11——
Viewpoint
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Friday
January 20, 1978
Arab royalty can’t buy peace
Oil-rich Arab nations have developed a style all their own for flaunting
their wealth before the rest of the world. But Saudi Arabia may have reached
the limit in “Name your price” diplomacy.
Saudi Arabia’s King Khaled and Crown Prince Fahd have offered to buy
land from Israel to form a Palestinian homeland, the Associated Press re
ported Wednesday. A Middle East newspaper reported Tuesday that the
Saudi leaders made the offer to President Jimmy Carter during his recent
tour to the country.
Khaled and Fahd told Carter, “You try to solve the Palestinian problem
and we are ready to give you all the oil you want,” according to that news
paper account.
Now isn’t that wonderful? One has to be reminded of a wealthy father
who, upon finding two children fighting over a single toy, says, “Now, now.
I’ll buy you each a toy, so you won’t have to fight anymore.”
Certainly, any solution that could possibly bring peace to that troubled
part of the world is worth considering. But this idea is somewhat akin to the
Saudis trying to buy the moon. Of course they probably just haven’t thought
of that yet.
The Jews spent quite a few centuries trying to find a place they could call
their own. When they did in Israel, they had to fight dearly to keep it. The
disputed land, the West Bank of the Jordan River and the Gaza Strip, the
Israelis paid for not in cash, but in blood. They’re not likely to give them up
at any price.
Even if the Saudis or anyone could just give that land to the Palestinians,
all problems would not be solved. One of the major stumbling blocks to
present peace efforts is the tenacity with which Palestinian extremists stick
to one and only one goal: to destroy Israel. A Palestinian homeland won’t
bring peace if it becomes a base from which the Palestinians launch attacks
on Israel.
No, unless the Palestinians and the Israelis can solve their ideological
disputes, a Palestinian homeland is no solution.
On the other hand, maybe King Khaled would be interested in a few acres
south of Bryan.
L.R.L.
Between the lines of the treaties
By JOHN D. WEAVER
With the start of the new year President
Carter plans to step up his campaign for
the passage of the proposed Panama Canal
treaties through the U.S. Senate. The
president has dispatched Secretary of
State Vance and Secretary of Defense
Brown across the nation to “inform” the
public about the giveaway. I agree with
the president that the mass public knows
very little about the treaties. That is the
only point in which we agree. It is my feel
ing that the people would be even more
opposed to this continued retreat than
they are at the present.
©i<iN0yt#A*'fiw
Headers Forum
The first point that should be secured is
that the Panama Canal Zone is sovereign
U.S. territory. We made payments of $70
million to Panama, $40 million to France
and $25 million to Columbia for their re
spective interests in the zone. Private
property in the area was purchased at a
cost of $166,362,173. All of this for a 648
square-mile area. If this “stealing” as many
people claim then it was the most benevo
lent theft in history. Besides U.S. owner
ship, the United States has a legal right to
remain in the canal zone “in perpetuity”
and “as if it were sovereign, “according to
the 1903 treaty with Panama. This treaty is
quite clear in meaning and far less am
biguous than the Carter-Torrijos pact. In
fact, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld
American sovereignty in the 1907 Wilson
vs. Shaw case. It was reaffirmed in 1972.
Not only are we giving the Panamanian
dictator our canal, which is presently
coming from the United States. One third
of all U.S. shipping through the canal is
energy in some form. Once the Alaska
pipeline reaches its full capacity, it will
yield 1.2 million barrels of oil a day. The,
west coast can accommodate only 700,0001
barrels a day. The remaining 500,000 bar
rels will go to the east or Gulf Coast. Since
there is no pipeline across the U.S., the
fastest way is by tanker through the canal.
This oil will be vital to our energy needs.
worth about $7 billion, but we are paying
him to take it. American taxpayers will be
obligated to pay Gen. Torrijos about $50
million a year plus about $350 million in
economic and military aid! Our tax dollars
will be going in military aid to a Marxist
dictator. This will only solidify his already
tight hold as one of the most repressive
regimes in Latin America. Freedom
House, the respected organization which
ranks countries on the basis of human
rights, rated Panama on the same scale as
the Soviet Union and even lower than
Cuba. What has the Carter Administration
said about human rights in Panama? The
president has gone out of his way to praise
General Torrijos, calling him an “en
lightened dictator.”
