4A = Wednesday, January 23, 2013
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
4A - Wednesday, January 23, 2013 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
c Michiaa'n 4:3atly
Rethinking drones
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MELANIE KRUVELIS
and ADRIENNE ROBERTS MATT SLOVIN
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS MANAGING EDITOR
ANDREW WEINER
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board."
All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
A "
Aclear option
'U' should invest in higher resolution cameras
Students are reminded on a daily basis of just how crucial it is to
stay alert and safe on campus. When living in residence halls, part
of the students' safety is dependent on the security systems put
in place by the University. There-are security cameras at the entrance
of every residence hall and security teams working diligently to patrol
the halls. However, these security cameras don't produce clear pictures.
Campus safety should be a priority for the University, especially after the
recent sexual assault in West Quad Residence Hall. The current cameras
need to be replaced with higher resolution ones that will make identifying
t was a brisk afternoon in
Washington D.C. as President
Barack Obama prepared to
be sworn into
office for a
second time on
the steps of the .
Capitol. The
pageantry was
certainly there
as hundreds of
thousands of
people stood by PAUL
to witness the SHERMAN
event and mil-
lions tuned in
on television. Even Beyonce made
an appearance to entertain White
House staffers. After waiting
months for this moment, Obama
placed his hand on two different
Bibles and proceeded to take the
oath of office. He's back in the
white House and ready take on the
new challenges that lie ahead.
With the second inauguration
behind us, it's time to reflect on
Obama's successes and failures. As
we turnthe page on his first term, we
can say that his administration did
make efforts to wind down the wars
in the Middle East. Now, it's time for
Obama to bring these wars to an end.
However, with a smaller number of
ground troops in Iraq and Afghani-
stan he must limit the use of aerial
drones in the coming years.
During his first term, Obama
dramatically increased the use of
unmanned aerial vehicles as a for-
eign policy tool in the Middle East
and Africa. Some in the media have
argued that Obama's position has
changed from supporting a nation-
building counterinsurgency strategy
in Iraq and Afghanistan to a whac-
a-mole approach that uses drones to
"take out" targeted enemies.
For policymakers in Washington,
it's time to reduce the military's
and intelligence agencies' depen-
dence on drones, since their contin-
ued usage is angering an increasing
number of civilians abroad. In
January 2012, Iraqi senior officials
expressed their outrage over the
use of a small number of drones in
Iraq after the withdrawal of Ameri-
can troops from the region. In
October 2012, thousands of Paki-
stanis, most notably in the capital,
Islamabad, protested against the
use of drones in the tribal regions
of the country. Going forward, the
president must keep this in mind
when he decides to use a drone
strike to take out targets.
Obama's reliance on drones has
created discord within the Unit-
ed States as well. Americans are
increasingly concerned about the
number of innocent civilians killed
by drone strikes. As a result, popu-
lar support for drones decreased
from 83 percent to 62 percent
between Feb. 2012 and June 2012
according to the Council on For-
eign Relations. Domestic support
remains high, but Americans are
starting to become more skeptical
about the ramifications of drone
strikes, particularly since theyhave
been left out of the discussion.
An increased use of drones can
create the possibility of prolifera-
tion. According to Micah Zenko,
an expert on U.S. national security
policy, there's possibility that "at
least a dozen other states and non-
state actors could possess armyted
drones within the next 10 years and
leverage the technology in unfore-
seen and harmful ways." This could
create a new arms war if the Ameri-
can government isn't careful. If
Obama continues to use drones at
a high rate, he will run the risk of
possible drone usage against mili-
tary personnel and possibly Ameri-
can civilians on U.S. soil.
On the other hand, drones have
achieved significant victories in the
battle against terrorism. Top Al-Qae-
da operatives, including U.S.-born
Muslim cleric Anwar al-Alwaki, have
been killed in drone strikes. Along
the Afghan border in Pakistan during
2012, drones killed 246 people, most
of whom were Islamic militants.
According to The New York Times,
since 2004, drones have killed 473
people, but there has been a decline
in that number in recent years. In
2012, drones killed only seven civil-
ians compared to 68 civilian deaths
in 2011.
Despite the increased accura-
cy of drones; there has been very
little oversight of the program.
Due to a lack of checks on drone
usage, Zenko explained that some
policymakers and White House
officials don't clearly understand
how the laws have changed or
how the attacks are conducted in
each country. In a 2012 interview
with Mark. Bowden, a journalist
who has reported extensively on
America's Middle Eastern affairs,
Obama stated that, "creating a
legal structure, processes, with
oversight checks on how we use
unmanned weapons" would be a
challenge "partly because technol-
ogy may evolve fairly rapidly for
other countries as well." A senior
official of the Central Intelligence
Agency stated that the CIA had
not conducted sufficient oversight
measures. Continuing to admin-
ister these drone attacks without
developing a concrete framework
could accelerate the Middle East's
problems and only stymie solutions
for those conflicts.
Responsible
policy is needed
to support local
populations.
