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Show AC Friday, September 10. 2004 EOnOKAL BQAX9 Aliert EBITOfflALS HERALD POLL : I UaoO, President A PubUsher Randy Wright, Extcutivw Editor Donald W. Meyer. Editorial pagt editor John Castefli, PuiUc advUar Christian Harrison, Public adviser Sam Rushforth, Public adviser ianTUe (f' ' What do you think? - , Olympics in Athens now histo ry, the world's at tention turns to China, the host of the 2008 Summer Games. Should American athletes go to It's not that Americans would be in any particular danger over there. Ever since the Palestinian attack on the Israeli team at the 1972 Games in Munich, host countries have taken extraordinary measures to make the Olympics safe for competitors and spectators. The question is would U.S. participation be a reward for China, one of the world's worst human rights violators on the globe. We've boycotted the Olympics before. In 1980, the United States stayed away from Moscow to protest the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. In China's case, there are plenty of objections as welL ' In 1989, China brutally crushed a demonstration in Tiananmen Square, killing about 7,000 demonstrators. I China limits families to one . . child, with local authorities fining, confiscating property and denying benefits to those who break the law. The rule has also led to the killing of infant girls by parents who want that only child to be a pub-lishe- The Daily Herald will publish comments on Sept 19. LEONARD PITTS JR. 3 years later, U.S.-backe- years later, Osama bin Laden free, apparently hiding in the mountains of Afghanistan. Three years later, a spirited presidential campaign is in full swing, the candi- dates sparring over Vietnam. Three years later, there comes news that the American death toll in Iraq has surpassed a thousand. Iraq, as you know, is the front line in tte War on Terror that began Sept. 1L 2001. Or at least, that's what the presi- - ; dent keep stubbornly saving, and polls, indicate half of us keep stubbornly lieving. Ana never mind tb&intelifr gence experts say Iraq had about as ) to do with Sept. 11 as Canada did., No need to focus, too closely on that. We're watching a sort of magic show, after all, public opinion manipulated like a handkerchief borrowed out of the audience. Nothing up his sleeve, presto! The lie becomes the truth. And a thousand people die. It's one of those numbers that always gets the news media's attention, carry-- , ing as it does the weight of milestone. But I am reminded of something a reader told me after an earlier column lamenting the death toll that, at that point, stood just south of 600. ' That's not that many, he said. By the grim mathematics of war, he has a point. Even a thousand deaths represents the barest fraction of those who were lost in Vietnam. During the Civil Three I V, MEDIA VOICES Bush should renew assault weapons ban leading Muslim said the terrorists, thought to be men and women from the predomcriminals who took . inantly Muslim republic of hostage at their Chechnya, were "not Muslims on the first day of not humans." classes and are responsible . Atrocities in Iraq, like the for the deaths of at least 335 beheading or shooting of 12 people in Beslan, Russia, have Nepalese workers by a group generated universal condemrailing itself the Islamic nation. Army in Iraq, which showed The sickening pictures of the killings on its Web site row upon row of corpses, last week, also have created revulsion inside and outside many of them grammar school students, provoked the Muslim world. Muslim leaders to excoriate Some prominent Arabs, apthe terrorists and declare palled by the Russian deaths, that the perpetrators did not suggested that autocratic act in the name of their reliMideast governments, gion. plagued by corruption and ' claiming to be Islamic, have Egypt's top cleric Grand Sheik Mohammed Sayed become breeders of terrorists. Tantawi, said during prayers That's an opinion rarer Friday that "those who carry out the kidnappings are crimi- heard in the censored press of the Middle East but familiar nals, not Muslims. At a Moscow raDy of more in the United States. than 100,000 on Tuesday, a What happened in Beslan From The Los Angeles Times, Sept. 9, 2004 As The e high-capaci- ty ar . , d cumosfn uwioam mm She HAS MANY Fm QUAL- cwir ffY, 1075 OF NNRBAJTY . War, many times that number were often lost in a single day. Besides, the death count is slightly misleading, given that it includes not just Americans killed in action, but also those who died from accidents, suicides ' and other causes. But the weight of the milestone is not so easily shrugged aside and, even given those caveats, a thousand lives lost is not an insignificant thing. "One" life lost is not insignificant. Especially when you consider all the mothers, fathers, chiland dren, husbands, wives, friends each loss affects, v Of course, the sobering truth is that life is the currency of war, the means by which a nation purchases its goals when they cannot be obtained by peaceful means. Or when the nation refuses to wait for peaceful means to bear fruit. Given that this currency is so precious, we're morally obligated to spend it carefully. So even though we're talking about "only" a thousand lives, it seems fair to pause and consider what they have bought. Actually, it's easier to list the things they have not bought. They have not bought a sense of security. Pollsters say over half of us expect a terrorist strike in the near future. They have not bought peace in Iraq. The death toll rose by four while I was writing this column. They have not bought the world's respect. We are feared by allies and vili- - Garry Trudeau I awe i ancs u.9. 