/
991
age i
tiddle
*nged
ading
ul tes-
; Bra-
|The Battalion
Vol. 90 No. 79 GSPS 045360 26 Pages College Station, Texas
Call to Duty
A&M cadet called
service by Marines
See Life Style
Thursday, January 24,1991
vice.
idem,
Ji'-tion
a end
I also
words.
eight-
Troops dig in for ground war
>vides
veil as
eel of
Grace
i, said
: most
siders
d. “If
rica is
triple
r Life
id his
ig aid
taken
devel-
nstra-
ve any
ie call
said,
y de-
gpro-
r, the
DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia (AP)
- U.S. armored cavalrymen skir
mished with Iraqis in the first
S round clash at the northern bor
er, where vast fleets of tanks ma
neuvered and dug in on the desert
floor Wednesday for the land war
just over the horizon.
The Americans captured six Ira-
flisand suffered two slight casualties,
tne U.S. command said. It denied a
Baghdad claim that the Iraqis also
seized prisoners.
Iraq apparently fired off a double-
barreled volley of Scud missiles at
both Saudi Arabia and Israel. One
Scud was intercepted by two Patriot
defense missiles over northern Is
rael.
There were no immediate reports
of damage or casualties in either
place.
The Israeli leadership was hold
ing its fire Wednesday at the urging
of the United States.
Kuwaiti oil installations burned
on, sabotaged by the Iraqis, and sho
wered nearby Iran with “mack rain.”
The skies over Iraq itself began to
clear, and allied air commanders
, Kuwait:.
\
IRAN
• Persian Gulf
Strait of
SAUDI Wi -• Hormu2
ARABIA
O
? *-GATAft t Sy
Riyadh - E ./^
U.S. Central
I
V
Command
OMAN';}
apOmitM :/ YEMEN <-*,
^^AmbianSea
...
\ jft
ZJC mil#* !/ YEMEN
pressed their mission-a-minute cam
paign in the seventh day of Opera
tion Desert Storm.
Allied bombers have demolished
half of Iraq’s oil-refining capacity,
A&M official describes
‘worst-case scenario'
commanders said. Iraq announced it
was suspending gasoline sales.
More and more Iraqis were
emerging from their shelters in
Baghclacf, said CNN’s Peter Arnett,
the only Western journalist allowed
to report from the Iraqi capital.
Commerce seemed to be resum
ing, Baghdad residents were shop
ping at the central market and water
trucks were making their rounds, he
said.
The allied army is deployed along
the 130-mile Saudi-Kuwaiti border
and farther west, along the Iraqi-
Saudi border, where the desert-
trained 3rd Armored Cavalry Regi-
mentTrom Fort Bliss, Texas, is be
lieved to be conducting reconnais
sance and guarding the allied force’s
western flank.
Wednesday’s first report of a
ground action came from the Ira
nian news media, which said Iraq re
ported its forces had attacked enemy
troops in Saudi territory and cap
tured allied prisoners.
The U.S. command reported that
3rd Armored Cavalry troopers were
manning an observation post near
the Saudi-Iraqi border late Tuesday
when they came under small-arms
fire from an Iraqi patrol and re
turned fire.
Two Americans were slightly
wounded and returned to duty after
treatment, and six Iraqis were cap
tured, the command said. It denied
that any Americans had been cap
tured.
American armored units contin
ued maneuvering into place along
the frontier Wednesday after a days-
long spell of rain and drizzle that
turned desert-dry areas into small
lakes and created sinkholes that can
bog down a tank.
Commanders have begun to slow
the pace of combat exercises at the
front lines so soldiers can rest and
equipment can be kept in good
shape for what could be a prolonged
ground battle.
A ground offensive is not ex
pected until February. American
tank officers, like Marine Capt. Rob
Philon, know it will not be a rollover.
Philon’s M-60 tanks will have to go
up against Iraq’s Soviet-made T-72s.
By MIKE LUMAN
Of The Battalion Staff
An Arab-Israeli war is part of
the “worst-case scenario” for
events in the Middle East, the
deputy director for administra
tion of Texas A&M’s Mosher In
stitute for Defense Studies said
Wednesday night.
