The Michigan Daily - Monday. July 7, 2003 - 5 ... .... ... ..... ,...J .. .....1! ..... ........ .. VIEWPOINT Examining the Iraq debate Republican Party betrays America JASON PESICK ONE SMALL VOICE Dur invasion was co war. Ev course counci Security whelmi theme wasn't t figure case for radical lated. T choice an educ sion. W stand, it real rea present naysaye cy theo cabal of WM was the war. Po had som a manif many in did bel axis. B both inc ed State they sig group Afghan training subgro Rumsfe 9/11, th connec lower le action a sibility poverty Yet geopol domina his care lack at Relation he is no be true proven nuclear nightmai could in mentali that fun to resur ists, bu mining could g second one bei ing a c exerting port Pal a chan around new po Bec not fit Bush ad the Pent and sim the need ple." W BY JosEPH TORIGAN chant for secrecy. Simply, as Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz ing the months before the stupidly put it, "bureaucratic rea- of Iraq, the United States sons, or, a point everyone could nsumed by a war over the agree on. But also, here the "Strauss- very medium of civic dis- ian conspiracists have stumbled obeyedo itrocityds-onto some truth. Wolfowitz, wanting obsessed on it, from city to persuade other policymakers of Is to the United Nations his decision on Iraq, directed some SCounciL Despite this over- people in Pentagon Special Plans, ng fixation, one prominent who called themselves the Cabal, to taas the charge a discussion be the shock troops in the debate and king place at all. No public sideline the CIA and Defense Intelli- presented a clear, complete genre Agency. Members of the war, and so a credible, non- group were febrile students, along response was never formu- with Wolfowitz, of Leo Strauss, a ohis process prevented the man who said that "certain" people of war or peace from being should tell lies because only they see ated, consensual value deci- the truth. One CIA expert said vhat happened? To under-they're convinced everybody else in 's necessary to examine the the government is a fool. They tried son for war to see why it was to pawn a clearly forged nuclear ted in such a way and why order from Niger. They wrapped the rs developed such conspira- final package ina flag. ries as the machinations of a The Left, being shut out of the fStraussians or an oil grab. decision-making process, blindly IDs mixing with terrorism took the Freudian psychological secondary reason for the step of assuming that a conspiracy licymakers thought Saddam took place. How, other than through ne, and Resolution 1441 was a Star Chamber scheme, could they estation of unanimity. Also, not be consulted? It was a way of the intelligence community coping that inadvertently made ieve in an Osama-Saddam debate even more garbled. The war aathist and Qaida ideology in Iraq was no longer a disagree- lude hatred toward the Unit- ment; it was another prism through es. Yet CIA reports indicate which Bush's stupidity could be per- ned a non-aggression pact, a ceived. It drove many into lunatics named Unit 999 went to like the political dissident Noam iistan to help poison-gas Chomsky, who whined, "These and the existence of a Qaida hawks are the same people in the up supported by Saddam. same situation as the First Gulf War id's argument was that after ... therefore they can't think for e devastating result of this themselves and are evil," (although tion bearing fruit made a a supposed war conspiracist, conser- vel of confidence needed for vative intellectual Bill Kristol, nd that dismissal of this pos- attacked Bush I for being evil). They was due to a Schelling-like clung to the refrain of the far Left, of expectations. "No blood for oil," although arch- the primary focus was dove former President Jimmy Carter itical. Saddam wanted to himself admitted of oil, "I can te his region and had shown assure you that's not the policy of lessness. As Kenneth Pol- my government." Too much Iraqi oil the Council on Foreign would drive down prices, hurting ns said, "The assertion that Bush's friends in Texas, and OPEC t intentionally suicidal may would probably stabilize any change ,but ... he has frequently anyways. And Saddam would sell us inadvertently suicidal." A all the oil we wanted. Saddam would have been a I am not attempting to be an are, while a progressive Iraq apologist for either the Left or the svalidate the Islamic funda- Bush administration. It is both of st Sayyid Qutb's assertion their faults that any chance of a damentalist Islam is the key legitimate dialogue was hijacked by gent power, hurting terror- politics. Individual support or oppo- t more importantly, under- sition to the war was determined by the Ayatollahs. The war