4A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, September 26, 2005
OPINION
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JASON Z. PESICK
Editor in Chief
SUHAEL MOMIN
SAM SINGER
Editorial Page Editors
ALISON GO
Managing Editor
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890
420 MAYNARD STREET
ANN ARBOR, MI 48109
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
NOTABLE
QUOTABLE
Make levees,
not war.
- A sign held by one of more than
100,000 anti-war protestors gathered in
Washington Saturday, as reported
yesterday by The New York Times.
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Making the National Guard ... national
CHRIS ZBROZEK BORN IN THE U.S.A.
tanding in a tic disturbances. It has resulted in Guard to fight overseas. The force could even serve
New Orleans units doing combat duty in Iraq without as a useful base for recruiting volunteers
still partially appropriate training or equipment. And it for humanitarian missions overseas that
flooded more than has brought hardship to Guard members are now often staffed by a mix of National
two weeks after Hur- and their families who signed up regarding Guard and active-duty military.
ricane Katrina, Pres- the prospect of overseas duty as a distant The National Guard, so constituted, would
ident Bush finally possibility. have one great advantage over its current
admitted that the fed- Meanwhile, the military seems hardly able form: it could draw on patriotic Americans
eral response to the to take on the additional challenge of serv- who want to serve their country but aren't
catastrophe had been ing as the nation's first responders in cases of willing to see combat. This isn't entirely a
flawed. In his prime- grave emergency. Its forces are stretched thin hypothetical proposition for me. I protested
time speech, he proposed relying more fighting a nebulous war on terrorism and a the president's decision to go to war in Iraq,
heavily on the military for disaster relief. persistent insurgency in Iraq. Despite massive and I'm not going to volunteer to fight in a war
The nation would be better served, howev- anti-war protests this weekend, the war in Iraq I don't believe should have been started. But
er, by refocusing the National Guard toward - and its effect on military recruiting - will given the chance to serve in a National Guard
its core mission - protecting Americans at continue for some time. Both the Army and that wouldn't call on me to be an active-duty
home. the Marines have missed their recruiting goals soldier overseas, I'd enlist tomorrow.
Being in the National Guard, as we've all for several months during this year. Other Americans must have thoughts
learned through constant advertising, is sup- Soldiers, furthermore, simply might not be similar to mine. By recruiting such people,
posed to require one weekend a month and two the best choice to lead disaster relief efforts. the National Guard could build an effective
weeks' training in the summer. Now, however, Much of the debate regarding Bush's propos- relief and recovery force and free the mili-
the Guard is hardly distinguishable from the al has concerned the Posse Comitatus Act, tary to do the sort of work it does best.
Army Reserve. About 80,000 of its members the law prohibiting soldiers from assuming Other kinks would have to be worked out;
are currently on overseas missions, mainly domestic law enforcement duties. Legal schol- the National Guard, traditionally under the
in Iraq. Many Guard units are having trouble ars and civil libertarians can continue to ques- authority of state governors, would need to
filling their ranks, as potential recruits realize tion the wisdom of making soldiers into cops, be better integrated into a federal chain of0
that the life of a citizen-soldier includes a lot of but more fundamental issues remain. Soldiers' command for effective disaster relief, for
soldiering these days. primary job is combat. They are trained to cre- instance. And certainly our disaster response
Contrary to popular belief, deployment of ate corpses, not recover them; they are skilled should be streamlined to take advantage of
the National Guard overseas is nothing new: in destroying, but - as the slow reconstruc- military units available to help that were
Guard units saw action in both world wars. tion of Iraq has shown - not necessarily the sometimes sidelined during Katrina.
What is new, however, is our nation's reliance best at rebuilding. But the net result of a shift toward a
on the National Guard for even the most mun- A National Guard focused on action at more national National Guard would be
dane military actions. Both of our wars in Iraq home and specifically trained for restoring more Americans trained and able to help in
have involved fairly small forces, historically order and recovering from disasters would a serious emergency. That's a more effec-
speaking, yet have contained high proportions be a better option. Such a force could draw tive plan for emergency preparedness than
of Guard units. Even our operations in Kosovo on the existing skills of its civilian mem- plastic sheeting and duct tape, and it's
have relied on the National Guard. bers and train raw recruits less in combat something the Bush administration ought
This trend toward lengthy, overseas. and more in disaster relief. While its mem- to consider.
deployments has little relation to the pop- bers might serve in combat in the unlikely
ular conception of a National Guard that event America were directly invaded, they Zbrozek can be reached
serves mostly in natural disasters or domes- would otherwise be exempt from being sent at zbro@umich.edu.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Criminals deserve to be
repelled with deadly force
To THE DAILY:
Do you actually believe, as per your
editorial on Friday (A Duty to Retreat,
09/23/2005), that decent, law-abiding peo-
ple should just retreat in the face of an attack
by the criminals? And why? Because the
"poor" criminal might get hurt? Give me a
break. Criminals don't deserve the back of
a retreating victim; they deserve a smoking
Colt .45! Besides, no criminal who is out
to steal or assault or even kill his victim is
going to simply walk away because the vic-
tim turned his back and retreated. On the
other hand, the victim is only going be at a
tactical disadvantage when retreating.