1 m,UU. I CmZEHFUB 1 I fied by people we purported to liberate. So what have those lives bought? As near as I can telL only tickets to a magic show. Maybe you consider that an insult to those who lost their lives in their country's service. I would only point out that the search for meaning in death has nothing to do with the dead. It is, rather, a comfort the living give themselves to soften the rough edges of mourning. - Will we insist on that comfort even if doing so requires us to believe what is not true? '.., That's a question I could not have . imagined asking that September mora? ing three years ago. But three years later, the man who authored that unholy day is on the back burner.: Three years later, our moral authority is squandered, our sense of purpose wasted. Three years later, the death toll in an unnecessary and unrelated war climbs above a milestone number. And the president presents a magic show. Abracadabra! A quagmire becomes a showcase of his iron resolve. Maybe for his next trick, he win pull an election out of a hat. You might be able to enjoy his act. I keep thinking we paid way too much to . get in. , I Leonard PHts Jr. can be reached at 2pittsheroId.com. Denounce anti Islamic sentiments .weapons ban," adding that "the president's views are well known" among QOP leaders in Congress. the president and Congress Just as well known is that those Rethe other way, America publican leaders won't act unless , about to suffer a fresh onspecifically prodded by the president, and that hasn't happened. slaught of menacingly efficient Police officers whose lives are at deadly weapons across the homeland. At midnight Monday barrisk on the streets have repeatedly . ring a sudden change of heart on pointed out that assault weapons marthe Hill the are not useful in hunting or sport. But to be far more effective, the keting of military assault-stylammuban should be changed to include a weapons and nition magazines can resume as a prohibition on knock-of-f models ban on certain firearms ex- that have been sold to circumvent the law, which is limited to 19 types pires. So much for the past efforts of four presidents of semiautomatic weapons. Ford, Carter, to rid the No sporting shooter needs to Reagan and Clinton own these weapons, no criminal landscape of at least some of the , should find them so weapons that have no place in a easily on the civilized society . market. To stand by and allow a flood of assault weapons into the President Bush who said during the 2000 campaign that he fawrong hands makes no sense. Invored a prohibition has yet to oft stead of drying up the supply, man-u- f a finger for it. White House spokesacturers will be given the official woman dare Buchan has said that to increase the gross doMr. Bush "supports the reauthomestic arsenal Why won't the rization of the current assault president act?' neu,AsyouKNauax, . a thousand people dead MEDIA VOICES From the Washington Post Sept. 9, 2004 D00NESBURY , bjtf once-in-a-l- if CHIEF, WHY 5? il - ' f.s Should the United States boycott the 2008 Olympics in China? Send your comment? to dhpollsheraldextra.com or call 344-294Please leave your name, hometown and phone number with your comments. comments should not exceed 100 words; voice-macomments should be no longer than 30 seconds. AnonyQrous and unverifiable responses will not be But would a boycott really do any good? Maybe not. The U.S. boycott in 1980 didn't get the Soviets out of Afghanistan. It merely spurred the Soviets to return the favor by boycotting the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. The Red Army only pulled out of Afghanistan as battlefield casualties mounted and it couldn't put d resistance. down the The United States did not boycott the 1936 Olympics in Berlin even though Adolf Hitler planned to turn those Games into a showson. case of Aryan superiority. It did I China imposes the. death penalone better: Black American track star Jesse Owens, anything but ty on such nonviolent crimes as theft, embezzlement and forgery. Aryan, humiliated the "master ; In 1993, 77 percent of all the race" on its home turf . world's executions took place in The United States, knowing ChiChina. I , na's human rights abuses, has I Prisoners in China are routinely granted China torturea, even though China is a trading status. Part of the reason is a hope that China can be eased into party to the U.N. Gonvjghtion f, Against Torture. Prisoners also toil reform, driven by economics rather in sweat shops making gepdato b& than isolation. That same logic ' sold abroad. could be applied to the Olympics. If WmMJM China is treated as an outcast, it I China continues to oppress the people of Tibet, which it invaded, K may lose incentive to clean up its act, as was the case in Cuba. forcing the Da Lam4 fntoexile, But a boycott could hurt athletes where he remains today.XJiina is: in the process of eradicating Ti-- , more than it would China. For bet an culture and turningiTibetans many athletes, the Olympics repreinto a minority within their own sent a etime chance to country by bringing in Chinese to go up against the best in the world. settle. In this way China can claim These men and women sacrifice v' Tibet as a province, for years for a chance at Olympic I The Chinese haye persecuted glory. While the athletes are proud various religious groups, including to represent the United States, they see the Olympics as transcending' practitioners of Falun Gong. politics, a celebration of human Boycotting the Olympics would be a powerful statement by the achievement. To ask them to give United States that China's behavior up this opportunity for political is unacceptable, that ittaust reform reasons may be too much. if it wants to be la memBer of the It's a question we have four world community. years to decide. just ourof 5 i i. : Beijing? " f : ...... vstcowm wen AT- a w O- was Slioukltliel.'S. boycott '08 Games? 'ith the 2004 . was far more horrible than a "hostage-taking,- " being a terror act aimed specifically at children. But governments fighting such assaults need to know what leads to the crimes and find out if there's a way to drain the swamps that produce them. Chechens appalled at the seizure of children last week also were angered when, during the school siege, Russian soldiers in Chechnya took as captives children and elderly people related to Chechen rebel leaders. , the threat by Russia's top general Wednesday to strike terrorists "in any region of the world will trouble neighboring Georgia, where Chechens are alleged to hide, and nations like Qatar, where two Russian agents waVe convicted in June for the car bombing that killed a MALLARD FILLMORE 1 1 IV If Kf KIND OP w,N&t6ermw II imsim. Chechen rebel leader. Tuesday's Moscow rally turned into a demonstration favoring President Vladimir V, Putin, who has promised to crack down on terror. In addition, the rally produced ominous racist comments that darker-skinne- d people should be driven from the Russian capital. Putin should denounce those sentiments and, as President Bush did after Sept. 1L separate Islam and the overwhelming majority of its adherents from fanatics who wreak havoc in the name of religion. Russians should recognize that the Beslan tragedy has moved people around the world to donate to the city and to join in the mourning. Yet such goodwill can be squandered if Russians succumb to racism and the desire for mindless revenge. Bruce Tinsley - O. wejuer mwis town una i vv kh TroxA v 7WS(JRv A m . 1 ' W 'j1'4.';-'L'i';a- I W 'f 1 Smt i- - ,," Wf ...... nmfm Hi I -.-umitmmmm. 1 1 m |