cliches of patriotism or peace. Radi- ive the Oslo peace process a cats on both sides served to discred- shot in the arm (the first it their more reasonable colleagues, ng Gulf War I) by eliminat- while all the centrists were running rucial security threat and for president. It was not a question pressure on states that sup- of whether or not the geopolitical lestinian militants. Iraq was earthquake of a progressive Iraq ce to throw our weight outweighed a world outraged by before being curtailed by a unilateralism, or if the loss of Iraqi wer, perhaps in the Far East. civilians was more important than a ause these complexities do preemptive drive to avert a world- easily in a sound bite, the wide catastrophe. It was simply a dministration tried to make clash of preconceived notions. Both Georgia and the Republican Party have a lot of explaining to do for what happened there in the 2002 elections. Voters removed two -, respected Democratic politicians on dubious grounds. Gov. Roy Barnes, who was expected to be a 2004 presidential candi- date for the party, lost because he created controversy by removing the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag. You would think that almost a century and a half after the end of the Civil War, remov- ing a racist and treasonous symbol would not be such a difficult task to accomplish, especially after the surge in patriotism fol- lowing Sept. 11. What could be more trea- sonous than rebelling from the union and then trying to destroy it all in the name of maintaining slavery? Sen. Max Cleland was also thrown out of office after his opponent, then Rep. Saxby Chambliss, associated the triple amputee, Vietnam veteran with Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. It was a pretty disgraceful and embarrassing scene for the state. Last Thursday, The Washington Post ran a piece about Cleland and how he has handled his defeat. The verdict was not very well. The piece tells the story of Cle- land's time in Washington, from his arrival as a young, idealistic student who wanted to change the world, to a broken, disillu- sioned former senator, claiming that "the state of American politics is sickening." Given the results of his last election, it's hard to blame him for feeling that way. Not only is there too much money in poli- tics, but Cleland's election is proof that the Republican Party still relies on the racist Southern Strategy in order to win votes. On a related note, author and Univer- sity alumnus Ann Coulter has a new book out called "Treason." It's number two on The New York Times bestseller list, which is the best motivation I can think of for buying Hilary Clinton's book in order to keep it in the top slot. I have not read Coulter's book, but from watching her explain it on TV, I can say that the thesis is that the country's Democratic Party has been a treasonous entity for the past 50 years and cannot be trusted with the coun- try's national security. She also defends the McCarthy witch hunts. Coulter's claims could be dispatched with with great ease, as they have no grounding in fact and are based upon a molehill of shaky assumptions strung together with a dearth of logic rivaling that of even the most vacuous family of lemmings. But I sense another disconnect between Coulter and reality. It is not the Democratic Party and liberals that are betraying America; rather, members of the Republican Party are the ones sucking the life out of this country. When Max Cle- land, a man who risked his life for and lost three of his limbs defending his country, loses faith in America, alarm bells should be going off that something is wrong. Last week the Kennedy family was all over the news. Sure one of them just made a movie and may run for governor of the country's most populous state, but one is divorcing a Cuomo, one suppos- edly had a terrible marriage and new allegations about President John Kennedy's moral lapses surface with a fair amount of regularity. But to many Americans, the Kennedy family means much more than mere tabloid fodder. To the Americans who wept when whoever shot John Kennedy shot John Kennedy, the family represents hope and a belief that the problems the world faces can indeed be solved. It may be a naive belief, but it is one that I believe our founders and our greatest presidents, not to mention millions of Americans, share. The Camelot metaphor gels well with the shining "city upon a hill" metaphor. And to make matters worse for those Americans who feel a little bit like Cleland right now, the Democratic Party is present- ly so weak that it is not offering any vision for the future. But at least it's not destroy- ing my faith in my country. Even disregarding policy, Republican