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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 18, 1985)
Page 2/The Battalion/Monday, February 18, 1985 OPINION Learning how to overthrow local government can be fun and easy A week or two ago a friend of mine lent me the February 1985 is sue of “Soldier of Fortune.” “SOF” is not normally on my list of monthly • reading, but this issue contained a r e p rin t o f the CIA’s Guerrilla War Manual which was distributed to Freedom Fighters in Nicaragua. The government calls the manual “FM 95-1 A,” which translates into En glish as “How-to Overthrow Your Local Government.” The document is a liter ary masterpiece comparable to an in come tax form. It uses such words as “neutralize” when referring to ways of dealing with enemy sympathizers in a given area of operations. The “comba tant-propagandist guerrillas” can use their imaginations to decide if the term means relocate, kidnap, or turn into fer tilizer. Using largely communistic tech- niques, the manual advocates tricking established citizens into supporting the guerrilla movement by using a series of “facade organizations.” How to win a crowds favor, lead a mass uprising, con ceal weapons on troops and make guer- people are just a few of the topics cov ered in the book. “If possible, professional criminals will be hired to carry out specific selec tive ‘jobs’,” the manual states. Earlier in the document, the Sandinista govern ment is labeled as “illegal.” The following is what the manual de scribes as “the essence of armed propa ganda: “An armed guerrilla force can occupy an entire town or small city which is neutral or relatively passive in the con flict. In order to conduct the armed propaganda in an effective manner, the following should be carried out simulta neously: • Destroy the military or police in stallations and remove the survivors to a ‘public place.’ • Gut all the outside lines of commu nication: cables, radio, messengers. • Set up ambushes in order to delay the reinforcements in all the possible entry routes. • Kidnap all officials or agents of the Sandinista government and place them in ‘public places’ with military or civilian persons of trust to our movement.” The manual goes on to explain that if a citizen tries to leave the town, it would be necessary to shoot him or her, but the guerrillas should push the blame on the government. The victim should be pro claimed an enemy of the people and the guerrillas should point out that the gun they used was one recovered from Sandinistan forces. The most intet'esting part of the doc ument is entitled “Selective Use of Vio lence for Propagandistic Ef fects.” When neutralizing “carefully selected and planned targets,” the GIA says one must consider: • the degree of “violence necessary to carry out the change.” • the amount of “violence acceptable to the population af fected.” • the “degree of violence possible without causing damage or danger to other individuals in the area of the tar get” ... The GIA hopes this crash course in violent governmental overthrows will aid the Freedom Fighters in establishing a democratic administration in Nicara gua. President Reagan said Tuesday aid to the rebel forces is “necessary” and “desirable” because “the Sandinista gov ernment seized power out of the barrel of a gun.” Obviously, Reagan hasn’t read Feb ruary’s “Soldier of Fortune,” or if he has, he hasn’t realized that the Freedom Fighters are also trying to “seize power out of the barrel of a gun.” Loren Steffy is a sophomore journa lism major and a weekly columnist for The Battalion. nllas look like heroes in the eyes of the San Francisco bathhouses 'inherently unsafe' Loren Steffy AIDS a reason for legislating SAN FRAN CISCO — Well, says Mervyn Sil verman, suppose someone opened a Russian — rou lette parlor, where adults so inclined could go risk their lives. Could the city be indiffer ent? Silverman recently resigned as direc tor of health in this city, where there is currently a death a day due to AIDS (ac quired immune deficiency syndrome). Two new cases are reported each day, which means that a year from now there will be two deaths a day. I his citv is — depending on your idea of civic virtue — famous or notorious for its tolerant attitude towi/rd homo sexuality. Fen to 15 percent of the pop ulation (75,000-100,000) are male ho mosexuals. Among many such men, unlike among