Eric Pfanner, Editor, 472-1766
Bob Nelson, Editorial Page Editor
Victoria Ayotte, Managing Editor
Jana Pedersen, Associate News Editor
Emily Rosenbaum, Associate News Editor
Diane Brayton, Copy Desk Chief
Brian Shellito, Art Director
War must continue
Cost of peace now too high for Bush
President Bush has encountered few obstacles in his esca
lating game with Saddam Hussein.
Iraq invades Kuwait? No problem. Make it look like
Saddam wants Saudi Arabia, too. Send U.S. troops to the
desert. Draw a line in the sand.
A U.S. attack looks like naked aggression unless it has
I worldwide support? No problem. Woo the international com
munity, including former outcasts such as China, into giving
the United States and its allies a blank check, a U.N. resolu
tion.
The U.S. economy, heading into a recession, can’t support
an indefinite commitment of troops? No problem. Assign an ar
bitrary deadline, Jan. 15, to the resolution.
But now there’s another, more subtle stumbling block to the
realization of Bush’s war aims. A preemptive peace agreement
threatens the future stability of the Middle East.
Simply put, Bush needs to start the ground war quickly. If
he doesn’t, and Saddam happened to accept one of the diplo
matic solutions pushed on him by the Soviet Union, Bush
would have a dilemma.
vr i_i_a c J .1 rtr/MinH nffoncu/P
Ill lit ivtpl iigiiuug auu launuiuu a uumjmv - -
even after Saddam agreed to leave Kuwait, he would risk alien
ating the coalition he so carefully crafted. The U.N. resolution,
after all, only calls on Saddam to pull out of Kuwait. It doesn’t
ask the people of Iraq to rise up against Saddam and, as Bush
says, “rejoin the family of peace-loving nations.” Nor does it
authorize an invasion of Iraq.
But realistically, Bush has drawn the line in the sand into a
; circle, an ever-tightening noose with Saddam at the center.
Merely moving the line back from the Kuwait-Saudi Arabia
border to the Kuwait-Iraq border doesn’t do any good. To meet
3 U.S. war aims, Saddam must go.
Saddam as an Arab hero, having survived the war and
I thumbed his nose at the West, would be as much of a threat as
| ever. What would prevent him from restocking his military,
reloading his Scuds and having another go in five years? Only
a long-standing military commitment from the United States.
Bush cannot afford the political cost of such a commitment.
1 The United States cannot afford the economic cost. That’s why
i he feels the need to make this a war to the finish.
At the same time, Bush can’t say that. Throughout the crisis,
he has taken action first, talked about it later. After the fact, we
| have no choice but to stand behind him or be marked down as
s anti-American.
War is easier to start than to finish. Peace plans that would
have gotten favorable responses before the war are nothing but
“cruel hoaxes” now.
That’s unfortunate, but necessary. Wars that trudge to an
I indefinite standstill only cause more wars. Bush is right in
rejecting a conditional armistice now.
But Bush needs to start being honest with the American
I people and with the United Nations. The line in the sand,
% despite what we were told, always led to Baghdad. Now it
needs to stop shifting.
— E.F.P.
-LETTERS^ EDITOR
Rodeo defenders challenged
What is it with these bloodthirsty
Lincolnites, hosting a rodeo? Espe
cially now? Isn’t there enough pain
and bloodshed in the Middle East for
them? Or isn’t it close enough to
enjoy right?
I’m sorry, Jill Erlich, but I don’t
think I fully understood your letter.
What’s your point?
I’ll grant you that lab animals are
treated much worse than rodeo ani
mals. There's no question about that.
Gosh, did you mean to convey that
that makes rodeo okay?
I find it hard to believe that. Say
someday you have two children: if
someone puts one of your kids into a
12-inch by 12-inch cage and tortures
it until it “chews off its own hands and
feet,” do you mean to say that
will make it all right tor someone to
do to your other child what is done to
rodeo animals, and that you’d find it
offensive if Marcia complained and
tried to defend it? I doubt it.
And, yes, the use of spurs is cruel.
If you can’t communicate any better
than that, stay away from animals.
Now Toby R. Brown wants to
defend rodeo by comparing the num
ber of animals “injured or killed in
rodeo performances” with the num
ber of “dead animals along road
ditches.” If the best way you two can
defend rodeo is to talk about some
thing worse, you don’t have much ol
a case. A bigger bad doesn’t make a
smaller bad right.
I have to disagree with what Mar
cia wrote, too, about rodeos, that “rodec
remains an unnecessary cruelty tc
animals that a civilized society car
and should forego.” Wrong! No “can’
or “should” to iL A society must foregc
such cruelty in order to become civi
lized.
