Opinion
The Battalion
Page 5 • Tuesday, June 1, 2004
Unfounded accusations
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld n$t t° blame for actions of a few soldiers
x jLi
great lie has permeated the inter
national media — including
news agencies here in the United
States — and it is a lie that, if left
unchecked, threatens to destroy the
seeds of democracy America is dilli-
gently planting in Iraq. This lie asserts
:hat at the core of the prison abuse scan
dal in Abu Ghraib lies a structural man
date reaching as high up as Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to conduct
interrogations through psychological
torture, humiliation and sexual perversion.
In reality, nothing could be further from
the truth.
By now, the world has been saturated with
pictures of prisoner abuse from the Iraqi prison
and, yes, these images are troubling and inex
cusable. But these pictures represent the actions
of a few soldiers and not the wishes of high-
ranking military personnel or the secretary of
defense. There is simply no proof to support
claims that Rumsfeld orchestrat
ed an elaborate plan to interro
gate prisoners through torture
and humiliation — such an
assertion is laughable.
But laughable assertions and
liberal politics often go hand in
hand and, not surprisingly, this
las become a partisan issue,
with Democrats doing every
thing they can to demonize the
Bush administration’s handling
of the Iraq war. Reports issued
by the politically-left magazines
Newsweek and The New Yorker
[first accused Rumsfeld of not
only knowing about the miscon-
duct, but encouraging it, accord
ing to MSNBC. However, these magazines offer
up as proof nothing more than hearsay, anony
mous sources and the sworn testimony of pris
oners of war. In all fairness, the world deserves
more justification for these accusations than
untraceable sources and the words of alleged
terrorists and murderers sworn to fight against
the United States. No such justification exists.
Seymour Hersh of The New Yorker, citing an
anonymous CIA official last month, said that
‘the Pentagon’s (highly secret) operation ...
encouraged physical coercion and sexual humili
ation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort generate
more intelligence about the growing insurgency
in Iraq.” People working the problem were to
“use aliases,” Congress was never to be fully
briefed and there was to be “no trace-
ability and no budget.”
But CIA Spokesman Bill Harlow
offers up a different account. He said in
a statement last month that “the New
Yorker story is fundamentally wrong.
There was no DOD/CIA program to
abuse and humiliate Iraqi prisoners ... I
am aware of no CIA official who would
or possibly could have confirmed the
details of the ... inaccurate account.”
Defense Department Spokesman
Lawrence Di Rita also denounced the report.
These denials notwithstanding, it is absurd to
think that the secretary of defense for the
strongest nation in the free world would encour
age torturous interrogation tactics in a war his
nation was winning and at the possible expense
of his political career. Even more absurd is that
his well-thought and “highly secretive” plan
would involve unskilled military reservists being
ordered to pose for staged photographs with
nude Iraqi prisoners. Surely, this
nation’s defense experts could
come up with a better plan of
interrogation than that, and all
the evidence points to what the
Bush administration has been
saying all along: these soldiers
were acting independently of
high-ranking military personnel.
So far, the highest-ranking sol
dier positively implicated in the
scandal and the alleged ring
leader is CpI. Charles Graner.
Sadly, only one Democrat
has crossed partisan lines and
been vocal in his support of the
U.S. response to the scandal.
Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman
said that though U.S. forces have apologized for
the Abu Ghraib prison abuse, he has yet to hear
any apology for the 3,000 American lives lost on
Sept. 11, 2001.
Lieberman is right. America cannot continue
to allow political correctness and the increasing
ly negative opinions of the international commu
nity to overshadow the good it is doing in Iraq
— building democracy.
The issue, through selective reporting, has
taken on a life of its own. For example, the dis
covery of the chemical agents sarin and mustard
gas last month by U.S. forces was largely
ignored by the media in spite of the fact that
these chemical weapons represent the justifica
tion for war the Bush administration has sought
44
... these pictures
represent the actions
of a few soldiers and
not the wishes of
high-ranking military
personnel or the
secretary of defense.
for so long. Most of the liberal media has shown
that it is so bound by partisan ideology that it
would rather continue to subvert its own coun
try’s war efforts than concede any sort of justifi
cation for invading Iraq. This is a shame.
The Bush administration has done the right
thing by instituting its own investigation into the
abuse scandal and fully disclosing what it knows
about soldier misconduct. These soldiers must
be punished for their crimes, and the U.S. mili
tary court-martial system will take care of that.
The healing has begun, and it is time for all of
America to unite and move forward.
George Deutsch is a senior
journalism major.
Graphic by Will Lloyd
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Legislation favoring illegal
immigrants unfair to others
T wo students sit next
to each other in a
classroom. One has
illegally immigrated from
Mexico and the other,
although born in Texas,
grew up in Louisiana and
dreamed of attending
Texas A&M his entire life.
If you think they are pay
ing different amounts for
tuition, you’d be right.
However, many students would be
surprised to learn that illegal immi
grants are the ones getting the breaks
in tuition rates.
Conforming with a growing
national trend, laws are being passed
around the country that give illegal
immigrants the benefit of paying in
state tuition rates, effectively punish
ing those immigrants who are in the
country legally as well as out-of-
state residents.
In June of 2001, House Bill
1403 went into effect, allowing ille
gal immigrants to be considered res
idents for the purpose of tuition
pricing at state schools in Texas.
Three years later, Texas is one of
eight states that rewards those who
break immigration laws, with 16
other states that are considering
similar measures.
This policy not only violates
common sense, but the Illegal
Immigration Reform Law of 1996,
which prohibits in-state tuition rates
to be given to illegal immigrants if
those same rates are not offered to all
U.S. citizens. A&M is only one of
the many state institutions that dis
criminates against law-abiding citi
zens in favor of illegal immigrants
who may have only been in the
country as few as three years.
