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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 30, 2002)
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S he shells more.’ t id. oneoftf 1 Opinion The Battalion Page 9 • Wednesday, October 30, 2002 Assassination not an option Press Secretary Ari Fleisher should not have encouraged a coup in Iraq _ /~\ ^ 4. ic T";.. . . J- 0 JENELLE WILSON n Oct. 15, The New York Times reported on the Bush adminis tration's policy shift toward publicly encouraging a coup inside .The administration is hoping i generals, when faced with the threat of being brought up on war crimes charges, will overthrow Saddam Hussein in an attempt to save themselves. Ari Fleisher, President Bush's Press Secretary, said a single bullet would be a quick way for Iraqi citizens to avoid a confrontation with the United States and its allies. While this single bullet would take care of Hussein, it would [necessarily make the situation in Iraq any better. Publicly sup porting a military coup or the assassination of the leader of a sov ereign country is not the message the United States should be sending right now, especially as it tries to garner support for a U.N. resolution to invade. Fleisher's remark was inap propriate and offensive. Openly being flippant about the assassination of a country's elected leader - no matter how frivolous that leader’s election actually was - makes the United States seem like a bully. Hussein is clearly a despica ble man. He openly admits to killing Iraqi citizens that oppose his regime's control. He killed almost 150,000 Kurds in Northern Iraq with chemical weapons in the 1980s and later razed the Shiite lands in Southern Iraq to force them out of the country. The Iraqi people have been executed, mass murdered, tortured, raped, starved and forcibly displaced, according to the Washington Post. However, the only acceptable way for the United States to get him out of power is in a diplomatic man ner, with world support behind it. Hussein should be brought to trial in a world court for the appalling things he has done to the Iraqi people. After 23 years of living in fear, the Iraqi people deserve to see him condemned for his actions. Coups are violent, destructive and they have an irritating ten dency to fail. According to CNN, more than 60 people died in April during the removal of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez from power, only to have Chavez reinstated as the coun try's leader 48 hours later. The New York Times reports that during the 1990s, military coups were tried and failed at least six times in Iraq. Last spring, senior offi cials dismissed the hope of a rebellion, but now they are hopeful that some Iraqi generals are becoming scared enough that they may switch sides. They know Hussein is going down and they don't want to go with him, even if they deserve to. Hussein is a world menace, and he should consequently have to answer to the world for his actions, not to some military general or other Iraqi administration official who is just trying to skirt his own culpability. Hussein’s entire regime should be held account able for the deaths and terror it put the Iraqi people through. Hussein must be replaced by a leader who will truly attend to the needs of Iraq and not just some guy who does not want to face responsibility for what he has done while supporting Hussein. Hussein is highly paranoid, and, in the New York Times arti cle, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfield pointed out that those he is closest to are just as guilty as Hussein himself for the oppression of the Iraqi people and development of his pro grams. Hussein being assassinated and then replaced by one of these men would not signal any progress for Iraq. Jenelle Wilson is a junior political science major & r? e by AT- nee E. Violence following Nebraska game disgusting Security problems, Nebraska fans and overzealous stadium protection to blame A fter Saturday’s football game against Nebraska, hundreds of Cornhusker fans celebrated by rushing out onto the field, where at least one female fan was tackled by a Kyle Field security guard, according to the Lincoln Journal Star. Numerous fans at the game witnessed a member of the Corps of Cadets punch a Nebraska fan in the face. This disgusting situ ation was created by poor Kyle Field security, an overzealous protection of Kyle Field and blatant stupidity on the part of Nebraska fans. The first, and most important, step to pre- venting such occurrences is for fans to have the maturity not to run out on the field. Football fields are the domain of authorized Personnel. When fans charge the field, they e ndanger the athletes, coaches, media person- ool and others who have a legitimate reason to he on the field. The Nebraska fans were behaving in a ndiculous manner. It doesn’t matter if it was ebraska’s first win on the road this season, or 1 Nebraska’s victory over the Aggies was an ,m Portant win for its fans. They endangered themselves and others Jhile running out onto Kyle Field and they Served to be punished. However, that pun- RICHARD BRAY ishment should not have come from an overzealous cadet. Instead, it should have come from Kyle Field security, which fell miserably short Saturday. If security officers alone are not enough to prevent fans from charging the field, then barricades should be used. If chain link fences are required to keep fans from the field, so be it. Innocent people are endangered when fans rush the field, and it is the job of security offi cers to ensure that the field is safe for the ath letes and fans. Current security measures are obviously not successful and security must be improved upon in the future. It is not as if such an event was entirely unexpected. After all. one only needs to look back to last year’s game against Texas Tech, when a melee ensued following the Texas A&M-Texas Tech game, to see that the Big 12 Conference is not immune to embarrassing debacles that can result in injuries. Another example of this obnoxious behav ior is the Kansas-Baylor game that took place earlier this season. Following Baylor’s victory, fans stormed the field and tore down the goalposts. This behavior keeps occurring after Big 12 Conference games and steps must be taken by stadium officials to prevent them in the future. This failure on the part of security does not excuse the cadet who punched a Nebraska fan in the face. What