What’s the bottom line here? Car
anyone deny that rodeo is a violen
contest between man and anilfial wit!
1) the odds weighted toward th<
humans, and 2) animals given no choia
concerning participation? Deny tha
and back it up, or admit that you’re <
nasty, self-centered human if yoi
want to defend rodeo.
Fran Thompsor
junioi
sociology
I
BOB NELSON
Love’s language not always fluent >
Last year was a bad one for me.
I got dumped twice, both times
by women who replaced me
with 30-year-old lawyers.
I’ve been told by reliable sources
that 30-year-olds are more intriguing
than I am and that lawyers make more
money than I do. So I’ve been feel
ing a bit unsophisticated and poor —
and just plain unloved. This made it
very difficult to appreciate this year’s
Valentine’s Day personals in the Daily
Nebraskan, messages such as:
"My Dearnest Buffanoe Head,
1 Dove You Wiss Anl my Hart.
Pease Be My Balentine?
Wuv, Da Norfnind'
It hurt to read this personal be
cause I used to have a girlfriend myself.
We used to do many cheap and unso
phisticated things together, such as
riding freight trains.
But I never, in all my affection or
unsophistication, ever called her
Buffalo Head, or worse yet, Buffawoe
Head. Nor did I call ipyself DaNorfw
ind.
I think we both called me Bob.
I wanted to place a personal the
next day saying:
"My Dearwest Norfwind,
I’m sure you dove Buffawoe Head
berry, berry much, but U really made
many snuggle bunnies like myself berry,
berry icky sicky in the lummy with
your cutesy baby squishie talk. I hopey
little Buffawoe Head dumpy wumps
\ you.
Get a lifey, Boober”
Other names that day included:
Meow, Tadpole, Kitty Kat, Dumptruck,
Petting Zoo, Tooter, Poopie, Banana
! Boat and Goosehead,
| "Kristen W.
You are soo beautiful! I love you!
Your fuzzy bumping
' snuggle bunny”
This, like about half the messages,
was written by someone claiming to
be a rabbit — an animal notorious for
voraciously screwing anything in its
i path. Kristen, out of everyone, should
feel very special, since she was called
beautiful, not just by a rabbit, but by
Am / bitter {hat I
didn’t get a Valen
tine’s Day per
sonal? Absolutely
noil Am / jealous
oj people who get
public notices pro
claiming undying
love to th£m? NO!
NO! NO! I’m above
that.
a fuzzy bumping rabbit. Kristen’s going
to get her fuzz bumped?
And then there were the Valen
tines that sounded like Damn Y#an
kees lyrics:
"Kelly,
When your arms hold me tight.
When your eyes shine so bright.
When words shared make us both
feel right.
It's kisses that always make our
nights.
So here's to us on our first Valen
tine Flight.
Your Valentine,
Love Mike"
"Dear Mike,
When your sentences end in 'ight.
It makes me see the light.
That it probably would be right.
To poke out your eyesight.
With a big stick.
Good-night, sleep tight,
Bob"
Anri I bitter that I didn’t get a
Valentine’s Day personal? Absolutely
not! Am I jealous of people who get
public notices proclaiming undying
love to them? NO! NO! NO! I’m
above that.
No, the moral of this story is dial
love is magical and beautiful and that
it transcends money and age. It’s an
ethereal and powerful force that causes
men and women to write cute pas
sages to each other in the college
newspaper without fear of looking
like raging idiots.
And it’s a splendiferous thing that
falls like angel dust from the heavens,
settling randomly on every drooling
cretin on this planet except me.
Or maybe not just me. Da Norfw
ind, fuzz-bumper and Mike were three
of 212 students to buy Valentine per
sonals in the Daily Nebraskan. Be
cause it usually takes two to tango,
that adds up more than 400 people in
love, which means there are about
24,600 of us who aren’t.
... .. . ■ .« r\ A £ f\(\
II l aid my mam corrtxuy,
people could pretty easily tar and
feather 400 people.
Which explains why my very fa
vorite Valentine’s personal was writ
ten by a guy named Phil. Here’s an
excerpt:
"Kate.
I really don't know how things
became so tainted between us. ... /
feel total animosity and bitter hatred
toward you. ... I've done all the
analyzing that I care to—/ am sick of
thinking about it any more. ... I
NEVER WANT TO SEE OR SPEAK
TO YOU EVER AGAIN!”
Now there’s some poetry without
the snuggle bunnies and buffalo heads.
Right on, Phil. Way to tell it straight.
Yeah, I’m with Phil. Here’s my
personal to Kate.
"Dear Kate,
I’m available.
Love,
Bob”
Nelson is a senior news-editorial m^Jor,
the Daily Nebraskan editorial page editor
and a columnist.