the present, you control the past. Declaring the WMD actually stood for "We Make Democracy" you con- vince the public that the war never was about weapons of mass destruction. The public buys it and the future never looks darker for democracy and accountability. The End. X. Recognizing a powerful yet humble ally for peace, nations across the globe react positively to the United States. Seen not as an arrogant superpower, the United States starts the 21st century with a real mandate as a force for peace, tolerance and humanity. The End. XI. You manage to get plenty of allies and they work together to overthrow the dictator and build a stable democracy in Iraq. The glob- al community is strengthened and international precedents are set that will help ensure dictators cannot rise to power. The End. Piskor can be reached atjpiskor@umich.edu. 4 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Students urged to vote for Clark in November election TO THE DAILY: Students need to know that if they want new leadership in the White House, they need not wait until November to vote against Presi- dent Bush. They can start by voting in their state's primary for Gen. Wesley Clark. Clark has come a long way in this cam- paign. Most recently he has received the endorsement of filmaker Michael Moore, who believes that Clark has the best chance of beat- ing Bush in the November elections. However, this is not the only reason to support Clark. The fact is, Clark has plans that will appeal to inde- pendent and swing voters, assuring a Democra- tic victory in the fall. Unlike Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt, Clark supports the middle class tax cut, and would repeal Bush's upper class tax cut, which a majority of Americans agree with. Clark is committed to keeping this coun- try safe without having to start war after end- less war. Clark has policies that will appeal to all Americans. Clark has served his country for his entire adult life, and he's not about to stop now. I urge students to vote for Clark during the pri- mary so we can ensure that he will be on the ballot come this November. DAVID GUZMAN LSA junior Wolverines for Clark Pesick's argument against BAMN unfounded TO THE DAILY: Jason Pesick's latest (Give liberals back their liberalism, 01/15/04), is nothing but libel against BAMN. Without offering any evi- dence, he implies that we are anti-free speech communist extremists. Despite his warning that "(he doesn't) mean for this to be another mind- less attack against the organization," that's pre- cisely what it is, beginning with his unsupported statement that we dislike what he calls "the exploration of ideas." A complete discussion of his lies and mis- defendant's role was trivial at the U.S. Supreme Court, he deceives the reader into thinking the Supreme Court wasn't familiar with the evidence from earlier trials. Pesick concludes that BAMN is too narrow in its thinking about racism because we only care about affirmative action - an outright lie. Unlike Pesick and pundits of his ilk, who pos- ture about caring about "the big issue," BAMN has revived the civil rights movement only to be pooh-poohed for it by armchair liberals. It was when the civil rights movement died down that the gap between whites and blacks stopped closing! It's these phony liberals who are afraid of radicals because a unified struggle for peace, justice, workers' rights, gay rights and freedom of speech would be a real threat to the econo- my. Somehow liberals have sold the idea that killing affirmative action is fine because it wasn't enough to close the race gap by itself. BAMN doesn't hate free speech and ideas. However, I hate people like Pesick who need to tell lies and rumors and then say "Maybe my main point of contention with BAMN is that I'm still naive enough to think people can dis- cuss issues in a civil way before resorting to more extreme tactics." Yes Jason, you're quite naive if you think you can have equality with- out fighting for it. ADAM DE ANGELI LSA senior Connerly's initiative goes beyond higher education TO THE DAILY: A letter recently appeared on your pages (Waiting for Connerly (A play in three acts), 01/14/04) that elevated complete disregard for even the most basic facts to new heights. It began by claiming that "The drama continued on Monday, when Ward Conner- ly, the leader of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, announced the beginning of the campaign to get a proposal on a statewide ballot in November to end affirmative action in higher education." The only thing the author got right was that the proposal would go on a statewide ballot this November. The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative director, campaign manager and treasurer are all Michiganders. As is the entire steer- ing committee. Had the author actually bothered to attend the Jan. 12 press conference he might have noticed that Ward Connerly was not even there, let alone making any kind of announcement about anything. I don't keep his schedule, but I assume that Connerly was at home in California at the time, although he certainly would have been welcome to attend our event. Indeed, the only Californians present were from BAMN - an organization of thugs and hooligans that actually boasts of its contempt for the entire democratic process as though that were a virtue. It was in fact also BAMN members who attempt- ed to disrupt the July announcement on campus, before finally being removed by security. One shouting that she would con- tinue "until people like (Connerly) are no longer allowed to speak on a public forum" (a perfect example of BAMN's disregard for civilized discourse). And these were only the beginning of an unbroken string of misstatements, dis- tortions, and complete disregard for facts in this piece. I don't think the author has much of a future in journalism. TIM O'BRIEN Campaign manager, Michigan Civil Rights Initiative LETTERS POLICY The Michigan Daily welcomes letters from all of its readers. Letters from Universi- ty students, faculty, staff and administrators will be given priority over others. Letters should include the writer's name, college and school year or other University affiliation. The Daily will not print any letter contain- ing statements that cannot be verified. Letters should be kept to approximately 300 words. The Michigan Daily reserves the right to edit for length, clarity and accuracy. Longer "viewpoints" may be arranged with an editor. Letters will be run according to order received and the amount of space available. Letters should be sent over e-mail to 7 - V -*I - - - - #; -..,. .. .. : ., ! -, '!