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The Battalion
Tuesday, June 4,1991^1
Bush, Schwarzkopf prevail
in mother of all cover-ups
"He who knows nothing doubts no
thing" — French Proverb.
Nothing is what Americans know
about George Bush's naked aggression
against the people of Iraq. So much dis
information and deception has been
dished out by Bush's military propo-
ganda machine and the cheerleading
national U.S. media, one hardly knows
where to begin to set the record
straight.
One column can't correct all the lies,
! but here are some truths which will
! probably not be found in the George
i Bush Presidential Lie-brary.
j The "war" took place in the Gulf,
Iraq, Kuwait, Suadi Arabia, Israel, Tur
key and India, which the U.S. used for
! bombing runs.
The assault on the Gulf itself was
| waged by the U.S., not Iraq, in the
| form of oil spills and the ignition of oil
I wells caused by the bombing. The bulk
of the "war", however, was an unpro
voked and systematic bombing, by a
U.S.-led force with total air superiority,
I of the people and infrastructure of Iraq.
I Leading the U.S. Propoganda Parade
i is the "Stopping Naked Aggression"
i lie. The Jan. 6 edition of the St. Peters
burg Times published Landsat photos
| of the Middle East taken on Aug.2 —
the day Bush told Congress that Hus
sein had placed 120,000 troops and 850
j tanks along the Saudi border.
I The surveillance photos revealed an
j empty desert with major roads buried
' Bush violated U.N. rules by invading
Panama in a failed attempt to eliminate
his old CIA buddy Manuel Noriega.
I He then had the gall to turn around a
few months later and seek the U.N.'s
blessing to destroy Iraq, which he got
I by threatening and bribing U.N. Secu
rity Council members with millions in
I U.S. aid.
| "Stormin" Norman Schwarzkopf led
i the U.S. assault on Grenada in 1983, an
I attack justified by a non-existent mili-
; tary threat Ronald Reagan successfully
i fabricated to con the U.S. public for his
| re-election campaign, a technique duly
noted and now repeated by Bush in
Panama and Iraq.
In 1954 Norman Schwarzkopf Sr.
was an advisor to the Iranian national
police when Iranian Prime Minister
Mohammed Mossadegh announced
the nationalization of Iran's oil compa
nies.
The elder Schwarzkopf worked with
the CIA's Kim Roosevelt to overthrow
the democratically elected Mossadegh.
They installed the Shah, a dictator just
1 as brutal as Saddam Hussein, but who
j dutifully protected American oil inter
ests. Like father, like son.
The oil-drenched landscape caused
| by U.S. bombing certainly qualifies as
"Lubricating Kuwait". However, the
j "Liberate Kuwait" premise was so ab-
| surd, even the hawkish mainstream
media questioned defining it as liber-
! ation.
The March 4 Independent of Britain
S reported that "Kuwaiti forces drove 12
; armored vehicles into the Palestinian
j Hiwali district, shooting into the air,. . .
; and beating civilians .... American
Special Forces troops accompanying
| the Kuwaitis did nothing to stop this
I indiscipline, and shouted obscenities at
journalists who asked why they did not
j intervene."
But the N. Y. Times reported on April
j 3 that "U.S. Army officers have several
i times dissuaded the Kuwaitis from
conducting an armed sweep through
the main Palestinian neighborhood,
; Hiwali."
j On April 28 the Minneapolis Star Tri-
bune reported that the son and
Michael Worsham
Columnist
nephew of the Crown Prince of Kuwait
were found by U.S. undercover forces
to be involved with death squad at
tacks.
Amnesty International reports wide
spread torture and killing in the "libe
rated" Kuwait.
The much-heralded Patriot missile
represents another major military mis
information campaign. Pierre Sprey, a
special assistant for systems analysis
during the Johnson and Nixon admin
istrations, told Congress in April that
very few of the intercepted Scud war
heads were stopped from hitting the
ground and exploding.
Sprey said recent figures indicate
that Israeli casualties per Scud fired in
creased 80 percent after the Patriots
were deployed.
"The country has been poorly served
by the shamelessly doctored statistics
and hand-selected video clips of iso
lated successes that were pumped out
to the media during the war in order to
influence postwar budget decisions,"
Sprey told the House Armed Services
Committee.
