PERSPECTIVES
The Michigan Daily Friday, June 6, 1986
Undeclared war
By Henry Park The total of Soviet personnel in the
war-torn starvation zone is 6,500 to 8,500.
As if to raise the stakes beyond
A realistic assessment of the inter- Libya and Ethiopia, the Soviets step-
national situation is that the major ped up efforts in Afghanistan in April.
powers are engaged in war around the The Moslem rebels admitted that its
globe. However, since a much most important base on the border
savored victory in Grenada, Reagan's with Pakistan surrendered to the
foreign policy advisors have taken to Soviets. In May, Pakistan's
telling the public that the U.S. American-made F-16s shot down a
military-buildup has forced the Soviet plane within Pakistan near the
Soviets to accept peace. On the other Afghanistan border.
hand, according to the Soviet Union, In Lebanon Soviet technicians have
American militarism is the work of manned anti-aircraft batteries. Those
the most reactionary circles of batteries have fired at American-
American imperialism. The Soviets made planes used to assault Syrian
always claim that they themselves do and Palestinian positions.
not have the same aggressive drive In the United States there are some
for empire that the United States has, good reasons why the public is not
Both East and West try to appear to more aware of this global warfare.
oppose terrorism, support disar- Ever since the loss in Vietnam,
mament and contribute to world Americans have known that it does
peace. not pay to stuff a U.S.-backed regime
Libya was without Soviet defenses down the throat of another people.
when the United States bombed Yet, American imperialism has
Tripoli. Asked what the USSR would longstanding interests in the Third
do if the United States attacked Libya, World that are not sacrificed to public
Soviet diplomats said that their job is opinion and the principle of accessible
not to escalate military hostilities but government.
tomaintain peace. The Soviets pulled The solution since Vietnam for
out their technicians manning policy-makers is to trumpet for war
Libyan anti-aircraft missile batteries when possible - e.g. Libya and
just before the U.S. raid in April. Grenada. However, where the public
(Chicago Tribune, 4/20/86, p. 13) does not rush to the call - e.g. El
nhe Sov 30Palest o cooe rato SalvadNicaragua, Angaothaction and the status quo
belong to terrorist organizations. Just before a scheduled vote on Con- By Tim Bennett which represented a white-held con-teslstomk nop
(Detroit Free Press, 4/23/86, p. 15a) tra aid in April, government officials cept of white superiority; apartheid, from all companies which;
Combined with the Soviets' unilateral leaked that the C.I.A. has provided In early May I was fishing a trout meaning racially separate, was called volved in South Africa. He wr
extension of the underground nuclear aid to the Contras all along despite a stream in Missouri with my father, segregation in the U.S. When a tired long as they are not willing to
testing ban, these incidents make the House ban on such activity. Indeed, when downriver from us we heard a black woman sat in the front of the take such a boycott, their
Soviet Union seem quite forthcoming. the C.I.A. aid is within the law white man joking with his friend. bus in Montgomery, Alabama, and practices are pure and unadu
Indeed, Reagan administration of- because the C.I.A. has discretionary "You know why you never see no was jailed for it, a symbol, one of self-righteous hypocrisy."
ficials only recently had the courage funding. The C.I.A. is only required to blacks fishing for trout?" he began... protest against lawful discrimination, While Mr. Friedman's wor
to admit that Gorbachev had long ago inform two members of Congress on After overhearing the punchline of was formed in the personhood of Rosa reflect a common view as to 1
proposed the total elimination of its uses of that funding. this racist joke, we waded back Parks, a U.S. Nelson Mandela. ction of campus apartheid prot
nuclear weapons by the year 2000. The C.I.A. is distributing a $500 toward the shoreline. Finally, Dad In 1986 at the University of and the University of Mi
However, behind the rhetoric of an- million fund to global proxies in muttered, "Something needs to be Michigan, a faction of students led by Board of Regents missed th
ti-terrorism and disarmament the Nicaragua, Laos, Afghanistan and said to them." the Free South Africa Coordinating We live in a world of symbol
U.S. bombing of Libya amounts to Angola with the approval of represen- I nodded but my mind was Committee (FSACC) applied ting specific values; a racist j
Soviet discipline of what it now calls tatives of the State Dept., National elsewhere; I was thinking about the pressure on President Shapiro and the trout stream reveals certain
"adventurist" Libya. After Qadaffi Security Council and the Pentagon, University of Michigan, Nelson Man- Board of Regents throughout the Win- and so does the tearing do
tasted what would happen without each of which also has discretionary dela, and an honorary degree. There, ter term to consider awarding Nelson shanty in the diag or on Darti
Soviet support, the Soviets cancelled funding. According to U.S. officials, too, something needs to be said, I Mandela an honorary degree at Green. Most importantly, sile
meetings with Shultz, paid a port call "the strategy recommended by CIA thought. Commencement. Not coincidentally, inaction signify values, t
to Libya and sent military forces to Director William Case and approved Nelson Mandela, the recognized President Shapiro responded to this choosing not to take a stan
the Mediterranean. by Reagan in January 1985, rests on leader of the multi-racial African pressure in the late Spring, citing a supports the status quo. If w
While the United States was taun- the premise that the two superpowers National Congress, is in his 25th year little-known regental bylaw which dividuals, don't support the ins
ting Qaddafi, the Eritrean People's are already engaged in a war of sorts of sitting ina South African jail. There disallows the bestowal of honorary of apartheid, how do other
Liberation Front reported on April using proxy armies." (Detroit Free is no question as to why he is behind degrees in absentia. When the Board especially those with access t
14th that three to five thousand "ad- Press, 5/12/86, p. 1,13a) bars: he is an educated black South of Regents agreed to uphold the know we care about changing i
ditional Soviet technicians and pilots _ -- - - African who had peacefully opposed bylaw, the Uniersity of Michigan U. of.M. had an opportunity
have recently arrived in Asmara" to Henry Park is a graduate student the political system known as apar- figuratively sent Rosa Parks to the a statement for the entire w
prop up the Ethiopian regime s in sociology. theid. To many, his bondage back of the bus, see: a statement of integr
colonial administration in Eritrea. represents the bondage of blacks in But in contrast to the "go to the equality to people of all ra
South Africa. The South Africa gover- back of the bus" interpretation creeds. We could have shown
nment is unlikely to free him in fear presented here, economist Milton a symbol, an honorary degree,
We encourage our readers to use this that it will symbolize the release of all Friedman wrote a recent New York imprisonment based on the ch
the nation's blacks from the Times editorial which was highly being a black, college-ed
space to discuss and respond to issues of repressive grip of apartheid. Nelson critical of U.S. student protests again- leader is in direct conflict w
their concern. Whether those topics Mandela is a symbol of the fight for st the policy of apartheid. Mr. Fried- promotion of tolerance, free
change in South Africa much like man stated that campus protests occur inquiry, and acquisition of kno
cover University, Ann Arbor corn- Martin Luther King Jr., or Rosa because they "are great fun". He By choosing not to honor M
munity, state, national, or international Parks, is considered here. correlated the construction of shan- dela, our institution of higher I
y> iUp until the mid 1960s in the ties and staging of apartheid protests tacitly supported his uncons
issues in a straightforward or conveen- American South, blacks wer barred with panty raids and partying at the jail sentence.
from restaurants, parks, and sporting beaches during spring vacation. If
tional manner, we feel such a dialogue events, and were made to sit in the student protestors really believe what Tim Bennet is a senior, mal
isca crucialfunction of the Daily. back of the bus and use separate they assert, they would disinvest per- psychology.
restrooms. This was enforced by laws sonally, he claimed, by committing
Page 7
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