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Show 13 Monday, March 6,2006 797-1762 statesman@cc.usu.edu www.utahstatesman.com Candidates should vc -o; take campaign for ASUSU seriously Utah Statesman A TtfJflOCIST ATTACKL IIL6ET lUERe , SOON AS I CA*N,eft!ERNORi Mf 1N|I*S © T > E PICKUP ANI> AS SCCH ASf RNP NE I U H i m UP "W15 OU> HQWflttfc WHICH E5 ALWEVEeorc EVBPftHMS ELSE 15IN IRhQi Staff Editor in Chief Brooke Nelson News Editor <Dear ASUSU candidates, Aaron Falk Congratulations on making it past the primaries! You have a busy and stressful three days ahead of you. But as you should know, the effort you put forth to win over votes should be nothing compared to the effort ^r -p you plan to put in on behalf of OUr VlGW n H - r - — : 1 ™""™^ - Features Editor Steve Shinney Assistant Features Editor Emma Tippetts students if you are elected. Your responsibility is great. The group you are elected to has almost sole discretion over where the more than $270 each student spends in fees feach semester is spent. Do you know where your fees aje allocated to? Find out. Students can't trust someone to manage their money who doesn't know where it's being spent. y; As student leaders you will be our voice and our image. Are you prepared to be watched and criticized? Are you prepared to have your intentions questioned and still be able to respond and act professionally? Those snappy campaign slogans and cute graphics you are using to get elected will do you little good when meeting with President Albrecht or lobbying the state Legislature next year so take some time in the next few d^ys to analyze who and what it is you really represent. |y You also have a responsibility to reach out. As students, our minds are generally far from what is going each week on the third floor of the TSC in the Senate Chambers. That is no excuse for making decisions or going about business-as-usual without making an effort to get student feedback and opinion or conducting the appropriate research. This week will give you some good practice on getting your name and your issues out there. Make sure you plan on continuing that interaction after the ballots are cast. ^ Plan on doing something. You all have a platform, but thafs not enough. Each year we watch as the majority of legislation is brought forth during the last half of the last semester. Your elections experience may teach you how to push hard at the last minute, but that's not what your leadership should Jpok like-More important than pushing your own agenda will be the ability to look around, identify problems and then fix them. You've ^Iready shown initiative by taking the risk of running, ;now you just need to prove to voters that initiative will continue and the ambition won't fade after the first • meeting. 1 We wish you luck. USU can be proud of its strong Itradition of student leadership. The student body leaders here have real power; unlike the setup at some universities this is a not a ''mock run" so you are brave for even making the attempt. . Just make sure you are ready for what comes next. ; Sports Editor Andrea Edmunds : " The Statesman Staff The case for democracy U Assistant News Editor Marie MacKay Implementing new sytsem in Iraq take time, but it isn't impossible The "democracy back;h" is in full swing, largely because of the carnage in Iraq gnd the electoral success of me terrorist orgatjgLzation Hamas IE the Palestinian [vfuthority. In the j^ast week our opt& writers from g to left have expressed JIubts about, or opposiTon to, the Bush administration's project of encourag"jl^g democracy in the MiddTe ist. From their and others' |rguments, three principles .fend fend to emerge emerge: You can't _ ose democracy by force. |$>u shouldn't push for elecjtijbns, or expect a democracy m develop, until a mature •* civil society" is in place. [We are better off with dictators like Mubarak, Musharraf [and the rest than with the alternative, which is anarchy, •.'terrorism and religious funda'•mentalism. |; !These are serious arguIments, and those of us who ffiipported the war in Iraq in jparticular have a responsibility to consider them seriously. It would be comfortable for us to blame the Bush administration for everything that's ggne wrong there: After all, it Failed to anticipate a Baathist underground resistance, failed -to prepare for postwar nation-building, failed to commit enough troops. All true. But even war planners far more diligent and serious than this administration's will get things wrong - an assumption that should be built into any prewar calculation. And even if President Bush had gotten a lot more right than he did, Iraq still might not be at peace today. There are and will be many lessons to be drawn from that, but "democracy cannot be imposed by force" is not one of them. For one thing, democracies do sometimes emerge from wars (Japan and Germany). More to the point, the United States never has gone to war, and is unlikely ever to go to war, with the dominant purpose of imposing democracy. We did not fight imperial Japan because we were offended by its system of internal governance. We hoped eventually to bring democracy to Korea and Vietnam, but we fought because we saw communism as a threat. We believed that unyoking the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein would be a great benefit to them, but Congress authorized (and The Washington Post editorial page supported) war in Iraq not primarily for that reason but because we believed that Nat'l View •DEMOCRACY see page 14 Assistant Sports Editor Bryan Hinton Diversions Editor Matt Wright Copy Editor Lindsay Kite Letters to the Editor Reader encourages Statesman to proofread Thank you four being the epitome off what a new's paper snould be. This is an paper that USU student's should be Dear Editor, proud of. i Look for the errors in the I thought I would write a above letter. If you found... lettervtbo commend you and your news staff on the excel- 25 or more, you have the editlent job you do in putting ing skills of a 6th grader! togetner a hi-quality paper. 