EDITOR
Erin Gibson
OPINION
EDITOR
Cliff Hicks
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Nancy Christensen
Brad Davis
Sam McKewon
Jeff Randall
Bret Schulte
--■ ■
Our
VIEW
Fun in
the sun
Remember college isn’t
all serious business
The bass notes shook our windows
for hours.
The sun scorched our shoulders,
and sweat poured down our backs.
The hot dogs clogged our arteries,
and a restaurant ran out of free pizza.
And we liked it.
Three years ago on campus, the Big
Red Welcome was a very different cre
ation than the event we saw Sunday.
Back then the event was held in the
Bob Devaney Sports Center and was
open only to freshmen.
Sure, people didn’t sweat through
their T-shirts or beg for water.
But the limited capacity kept every
one but
University of
Nebraska
Lincoln fresh
men and stu
dent organiza
tion representa
tives from
roaming among
a bewildering
maze of booths
and freebies.
The next
year the event
moved to the
greenspace with some success. Last
; year, the event moved mitd R Street.
And this year, the University
Program Council and New Student
Enrollment really outdid themselves.
Thousands of students - both
young and old - braved the August
swelter to pack their plastic bags full
of giveaways and talk with student
organizations.
The pavement teemed with students
snagging Pepsi and food from the
administrators who served them at the
all-university picnic, and the gurus of
old-school rap ruled the stage.
So after the recent talk of increased
academic rigor this fall, of whether
UNL can keep Division I research sta
tus, of how a bill to limit state spend
ing could change our level of state
funding and of how tuition rose again
this year, the entire university commu
nity could stop talking and spend a
few hours just enjoying itself as a
community.
The community also could remem
ber that college is just as much fun as
it is work and serious academic
thought.
It’s an important message we often
forget in our staff editorials.
And it’s a thought every student
should take into a demanding fall
term.
«
The pavement
teemed with
students
snagging
Pepsi and
food...
cuiionai roiicy
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the Spring 1998 Daily Nebraskan. They
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Mook’s
VIEW
" HR. president, yoo
HAVE experienced
HAHy o?6^ND KaNND
XK You? PoprrxCAv.
CAfcEETR. to nmat t>o
>bO ATTRXfeuTK’ thls?
The wrong thing to do
Clinton’s attacks will lead to useless deaths
ADAM KLINKE1
sophomore Engli
history major and a uuwy
■XT~L—1—i columnist,
"wag me uog come to a
haunting reality.
When I first sat down to write
this column, America was a relative
ly peaceful place. Our biggest worry
was whether or not the president lied
about a sexual relationship with an
intern. That’s what this column was
supposed to be about.
It was instant gratification. This
was supposed to be in support of our
fearless leader. This was supposed to
be a reprimand handed down from a
pressman to the press.
This was supposed to be simple.
Simple - like when a Tomahawk
missile slams into the side of a phar
maceutical plant and starts a chain
reaction of fires and chaotic carnage.
It looks good on paper.
_j_ -t tt •. i
vsu liiuiauay, wucu uic UIIUCU
States unleashed its new terrorism
eradication program in Afghanistan
and Sudan, suddenly everyone was
back with President Clinton.
The attack, in response to U.S.
embassy bombings in Nairobi,
Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania,
started anew era of good feeling in
Washington. Even Senator Orrin
Hatch (R-Utah), critical of Clinton’s
apology address on Monday, was
backing the president on Thursday.
“I want to applaud the president,”
Hatch said. Call it a high rate of
turnover on partisanship and con
gressional loyalties to die executive
office.
Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said
in a statement on Tuesday following
President Clinton’s Monday address,
“This presidency is over.”
Hagel then said on Thursday that
he was standing behind the president
and Clinton’s decision to attack.
Not surprisingly, most Friday
papers buried Monica Lewinsky’s
second testimonial in front of the
grand jury below the front-page fold.
I thought it ludicrous at first that
this week, full of trivialities ova: the
president’s personal life, would turn
out to be the most critical of his pres
idency.