As for the so-called "smart" bombs, a
month after Bush's genocide began, it
was finally disclosed that mechanical
failures, electronic interferences, and
cloud conditions caused "smart"
bombs to miss their targets about 40
percent of the time.
"Smart" bombs made up less than
half of the total number of bombs
dropped on Iraq, making for a lot of
misses, death and destruction. U.S.
bombs missed a bridge near a teaching
hospital in Basra twice, prompting the
people to contemplate blowing up the
bridge themselves to stop further U.S.
bombing misses.
There is a light at the end of the long,
dark tunnel Bush has dug for human
ity. It shines from the Resolution of Im
peachment of Bush introduced by
Texas Congressman Henry Gonzalez,
and the Commission of Inquiry for the
International War Crimes Tribunal, led
by former U.S. Attorney General Ram
sey Clark to document U.S. and allied
war crimes against Iraq.
Hope shines most of all from the re
vived interest in the Reagan-Bush deal
with Iran to postpone the release of
U.S. hostages. This development
shows that hidden facts will eventually
get a fair hearing, even if it takes awhile
(eleven years in this case). The scandal
may also by itself remove George Bush
from power.
Meamvhile, economic sanctions con
tinue to devastate not the government,
but the people and especially the chil
dren of Iraq, who Bush once said the
U.S. had no quarrel with. Everyone
should call the White House (202-456-
1111) and insist that sanctions against
Iraq be lifted so that necessary food and
medical supplies can reach the suffer
ing people and children of Iraq.
We must also demand that the U.S.
immediately lead an all-out effort to
stop the burning oil well nightmare,
which is destroying the Gulf region
and effecting the entire world's envi
ronment. Remember, protecting all of
that oil now going up in smoke is the
main reason this whole disaster started
in the first place.
Michael Worsham is a graduate stu
dent in environmental engineering.
The Battalion
(USPS 045 360)
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Timm Doolen,
Editor
Todd Stone, Managing Editor
Krista Umscheid,
Opinion Page Editor
Sean Frerking, City Editor
Jennifer Jeffus,
Callie Wilcher,
News Editors
Jayme Blaschke, Sports Editor
Richard James, Art Director
Rob Newberry,
Lifestyles Editor
Editorial Policy
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Religion raises questions of logic
EDITOR:
After reading Mr. Truesdale's recent column, I am ap
palled that such blatant logic errors could be made by one
person. You raised the point that Christianity is irrational.
I am not that interested in your views about Christianity,
but I am interested in correcting your logic errors.
Paragraph 3: "Belief in anything we can't see, touch,
hear, taste or smell requires a suspension of reason."
Really? Do you believe in honesty, Tim? How about the
abstract concept of time? As far as I know, those cannot be
sensed in the physical sense, but only a fool would dismiss
them as irrational.
Paragraph 4: You seem to say that Christ's crucifixion
was irrational. Very good, but what does this have to do
with the beliefs of Christians? The followers of Christ
didn't crucify him, the Pharisees maneuvered the Romans
into killing him. True, Christ's death is the instrument
through which his followers are saved, but this doesn't
mean that they wished him to die.
Paragraphs 5 and 6: "... Christ's teachings demand one
to subordinate reflexes to religion." What could be more ir
rational than a reflex, Tim? As I understand the word irra
tional, it means without reason. The spinal cord causes re
flexes and the spinal cord does not reason. You're
contradicting yourself.
Paragraphs 7 through 8 1/2: You counter Christ's argu
ment that we should love our enemies by saying that we
should love our friends. You might as well say that we
should recycle aluminum because we should recycle steel.
Christ wants us to love our friends and our enemies. Once
a person gets beyond his or her abject hate for another,
they can begin to understand that person. Understanding
is a good basis for a reasoned discussion of the grievances
by two persons. Your argument doesn't seem very rea
soned to me.
Paragraphs 8 1/2 through 10: You sight Christ's teach
ings that we should seek heavenly wealth instead of
earthly wealth as irrational. If one accepts the "irrational"
belief that one will go to heaven after one dies, this argu
ment is very valid. Remember, Tim, you can't take it with
you.