In the end, because of their
increased accuracy and low cost
compared to the use of manned
aircraft and troops on the ground,
the Obama administration will
continue to use drones. Unmanned
aerial vehicles will prove an impor-
tant tool for U.S. foreign policy,
but Obama must consider scaling
down the use of drones and creat-
ing an effective oversight policy
during his second term. The presi-
dent must come up with a respon-
sible policy that will be effective in
taking out extremist threats while
limitingcivilian casualties and sup-
porting the needs of local civilian
populations.
- Paul Sherman canbe reached
at pausherm@umich.edu.
a
potential suspects an easier process.
On Jan. 13, police reported a rape in West
Quad after a woman reportedly walked home
from a party escorted by a stranger. After fur-
ther investigation images of a suspect surfaced
from nearby security cameras that proved blur-
ry and made any means of identifying the sus-
pect difficult. The man was finally arrested six
days after the reported rape and released. The
investigation is ongoing.
The extensive amount of time it took the
perpetrator to be identified by UMPD is unac-
ceptable. The suspect was identified after the
University police received a tip, not from the
stills taken from the cameras. In the future, it's
importantthat the Universityre-evaluates how
this process can be quickened - which should
involve better technology.
However, students' privacy is extremely
important. High-resolution cameras should
replace the current cameras, which are located
at outdoor entrances to dormitories. Students'
privacy shouldn't be invaded, considering
other viable solutions to this problem exist.
The multiple cameras placed at each entrance
to University residence halls are sufficient,
but the quality of these cameras is not.
The University needs to take steps to
uphold the safety and welfare of all students.
This involves using the necessary resources
and funding to install higher resolution cam-
eras in all dorms. Though it may be expen-
sive, it's a crucial investment in the safety and
well-being of Michigan students.
With new, high resolution cameras
installed, suspects will be identified more
quickly and everyone on campus will be able
to rest a bit more easily knowing that Uni-
versity leaders took steps to make our com-
munity, specifically residence halls, as safe
as possible.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Kaan Avdan, Shank Bashir, Barry Belmont, Eli Cahan, Nirbhay Jain,
Jesse Klein, Melanie Kruvelis, Patrick Maillet, Jasmine McNenny,
Harsha Nahata, Adrienne Roberts, Vanessa Rychlinski,
Sarah Skaluba, Michael Spaeth, Gus Turner, Derek Wolfe
CARLY MANES
40 years later, still fighting
From the President's desk: Manish Parikh discusses
o i the opening of the 24-hour cafe he helped make a
reality. To read more, go to
michigandaily.com/blogs/The Podium
Bad journalism is to blame
0
Last week, Time magazine published a
pieceon Roe v. Wade's 40th anniversary and
what the past 40 years have brought in the
way of reproductive justice. Though the arti-
cle made a few unfounded assumptions, it did
get one thing right: Ever since this landmark
decision was made to legalize abortion in the
United States, thousands of restrictions have
been made that belittle the hard-won prog-
ress made by activists that ensured acces-
sibility to a safe and legal abortion. In other
words, women have been losing the fight to
control their own reproductive lives ever
since they won it just 40 years ago. But the
article did make one major mistake: It made
the claim, like so many others, that Millenni-
als and young people don't care about access
to abortion care. +
That's simply not true.
I am a Millennial who is fully committed to
ensuring safe and affordable abortion access to
women all over the United States. However, I'm
only one of hundreds on this campus and just
one of thousands in-the nation.
It's understandable why some might think
Millennials are no longer present in the fight for
abortion access. We aren't just abortion-rights
activists like our mothers and grandmothers
had been. We are many other things as well.
We are students, friends and teenagers. We are
organizers, student leaders and social media
experts. It's only because of the generation of
abortion activists before us that we can claim
each and every one of these roles all at the same
time. It'sbecause of the courageous work of our
predecessors that Millennials no longer have
to focus all of their energy and efforts solely on
establishing the legality of abortion.
Isn't this what our mothers and grandmoth-
ers worked for all those years, so that one day
women could take for granted the right to
decide when and if to have children? Didn't
they want us to live in a country where women
- and men - had access to affordable contra-
ception and, when needed, be assured that a
safe and affordable abortion would be avail-
able?
To say that Millennials are less "commit-
ted" or "present" in the fight to ensure safe and
legal access to abortion is simply false. We're
out there.
Because we have to be.
Unfortunately, the dreams of our mothers
and grandmothers have yet to be realized, so
we carry on. We continue to push back against
the dehumanizing restrictions of abortion care,
the threats to providers and their patients and
the efforts to stigmatize and isolate women
who get abortions.
Let me tell you about Millennials who are for
abortion care. We are passionate, engaged and
entrenched in the fight for abortion access. We
see that in order to uphold the right to abortion
care we must ensure that it's available, afford-
able and free of burdensome hurdles.
we are not alone. Millennials all over the
country are standing up for abortion access
- activists, clinic escorts, hotline volunteers,
directors of abortion funds, bloggers and more.
