EDITOR Paula Lavigne OPINION EDITOR Matthew Waite EDITORIAL BOARD Erin Gibson Joshua. Gillin Jeff Randall Julie Sobczyk Ryan Soderlin i Our VIEW Saving face United Nations should use military It’s funny how pervasive movies have become in our national discourse. Take the crisis in Iraq as an example. In 1978, Francis Ford Coppola released “Apocalypse Now,” a strange story of the Vietnam War. In that movie, Lt. Col. Kilgore, played by Robert Duvall, commands the Air Force to napalm some Viet Cong soldiers. “Bomb them back to the stone age, son.” rorwara to inis weeK. in a press con ference, Defense Secretary William Cohen said, “We are not looking to bomb anyone back to any stone age,” but they aren’t ruling it out. While mildly humorous, Cohen’s words are at the same time - firm but diplomatic - as the United Nations should be. The Crisis in the Gulf, as the media has branded it, is more of a crisis for the United Nations than for the United States or Iraq. For the United Nations’ credibili ty is on the line. In order for the United Nations to save face in this crisis, it should insist upon full compliance with U.N. security coun cil resolutions set in 1991 after the Gulf War. After the coalition forces drove Iraq out of Kuwait in 1991, a cease-fire was signed and Baghdad agreed to abide by the security council’s edicts. One of those edicts was that an international team of inspectors be allowed into Iraq to root around for weapons of mass destruction. This month, Saddam Hussein decided that the U.S. representatives on the inspection teams were spies, and demanded their removal from the teams. The United Nations refused, Hussein did n i Duage ana eventually tne united Nations pulled the teams out. The U.S. members were expelled from the country. The United Nations is now insisting on full compliance with the post-war orders. It should. Anything less than that, and the international organization should not hesitate for a second to use military means to a political end. If the United Nations is to be a gov erning agency among nations, it has to show solidarity among members - and a willingness to back up its edicts with muscle. This must be a U.N. and not sole ly a U.S. effort. If this succeeds it will restore some credibility to an organization that has gone out of its way to destroy its good name. Anyone remember Bosnia? Or Somalia? Iraq is the United Nations’ suc cess story, and it is no time to ruin that. Without full compliance, the United Nations should not hesitate to follow Lt. Col. Kilgore’s advice. Mltwlal Policy Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the Fall 1997 Daily Nebraskan. They do riot necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nebraska-Uncoln, its employees, its student body or the University of Nebraska Board of Regents. A column is solely the opinion of its author. The Board of Regents serves as publisher of the Daily Nebraskan; policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. The UNL Publications Board, established by the regents, supervises the production of the paper. According to policy set by the regents, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its student employees. Letter Policy The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor and guest columns, but does not guarantee their publication. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject any material submitted. Submitted material becomes property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be returned. Anonymous submissions will not be published. Those who submit letters must identify themselves by name, year in school, major and/or group affiliation, if any. Submit material to: Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St. Lincoln, NE. 68588-0448. E-mail: letters@unlinfo.unl.edu. ' ' --r-»-^ - ...-r—1 Haney’s VIEW [• tut toxiwwu 7 5^&T/ / Hme I ^R PUEAS MP M* No* I »N Appit»oH16 ■ ^ pWa 5wittrt, ft fteeNtie* NV3v)HT£i> B "Ru^ty Nmw Ir h Bol>&3>' ^* ^ Vour cms>5 %^'j | i* ^ssslW^. DN LETTERS I Fight for your right The DN Special Report (Monday’s DN) commented exten sively on the high number of on-cam pus injuries to both pedestrians and bicyclists. I refuse to call them accidents, as the article does, because they are usu ally caused by negligent drivers. The article reports the numerous 4 possible solutions to these “acci 41 dents”: lowering speed limits, installing flashing lights, diverting traffic, etc. All of these proposed solu tions could, of course, decrease the possibility of future injury to pedestri ans and cyclists, but they all neglect the most obvious solution. And the least expensive to the university and city, I might add. 1 lild 5UIUUU11 12> MiilJJiy IU gCL II1C message out to drivers that the pedes trian has the right of way in a cross walk. The most infuriating aspect of this topic is that most of the injuries occur when the victim is in or near a crosswalk or area that implies pedes trian right of way. Yet the article men tions nothing about driver responsi bility other than a small paragraph proposing a project to develop com munity awareness. Yet this suggestion was made by the two people men tioned early in the article who were injured in crosswalks, not by people who could implement such a plan. Bottom line: Drivers need to slow down and watch for people crossing streets both in and out of crosswalks. When these drivers see someone in the street, they must stop and let them cross. So my fellow pedestrians, take your right of way and don’t let drivers push you around. Be safe, but be assertive! Robert A. Aguirre graduate student English I— -:—-— - Home-court advantage? I’ve been extremely disheartened lately at the apathy this student body holds toward Husker athletics. Take basketball, for example. The Devaney Center holds more than 14,000, and through seven men’s and women’s games, not once have we filled half the seats. Student atten dance is just as pathetic. The band out numbers the students at most games. Maybe people don’t realize what we have here at Nebraska. In Paul Sanderford, we have one of the top coaches in the nation. He has a career winning percentage of .753 and in 15 seasons has taken 12 teams to the NCAA Tournament and three to the Final Four. Anna DeForge was honor able-mention All-American last year ana is one or me oesr in me nation again this year. Sanderford has bent over backward in an attempt to get students to his games. There are give aways nearly every night and he even went as far as to send every student at the university free season tickets (with awesome coupons on the back, I might add). Coach Danny Nee and the men have just as much going for them. They have possibly the most athletic and best defensive squad ever put on the floor by a Nebraska team. Just watching Tyronn Lue play is worth the cost of admission. Lue is also a legiti mate candidate for All-America hon ors and is projected as a first-round pick in the NBA draft. It’s the students who create the atmosphere and can change the momentum at these games. Grandma and Grandpa can’t be relied upon to make too much noise. We have to get the students to get out to these games, create a hostile environment for our opponents and give our athletes some support., When you watch other schools on TV you always see their student sec tion packed, making a ton of noise and having a blast. There’s no reason why that doesn’t happen here, as well. We’ve got the real deal at Nebraska this year. Both these teams will be playing in March contending fo championships. No more complain ing. It’s about time we get off our behinds, get out to the games, make some noise and support the Huskers. k Jason Ponec freshman secondary education - Check your facts It would be amazing if those who propose a university holiday for Martin Luther King Jr. would actually stop to study his character rather than just his skin color and the sound bites of ideology. Fact 1: King plagiarized his doc toral thesis. When this was finally made public, Harvard University changed King’s degree from an earned doctorate into an honorary doctorate. Admittedly, the main stream press scarcely reported any thing about this. Maybe Fact 2: Additionally, there were FBI reports (for whatever they are worth) that King used his title as a Christian minister to sexually seduce young women, similar to the “sons of Eli.” Based upon the content of King’s character, he deserves neither holiday nor respect. In any event, why do “lib erals” insist on using the power of government to coerce everyone into thinking exactly as they think - or else? S. Duane England graduate student biology PS. Write Hack .;....... .. ..' I ■. .; . ... .... S. •••• -•••' 1 Send letters to: Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 "R" St., Lincoln, NE 68588, or fax to (402) 472-1761, or e-mail