2
Opinion
Thursday, February 28, 1991
The Battalion
Opinion Page Editor
Jennifer Jeffus
Mail Call
The Battalion is interested in hearing from its readers and welcomes all letters to the editor.
Please include name, classification, address and phone number on all letters. The editor reserves
the right to edit letters for style and length. Because of limited space, shorter letters have a better
chance of appearing. There is, however, no guarantee letters will appear. Letters may be brought
to 216 Reed McDonald or sent to Campus Mail Stop 1111.
Recycling tips
EDITOR:
I would like to publicly congratulate The Battalion staff
for the series on recycling in our area. There are a few sug
gestions I would like to add.
All this recycling creates a tremendous variety of re
cycled paper products: paper towels, stationery, computer
paper, etc. Encourage recycling by buying these products.
Stores and even copy centers in our area now carry them or
you can get them from Earth Care Paper Company. Ask for
a free catalogue: Earth Care Paper Co., PO Box 3335, Mad
ison, Wis., 53704.
You also can get rid of junk mail by removing your
name from mailing lists. Write to Mail Preference Service,
Direct Mail Marketing Association, 6 E. 43rd St., New
York, N.Y., 10017. Tell them to remove your name from
their files.
For those of you just starting out, the perfect opportu
nity is TOTEM (The Oklahoma and Texas Environmental
Meeting), which will be at A&M from March 22 to 24. More
than 100 student groups from these two states, as well as
nationally prominent environmental leaders, are coming.
There will be concerts, seminars, workshops, an Ecofair
and an environmental career fair. Call Christina (847-0341)
or Scott (693-3371) for registration information.
Charles Albert
TEAC president
does offer great insight when he says "America must real
ize war is now outdated and senseless." That is a
statement few of us, Tm sure, could have realized on our
own.
Since the gulf conflict has started, we have been contin
ually showered with messages of peace, but none has of
fered to show us the way. My sixth grade English teacher
said "when choosing a topic, don't say something like war
is bad. Although true, it is a tired argument."
My point is we know war is horrible. What we don't
know is how to eliminate it. So unless you have a solution
or something new, quit wasting our time with statements
like "we must do this" or "we should do this." We know
what must be done, now show us how.
James Quinn
Let The Battalion print 'the itch'
Show us how
EDITOR:
Andy Yung, in his Feb. 26 column, stated "we must re
alize absurdity of war." This I do not disagree with, as do
few that I know. However, the problem lies in the solu
tion. It is easy to proclaim "war is bad; peace is good"
while beating your chest. It is much harder to offer solu
tions. Yung does not state how to gain world peace but
EDITOR:
1 am writing in reply to Jason Day's letter regarding
"the itch." Jason obviously is offended and wants to see
"the itch" taken out of The Battalion. He said: "The Battal
ion, I believe, should be trying to provide Texas A&M with
articles and features it wants. I cannot speak for all, but I
would greatly prefer for this feature to be cut."
Jason is right; he cannot speak for us all and he cer
tainly cannot speak for me. I, along with a majority of the
good humored readers I've talked to, like "the itch." If a
large percentage of the readers like "the itch," it's worth
the few square centimeters of space to print the cartoon.
As for the group of readers that fall into the "anti-itch"
percentage, I have a suggestion that will keep you from
getting offended all the time — don't read "the itch." Has
this ever occurred to you? Let's let The Battalion do just
what Jason has suggested and print what Texas A&M
wants to read — "the itch."
David J. Hawkins '92
Editorials
Editorials expressed in The Battalion are those of the editorial board and do not
necessarily represent the opinions of Texas A&M administrators, faculty or the Bowl
Regents.
Longest ribbon trivializes war
v
The local community will tie a 31-mile yellow ribbon arounsL Enc(
Bryan-College Station on Saturday and also might earn a placet break i
the Guinness Book of World Records. We see this as the ultima! 811(1 Fl
trivialization of war. ^
The $1,000 ribbon will be wrapped around the communitytc
show Texas-sized support for the troops. The University also
will do its part by tying another ribbon seven miles around the
campus.