On May 20, Kansas became the
latest state to hop on the bandwag
on. Kansas’ own law,
which mirrors HB 1403,
will go into effect July 1
and treats illegal immi
grants as in-state residents
provided they have spent
the past three years at a
state high school or earned
a GED while in Kansas.
However, the law doesn’t
apply to foreign students
who are in the state legal
ly, who will still have to pay out-of-
state tuition rates. The application of
these laws are more than just an
inconsistency within the legal and
educational systems but an insult
toward those who are law-abiding.
These laws are a motivational force
for immigrants to take full advan
tage of American resources without
having any legal responsibility.
The law does come with one con
dition: Those who receive the tuition
break must agree to file an applica
tion to become a legal citizen at
some later point. However, the con
tract comes without specifications or
a deadline, and neither the universi
ties nor the states have a way of fol
lowing up on the students to ensure
they are pursuing citizenship.
Instead, the affidavit they must sign
is only a weak rationalization on the
part of the lawmakers to attempt to
rescue the law from the strict scruti
ny it deserves.
If the concepts of this law were
to be applied across the board, there
is no reason other than illegal immi
grants could not vote, hold public
office or be citizens in everything but
name. Unfortunately, legislatures
accept these inconsistencies without
considering the social and economic
consequences.
The law poses disadvantages for
more than just those who pay out-of-
state tuition and are angered at illegal
immigrants who do not. All colle
giate applicants who have played by
the rules are now forced to compete
with candidates who are not even
legal citizens. In effect, these stu
dents are not only vying for the spots
that could potentially be given to ille
gal immigrants, but their tax dollars
are subsidizing an education for stu
dents who have no legal right to be
there. During a time when universi
ties struggle with increasingly limit
ed enrollment capacities, a citizen
should not lose his spot at any public
university in favor of an illegal immi
grant, no matter what agenda or
quota the immigrant might fulfill.
The universities are losing money
too. At A&M, out-of-state students
pay $258 more per credit hour than
resident students. For every 10 illegal
immigrant students classified as resi
dents who enroll in 14 credit hours
each semester, the University loses
more than $72,000 annually. This is
an unfair requirement of the govern
ment, which first takes state funding
away and then in the same breath
requires state institutions to charge
less for students that logically should
be paying a higher rate.
These laws communicate that if
someone considers himself a citizen,
he should receive the rights of one.
However, with those rights come
responsibilities and allegiance to a
government that only citizenship can
guarantee. State governments will
continue to reward these individuals
who harvest benefits with lawless
ness instead of accountability and
will continue to make a mockery of
this nation’s immigration policy.
Sara Foley is a senior
journalism major.
SARA
FOLEY
A new American vision
By Troy Appel
THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN
(U-WIRE) EVANSTON, Ill. - Who
knew anyone could fix America? The
proposals now fill Web sites, books,
yard signs and pamphlets all showing
that with one vote for one candidate our
nation will achieve its maximum poten
tial. With America's savior residing on
every street corner, I have decided to
throw my vision in to the ring.
I now present my vision for America,
one where the concerns of our people
take precedence over the concerns of
overseas nations. This vision will focus
on three key issues: foreign policy, eco
nomic policy and a call to those who
feel left out.
The hot topic now filling the cam
paign for the American presidency is
foreign policy. I say it's time we stop
involving ourselves in every overseas
conflict that does not directly impact our
own national security.
The situation in Iraq has cost hun
dreds of billions of dollars only for us to
see more terrorists popping up by the
second. The foreign policy vision has
been taken over by neoconservatives,
believers that we must use our military
power to push our values on everyone.
But their vision has failed. We just
prove that we want to take over the
world — the terrorists' point.
We shouldn't throw money into war-
torn nations, like Liberia, or into the
non-stop fighting in Israel. Both of these
seemingly hopeless situations should be
avoided, when money can be better
spent helping the homeless on the
streets of America. It's time America
becomes a ''gentle giant" in the world —
finally letting the other nations of the
world live their life. If we do this,
Osama bin Laden won't have a leg to
stand on.
No empire in.this vision.
For economics we should give the
IRS something better to do — fix our
budget.
Now standing at $2.2 trillion with at
least 18 percent and 41 percent going to
the military and Social Security-
Medicare respectively, cuts have to be
made.
We see $1 million bombs -- let's
make them $750,000, a big change in
the long haul. For Social Security, with
the average life expectancy now at 77.2
years, as per 2001 data, people are
receiving some sort of benefits for 15
years on average. We need to raise the
retirement age, even one year will go a
long way. Give a 10-year notice to citi
zens that the retirement age will be
raised so they can prepare adequately.
The American people are smart. Let's
also let them invest that money. Let's be
truly fiscally conservative.
As for the hot issue of jobs, we need
to focus on the free-trade deals that help
our economy boom but leave it vulnera
ble for when the world markets dry up.
We should make a true attempt to
strengthen American industries by pro
tecting them, via tariffs, from potentially
cheaper foreign products. It's time we
tax companies for shipping jobs overseas
and put a stop to leaving the American
worker out to dry in favor of fresh, out-
of-college labor or overseas workers.
Responsible economics will place
the American economy ahead of third-
world countries on the pecking order.
Finally, to those of who are apathetic
to the whole process — it's time to wake
up. The effort that goes in to reading a
newspaper, watching the news and
engaging the issues is not that great.
To those who feel like you have been
left behind by the government: Vote.
Sitting out only ensures your defeat —
with more people voting in America, our
government will feel the wrath of its
constituency.
I have presented a vision to fix for
eign policy and economic policy.
Hopefully I lit a fire under those who
don't care — and done it all in just more
than 600 words.
If only getting all of this done was
that simple.
Troy Appel is a columnist for
Northwestern University.