tactics, from Nixon's "dirty tricks" to the disgrace in Georgia last year, have a much wider effect than the election results they produce. They are not good for the coun- try. What Coulter fails to realize is that this way of practicing politics is what truly betrays America. Pesick can be reached at jzpesick@umich.edu. VIEWPOINT Whose check? BY DARRYL BOYD Inherent in all anti-diversity and anti- affirmative action arguments is the forgot- ten truth. The reality of the United States is that it was founded on discriminatory pre- tenses. Racist practices and prejudiced behavior have been in existence on this soil since before there was a Constitution, which in itself held on to racist beliefs. I've always found it a bit curious that the only people who are opposed to affirmative action are those who never needed it. Well, they and Clarence Thomas. So, let's go back in time. Blacks and, in some southern states, Mexicans were routinely lynched. Their bodies left hanging on trees and white people taking pictures with these bodies as if they'd caught a trophy fish. Sometimes portions of their bodies, like an ear, ripped off and kept like good luck charms. White men customarily raping black women behind closed doors and fathering multitudes of children whom they'd never claim. Gruesome? That's not even the half. The sad thing is that this behavior not only took place two hundred years ago, but it continued on as recently as the 1960s. Just listening to my grandmother speak of the injus- tices she faced in the mid-1900s makes me cringe. She exclaimed, "We weren't slaves, but we might as well have been!" Picking cotton in the hot Mis- sissippi sun just part of her reasoning. On one occasion, she told me of how she had to use the restroom, but was forced to hold it because she couldn't use the "whites only" bathroom, and they wouldn't even let her relieve her- self outside in the field. Along with the cruel, violent, physi- cal torment and treatment enacted by the majority was mental, social and educa- tional injustice. Blacks couldn't attend the same schools as whites, were in many instances forbidden to speak to whites and ultimately, had no reason to learn or go to school because there was no way that a black would ever get a thinking job. Even if he did, there was no way he was going to go as far as management. Only in the last thirty years have we seen blacks and other minorities financially and socially suc- cessful. The highest-ranking minority in the history of the United States, Secre- tary of State Colin Powell, was just placed in his post three years ago, and we've been in this country for 500 years. Most minority college students today are at best second generation, and many are still the first in their entire family to go to college. Once again I consider how my grandmother only had an eighth grade edu- cation. Having her knowledge limited through the social injustices of the time certainly inhibited the things she could impart to her twelve children. This in con- trast to the many whites who not only grad- uated from high school, but went on to graduate from college - an opportunity that most minorities were denied. Though equality - as well as diversity - may in fact be the compelling state interest, just because you see a black face everyday doesn't mean we're on a level playing field. I can't explain how amazed I am to hear some of the friends that I've made here tell me that before me, they'd never had a black friend. How is it possible that a 20-year-old can live in this country all his life and never have a black acquain- tance. Is it because we don't have enough money to live in his area? Better yet, is it because you just ignore our presence when you travel to the local fast food joint or supermarket? There is no way that there is equality, from a racial standpoint, in this country. Anyone that thinks otherwise has been greatly deceived. There is no way that, in 30 years, minorities have attained the same level of social acceptance or educa- tional proficiency as the majority. Fur- thermore, I do not believe that anyone who is really a proponent of affirmative action believes that it is the only means to an end that is representative of the gener- al population. However, it is the best method currently devised. I've always said that you can't tell a crippled man how to walk or a blind man how to see if you've never been crippled or if you've never been blind. Those who oppose affirmative action have never tripped and are seeing 20/20. Boyd is an LSA senior agon one-sided and not five, ply griped about WMDs and d to "liberate the Iraqi peo- hy? Simplicity and a pen- Torig is an LSA sophomore anda membero the Daily's editorial board.