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Opinion
The Battalion
Page 5B • Monday, April 12,
Doubtful deadline
Necessary stability to hand power over to Iraqis will not be in place by June 30
resident Bush has made two big mistakes
during the Iraqi war. The first occurred
March 19, 2003, when, he authorized the
war to begin. The second was to set June 30,
2004, as the date to transfer sovereignty to the
Iraqis. It is now obvious he set this date with one
eye cast to the 2004 presidential elections in
which American progress in Iraq is sure to be a
collins huge issue.
Iezeanyim But due to various important and obvious rea
sons, the Bush administration should push back
transfer date to a more reasonable time,
he most obvious argument for moving back the June 30 dead-
is the upsurge in violence. Last week, conservative talk radio
w hosts Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity counterintuitively
imed that the increased violence was a display of weakness on
part of the insurgents. But this type of inverted logic ignores
IS lheiB at * ias ^ een a < -i' s turbing development in the Iraq war: the emer-
ino]c eKe °f two separate uprisings. One is crafted by the Sunnis and
’ 1 “other by Shiites who were supposed to be more hospitable to
erica’s presence in Iraq. But this has changed due to the
earance of a new Iraqi villain, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-
Ir, who has led a Shiite militia against American forces in
iqi cities such as Nafaf and Kufa.
The growing chaos in Iraq is a signal that the necessary secu
to successfully transfer sovereignty is not in place. Many
y ml ■iibt a secure Iraq can be guaranteed before the June 30
DtosinlflMine. Of course. Bush, as he is prone to do, stub-
it to bomly reiterated his decision even though evidence
romik lanj common sense should have encouraged
d.0tt; jhintochange his mind. In his Saturday
I lio address. Bush stated, “Iraqi sever
I ;nty will arrive on June 30.” But
senators on both sides of the aisle
seethe situation differently.
Illinois Sen. Richard
Bush administration has no clear plan as to what will happen on
June 30. A plan should be developed long before any attempt to
transfer power is made. According to USA Today, the Bush admin
istration’s most recent option has been to add members to the U.S.
Governing Council it appointed last July. But the newspaper
reports Lakhdar Brahimi, special envoy of U.N. Secretary Gen.
Kofi Annan who is meeting with the Governing Council in Iraq, is
unclear as to how this will actually be done.
Junel
.. Lngar, Republican chairman
o the Senate Foreign
Illations Committee, fears
■Ail war might break out on
nies-I.L™ n b .
'ip., te
jLAnate Foreign Relations
jkjjommittee, told the CBS Early
|ne30. Sen. Joseph Biden, D
..ranking Democrat on the
low that he, like many others,
ten'(know to whom control will
handed when June 30 arrives.
It has become obvious that the
With 79 days and counting until the proposed handoff, should
n’t these plans be crystal clear? It is reasonable that Americans and
Iraqis should assume so. The Bush administration should delay the
transfer date to get a detailed, competent course of action ready.
Speaking of the United Nations, another reason the Bush
administration should move back the transfer deadline is to exer
cise some diplomacy and gain more U.N. support. But as most
Americans know, diplomacy is not this administration’s strong
suit. The United Nations will be critical in making a transitional
government legitimate in Iraqis’ eyes and relieving some of the
financial and military burden from the United States’ shoulders.
But unfortunately, such involvement by the United Nations is not
likely to happen soon. Both because Iraq is not adequately secure
to engage in a peacekeeping mission and because the United
Nations and other U.S. allies will be hesitant to help the Bush
administration after it defiantly invaded Iraq without their explic
it permission.
With regard to America’s soldiers, 25,000 troops, who were
looking forward to the end of their tours in Iraq, were delivered
heartbreaking news last week: Their return home would be
delayed because of the escalating situation in Iraq. This is a much
different scenario from the one predicted by aides of Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in which U.S. forces would be
reduced to 30,000 a few months after the war, according to
British newspaper The Guardian Unlimited. Any announcement
of a transfer of sovereignty should be accompanied by news
that forces in the United States will be greatly reduced, not
increased. If it is not possible to decrease the number of
soldiers in Iraq, the world will know a transfer of
sovereignty is also infeasible.
There are many who are still angry that the
war was ever conducted in the first place,
and there are many whose resolve has
been weakened by the terrible
images coming from Fallujah
and other places in Iraq. But
because the consequences of
failure are serious, America
must finish what it has started.
Setting back the June 30 sover
eignty transfer date will allow
time to figure out how to better
accomplish this.
Collins Ezeanyim is a senior
computer engineering major.
Graphic by Paul Wilson
MAIL CALL
iligion is ‘relevant to a
indidate’s qualification’
i response to Josh Peschel's April 8 column:
tiis April 8 editorial, Josh Peschel asks how
HlHitical candidates' religious beliefs might affect
" their qualifications for office differently than does
their skin color. Peschel claims there is no differ-
;e and suggests that candidates "should never
an advantage because of membership in a
icular religious category."
