Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 18, 1997)
U.N. should knock wind from Saddam's sails STEVE CULLEN is a junior advertising major and Daily Nebraskan columnist. The winds of power blow constantly. Who watches whom, and who calls the shots for whom are issues everyone - from 3-year olds to the rulers of nations - must deal with from birth to death. These issues are the torrent thermals of the world. They shake foundations and circle the earth. The Good Ship World has a small deck and humanity bulges from every comer. Our crew, so interdependent and yet so inept at cooperation, depends on the sails cast to the wind for protection and guidance. 'T’L. ___Ai_ r i lit ^utaiiuu mtu, lui ub, id who casts the sails. But, alas, there lies the vicious cycle for our crew: They who tend the ropes are made of the same falli ble material as the rest of us. Saddam Hussein is once again setting his blood spattered sails to disrupt the winds of the world in the gust-lashed Middle East. Economic constraints placed on Iraq following the cozy little TV war in the Persian Gulf have stretched the skin of the Iraqi peasants taut across their bodies. Sanctions have consumable goods at an all time level of inac cessibility for the people under Saddam Hussein. The purveyor of international law and civility - the United Nations - has seen this as a need to move toward the return of Iraq to the international economic community. This step would avail its gaunt and dis eased citizens a return to tolera ble conditions. To Saddam, though, it is a stepping stone toward fulfillment of his ultimate dreams as a major sailor in the oceans of power. Saddam feels his people live exclusively on a diet of complex political carbohydrates and branched chain nationalism. War is the buffet where Saddam sits, and the biggest steak on the menu is the United States. And much ,, like a 48 ounce porterhouse, Saddam feels just trying to put it on your plate gains enough atten tion to satisfy any appetite. Saddam, ever the king of international platform position ing and media manipulation, has set the stage of his not-so-fleeting drama career. After casting the biggest stars in the sea in what seemed to be a love story of dis armament and war tribunal com pliance, Saddam has turned his fanciful eye toward suspense with a focus on tragedy. Saddam’s media muscleman, Tariq Aziz, the foreign minister of Iraq, started the fray with accusations that “U.S. spies are dominating the inspection pro ceedings ... we will not be intim idated, and will stand fast until the international community hears our legitimate issues.” The real underlying issue here is that it was too much of a kick in the teeth for Iraq to lift its skirt and show the goods to the United States after the spanking of 1991. The Iraqis are too proud a people to stomach judgment from former enemies. Don’t think 1991 doesn’t eat them inside. The Germans waited 20 years to seek revenge. For a nation like Iraq, able to war with opposing forces for hundreds of years, six years is nothing. Saddam has risen to power through the empowerment of the nationalistic vein in him. His self-perpetuating world rein forces him as the underdog savior of a starving people. His people, lost in the desert and connected through history, have no choice but to follow Saddam. They are stuck on his tiny ship and subject to his sail. They are puppets in his play on the history of Iraqi glory. Saddam’s fearless desire to butt heads with the biggest and baddest - like Castro’s - is capti vating to those who follow. Basking in the glow of being a focal point once again, his own vanity intoxicates him. Like a moth to the light of glory, he can not turn away - compromising nothing to seize center stage. Just to prove he can still rock the boat all the way to the White House, he jumped on the chance to invite (and reject) the United States into the inspection, never having any intention of actually disarming. Much like getting an old flame to ask you out just to turn them down. Having the United Nations as best man to the event was perfect, because now the whole crew is boxed in. Never before has the will of the international decree been ignored. The United Nations must have its laws upheld. In the end they have got be in charge of the sails. To be over thrown is mutiny and a precedent that can’t come to pass. Someone needs to keep the will of the winds strong, but all but one member of the crew has jumped ship for the job. Leaving good ol’ William Jefferson Clinton to swab the decks. A job for which first mate Billy was first in line. Clinton is obsessed with his historical lega cy as a president. He brings together staffs to talk about it. He is a student of past rulers and obviously U.S. presidents - learn ing form their failures and victo