A reign of terror
America should intervene in Kosovo before it’s too late
w *, . wn
ADAM KLINKER is a
sophomore English and his
tory major and a Daily
Nebraskan columnist
When death and human suffering
are wrought out on America’s watch,
the nation must act and the offenders
must pay.
Such is the case in the Balkan
republics where fringe leaders, like
Yugoslav president Slobodan
Milosevic, continue their reigns of ter
ror in the Albanian province of
Kosovo.
It’s time for America, as the world’s
policeman, to take deliberate action.
America has served admirably in
the policeman capacity, sometimes at
extreme cost to the nation. But lately,
the point where the United States
draws the line has become increasingly
ambiguous.
With that indeterminate standard
as to when and where America takes
the authority as the world’s strong arm,
the United States has allowed numer
ous fringe factors to spring up world
wide -not the least of which is
Milosevic.
Last week, for the fourth time,
Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. diplomat
ic leader in the Balkan crisis, met with
Milosevic.
Holbrooke will be returning to the
United States on Wednesday.
U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright said it would be the final
chance for Milosevic to discontinue
Serbian military action in Kosovo and
move troops out of the province.
“We are not going to stop this con
flict by constantly evaluating die situa
tion, not simply waiting to see what
happens,” Albright said.
Without compliance, she said, a
NATO airstrike would be in the works
for Serbian camps within the next few
days.
Yet Albright still maintains that the
United States can reach a diplomatic
solution to the problem.
Some kind of peace needs to come
soon.
The United States must make con
cessions for a problem that involves
the massacre of innocent men, women
and children. There are also more than
250,000 displaced people in Kosovo.
In the whirlwind of tumult that is
the Balkans, it is time for the United
States, the United Nations and NATO
to put up or shut up.
People’s lives have been at stake in
Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia and now
Kosovo for nearly nine years as NATO,
die United Nations and the United
States continue to fall victiin to the lies
of Milosevic and other Balkan radi
cals.
Most recently, Milosevic claimed
to have moved the bulk of his army out
of Kosovo, when in reality that demo
bilization still leaves a number of
troops in the province.
In light of Milosevic’s “actions” in
demobilizing his army, the United
Nations would like to again review his
compliance and, once again, back off
from the Yugoslav president.
The United Nations is being duped
by this sociopathic, habitual liar.
Although Russia continues to
waver on proposed strikes, the United
States needs to take a firm stand and
make its move on the world stage.
Albright has made it clear that the
United States does not support inde
pendence for Kosovo, the very reason
Milosevic has taken military action
there.
America cannot continue to threat
en and then appease such men as
Milosevic.
One would think the world had
learned a lesson with Great Britain’s
accommodating policies toward Adolf
Hitler in the 1930s.
NATO, the United Nations and the
United States have reached the point
where feasible diplomacy is no longer
possible.
And although it’s a clean practice,
a NATO cruise missile and air strike is
not the answer.
The line of action must be
redrawn, and the United States can no
longer allow insolent violators to step
over it and retreat. A trip wire should
be installed.
Both President Clinton and
Albright have said that U.S. ground
troops will not be used in a police
action in Yugoslavia, but an infantry
attack may be the one thing to gain
Milosevic’s scattered attention.
A war on this baseless man would
uproot him and eradicate the weed-like
stranglehold he has on the people he
leads.
Thousands of people in Kosovo
cannot wait for the United Nations to
again review Milosevic’s actions. By
then, it will be too late, much as it has
been too late in other former Yugoslav
republics.
At all cost, America must do
everything or nothing to quell the dis
cord in Kosovo.
If the United States cannot foresee
itself involved in a conflict at this
point, then by all means, we should
withdraw the 7,500 ground troops
deployed as part of U.N. peacekeeping
forces in neighboring Bosnia.
Cease-fires have not worked.
Diplomacy has fizzled. Milosevic con
tinues to spit in the face of the United
Nations and antagonize the United
States while the world hands him a
pardon and turns a blind eye.
Fifty-seven years ago, Roosevelt
said the United States should be the
world’s “good neighbor.”
At one point before the United
States entered World War II, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt said that in the
scope of world affairs, he would com
mit America to the position of the
world’s watchdog.
In its current situation, America’s
disregard for military action must be
re-addressed. The world’s good
Samaritan should again take up the
policy.
In 1998, how can America contin
ue its watchful charge by standing on
its tiptoes, peeking over the fence into
Milosevic’s backyard while he savage
ly beats his dog?
No nation wants war. But in times
of extended crisis and suffering, the
nation who least wants it, the United
States, must come to the forefront and
to the rescue.
It is expected of America. Let the
United States not leave despondent
those who have needed it most through
nearly a decade.
Enough of Milosevic. Enough
slaughter. Enough unrest.
The ‘Natural’ choice
Baseball movies will help ease the World Series blues
TODD MUNSON is a senior
broadcasting major and a
Daily Nebraskan colum
nist
Call me a cynic, but the remainder
of the baseball season Should be can
celed.
Right now.
If commish Bud Selig knew what
was best for baseball, he would cancel
the destined to be ho-hum World Series
before the atrocity even starts.
The decision to do so would be per
fectly logical even to Mr. Spock.
To think that the World Series
could add any more excitement to a
season that featured the Sosa-McGwire
home run race and the Cubs, Indians
and Red Sox making the playoffs
would be an exercise in futility.
The regular season’s excitement
brought scores of fans back who once
were considered lost forever. With the
headline-makers gone till next spring,
let’s cancel the World Series before
these rejuvenated fans grow bored and
take up a new sporting interest such as
the Professional Boggle Tour.
Unfortunately, my telephone psy
chic says that Wile E. Coyote will be
feasting on Road Runner before the
Series is canceled again.