) doubt, many who announce their religious
's do so, not to identify shared values, but
er to identify themselves with a socially presti
lus position.
fo the extent this is the case, I agree with
Bchel's objection. He seems to argue, however,
tha strongly held religious convictions are not sig-
mantly different from skin color as a criterion for
selecting a candidate. But if I know that someone
shares my views on many of life's deepest ques-
Ins, doesn't it seem this might give insight into
how she would represent my political interests? In
^contrast, just knowing someone's skin color doesn't
Hr any directly relevant information about her
!suitability for public office.
tegardless of the frequent inappropriate use of
|lgious labels, religious convictions are relevant
a candidate's qualification for office in a way
it is materially different from skin color. We
;ht not make the mistake of confusing these two
ortant issues.
Inequalities in education call
for race-based admissions
Being a fellow Aggie, I have been a little disap
pointed in the arguments to end racially-based
admission at Texas A&M. There have been many
arguments but no solutions given.
The problem does not exist within the admis
sion offices of universities across the nation.
The problem is within the education of our
young people.
Until the gaps of limited educational resources
in our public education system are filled and the
system becomes equal all around, then there will
be a possibility to admit someone soley on the
person’s merit.
Coming from a school that had these educa
tional gaps, I was still admitted to A&M based on
my merit. But there were other students in my
high school that have "fallen" in those education
al gaps so to say.
A little note to groups like the Young
Conservatives of Texas: I was always told when I
was a little girl that to solve a problem, you have
to start at the root. So, instead of attacking Dr.
Gates and the admissions office of A&M, start
with the public education system.
Ask lawmakers of Texas to improve the educa
tion system and then you will start to see the
beginnings of the solution that you are looking for.
Start at the root.
Kellee Carr
Class of 2004
Content guidelines
censoring textbooks
A s a defining characteristic of mod
ern-day America, political correct
ness has infiltrated the education
system over recent years. As a result,
many states have adopted the use of social
context guidelines for textbooks to provide
equal representation to meet the demands
of feminist, ethnic and other segments of
the population. Consequently, in some
states, children are not being exposed to
accurate historical information as it is
being sugar-coated or distorted at the hands of
politicized educational boards.
A recent study conducted by the American
Federation of Teachers
found that only 11 per
cent of eighth-graders
show proficient knowl
edge of U.S. history on
standardized tests. This
figure, 6 percent lower
than the percentage in
2001, shows a disturbing
trend in the quality of
education that today’s
youth are receiving.
California was the first
state to adopt content
guidelines beginning in
1982 and has played a
leading role in the utiliza
tion of censored text
books, as it is a large state
and therefore a large
buyer of textbooks.
Former U.S. secretary of
education and New York University professor
Diane Ravitch said that due to the recent evolu
tion of a censorship culture in the nation’s
schools, the result has been “dishonesty and a
purposeful shielding of children from anything
challenging, controversial or just plain interest
ing,” according to The Los Angeles Times.
Such content regulations might include the por
trayal of men and women in equal numbers as well
as the fair representation of certain ethnic groups
in a wide variety of roles. The intent to portray all
groups as equal is justified, but unfortunately the
depiction of certain historical events has been
altered in the process.
For example. Holt and Rinehart revised an
eighth-grade textbook to suggest that an obscure
Portuguese explorer, Batolomeo Gomez, incor
rectly defined as Spanish, was the first European
discoverer of the Hudson River, not Henry
Hudson. In another case, most textbook accounts
of the Boston Massacre and its aftermath
now make Crispus Attacks, a black man
killed by British soldiers, the central
figure. They give little regard to the
roles of Samuel Adams and John Adams,
according to the National Center for
Policy Analysis.
The problem does not lie within the
publishing community, for publishers must
meet the demands of the market to stay
alive in the business. It is the demands of
certain state educational boards that are leaving no
other option but the derailing of factual historical
accounts to be compiled into the essential learning
sources that our youth
- prize so dearly.
America’s youth can
not be done a disservice at
the cost of political cor
rectness. History is a deli
cate subject not to be tam
pered with in such a man
ner. While filtering is an
inevitable byproduct of
compiling an infinite
amount of information
into a finite textbook, it
should nevertheless be left
only to historical and
social experts, not politi
cal “language police.”
Interestingly enough, pro
ponents of such content
censorship come from
both sides of the political
spectrum. A line must be
drawn when history begins looking more like a
fairy tale than anything else.
There is no single method of giving students the
most accurate and unbiased historical education
possible. However, censoring history and social
studies textbooks to meet the needs of all social
groups has proved an unreasonable as well as dis
serving task. It is up to communities in states who
implement drastic measures as well as interest
groups to resist this trend of politicizing education.
It is in the best interest of the nation as a whole to
do away with social content censorship policies as
children will have a more accurate and valuable
understanding of their nation’s history and one that
is vital for all of society’s future.
Chris Lively is a senior
sociology major.
... publishers must meet the
demands of the market in order
to stay in business. It is the
demands of certain state
educational boards that are
leaving no other option but for
the derailing of factual historical
accounts to be compiled into the
essential learning sources our
youth prize...