President Clinton has struck fear
into the hearts of terrorists and
Americans alike. All over the world
retaliation is feared. In America, ter
rorist retribution is imminent
The United States has now
embroiled itself in an unwinnable
war of immeasurable bloodshed. In
order for Clinton’s re-ignited antipa
thy toward terrorists to be taken in
fully by the American press and peo
ple, this attack will need to be fol
lowed up with additional actions.
Otherwise, who is not to say that
this move was only a diversionary
tactic - that in theory it was really
Lewinsky who launched 100
Tomahawk cruise missiles.
We have countered terrorism
with terrorism.
It is frightening to think of the
numerous ways terrorist factions
could, or already have, infiltrated
America despite the nation’s strong
intelligence capabilities.
If this is now truly a war,
America can expect heavy casualties
and more hit-and-miss guerrilla war
fare, all adding up to an immense
heap of political and social nothing
ness. As the glorified sportswriting
adage goes: You can’t stop it, you can
only hope to contain it
Americans, military and civilian
alilrp arp unHpniaKK; in Viarm ’o nmu
The targets of last Thursday’s raid,
Usama bin Laden and his mercenar
ies, have made it clear that they
make no differentiation between
those in uniform and those in plain
clothes.
He once addressed an entire
mosque full of terrorists, asking how
many were in favor of killing all
Americans. Every hand in the build
ing was raised.
Maybe bin Laden does not have
the capabilities to destroy 260 mil
lion American lives, but he certainly
has the maniacal drive and sufficient
support to attempt it
He or other breakaway fringe
fanatics, including American citi
zens, as evidenced by Timothy
McVeigh and Ted Kaczynski, could
strike anywhere, at any time.
People like bin Laden don’t die.
Every day, thousands of them are
created. If one falls, another will
assuredly take his place. Every ranti
ng Libyan, Iraqi, Afghani, Bosnian
and American shouting “Down with
the U.S.A.” has the potential to
spring up if given the opportunity.
The most striking images from
last Thursday were not of the shat
tered military targets, but of
Moammar Qaddafi leading thou
sands through the streets chanting
anti-American sentiments and burn
ing American flags.
Last Thursday’s actions did not
seem like a typical knee-jerk reac
tion to a categorical act of war such
as the bombing of an American
embassy. Rather, President Clinton
was said to have done a lot of ques
tioning and investigating into FBI
intelligence and solid leads to bin
Laden as the man responsible.
Could no other action have been
acceptable?
In light of America’s recent self
centered isolationism, such a bold
step forward would be sure to meet
with criticism. Instead, it was praised
by several allies, including Great
Britain, France and Germany.
Only Russian president Boris
Yeltsin condemned die act as “outra
geous” and “indecent.” Yeltsin won
dered if a better-formed policy might
have been a more suitable course of
action^
Sanctions perpetuated by the
United States and the United Nations
may lack the strength and savvy of
military action, but they have been
the weapon of choice in years past
Punish the country harboring the
militants, and someone is sure to
root diem out from the inside.
If America takes a stand then our
allies should follow the lead. Trade
should be suspended indefinitely and
worldwide recognition of hostile
countries also should take effect
Military action in a war on ter
rorism should be a carefully
designed plot filtering all available
intelligence resources and scouring
the maps to find exact locations of
not just suspected terrorists, but
known radicals.
Last Thursday, stray missiles
were reported to have fallen short of
the Afghanistan border into Pakistan.
Though President Clinton conferred
with Pakistani Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif on Friday, thousands
of Pakistanis continued to protest in
the streets.
With Pakistan’s newly discovered
nuclear capabilities, the United
States may be entreating on a new,
fragile doorstep of concern. Could
this World War be the apocalyptic
nuclear end-all?
This fight cannot be won. The
United States’ action can lead only to a
seesaw battle between several fly-by
night warring parties, their only strate
gy being surprise. Terrorist attacks
could hit anywhere - government
buildings, monuments, universities.
We will have gone nowhere;
countless hundreds of world citizens
will continue to pay the dearest
price, while the instigators go
unscathed.