However, there is hope.
For those of you who aren’t Braves
or Yankee fans (my psychic better not
be lying and still have the baseball
jones), I’ve compiled a list of the top
nine baseball films of all time, each
one guaranteed to be more exciting
than the entire World Series. With more
than 100 baseball films in American
cinema, deciding on just nine wasn’t
easy, but it was a lot of fun.
No. 9 - “Taking Care of
Business”:
This film, starring Jim Belushi,
may seem to be an obscure choice but
could serve as a lesson in what it means
to be a fan of the Cubs.
Belushi plays a convict who, in the
last 48 hours of his sentence, wins a
pair of tickets to see the Cubs play in
the World Series the next afternoon.
With the help of his fellow inmates, he
escapes from prison.
In the rising action leading up to the
game, he assumes a new identity and
non-stop hilarity ensues. Actually, it
isn’t all that funny, but it’s definitely
worth watching just to see Mark Grace
do well in the playoffs.
No. 8 - “The Naked Gun”:
OK, it’s not exclusively a baseball
movie, but any reason to see Leslie
Nielsen at his finest is a good reason to
watch. The baseball moments included
are worth the wait Reggie Jackson
gives an excellent portrayal of himself
as he tries to assassinate Queen
Elizabeth n. Look! It’s Enrico Palattzo!
No. 7 - “Msgor League”:
Make sure you watch the first
installment, not its terrible sequels. The
launching pad for Wesley Snipes’
career, “Major League” could be con
sidered a sacred work for fans of the
Cleveland Indians.
Essentially “The Bad News Bears”
as adults, “Major League” is the story
of bunch of misfits assembled in ^
hopes of losing enough games
to move the Indians out of
Cleveland.
Instead, they rally
together and make a run for
the playoffs.
Chock full of great one
liners by Bob Uecker and
Randy Quaid, “Major
League” is Charlie Sheen’s
best effort since “Navy
Seals.”
No. 6 - “Rookie of the
Year”:
Excuse me, but I’m par
tial to baseball movies that
show the Cubs winning. This
film is every boy’s baseball
fantasy brought to life.
Henry Rowengartner is your
average 12-year-old until he breaks his
arm and develops a superhuman fast
ball.
He is signed by the Cubs and
becomes an overnight sensation, lead
ing the Cubbies to victory, unlike Rod
Beck. John Candy is great as a Harry
Carrayish announcer, and Gary Busey
gives a charming performance between
rehab stints.
No. 5 - “The Bad News
Bears”:
Again, make sure you watch the
original and not the sequels or, God
forbid, the TV series. This is Little
League at its finest and is a good exam
ple of how far morals had fallen since
the 1959 Disney picture “Moochie of
the Little League.”
Walter Matthau gives a great per
formance as Morris Buttermaker, a
drunken ex-minor leaguer who agrees
to coach a team of misfits, only after
being paid. Foul-mouthed and pervert
ed, the kids are a riot.
Along with showing how far
morals have fallen, “The Bad
News Bears” is a good
time capsule for a less
politically correct
time. The kids // \
spout racial ,/,\ \'
epithets at
anyone
and
every- f .
one
Set within the minor league con
fines of the South, this film could be
the holy gospel of all that is baseball.
The comic moments are perhaps the
smartest among the baseball genre.
If your girlfriend is attached to your
hip, the relationship between Costner,
Sarandon and Tim Robbins will allow
the fact that it’s really a baseball movie
go unnoticed.
No. 3 - “A League of Their
Own”:
Women can too play baseball. This
film is an excellent period piece about
the formation of the All American Girls
Professional Baseball League.
and “The Sandlot” could quite possibly
have been lifted from somebody’s
memory.
Way over the top in all the right
places, this film is a coming-of-age _
story focused on a diverse group of > -
kids that are brought together by the
game of baseball. The end is a nice sur
prise, but the nicest of all is the surprise
Squints, the goofy kid with glasses,
lays on the voluptuous lifeguard.
No. 1 - “The Natural”:
No surprise here. Quite possibly the
greatest baseball movie of all time, this
is the story of fictitious slugger Roy
Hobbs and his electrified “Wonder
Boy” bat.
The cinematography by Caleb
Deschanel makes “The Natural” the
best baseball film in the land. The score
by Randy Newman is a bit much at
times, but all is forgiven when
Hobbs steps to the plate in
the bottom of die ninth.
Even if you
haven’t seen
.. this, I’ll tell
^ \ Xv you right
' 1 \ now -
he hits
^and, after the cli
mactic last game, Buttermaker treats
the kids to a round of Schhtz.
No. 4 - “Bull Durham”:
Much better than Kevin Costner’s
other teary-eyed baseball flick, this
film taught many fine lessons (e.g.
Susan Sarandon is excruciatingly hot).
Aside
from
Madonna, the perfor
mances of Geena Davis, Lon
Petty and Rosie O’Donnell are
wonderful and prove that a good base
ball movie doesn’t need men adjusting
themselves. Much like his guest spot
on ‘Tamily Ties,” Tom Hanks plays a
good lush before becoming the right
wing poster child “Forrest Gump.”
No. 2 -“The Sandlot”:
How dare I put this at No. 2? In my .
mind, baseball is a childhood game,
AmyMartin/DN
ball into the next
galaxy. But, no
matter how many times you see it,
you’ll still be on the edge of your seat
Agree or disagree with me, that’s
my take on the top baseball movies,
and I’m sticking to it When you realize
by the second pitch of the Series that
the postseason is pretty lame without
the regular season’s heroes, go down to
Blockbuster and give one of these films
a try.
And, when you’re there, tell the
clerk you’d like to make a contribution
to my exorbitant amount of late
charges.