lesbians, there is a pattern of promiscuity. Bathhouses, featuring private rooms and saunas or whirlpools, are relics of a generation ago. Before homosexuals felt able to “come out of the closet,” such establishments were used for assig nations by people who felt they had no where else to do what they were deter mined to do. Today, Silverman says, bathhouses are less used for that, al though they still are used by, for exam ple, bisexual married men or others who desire secrecy. But bathhouses are symbols of “homosexual rights,” so there was protest last April when Silver- man promulgated regulations to pro hibit “unsafe sex” in bathhouses. San Francisco’s yeasty political proc ess stopped the regulation, so Silverman ordered the bathhouses closed. The owners “won” in court, but the court, in allowing them to remain open, essen tially imposed Silverman’s “unsafe sex” regulations, requiring monitoring of ac tivity, forbidding private rooms and re quiring lights to remain on. Silverman argues that because of AIDS (and some less-harmful diseases) bathhouse sex is inherently unsafe. Bathhouses are frequently used for forms of group promiscuity that should not be described in a newspaper. To persons who say that the regula tions will merely change the. venue, not the quantity or nature, of homosexual activity, Silverman says: If couples meet in separate locations, the quantity of es pecially dangerous contacts will decline because group sex will decline. He says this is already happening under the tu telage of death: Watching a friend die is educational. When we see a wreck along a highway, Silverman says, we drive more slowly for the next few miles, then soon speed up. But AIDS has a more lasting deterrent effect. San Francisco spends several million dollars a year on education and counsel ing about sexually transmitted diseases. Information is, Silverman thinks, the primary reason for the changed behav ior that has resulted in a 75 percent re duction in cases of rectal gonorrhea. Sexually transmitted diseases are par adigms of many of today’s principal public-health problems, such as traffic accidents, cancer from smoking, alco holism. They are “optional” diseases in the sense that they can be radically re duced by the dissemination of informa tion that modifies freely chosen behav ior. Silverman is opposed by libertarians who say the regulations violate “civil rights.” They say that publicity about AIDS has been so effective that almost everyone is informed,, and that sexual activity in private between informed and consenting adults, even when dan gerous, threatens only the consenters and thus is no business of government. Silverman argues that even if the facts about AIDS have passed the threshold of public understanding that can be called “common knowledge,” there are still victims who have never given “informed consent” to the risk of infection. Victims include women who have sexual relations with bi-sexual men, drug addicts who use tainted nee dles and recipientsof tainted blood. But the argument for Silverman’s policy is most interesting when it moves beyond nuances about informed con sent, and beyond the sort of argument used to justify laws requiring seatbelt use, or requiring motorcyclists to wear Chalk up one moreTT for the old "Gippeffo By ART BUCHWALD Columnist lor The Los An/felt's Times Syndicate B) The secret of President Reagan’s popularity is that he has the ability to make us all feel good, when we know we should feel bad. that the president was avoiding the of how he expected to reduce the In get deficit without raising taxes'" The ! "Frankly, I wasn’t listening ihai ence ‘l 11 know is what he tolduiBr.. 1 /!' 1 MIr His last Stale of the Union speech was another triumph for the “Gipper." I have no idea how it played in Peo ria, but from what I could tell it went over quite well in Washington. “What did you think of the presi dent’s speech?” I asked a secretary in my building. “1 thought it was wonderful,” she said. “He leveled with the American people.” “When did he do that?” sely. All count i it’s going to get passes all of Mr. Reagan’s programr Dr. H “That’s a big ‘if.’” ry’s in excellent shape lw Ij»i t i () |] ling to get even better if C()J we en th eral art policy a “Well, they sang Happs hinhc United ! him.” fivlconi "Was there anything about thes^^'j M ' you didn’t like?” iMf () f “I was very annoyed when Gs| )en p ^ Bush and 1 ip O’Neill kept talking; 1 , ■ , 1 . r , • s JU)t ( hit the president was speaking shouldn't have done that.” ism. Harcii “When he asked the lady cadet f rom West Point to take a bow f rom the balco- ny. “You felt that was the highlight of his address?” I inquired. “That and when he asked the lady from Harlem to also take a bow, because of what she had done for little babies.” “Yes, but what alxrut the fact that the president glossed over the budget defi cit and indicated that he wanted to pro ceed with the MX missile and ‘Star Wars’? Did you have any feelings on that?” “Not really. I just thought Nancy looked beautif ul in her red dress." A young man working as an intern on my floor said, “I thought it was a good speech and it was about time someone came out for the p<x>r people and the farmers and the urban centers and tie- regulation of the airlines and the Peace Corps.” “Then you didn’t get the impression “Perhaps they weren't paying n _ K | t j ca l tion because the president had ' same speech before,” I suggested. j ta ij st j< s “it doesn’t matter if they heard fined as fore. I hev should have pretendei mea , n ? ()l didn't." . A has exp; My third survey victim told mtlyels woi thing she liked about the speech* diifc sak president’s tie. “Is there anything else you rerocL^^I alxHit it In-sides the presidents tie: . “No,” she said. “Was I supposed 1 “Forget the president’s speech[S moment. What did you thinko! I Democratic reply?” HOI' \\ hat reply." cation rt “They put on their own reply ling felt i president’s State ofthe Union speed* 16 , H<)1 Rodeo, i “I didn’t hear it. I was watcninj. junioi nasty.’” “Don’t tell me you’d ratherwatdifj nasty’ than hear the Democrats( their party." She said in disbelief, putting me on.” morality helmets. (If a cyclist scrambles his brains and becomes an invalid, his act is not just, as philosophers say, a “self-regar ding” act. Rather, it is “other-regarding” because, thanks to the insurance indus try and extensive government involve ment in the provision of medical re sources, we have socialized the burdens that result from individual irrationality, however consensual.) The form of ethical argument natural to Americans and favored by libertari ans favors libertarianism. It turns on strict individualism — the individual’s information, the individual’s consent and the individual’s rights, including his right to have government share the bur dens he incurs. Such an argument skews policy debates because it excludes com munitarian concerns, especially con cerns for community values. The soul of Silverman’s argument is that the city is not interfering with any one’s right to commit any sexual act, but only with the bathhouse owner’s right to facilitate dangerous sexual activity. He says the reason the city is right to inter fere is the same reason that a civilized city would close a Russian-roulette par lor: Life is good, and the law, a powerf ul teacher for good or ill, should affirm the preciousness of life by discouraging behavior that cheapens it. Is this an argument for morality”? Yes. ‘legislating George Will is a Washington Post. columnist for the Shelley Hoekslra. ManagingEdiw Ed C tassavoy. City Editor Kellie Dworaczyk, News Editor Michelle I’owe, Editorial Page EdiK Travis Tingle, Sports Editor FALCON SNOWM1 MRS. SO MICKI & The Battalion Staff Assistant City Editors J JEWS Kari Fluegel, RhondaIf; Assistant News Editors Hffll s:ty«W Cami Brown, John Hallett.K; Assistant Sports Editor CliareanWil Entertainment Editors... Shawn Behlen, Eeigh-EIW Staff Writers CathieAntlti Brandon Berry, DainaliBull Ann Cervenka, MichaelCrjd« Kirsten Dietz, fat rice Koranek, Trent Leo Sarah Oates,Jem Tricia Parker, LynnRac Copy Editors .Jan Perry, Kellt) Make-up Editors Karen Karla! Columnists Kevin hula, Loren! Editorial Cartoonist Mike Sports Cartoonist Dale Copy Writer CathyBeK Photo Editor KatherineB 1 Photographers Anthony h Wavne Crabein. Bill Hughes, Frank In 1 ter R Specials Mua^ John Makely, Peter Rocha, Dean! ^ Editorial Policy I he HiiUitlitm is n niHi-pmlh. scl/'-di/i/Miiliiiniiofi njH‘rnictl ns ;i t tnnmimiiv sviiiiv U> lh;is Hi Slalion. 1 Oftininns vwfiix ssvtl in l/ic H,7//«iliinurv i/kw*! t.tliinrinl lit phi (I in ihc nut Inn. and (IniHlt //onw/^f resent the i>i>iniinis ut I cxns AX’Mutlniinislnili^ in tin 1 liinird nl Regents. 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