4 Opinion Page 6 Tuesday, August 11, 1981 The Michigan Daily The Michigan Daily Vol. XCI, No. 59-S Ninety Years of Editorial Freedom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan Neutron myopia HE REAGAN administration's strangely timed decision to produce neutron weapons has to be viewed in the proper per- spective-as sly and expedient posturing in the months before arms control talks with the Soviet Union begin. "We will enter arms talks stronger," was the explanation offered by Secretary of Defen- se Casper Weinberger. A little.sweetening of the American arsenal now, his logic presumes, will pay off when the horse-trading gets started. Never mind the mounting fears of our allies in Europe, who know the weapons are destined for their soil. Never mind the expected reciprocity by the Soviets, who have predic- tably propogandized this decision for all it is worth. Never mind the implications this has for the worldwide arms race, or the increased likelihood that escalation to full-scale nuclear war will occur. The most glaring question remains unan- swered: What good is the weapon if its recipients reject it? The West German gover- nment, already trying to deflect spreading neutralism in the country, has expressed its opposition to the neutron weapons. The leaders of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and the Netherlands have voiced their in- dignation-not just of the decision, but of the unilateral way it was made. Clearly, in the public relations sector of nuclear politics-an increasingly significent area-the United States-will lose on this one, probably much worse than our leaders have anticipated. Watch for a flurry of anti- American, anti-proliferation demonstrations in Bonn, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen, as well as continued rhetorical assaults by the Kremlin-all of which will work against American interests. One can hardly imagine a scenario in which a neutron blitzkrieg cripples a Soviet tank of- fensive into West Europe, and the conflict en- ds there, without escalating. The Soviets, who have acknowledged their will to use nuclear weapons if their survival depends on it, would clearly consider employing them if their con- ventional forces were incinerated in West Germany: And the administration's claim that the in- troduction of neutron weapons will improve our chances for arms control progress is dubious. In the past, the expansion of military technologies has only complicated the arms control process, making tangible agreements far more difficult. Chalk up another one for the gipper. IRISH CATHOLIC YOUTHS stand in front of burning vehicles after they fired them with gasoline be ,bombs. Only compromise can save Northern Irelan By John Fitzpatrick A man hamed Bobby Sands starved himself to death last May, and with his death came a renewal of the violence which he have come to expect in Northern Ireland. Again came the reports of British soldiers being shot, of innocent bystanders crippled. The perpetual terror which seems indigenousttorthis land roared again. The succession of hunger- strikers who have come and gone since Bobby Sands have been given their due in the national media, but they do not make a good story. Their tale has become an inspiring one to some, but tedious, apparently endless to most. "WHAT ABOUT their families?" said one friend, "They're being selfish, sacrificing their families for fame." They are fanatics, with emaciated bodies and deluded minds, feeding on the mystique of violence that surrounds them. But these are not faceless caricatures who are starving themselves-they are people. They and the land they come from cannot be understood through the convenient, instant analysis of which Americans seem so fond. Ulster is an enigma, a very beautiful one, and these men are her children. The cause for which Sands and those who followed him have died is one so intrinsically tied to the well-being and future of the Irish-those in the North and South-that compromises seem inconceivable. To the Protestants and Catholics, the future is an in- violable trust which must be guarded. For in the future lies hope, and without hope, human life is impossible. IT IS IN the different visions of what the future should be held by each side that the seeds of con- flict lie. To the Protestants, who regard themselves in an almost xenophobic way as British citizens,-the thought of having the North absorbed by a foreign power to the South is utterly abhorent. To the Catholics, the discrimination they have suf- fered at the hands of the Protestants before the current "troubles" began- serves as a hellish memory, a memory which goads them on to an intransigent position favoring unification with the Republic. They do not want their children, or children's children, to passively suffer the same injustices they did. Thus we have seen, for more than a decade, two bitterly op- posed ideologies-two drastically different conceptualizations of what Ulster should be-clashing with unrelenting ferocity. It is a sad truth that many of those who are residents of this battleground wish for nothing more than peace, at almost any cost. But this desire is rarely manifested, as these same people, Protestant and Catholic, must choose sides in this war, a war in which no moderation is tolerated. Either you are for your people or against them: There is no other opinion one can hold. IF ONE IS a Protestant, paranoia is the standard which must be borne, an inherited fear of Catholics and particularly of a Popish plot to control Ulster. This paranoia is a pernicious one, as it has driven the Orangemen into a bigoted frame of mind which only time can mollify. "So vile a set of bigots does not exist in creation as the Protestants of Ulster", said an Irish Bishop in 1897. The Catholics' appraisal of the Protestants has changed little since then, and their answer to the prejudices of the Protestant majority is an intense nationalism, an almost religious conviction that Ireland must be united, once and for all. It is a conviction Bobby Sands died for. Who is right and who is wrong in this ghastly muddle is not the issue here; as long as each side sees complete victory as the only solution to the "troubles", then Irish blood will continue to be spilled. This is a conflict which is a continuum, which has been raging for centuries and shows no sign of withering away. A hunger striker best summed up the sad- ness which besets the North with this death chant, issued from his cell: "Oh my God, I offer my pain for Ireland. She is on the rack. My God, Thou knowest how many times our enemies have put her there to break her spirit, but, by Thy mercy, they have always failed. I offer my sufferings for her and for our martyered people, beseeching Thee, oh God, to grant them nerve and strength and grace to withstand the present terror in Ireland." The hunger striker who penned those words was Terence Mac- Swiney, the Lord Mayor of Cork. He died in Brixton prison during a fast to the death in 1920. John Fitzpatrick is a sports writerfor the Daily. 4 4 4 4