Page 2/The Battalion/Thursday, April 17, 1986 Opinion A balance for terror The U.S. attack on Libya might have evened the body count, but it didn’t balance our policy in dealing with terrorism. We attacked Libya because it has supported terrorist activity. But then why have we not attacked Syria? Why not Iran? Why not other nations that sponsor terrorism to accomplish their goals? Most experts believe Iran and Syria are responsible for more terrorist activity than Libya. So why attack Libya instead of these countries?. Libya’s “mad dog” leader, Moammar Khadafy, is much more verbal than the heads of other nations. In addition, Libya is much more geographically accessible to U.S. retaliatory strikes. The U.S. terrorism policy is selective and based on conve nience rather than equal retaliation for all terrorist attacks. Robert Kupperman, a terrorism expert at the Georgetown Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the adminis tration is hesitant to act against Syria and Iran because of Syria’s ties to the Soviet Union and because of those nations’ greater ca pability for conducting terrorist strikes within the United States. If this is true, U.S. retaliatory strikes are based on how clo sely the target country is linked to Moscow and how much of a real threat the target country poses to our own soil. The United States is willing to risk increased Mideast terror ism in this country, the killing of innocent people, strains in East-West relations, international disapproval and American military casualties in an attempt to send an anti-terrorist mes sage to the sponsors of world terrorism. But pulverizing Libya, the weakest of the terrorist-nation trio, will not cause its partners to cease their activity. If the United States is going to deal with terrorism, it needs a definite policy for retaliatory action applicable to the act itself, not the country who sponsored it. The Battalion Editorial Board Q. WAT S DANGEROUS, BUT CHEAP AND EASY TO OBTAIN? MAR&tfUK ©W&fc HOUSTON Posy United Feature Syndicate ByJ a of h (Vlexand )V iet diss jgh. in R mg ' n " n cl contin nie for ortei linzbur ith di e oiinti y wii a “reign e Soviet me goals iThe mo aid, is t° tate into I p count face. ■secont py recoil rom the n an’t be till* py better ate works rhe firs ‘American’ used by groups to coerce support for idea WASH II ine Texat a place Jd Wee ‘‘can’t wa The sen ms and ice. inclu iron kite No time for slowpokes It’s amazing how the term “A- merican” has been bastardized by cer- tain groups of people to make others feel bad if they don’t agree with the groups’ ideas. • Make it a felony for homosexuals to donate blood. There are hun dreds of these Karl Pallmeyer • Bar federal funds to any hospital which denies doctors and nurses the op portunity to wear protective garments when treating AIDS carriers. • Cut off federal funds to health care facilities which employ AIDS carriers. • Cut off revenue sharing to jurisdic tions which fail to close down homosex ual bathhouses. You’ve seen them in the morn- ing and you’ve seen them at night — the wild com muter drivers hur- tling their cars through traffic at rush hour on the way to and from work. They’ll cut in front of you, Art Buchwald honk behind you and force you over the curb. What motivates these modern bar barians to risk not only their necks but yours as well? The answer is TIME. The people you see driving hell bent on the streets and highways are not only saving minutes but seconds from their trips. But no one has ever asked them what they do with on < ^ , one me thf* rime thev <;ave I m going tO “Some nights she wants to go to bed early, and the three minutes is the dif ference between seeing her and not see ing her at all. I’m a good father. The reason is I always make sure I’m pulling in when my daughter runs out of the house, even if I have to hit a school bus to do it.” I left him relating to his child how he almost hit a cement truck so he could be home in time to tell her a story. The next car I followed was a speed ing Oldsmobile filled with car-poolers. I stopped them at the first turnoff. “I notice you’re going pretty fast, gen tlemen. Could you please tell me what you plan to do with the few minutes you saved?” “I’m going to write a book,” said one. “I’m going to wash my dog,” the sec- groups but, for the purposes of this col umn, I will only mention one: Ameri cans Against AIDS. The last time I was home I saw a let ter my father had received from a group calling themselves Americans Against AIDS. I was delighted. When I think of Americans, I think of a group of people who will work together to solve any problem. When I think of Americans I think of a group of people who are willing to help their fellow man. I assumed that here was a group of peo ple — Americans — willing to find a cure for one of mankind’s most dread ful diseases. • Urge that students with AIDS not be permitted to attend class with other children. -the time they save. I was curious so I decided to follow several of them home. The first one I took after was a Mer cedes-Benz convertible. It wasn’t easy to follow him to his destination, but I man aged to do it. As I pulled up the driver was on the stoop, kissing his little daughter. “Sir,” 1 said, “I noticed you were driv ing pretty fast. How