ries. He is the backroom dealer, in the trenches like Nixon. He is a champion like Kennedy, friend to all - without crossing the wrong people. Like Reagan, a master of the modem media and delega tion. But he is missing the one thing that Americans love most. Bill hasn’t gone out and kicked ass. Clinton needs a war. He is a huge believer that foreign policy is the key to historical fame, and Saddam is his Stalin, Castro and Arafat, all in one. Both sides are pointlessly businesslike at this point. In truth, the two are chained pit bulls scraping to get at each other’s throat, but fearful of what' the neighbors are going to think. Clinton - the symbol of America’s meddling, arrogant, yet useful foreign policy — is searching the horizon for way to earn his keep in history. And Saddam is proud, maniacal and too blinded with greed and jeal ousy of the real players to see the piles of his dead people. The winds are blowing, and both ships are full speed ahead. Remember, they are playing on the same ground, and we all go down on the same ship. ^-\ ■ I ' • -- Gamble “Gulf rMi ■■ . ———g— ■ > ■ x r Aaron Steckelberg/DN Guest VIEW Shrewd Saddam must be stopped TIM FENN is a columnist for the The Daily Campus at the University of Connecticut. (U-WIRE) STORRS, Conn. - You can always tell when it’s near Thanksgiving. Not by the falling leaves or the first snow of the fall, but by Saddam Hussein attacking some other country or annoying the , United States. xx was xasx year xnax ne axxacKea the Kurds (whom the United States, was “protecting”) and ticked off a few politicians. This year Saddam is at it again; but this time it’s a matter of business. In Saddam’s world, however, business is war. It all started a few weeks ago, when Iraq banned passage of several U.N. inspectors from an arms inspec tion team. This team was part of a Gulf War resolution that forced Saddam to allow the inspectors, a group that prevents the production of WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction). What worries many leaders (but hasn’t quite hit the public yet) is that this president (I prefer “wacko”) may very well have the weapons already. Although they may not be nuclear (these don’t take a few days to build), chances are he has a couple liters of anthrax or botulinum toxin. Or, for those who have seen the movie “The Rock,” Saddam may possess some binary-VX, a nerve toxin. The wonders of science never cease. How did we find out about the production of this stuff? It was Saddam’s own son-in-law, Gen. Hussein Kamel Majid, who defected to Jordan and forced his stepfather to admit to producing some of the com ponents required to produce chemi cals like VX. Then Majid returned to Iraq after Saddam's confessions, and guess how Saddam greeted his son in-law? He ordered him executed, of course. Note to world leaders: Saddam is not a caring guy. So is Saddam preparing for war? Is his plan to produce these weapons and unleash all hellfire on the world? Well, Saddam just has an unusual way of doing business. For nearly seven years, economic sanctions on Iraq have prevented it from develop ing as a wealthy country. Others are affected as well (it’s the age of multi nationalism, you know), like France, who wants to cash in on Iraq’s oil. So, Iraq expels some U.N. inspectors, ticks off the United States; the United States demands U.N. action, and the United Nations is split between us and them - those who want to take military action, and those who want the economic sanc tions lifted so Saddam will let the inspectors back in. As much as I dis like the guy, he sure is sneaky. From here on in, let the haggling begin. Saddam is doing his best to stretch the United Nations as far apart as possible so the United States is no longer an issue, and. then get the economic sanctions lifted so the money pours in. The United States will have to do some serious con vincing if it hopes to get backing from the rest of the United Nations, which only gave Saddam a spank on the wrists with the threat of new sanctions. ihe scary part is how Saddam is performing his little act. In order to get what he wants, Saddam is most likely building some very destructive WMDs. He’s also pouring out the propaganda to his people, and tribes of nationalists are pledging their loy alty with displays of weapons. Then came Saddam’s warning to the Iraqis to “prepare for war.” This situation obviously isn’t going to get any better very soon. Somewhere in all this mess is some kind of resolution. Hopefully, the United Nations can actually reach an agreement and act on it before Saddam decides to test some of his new toys. Personally, I think he needs to be ousted from power no matter how this situation resolves itself. The guy won't quit once this is over anyway. He’ll just start with someone else next year.