To move forward and finally realize the
dream of so many decades, we must acknowl-
edge that the world has changed. We are
fighting on much different terrain now than
our mothers and grandmothers. Millennials
are fighting not only to ensure that the legal-
ity of abortion remains upheld, but that it's an
attainable reality for all women.
That means that abortion care is affordable,
that clinics are easy to get to, that we put a stop
to needless hurdles such as waiting periods
and notifications, and that we reduce stigma
so no woman is made to feel alone or ashamed.
So, I just want to let it be known that we are
here and that we are fighting. We will not stop
until the dream is fully realized - so no woman
ever again has to question her opportunities,
values or her future because of restrictions to
reproductive choice.
Carly Manes is an LSA sophomore.
Sports fans share in the same
emotional rollercoaster that
athletes experience each
game day. We
immerse our-
selves in these
athletes' chal-
lenges, indi-
vidual statistics
and personal
lives. Though 1
some people TIMOTHY
might question BURROUGHS
this irrational
dedication to
competition,
athletics allow us to share in one of
the purest examples of the human
experience. This combination of
physical exertion and raw emotion
makes it impossible to not romanti-
cize sports.
This year, University of Notre
Dame linebacker Manti Te'o repre-
sented the emotional struggle and
accomplishment that we love to see
in sports. However, recent develop-
ments have revealed that his story
was an elaborate hoax. Te'o's "rela-
tionship" with girlfriend Lennay
Kekua came to an end when she lost
her fight with leukemia, just after
the passing of Te'o's grandmother.
The linebacker's inspiring story
was the tragedy of the season until
last week, when Deadspin published
an article that questioned Kekua's
existence. It was soon discovered
Te'o never actually met Kekua and
their relationship consisted solely
of Internet interactions and phone
calls. Te'o issued statements and
gave an off-camera interview to
ESPN in which he claimed to be a
victim of an elaborate practical joke.
He asserted no prior knowledge of
the hoax and apologized for embel-
lishing details and misleading the
public about his relationship.
Sports fans are bewildered - the
most emotionally moving sports
feature of the year has quickly been
reduced to an Internet relationship
with a fictitious girlfriend. This has
pushed many to question the jour-
nalistic integrity and credibility of
ESPN, Sports Illustrated and other
sports publications.
In a Jan. 17 column in The Michi-
gan Daily, Adrienne Roberts con-
cludes, "to get stories like these,
fact-checking is often ignored and
stories of heartbreak and hero-
ism outweigh the not-so-flattering
truth." I admit that I, too, was
appalled by industry-leading publi-
cations cutting corners and ignoring
the most basic fact-check. Journal-
istic integrity is the responsibility of
media outlets, and I'm disappointed
in these reporters and organizations
for their lack of due-diligence.
In her column, Roberts goes on
to argue, "It's time we re-evaluate
how we think about athletes' worth
and how we judge them as players.
An athlete's personal heartbreak
shouldn't affect how much media
attention he gets before the draft."
I understand that athletes don't
always live up to the extremely high
standards fans hold them to. Tak-
ing performance-enhancing drugs
and lying have been the down-
fall of many sports idols, but that
shouldn't belittle the importance of
sports feature articles, such as the
Te'o story.
For fans, it's the stories of obsta-
cles athletes face that illustrate their
humanity. Sports are much more
than a box score. By exploring the
lives of those who play, we give ath-
letics new emotional meaning.
The fabrication and false report-
ing of these stories show a lack of
effort by reporters. Stories with-
out any substance are perhaps the
worst offenders. One of the best
examples is the countless hours of
coverage dedicated to Lolo Jones
during the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Many spectilated, probably cor-
rectly, that this attention wasn't
due to her athletic prowess or per-
sonal past. Instead, the media chose
to focus on her attractiveness and
self-proclaimed virginity. However,
instances of bad journalism should
not dehumanize athletes by ignor-
ing their personal lives.
We need to relish
athletic and
personal success
in sports.
In Roberts's column she contin-
ues, "At the end of the day, sports
are all about a game - a game
involving highly skilled and usually
extremely dedicated athletes - but a
game nonetheless." I'd argue it was
more than just a game when Jessie
Owens won four gold medals in the
1936 Summer Olympics as a black
athlete in Nazi Germany. On a less
significant note, the publicizing of
Tiger Woods's extramarital affairs
sent him into a slump from which he
has yet to emerge. There are impor-
tant lessons to be learned in both of
these cases, and it's up to journalists
to responsibly share these stories
of humanity and adversity with the
rest of the world.
The Te'o controversy didn't have
to happen. It was simply the result
of laziness. The incident not only
left fans feeling betrayed, but also
marred one of the most remark-
able seasons in the history of college
football. We need to relish athletic
and personal success, celebrate the
heroes and despise the crooks and
liars. As anyone who has followed
Lance Armstrong's career knows, it's
never that simple, but journalists are
responsible for telling these personal
stories and letting the fans decide.
- Timothy Burroughs can be
reached at timburrumich.edu.
0
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