11-24, you have the editing And I especially think you're skills of a 2nd grader! spelling, grammar, ana gen- 0-10, you have the editing eral editing, is reflective of the skills of the Statesman staff! higher education institution Jennifer Pearson you represent. Latly, I'd noticed how irriIt is not the critic who tating reading publis ed matcounts, but the doer erail that isn't properly editted can be. And most often these Dear Editor, misteaks our purely because people seem two think that I'm writing in resopnse to just spell-checking does they the letter calling the presijob. And I am so glad than dential debate a joke. At least the Statesman isn't on of those, -these-'candidates are 'trying those publications. ' ••• to do something more than My brother in law had a complain. business communications I'd like to quote a great class were they where given one of our great presidents, extra-credit fro finding spell- Theodore Rosevelt. ing and grammar errors in "It is not the critic that any publication, accept the counts, not the man who Statesman. Im sure the prof- points out how the strong fesor had read you paper, and man stumbles or where the new that no mistakes could doer of deeds could have bee found. done them better. The credit Photo Editor belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, Who errs and comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcomings, who knows thre great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows in theend the high achievement of triumph and who at worst, if he fails while daring greatly, knows his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." All I'm trying to say is if you don't like it then instead of complaining do something about it and give us that wonderful completely realistic non-visionary non creative leadership that has no goals to stretch us at all. These candidates might not reach all of their goals, but at least they have some and it would be great if they accomplished them. Mark Chandler As the Iraqi conflict changes, has President Bush kept up? President Bush barreled straight ahead with old answers when ABC's Elizabeth Vargas asked him a new question about Iraq last week. And like any driver who missed a turn in the road, the president quickly found himself in a ditch. Vargas sensibly asked Bush how the growing civil strife in Iraq between the majority Shiites and the Sunnis who dominated the country under Saddam Hussein might change the U.S. mission there. Bush, to his credit, acknowledged the importance of encouraging Iraqis to form a "unity government" in the dangerously prolonged political haggling that nas followed December's election. But the president gave no hint he'd considered how the widening gulf between Sunni and Shiite might alter America's strategy. Instead, he summoned old sound bites, as if cueing them on tape. "The troops are chasing down terrorists," he told Vargas. And: "As the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down." Those arguments reflect the model that Bush, his aides and most Americans have used to understand the war in Iraq. In that framework, Iraq - like Vietnam - is a contest between a central government and an insurgency determined to overthrow it. But many experts are asking whether that construct really explains the challenge in Nat'l View • IRAQ see page 7 4 Michael Sharp Assistant Photo Editor Jessica Alexander Editorial Board Brooke Nelson Aaron Falk Bryan Hinton Marie MacKay Michael Sharp Steve Shinney About letters • Letters should be limited to 350 words. • All letters may be shortened, edited or rejected for reasons of good taste, redundancy or volume of similar letters. • Letters must be topic oriented. They may not be directed toward individ, uals. Any letter directed to a specific individual may be edited or not printed. • No anonymous letters will be published. Writers must sign all letters and include a phone number or email address as well as a student identification number. Letters will not be printed without this verification. • Letters representing groups — or more than one individual — must have a singular representative clearly stated, with all necessary identification information. • Writers must wait 21 days before submitting successive letters — no exceptions. • Letters can be hand delivered or mailed to The Statesman in the TSC, Room 105, or can be e-mailed to editor® statesman.usu.edu or click on www.utahstatesman.com for more letter guidelines and a submission box. Online poll Do you think the TSC computer lab needs to be expanded? • Yes, that lab is always crowded • No, there are other labs on campus that aren't full Visit us on the Web at www.utahstatesman.com to cast your vote. Check out these links on www.utahstatesman.com: Local TV listings Faculty evaluations Comics Activities and events Classifieds Weather Archives |