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Show THE ZEPHYR JCIME 1991 PAGE 14 beyond left and right by Jack Campbell MAO decisive military leader. As we listened to his press conferences Just before the bombing of Iraq began, there was a palpable fear nutating from him that something might go wrong and prevent the attack that he and the military wanted so badly. After all. In this country, his public popularity was at an all time low, the recession was deepening, the national budgetary problems were only worsening, and his political future looked bleak. What better timing for a Jolly good war. In this age of the visual media we no longer pay much attention to the voice of a person. Next time you have a chance, listen to the quality of Bushs voice. As with body language, there Is meaning In the tonalities of a persons voice, far beyond the literal meaning of the words spoken. Seriously, close your eyes and Just listen to Bushs voice. The Irrelevance of Ethics Time after time In the debates preceding the attack on Iraq, the media would raise the Issue of whether this would be the "right" action to take. The response was appalling! Instead of citing reasons why this might be the right thing to do, what they Invariably DOGS AND VICIOUS COWARDS GAMES OF WAR Once again they had come In the night to the house of a black man. With their rumor of a crime ropes and their knives, for the lynching and the mutilation. Some vague allowed the mob to do what It wanted to do anyway. Bitter and resentful lives temporarily white-da- d men with purged with a victim's blood. The shouts and cries In the night, the their smoking pine torches. And now similar flames and black oily smoke from the burning oil fields of Iraq and Kuwait Two ugly mobs, each having found a victim, each too powerful to stop. And this morning a man hangs from a tree, and the people of Iraq and Kuwait continue to fle. Wanted: A Country Without Trees Ever since the humiliation of the Vietnam fiasco, where the Viet Cong were able to defeat our overwhelmingly superior military machine by hiding beneath the protective canopy of the Jungle, the United States military has been searching for a "country without trees where It could redeem Its military honor. Our high tech military would have an overwhelming advantage If It could only succeed In provoking a war In a country where there was no cover. Only In Grenada and Panama have we chanced an Invasion In a country with protective cover. Countries so utterly unprepared for an Invasion that there was to be no conceivable resistance. Countries so small that no resistance could be mounted no matter how badly we bungled the operation. Fearing the Jungle cover of Nicaragua and El Salvador, we chose to pay the Contra mercenaries and ultra right death squads to do our fighting for us. Ubya seemed like a choice opportunity. No trees. Lots of open desert where our air power would have Immediate control. A leader (Khadatl) as unloved by the world community as he was provocative. As Khadatl began to taunt the US president. It seemed too good to be true. Visions of our Infinitely superior air power having an uncontested target shoot with the people and facilities of Libya as the targets, enticed us to get our aircraft carrier battle groups In place before Khadafl came to his senses. It was close. We raid got to shoot down a couple of Libyan planes, and even had the fun of one shoot-em-on Khadafls living quarters. To the disappointment of many, Khadafl either came to his senses or listened to his military advisors. Libya was not to be the sacrificial alter for our debacle In Vietnam. referred to was the latest public opinion poll showing that the majority of Americans favored military action. To confuse an opinion poll with reasons supporting an ethical action Indicates no understanding of ethical reasoning. That this continued for months before the bombing began, and was never corrected speaks very disparagingly of the ethical stature of our country. Occasionally a voice would be heard discussing the ethical Issues Involved, only to be quickly buried beneath the enthusiasm for war. A shop keeper from Jordan displayed a much deeper appreciation of the ethical Issues on both sides of the scales than anything we heard from our leaders. Rarely did we get to hear that Kuwait had been stealing Iraqi oil (by the slant drilling technique now being used for the oil wells by Deadhorse Point and Canyonlands NP). Rarely did we hear questions about the double standard we were using, whereby It was wrong for Iraq to Invade Kuwait, but It was OK for us to Invade Grenada and Panama In complete defiance of International law. (If youre strong enough to get away with It, then you must be "right) Another cynical ploy was the way the public was bribed to support the bombing. This time the price of gasoline was drastically lowered to make sura the military option was not causing any unnecessary "Inconvenience to the American public. Not that they needed to worry; 91 of us lusted for blood. To redeem the Vietnam disgrace we had to vanquish a worthy opponent Thus the military propaganda (from our side) trying to Inflate the prowess of the Iraqi army. For this to be a war, rather than a massacre or a slaughter, the two sides had to be of roughly comparable strength. That way, when we won, It would be because of our virtue as great warriors. Thus, at times It sounded as If Iraq had a "world class army. Of course the American public was not Interested In a war If there were going to be American casualties, so the military also had to assure the public that It could be over and done with quickly and painlessly (for us). Thus, at other times It seemed as If Iraq had an army of no consequence. We need only worry about the weather and other "acts of God. Thus we set the stage for the first great video arcade techno-wa- r, where the American air force subjected the Iraqi army to 43 days of massive bombardment prior to engagement At the last moment the Soviets once again nearly upset the plans of the US. The up The Threat of Peace ODDJOBS carpentry wallpapering Q you name it The situation for the US military was worsening rapidly. With the approaching collapse of the Soviet economy and the consequent withdrawal of the Soviets as a world military threat, there would soon be absolutely no excuse for the hundreds of billions of dollars that the military was receiving each year. The generals faced the ultimate threat: loosing their JOBS! Peace Is terrifying by Itself. Whole new financial mechanisms would have to be created to channel money from the taxpayers to the good old boys who are feeding from the military pork barrel. Peace would be totally unacceptable until we could exorcise the Ignomy of Vietnam (not to mention the blunders of the failed hostage rescue In Vietnam, the fumbling In Grenada, and the bombing of the residential neighborhoods In our clumsy capture of Noriega). Imagine the ache In the heart of the military men at the thought of great weapons never to be proven In the glory of actual combat Would the billions spent on the systems battle Navys guidance system have only one civilian Iranian airliner shot down over the Persian Gulf to Justify the expenditure? A Mad Dog to the Rescue Enter Saddam Hussein, a character too good to be true. Despotic ruler of a desert without trees. Impudent enough to talk back to Pres. Bush. Crude enough to country use allegedly poison gas on his own people. Dumb enough to believe the US ambassadors statement that the US would look the other way If he were to Invade Kuwait to stop the theft of Iraqi oil by Kuwait A man who even looks like a villain to good, WASP Americans. A dumb and willing victim to serve the needs of the American military. To offer his country and people as the sacrificial alter for our defeat In Vietnam. To provide live targets for our untested weapons systems. So foolish that he might actually have believed that his tank forces (which would Indeed have been a formidable force fifty years ago In WWII) were a match for the modem technology of a country that worships Rambo and spends over 300 billion dollars a year on Its war machine. And a Vicious Coward vicious coward Is the kid In elementary school who Is too afraid to fight his own enemies; Instead, he waits until someone else has already beaten the enemy and then runs over and kicks the fallen child before he can get up. Avoid a fair fight at all costs, but draw blood whenever you can with safety. The cowardly child that has been taunted about his cowardly acts slowly becomes the vicious coward seeking revenge. by political George Bush has been taunted for years as a "wimp and a cartoonists and writers. How good It must have felt to him to suddenly be the "strong and A non-ent- ity uuuual |