We support the troops and their families. This supportmk
demonstrated in many ways, but the ribbon is overkill which
borders on tacky. Having the community entered in the
Guinness Book of World Records for the longest yellow ribbon
trivializes the reality of war.
We see yellow ribbons tied on backpacks, cars, mailboxes,
trees and soon around the campus and community. We suppers
the display of yellow ribbons for the men and women in the
Middle East and their families at home. But 31 miles of yellow 1801 c<
ribbon is a nice gesture taken too far.
rug 1
“Th
The Battalion Editorial Board
Camec
to adv
From somewhere in Israel
Scud failures represent
only one Iraqi mistah
break
JL/ast night I watched, in a clear
violation of the Civil Defense rules, a 3-
MACH Patriot rocket seeking and
intercepting a 6-MACH Scud Missile.
As the Scud exploded, it reminded me
of fireworks on July 4. The noisy
interception with the bright flare keyed
a number of thoughts which I would
like to impart to you.
Russian technology once again has
failed badly in contesting that of the
United States. Your technology was
able to beat the Scuds in a precision
contest measured in seconds. But think
of this: Who in the world is developing
anti-missile weapons? No one in the
Eastern Bloc or their current and
former arms customers and clients.
Why? For a good reason. They know
that no one from the free world would
launch a missile attack against their
civilian population centers. It is the free
world that must counter such brutal
attacks. So here come the Patriots to
the rescue, which soon will be followed
by Israel's own Arrow rockets.
Failure of the Scuds was the least of
Saddam Hussein's miscalculations.
The worst are the following:
He counted on American
unwillingness to fight and was sure to
win this game of "chicken." Well, he is
still wondering why the United States
— still under the Vietnam trauma and
humiliated by the Iranians — did not
blink this time, but stayed on course.
Indeed, it is quite difficult for Saddam,
from his isolation, to observe how the
world is changing.
He missed the collapse of the
communist system and the decline of
the USSR — his patron. He missed the
unification of Europe and the economic
boom of the Far East which forces the
U.S. to seek a new world order as a
prelude to lasting peace.
He missed the fact about how much
the United States needs such a peace so
it can meet the economic power of
Germany and Japan, countries with no
defense-related costs.
He further missed President Bush
Dr. Hovav
Talpaz
RmcJot's Opinion
slamming the breaks on the oldl':
order in his inspired commences
speech at Texas A&M twoyearsaf
He could not see the Presidentmai:
a complete U-tum. Saddam's onl;
comfort is that he was in good
company, as many experts also w
blind to that U-turn.
Saddam's second biggest mistali
was his counting on convertingtl
war from a tennis match to at
fledged super bowl. By sending Sc
missiles to hit Tel Aviv, hewasK
Length 37feet
Diameter 3 feet
Launch weight 7.0 Ions
Payload One 2,172-lb.
warhead,
conventional
sr.stwnlfal
Propulal on Liquid propellant
Accuracy WUhln 1,476leet
to draw Israel into the war. Hethi
the super-hawkish Shamir cabire!
would strike back, breaking the Be
coalition and converting thewait«|
traditional Arab-Israeli confrontat
He failed to see that sheer logic
drives Israel's decision not to re#
The same logic drove former Priir-
Minister Begin to strike at Baghdai
nuclear plant in 1981. Just think oi
same Saddam with a few nudear
bombs!
So Israel's decision of restraints
Saddam's type I (statistics temun
error. The coalition is alive ai
and kicking!
Dr. Hovav Talpaz is a former
A&M visiting professor in agriai*
economics. Talpaz presently h
Department of Statistics at the ft
Center in Israel.
The Battalion
(USPS 045 360)
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Lisa Ann Robertson,
Editor
Kathy Cox, Managing Editor
J ennifer J effus,
Opinion Page Editor
Chris Vaughn, City Editor
Keith Sartin,
Richard Tijerina,
News Editors
Alan Lehmann, Sports Editor
Fredrick D. Joe, Art Director
Kristin North,
Life Style Editor
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the itch