much time do you save by scaring everyone off the road?” “In a 20-mile trip I usually save two to three minutes, unless some stupid mo ron stalls his car at a stop sign. Tonight that dumb school bus almost made me late.” “It’s hard to believe after the way you drive that you only save three minutes on a trip,” I said. “No sweat. I’ve been the first guy on the block to get home before any other husband for two years. No one takes that away from me.” “What do you do with the time?” “I beg your pardon?” “You save two to three minutes every night, and heaven knows you take your life in your hands. Surely you must do something with the precious time.” He thought about this. “I get to kiss my daughter.” “Couldn’t you kiss her three minutes later?” going third said. reshingle the roof,” the The driver said, “I’m going to watch tapes of the last three Redskins games.” “Okay, tell me honestly, why the reck less speed?” “There are four of us,” the man be hind the wheel said. “If I didn’t jump over Volkswagens I’d get my last two passengers home late, and then they would ask someone else to be the driv er.” The final car I followed was a Japa nese sports car. I don’t think I would have been able to catch up with him had he not crashed into an eighteen-wheeler refrigerator truck. “Well,” I said, “you didn’t save any time getting home tonight.” “Wasn’t trying to save any time going home,” he told me as he picked up the door and threw it in the back seat. “Don’t kid me. Do you deny you were doing 75 miles per hour?” “I don’t deny that. The part I’m de nying is I was going home. I was leaving the house to go to work.” “What difference does a few minutes make?” “The difference of me or Manny get ting the number one parking place in the TV station garage.” Art Buchwald is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. When I read their letter I was disap pointed. The group should call them selves Americans Against Gays — or Americans Against Americans. Americans Against AIDS is a division of the Conservative Caucus, Inc., “the nation’s largest grassroots lobby with more than 750,000 supporters fighting for fiscal responsibility in the U.S. and victory over Communism worldwide.” The letter didn’t say what AIDS has to do with communism but it bemoaned America’s declining morals and made some unreasonable predictions of what might happen if something wasn’t done. It also mentioned these five measures that could stop the spread of AIDS: The letter asked for money to help in the fight to make Congress pass these five measures. None of that money would go to fund research for an AIDS cure. California Congressman William Dannemeyer has proposed these bills before the Congress. He has the sup port of several senators and congress men, including Jessie Helms and our own Joe Barton. There are several problems with these measures. What’s wrong^ith ho mosexuals giving blood? The AIDS vi rus can be transmitted through transfu sions, but not all homosexuals have AIDS and some non-homosexuals do. If people are prohibited from donating blood just because they are capable of getting a disease, our blood banks would be drier than the Sahara Desert. m t e of F;u. :orrei tt v rurej The way the second measure is worded also could cause some prob lems. I think that any hospital that doesn’t allow doctors and nurses to wear gloves, masks and surgical gowns should be shut down. But “protective gar ments” might mean some type of expen sive environmental suit that most hospi tals can’t afford. These hospitals would be afraid of losing federal funds and Titer Job imev The nin might tl.ub i < ial \s■ |>s\ibologytoadj® W ' IU xelois !peecn-giving < Coach Sherrill may nave convinced himself and! athletes that this is not fooling the rest of us. Mark Spicer Grad student ‘sports” related, but he isnoi What a racket Who's Jackie fooling? EDITOR: A friend and I were on a motorcycle Sundayn$ between 10:30 p.m. and 11 p.m.,en route to the Co®' from the tennis courts, when my tennis racketde# was too warm in its cover and jumped out (veryquit! 1 that). Upon realizing it was missing (not five minutes^ we backtracked the route we had taken (Houston^ Joe Routt Boulevard, right on ThrockmortonStreeif finally left on Lewis Street) twice and found nothin?] If you know the whereabouts of my Wilson IMj Standard (graphite, gripped with blue tournagripW call 260-0403. Don’t get me wrong— I’m not savin?! EDITOR: I find it incredibly dumb on Jackie Sherrill’s part to even suggest giving a free trip for two to Hawaii to “any” student-athlete under “any” circumstance. Why give a “tangible” award at all? Isn’t the reward of knowing you’ve given the best speech sufficient? I cannot remember any instructor, department head or dean offering such an award to any student for giving the best speech, case study, mock trial or other oral presentation to their fellow classmates. stole the thing, but now you know w really appreciate my racket back (so it’s his). Thanks. Nydia Cabello Cla where to returnitj would mybroi lass of’88 Letters to the Editor should not exceed 300 words in length' rial staff reserves the right to edit letters for style and kif j make every effort to maintain the author’s intent. Each : signed and must include the address and telephone numberol^^