Perhaps the biggest falsehood coming
out of Washington is that the canal is no
longer vital to the security of the United
States. The president and his aides claim
that the canal is too small for today’s ships
and that the canal is out of date. For the
record, there are only 13 ships in the U.S.
Navy that cannot use the canal and 96 per
cent of the world’s vessels are capable of
using the canal. Now with the U.S. Navy
committed to the “mini-carrier” concept,
the day may come when every ship in the
U.S. Navy may use that waterway. Another
important fact is the current role of the
Navy. The United States does not have a
two-ocean navy and the canal is a vital
link in our outnumbered one-ocean navy.
While the canal is extremely important
for our security it is also of extreme impor
tance to the economy of this country.
Sixty-eight percent of the shipping
through the canal is either destined for or
Why put our energy lifeline in the hands
of a Marxist dictator who has already bro
ken the present treaty eleven times in the
past two years? .
One of the most important aspects of the
pacts is that a Soviet warship would have
the same rights as a U.S. Naval vessel
even in time of war or national emergency.
This fact is never discussed by Carter’s
truth squad. Perhaps they do not want to
mention this or the fact that candidate
Jimmy Carter “promised” not to give away
the Panama Canal. According to Time
(August 22,1977, page 11), Jimmy Carter
promised the American people he would
never surrender “complete or practical
control” of the canal. So much for Jimmy
Carter’s promises.
The battle for the canal is raging. Every
citizen can have an impact. Remember,
there is no Panama Canal! There is an
American Canal at Panama! Lets keep our
canal.
John Weaver is a freshman journalism
and political science major and is vice pres
ident of Texas A<b-M Young Americans for
Freedom. Opinions expressed in this col
umn are the author s only and do not
necessarily represent those of this paper.
So you’re not used to snow
\
By DICK WEST
United Press International
WASHINGTON — It’s mid-January and
much of the nation is again being blan
keted with ice and snow and winter safety
tips.
Since winter occurs every year, rain or
shine, you might think that after so long a
from memory and must be assimilated all
over again.
Example: The other evening I heard a
disc jockey reading a list of winter safety
tips. They included a reminder that it’s
safer to fall down in the snow than it is to
fall down on ice.
The Lighter Side
Optimally, we would remember from
one winter to the next that snow is softer
than ice. But the facts of winter life always
seem to take us by surprise. And so the
tips must be repeated with the advent of
each new blizzard.
time - say a millennium or two - people
would begin to get the hang of it. No way.
Learning to cope with winter is nothing
like learning to ride a bicycle, a skill that
once mastered is never lost.
During the off-season, the little tricks
that see us safely through the winter fade
Before the snow gets any deeper and
the ice any harder, here a few other survi
val rules that it might be useful to relearn:
Falling Down - The main reason so
many people are injured in wintertime
falls is because they are out of practice.
There are several good practice falls that
will help keep arms, legs and other limbs
in condition to absorb impacts with ice and
snow without fractures.
These include tilting over backward in
rocking chairs, dropping through old
hammocks whose fabric has rotted and
hearing coarse language that causes one to
swoon.
Driving - Because city streets are fre
quently coated with ice and snow in
winter, motorists need to learn to drive on
salt.
The most important thing to bear in
mind is that a salty street may cause one’s
brakes to pucker, making it difficult to
come to a smooth stop.
Insulation - Medical science has estab
lished that up to 41.7 percent of our bodily
heat may be lost through failure to wear
well-insulated eyeglasses.
“The notion that bifocals will keep your
eyes warmer is mostly myth,” one
specialist reports. “For maximum protec
tion from the cold, you need thermal pane
lenses.”
Safety experts also recommend batting
the eyes less frequently in winter, particu
larly if one has long eyelashes. Sweeping
lashes produce a fanning effect that draws
cold air into the eye sockets.
Women especially should avoid coquet
tish encounters that induce rapid batting.
Since warm air rises, it is helpful to
scowl a lot in winter. Scowling keeps eye
brows at a low level, which is the best
angle for retaining the heat given off by
the eyeballs.
Avoid astonishing or shocking situations
that cause the eyebrows to arch.
And remember that on the average
brown eyes are warmer than blue.
A ticket alternative
Editor:
After sitting in the endzone three long
years, this is one junior who is damn tired
of it!! I feel I have an alternative idea that
merits close inspection by the Senate.