Paragraphs 11 through 13:1 don't think Christ intended
his followers to seek death. To seek death, or commit sui
cide, is to laugh in the face of God's creation, to throw
away one of his greatest gifts to mankind. If a person is to
leave this world for a perfect existence, why should one be
wary of dying? If you cannot accept the belief of heaven,
then try any one of many high ideals that persons have
died for in the past and present, such as freedom, equality,
and human rights. Oh, but I forgot, you can't see any of
those, can you?
I feel sorry for you, Tim. Your god of reason seems to
be letting you down.-
Owen P. Crow '93
A&M policies seem self-abusive
EDITOR:
Recently, there has been considerable discussion about
whether Texas A&M is truly a world-class university. The
football team, the large student body, the physical size of
the campus, and our acedemic quality should thrust this
University to the forefront of recognition and praise in the
nation's eyes. However, coaching scandals, prejudicial
and ultraconservative ideology, poor administration poli
cies, and our inane attempts at national recognition are all
"shooting us in the foot" so to speak.
Most of these problems are rooted in the administrative
policies of A&M. Mr. Mobley's decision to change the
Statement on Harassment and Discrimination exemplifies
the current attitude of the administration. He and the
Board of Regents made this decision without the proper in
put of students, faculty, and staff of this campus. The
vague wording of this new statement could prove harmful
to many people at Texas A&M. It is also apparent that edu
cation ranks near the bottom of A&M's priorities, consid
ering the recent decision to axe several summer school
classes. Perhaps the most pathetic actions of this "repre
sentative" body were the name change of Jersey Street and
the invitation of General Schwarzkopf to be the Chan
cellor. These ridiculous attempts at national recognition
will force many American's to not take us so seriously.
The other factors preventing A&M's ascension to great
ness and respect concern the student body. I am disgusted
with the prejudicial feelings that are all too common on
this campus. Hating someone for their beliefs and personal
activities is not only asinine, but is also completely anti-
American. Too many people on this campus prove to be
colossal hypocrites by displaying their undying love of
God and the "Red, White and Blue" while insulting and
abusing others for their beliefs. Instead of blurting phrases
from the Bible and waving a flag in everyone's face, take a
break and contemplate the real meaning of these sacred
icons.
The students of this University must take the reigns
and steer A&M away from the course of prejudice and an
tipathy to a new road of compassion and scholastic excel
lence which will lead us to a bright horizon of national re
spect and adulation.
Greg D. Harper '93
Taiwan remains undemocratic
EDITOR:
After reading the April 27th editioral by Dr. Chang, we
felt it is our responbility as a member of Taiwanese Student
Association to respond. Dr. Chang stated "...the people
and government of Taiwan have been completing the diffi
cult process, started years earlier, of shaping a more ma
ture and realistic democracy for our nation." We don't
18503know what he means by "realistic democracy", but
we know that people in Taiwan can only elect 25 percent of
the Parliament. The Nationalists, through control of the
media, obtain 70 percent of this 25 percent. The remaining
75 percent is reserved for the Nationalist Party's "lifetime
members of parliament". These men attained (by one
means or another) their positions before 1949 in mainland
China and have been there ever since.
The resulting imbalance from this undemocratic struc
ture manifests itself in many ways. The April 12th brawl in
parliament is one instance when the frustration of the op
position could not be contained. On April 17th hundreds
of thousands of Taiwanese took to the streets to protest
this fundamental political inequity.
Dr. Chang also points to the "...unshackling of martial
law..." as evidence of political reform. But the reality is
that martial law has simply been replaced by the equally
restrictive National Security Law. Freedom of speech is still
an illusion in Taiwan. Evidence of this is the ten-year im
prisonment of Mr. Huang Hua for expressing his political
beliefs.
Finally, Dr. Chang claims that "Taiwan has been a part
of China since the beginning of mankind.". We would like
to point out that 80 percent of the population of Taiwan ar
rived there about 300 years ago. The Nationalist Party rep
resents the remaining 20 percent of the population that be
gan arriving in 1946. Before their arrival, Taiwan had been
occupied successively by Holland, Spain, China and Ja
pan. We feel that the people of Taiwan have the right to
self determination. This includes the right to request a
"realistic" democracy and to declare ourselves indepen
dent of the People's Republic of China.
Taiwanese Student Association j