Dr. Art Blatr, speaking as part
of the MSC Great Issues program
titled “War in the Gulf, said an
Arab-Israeli conflict could trigger
Saudi officials to order U.S.
troops off Saudi land.
“There would be all kinds of
trouble,” Blair said. “If you want
to pray at night, pray this doesn’t
become an Arab-Israeli war.”
To make his point, Blair said
the 250 students and faculty at
tending the program likely would
be sent to the Middle East if the
Arab coalition fell apart.
He added he did not think
events would deteriorate to that
point and said allied forces almost
certainly will triumph over Iraq.
Dr. Alex Mintz, another pan
elist and an A&M professor of
political science, said he thinks Is
rael will retaliate massively if Sad
dam Hussein launches chemical
See Issues/Page 6
agcl)
:er for
id the
i. to 5
e con-
o-Lay,
r Inc.,
: and
'1 rep-
<gh
&
ps
- The
Service
1 range
i four-
a first-
ct Feb.
e been
an sale
ginally
st-class
ctantly
e com-
dier in
se by a
Iterna-
to $20
bat we
of no
ieneral
e com-
me are
chair-
board,
ime to
st-class
be first
dditio-
3 cents
st-class
stamp,
yellow
the se
ers in
putting
al rate
Petroleum expert:
Events in gulf area
determine oil prices
Embargo freezes supply, demand
ByJAYME BLASCHKE
Of The Battalion Staff
Iraq’s destruction of Kuwaiti oil
fields should have little or no effect
on the world’s oil markets, says the
head of the Texas
A&M petroleum
engineering de
partment.
“The wells in
Kuwait and Iraq
both, due to the
embargo, are
shut in for all
practical pur
poses,” says Dr.
W. D. Von Gon-
ten. “Whether
the well is blow
ing out is not
going to have any
effect on the
amount of pro
duction areas in
the world.”
Von Gonten says oil prices might
fluctuate in response to events in the
Persian Gulf, but not because of
changes in supply and demand.
“Kuwait has about 300 to 400 oil
wells, where the United States has
over 600,000 oil wells,” he says. “In
comparison, they don’t have many
oil wells, but then again they aren’t a
very large country.”
Von Gonten says destruction of
the wells will have little long-term ef
fect on Kuwait’s oil business.
Kuwait possesses about 100 billion
barrels of oil in underground depos
its, he says. One well, burning thou
sands of barrels a day, would not
hurt the nation much, Von Gonten
says.
“If every well in the country blows
(up) and you lose a million barrels of
oil from every one, you’ve lost 400
million barrels,” Von Gonten says.
“That’s only four-tenths of a billion,
and Kuwait has 100 billion barrels.”
He says that beside losing oilfield
equipment, there would be little ac
tual loss to Kuwait.
Dfcspite the massive amounts of
smoke produced by such fires, he
says there is little environmental haz
ard.
“At one time in the Middle East,
they flared all the natural gas pro
duced with oil, and so millions of
cubic feet of gas a day was being bur
ned,” he says.
Burning oil will have even less of
an effect on the environment than
natural gas, Von Gonten says.
“This is not a catastrophe,” he
says.
Destruction of the Kuwaiti oil
fields poses little additional hazard
to U.S. troops, he says.
“You’ve got the danger of the fire
itself, but since the products of com
bustion are going to rise, they’re not
going to settle on the ground where
soldiers are going to be exposed to
them,” he says.
“After the smoke is carried by the
prevailing winds for a hundred
miles, it’s pretty much dissipated,”
he adds.
The biggest problem will be cap
ping the wells, which can’t be done
until the area is secured by allied
forces, Von Gonten says.
“Most of the world’s oil field fire
fighting eqipment is based here in
Texas,” he says. “If all the wells go
up, it will take more crews than we
have to put them out and cap them.
“That takes anywhere from weeks
to months, and you can’t do it if peo
ple are shooting at you,” he says.
SCOTT D. WEAVER/The Battalion
Daniel Cornal of the A&M Maintenance Department mows the outfield stripes in Olsen Field early Wednesday morning.