Since the first two digits of the I.D.
number indicate the year that a student
enters the university, why not use the
I.D. for ticket distribution. An transfer
student, graduate or undergraduate, who
has not previously attended A&M, should
receive freshman tickets his first year,
sophomore tickets his second year and so
on. Like in the Corps, it is not fair for
someone who’s frogging into the univer
sity to get full privileges (in this case ticket
privileges.)
This idea makes it tan
gies who have been 1
freshmen, s..^!
£■>“
re
waiting for their chance to be an up
perclassman and get good tickets.
This also brings to mind another beef.
In the upperdeck there are several rows of
so-called consideration seats. The idea be
hind this must have been thought up by a
teasip. I feel that any graduate student or
any student for that matter who thinks
they are too good to stand up or follow any
other of our traditions should be placed on
the track regardless of rank...I realize and
approve of someone who is not physically
able to stand be able to recieve these tick
ets.
I realize my ideas about the ticket dis
tribution will probably receive a lot of flak,
but I bet I can guess who from.
Let’s here some responses, both bad
and good on my ideas. I would like to
know where everyone stands on this issue.
—Gus Wilson, ‘79
Top of the News
Campus
Library tours to be held
Beginning Jan. 23, students may begin signing for tours to be
offered at the Sterling C. Evans Library. Sign-up sheets will be
posted on the first Boor of the library, across from the circulation
desk. Tours of the library will be offered from Jan. 30 through Feb. 10
at various times throughout each day.
State
FBI criticism made‘unjustly’
Former Texas Attorney General Waggoner Carr says an FBI offi
cial’s criticisms about Carr’s report on the investigation of President
John Kennedy’s assassination were made unjustly and should not
have been kept secret. An Oct. 8, 1964 memorandum from Alan
Belmont, assistant to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, dismissed Carr’s
3,000-word report as a “self-serving apologetic treatise” on the ac
tions of Texas authorities following the assassination. In the
memorandum, Belmont also said Carr’s document added nothing to
what was already known. The memorandum was contained in FBI
files released Wednesday in Washington.
Nation
Airplane crash investigated
Frontier Airlines says the National Transportation Safety Board
will investigate a training jet crash, which killed three Frontier em
ployes in Pueblo, Colo. “There was no voice recorder aboard the
plane, so we are checking with control tower personnel to help us
determine what might have caused the crash,” Frontier spokesman
Bob Schulman said Wednesday. Schulman said the plane, a deHavil-
land Twin Otter Prop-jet, crashed and exploded shortly after 3 p.m.
Wednesday. Schulman said it was not known who was piloting the
plane when it crashed. He identified the victims as Capt. Jack How
ell, 48, and pilot trainee Dennis A. Meyer, 34, both of Denver, and
Capt. Dale L. Glenn, 35, Aurora.
Economy grew little in 1977
The nation’s economy, slowed by reluctance of wary businessmen
to restock shelves, grew by only 4.9 percent last year compared to six
percent in 1976, the Commerce Department said today. The Gross
National Product, measure of the nation’s overall goods and services,
slowed to a 4.2 percent growth rate in the fourth quarter compared to
5.1 percent in the third quarter. GNP growth also slowed in the second
quarter. Americans went on a buying spree last year and many busi
nesses were wary of restocking at year’s end, the department said.
World
Italian premier appointed
President Giovanni Leone re-appointed acting Premier Giulio An-
dreotti yesterday to form Italy’s next government, opening a round of
tough negotiations between the ruling Christian Democrats and the
Communist Party determined to increase its power. Leone named
Andreotti, 59, after three days of consultations with the nation’s polit
ical party leaders and four days after Andreotti’s previous
Washington-backed Christian Democratic government fell under
Communist pressure.
Israel’s Begin makes promise
Weather
Cloudy and cold today, tonight and tomorrow. High today
mid-30’s, low tonight low-20’s. High tomorrow in the mid-
30’s. Winds out of the northeast at 5-10 mph. Thirty percent
chance of rain and possibly snow tonight and Saturday.
Party cloudy and cold on Sunday.
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Israeli Prime Minister Menahem Begin pledged yesterday if U.S.
mediation efforts succeed in restoring the broken off Middle East
peace talks he will refrain from making public statements that could
harm the negotiation process. He said, however, it must be on a basis
of reciprocity, adhered to also by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
Begin made the comments at a joint news conference with Secretary
of State Cyrus Vance following a 75-minute meeting with the Ameri
can mediator on issues that Vance was to take to Sadat in Cairo today.
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MEMBER
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Editor Jamie Ait^
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Donald C. Johnson.
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