the Nebraska fans did was stupid and disrespectful, and they deserved punishment, but assaulting Nebraska fans only embarrasses A&M. If Aggies hate to see other schools raid their field, they should demand better security at the games. Taking matters into their own hands only serves to desecrate A&M’s reputa tion. The A&M football media guide referred to Texas Tech as “classless clowns” for their behavior following the game last year, but the cadet’s conduct Saturday was equally class less. “Defending” Kyle Field does not serve as a legitimate excuse to run up and punch some one in the. face. This is not just an example of the Corps being out of control. There were plenty of non-regs present who would have done the same to “defend” Kyle Field. The student who punched a Nebraska fan could have been one of any number of Aggies present, but that still doesn’t make it right. To think one is justified in punching someone in the face for running onto Kyle Field is exceptionally poor judg ment, and is definitely not “good bull.” By defending the field themselves rather than leaving it to security officials. Aggies made the situation even more dangerous. Had the violence escalated, there could have been serious injuries. The excuse that Kyle Field is a memorial and must therefore be defended by any means necessary is simply false. Although the flags surrounding Kyle Field are a memorial to the Aggies who lost their lives in World War I, the field itself is not a memorial. In 1918, plans were made by a group of students to construct a new memorial library and stadium in memory of those who lost their lives in World War I, according to an article by A&M Archivist David Chapman. This project, however, never got off the ground. Chapman says the perception of Kyle Field as a memori al has persisted, but Kyle Field has never been officially recognized as a memorial. If Aggies want to prevent opposing fans from storming the field, they should demand extra security measures instead of taking mat ters into their own hands. Although the Nebraska fans’ behavior was immature and dangerous. Aggies need to have the self- restraint to handle the situation better. Assaulting those who run out on the field only makes a bad situation worse. Richard Bray is a senior journalism major. ganic >logy sea** Daily crossword puzzle always be intact n re f or, se to the Oct. 28 crossword puzzle: 0 Was a Ppalled Monday when I crn ene d The Battalion to find the s $word puzzle cut off at one end. 5 a result, I had nothing to do dur- a$ l e ^ classes and, consequently fell J hat : course, put my good stand- ineviThi professors in jeopardy, Cr j t jc j y lowering any subjective, yet thir' 8 rac te I might receive during 15 semester. This uu| Ou trageous crime is inexcus- an j e | not 0n ly because my colleagues our Were Prohibited from exercising taca C °^ n ' t ' ve abilities, but also Mond 56 error occurred on a t^p a y ~ tbe one day of the week This? 6 ' S actual| y solvable. unrh S so Phomoric mistake is of ara cteristic of The Battalion and SC ^ 00 ' striving to be counted § the most elite of academic institutions. In the future, I hope a collective heightened sense of awareness will prevent any further catastrophe of this magnitude. Blu Tidwell Class of 2004 Database wouldn't have prevented shootings In response to Collins Ezeanyim's Oct. 29 column: Mr. Ezanyim’s article should put fear into every red-blooded American. The idea that a ballistics database would have prevented the recent shootings or even future ones is laughable. Does he really believe that if a data base was made that a criminal is going to buy a gun that is on the data base? One more unenforceable law does not prevent a crime. Next, his comparison between the disarmament of Saddam Hussein and that of the right of Americans to keep MAIL CALL and bear arms is appalling. Saddam is a dictator bent on destruction and domination, and the last time I checked there weren't too many Americans seeking nuclear weapons, but maybe a hunting rifle is similar to anthrax or smallpox to Mr. Ezeanyim. Even though he tries to discount the violation of the second amendment in his article, Ezeanyim would learn from history that any type of government database of guns has always lead to confiscation. In 1933 Nazi Germany implemented a gun registration program, less than two years later all weapons were con fiscated. Our allies in the war on terror, Australia and England, have both implemented gun registration and confiscation of firearms laws. They do not just take automatic weapons or high caliber weapons, but hunting rifles and shotguns. These programs have forced law abiding citizens to turn over family heirlooms and antique guns. Finally, his stretch of reasoning that registering a car is like registering a gun is completely false. The constitution is a limit on the powers of the government not on the people, if he were to read all of the Bill of Rights he would see that it says "Congress shall make no law..." This means the government can not prohibit us from owning firearms, and it means that they can make no law impeding on the right of Americans to keep and bear arms, this being so a registration or a database is just one more hurdle for law-abiding citizens. Clinton McCoy Class of 2005 Corps should play larger role in gameday security I was very glad to see the actions of the Corps immediately after the Nebraska game took place. Kyle field is a sacred ground to all Aggies. Consequently, both Kyle Field, and the student body, deserve more respect than was showed us. I for one don’t see why the security guards did not intervene and stop the melee before the necessary actions were taken. It seemed to me that the "security" was provided more from the Corps side of the field for some unknown reason. This also poses another question. During the Oklahoma game when Sooner fans decided to show their ignorance, a good number of Corps personnel went and took care of business. This time is seemed only a few were out there. Is this due to an increase in security presence or were their actions against Oklahoma repri manded? I think that if a person wants to vio late our traditions and storm our field, then we should be able to take actions against them in order to make a statement, even if that statement does manifest itself as a little physical violence. Kyle Field and Texas A&M are unique, and we should keep them that way. Kikki Dilley Class of 2003