Student Senate backs Bush, allied troops 42-3
By ELIZABETH TISCH
Of The Battalion Staff
The Texas A&M Student Senate passed a res
olution after an emotional debate Wednesday
night supporting both President Bush’s policy in
the Persian Gulf and allied troops deployed
there.
Bush has sent an open letter to college stu
dents asking for support of the U.S. presence in
the Gulf. The Senate voted in favor of the policy,
42-3.
Finance Chairman David Brooks, who intro
duced the resolution, said the impact of Wednes
day’s vote goes beyond politics.
“The rationale behind this is much more than
a political statement,” Brooks said. “It is our duty
as members of the Student Government, the
elected voice, to represent how the student body
feels.”
Senator Julie Chamberlin, one of the three
who voted against the resolution, asked the stu-
See Senate/Page 6
ne the
calls a
fign is
Bike lanes in, around A&M expand due to parking garages
By TROY D. HALL
Of The Battalion Staff
Commuting by bicycle in and around
Texas A&M’s campus probably will be
safer and easier this fall after completion
of the University Center parking garage.
Tom Williams, director of Parking,
Transit and Traffic Services, says upon
completion of the University Center ga
rage, street parking will no longer be
necessary, freeing those areas for bike
lanes.
“We hope to have all of our bike lanes
completed by the end of the summer as
we are able to move people from the
streets into our new parking garage,” he
says.
Bike lanes need to be developed along
streets before bicycle problems can be
solved, Williams says. That is only the
first step to making bicycle commuting
more accessible, he says.
“Bike paths then will need to be devel
oped around campus in off-street areas
where we do not have connections be
tween streets,” he says.
Student involvement is an integral
part of developing an effective bicycling
system on campus, Williams says.
“We don’t nave an implementation
plan, nor do we have rules and regula
tions,” he says. “That is something that
has to be a student-generated activity be
cause it is the students that are going to
be affected.”
Williams says the A&M Student Gov
ernment, through Ty Clevenger’s office,
is supposed to be working on a plan im
plementing rules and regulations for bi
cyclists.
Bicycle traffic has gone uncontrolled
for so many years that it has become a
dangerous situation, he says.
“The streets occupying bike lanes are
not the best in the world because some of
our streets are in such disrepair,” Wil
liams says. “Our new Bizell Street is the
example of the way we want all streets on
the campus to eventually look like.”
The future of the bicycle system, how
ever, does not stop at the A&M campus.
A study co-funded by the University
and the Texas Highway Department was
conducted by the Texas Transportation
Institute.
Dr. Joe Blaschke, assistant research
engineer with Texas Transportation In
stitute, says the study was conducted to
determine where routes in Bryan and
College Station could be constructed to
encourage people to commute by bicy
cle.
Blaschke says the study found no
shortage of bicycle areas on campus, but
some areas were used much more than
others.
A questionnaire survey also was con
ducted to determine interest among stu
dents, faculty members and staff for de
veloping a community-wide bicycle
system.
Blaschke says 25 percent of the people
surveyed say they would ride a bicycle to
campus. He says that means approxi
mately 12,500 people would commute
by bicycle.
“I don’t think those figures are quite
true, but certainly there are several
thousand people who have an interest,”
Blaschke says. “That is why we want to
corner that market and give them an op
portunity to use their bicycles.”
He says the survey found bicycle
routes would be most useful for people
in a one-mile radius around A&M, but
there also was interest by people living
up to three miles away.
“We designated potential routes in
residential areas where people re
sponded to the questionnaires, where
they lived and where they showed inter
est In the bicycle routes,” he says.
The study results, however, still are in
draft form, Blaschke says.
“The process will begin once we have
a chance to get together with the cities
and the Texas Highway Department to
get the system approved,” he says. “We
are still in the infant stage, but tne Uni
versity, through Tom Williams, has done
a lot of the work on campus already.”
Williams and Blaschke agree the key
to the success of an effective bicycle sys
tem is time and money.
“The key to the whole study was an in
terest by a number of people,” Blaschke
says. “There is no question there is great
potential for a good bicycle system in
place on campus; but once such a system
is in place, we are talking about lots of
additional control.”
RICHARD S. JAMESmie Battalion
Removal of street parking allows
for better bike lanes.