I would have been ambiguous about this
before this past summer, but working a night-
shift job, where I traveled alone at midnight,
made me realize the importance of legally
protecting the self-defense rights of those
who might need to defend themselves. Thus,
the legislation allowing people to retaliate
against an attack deserves support.
The question is not one of politics, but of
principle. It is not good, but evil that must
be made to retreat in a confrontation. As
Edmund Burke's famous quote goes, "The
only thing necessary for the triumph of
evil is for good men to do nothing." Thus,
I say, do not retreat in the face of a crimi-
nal attack, but chase them away with high-
speed lead!
Sudhaunshu Kulkarni
LSA senior
LGBT community faces
hatred, conservatives don't
To THE DAILY:
"Coming out" and identifying yourself
as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender is
an extremely personal and arduous process.
Clearly the College Republicans do not
claim they are in a hostile environment?
They need to raise awareness? Conserva-
tive Pride? Shame on the Republicans.
If the Republicans want to be respected
and have their voice heard, perhaps they
shouldn't trivialize something so impor-
tant to people on campus and in the com-
munity.
Kirk Burkhart
University researcher
Fan doesn't have the same
feelings for Lloyd anymore
To THE DALY:
Breaking up is never easy to do, but some-
times it has to be done. Before you go think-
ing this is like all the other times we've had
rough times in this relationship, it's not.
Things started off great between us. We first
got together, and it was wonderful. We even
went to a national championship together.
But that was then, and during the last four
years, we've gotten into a rut. How do you
think it makes us feel when you've barely
shown up to the last four Notre Dame, Ohio
State and bowl games? Our friends and fam-
ily just make fun of us and tell us how much
better we can do. We're too good for this and
deserve better. OSU's coach treats them well
and is constantly getting them nice things
like road and bowl wins. We know we're
way better than OSU and should have some-
one who treats us as such.
This happens every year. You let us down
in a nonconference game and the first road
game and then go on to make up for it by
rattling off a bunch of great wins, and we
forgive you, but come November and Janu-
ary, you just let us down again. Not this
year. Not again. Don't get us wrong, we've
had some great times during the last few
years. The big comeback in Minnesota in
2003 and last year against State were won-
derful, but it's simply not enough. Trust us,
it's not you, it's us. We might just be better
seeing other people. There's a guy at Cal
I know the Michigan faithful will clamor that
we haven't had a losing season in his tenure
and that we haven't had a whiff of an NCAA
violation, but enough is enough. Some of you
may think that I don't have school spirit. You're
wrong. I'm not a sorority girl on my cell phone,
and I follow recruiting and the football team
more than anyone that I know.
With this being said, let's look at the facts.
Michigan is 0-6 in the first road game the
past six years. In the past four years, he is 1-
3 against Ohio State University, 1-3 against
Notre Dame and 1-3 in bowl games. ow,
optimists will point out that the bowls have
been against good teams, but if you look at
the past couple years of Michigan football, it
is readily apparent that our football team is
slipping under Carr. The main reason why any
team is 2-6 against its chief rivals and 1-3 in
bowl games and 0-6 in the first games on the
road is simple: It's coaching. The team is obvi-
ously not ready to play games, and it is readily
apparent that this is not the fault of the players.
It is the fault of the coaching.
How many times have we had a clear firsts
half lead (like this weekend and last year
against Notre Dame) and then have just blown
it in the second half and played it soft? How
many times have the other teams made defen-
sive and offensive adjustments after half time
while our coaches have done NOTHING?
We have three plays that we run now.
Between the tackles, three-step drop and the
home run ball. What happened to the bal-
anced offense? What happened to playing with
the talent that your team has and not with a
restricted playbook that Saint Lloyd has?
I'm tired of this, I'm tired of 9-3 seasons and
I'm tired of Conservative Carr It is time for a
non-Michigan Man to lead this team. It is time
for Athletic Director Bill Martin to go outside
of the University to hire a head coach.
The game has passed you by, Coach Carr.
Do the University, its fans and the players a
favor, and do the right thing: Become assistant
athletic director.
Jason Bourgeois
LSA junior
Editorial Board Members: Amy Anspach, Amanda Burns, Whitney Dibo, Jesse For-
ester, Mara Gay, Jared Goldberg, Eric Jackson, Theresa Kennelly, Rajiv Prabhakar,
Matt Rose, David Russell, Dan Skowronski, Brian Slade, Lauren Slough, John Stiglich,