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Show The persecution of a Democrat ELECTIONS From page 3 people in the athletics department and in the ticket office. She said the biggest problem with the athletics department is promoting it. The school has very few resources that the athletics department is allowed to use and the it is not using them to their potential, she said. Corey Mikkelsen said he wants to increase football attendance because if it doesn't, the program will be put on probation, which would kill the athletic department, he said. He also wants to give club sports better representation. He said he will accomplish this by creating a position that will take control so clubs don't have to take nine steps to do anything. He said he tfiinks-he has more leadership experience through his recruiting and other involvement with the university. He said the biggest problem facing athletics at USU is student participation. The men's basketball team has it, but he said he • wants to see it other sports. Science Senator Running unopposed, Brittany Webb said she wants to create a pre-med orientation class to better explain to students what is coming and what is expected of them in that major. She also wants to continue science week. Business Senator McKenzie Anderson said she wants to unite all programs so students can be more aware and involved. She said she thinks the biggest problem with the College of Business is the lack of recruiters approaching the college. She wants to contact companies to bring recruiters in so students can become more successful. She is the only person on the ballot for this position. Academic Senate President Michelle Lundberg said she has a "unique vision" that sets her apart from her opponent. She said she understands what students want. She said she will bring fresh ideas that current members of ASUSU may be too entrenched in the status quo to see. Lundberg said she would work to resurrect the use of an ASUSU representative assembly, which would allow heads of all campus organizations to have a voice in student government. Andrew Shaw, said he would work to get the Academic Opportunity Fund back up on the A-station, continue to revise student codes to better protect students' rights and help students become more informed about scholarship opportunities.. Programming VP Tabbi Perkins said she would work to double attendance at school activities by increasing advertising and working with representatives from each college. Perkins said she would also work to bring more bands to campus. Lisa Watkins said, as ASUSU Activities Director, she has a complete knowledge of the legislative process which would allow for a smooth transition next year. Watkins said she would like to see the Homecoming dance return to a formal event and said she will try to bring bigger bands to USU. Service VP Brandy Barton said her goals include creating a service scholarship for students, to create more publicity for service events and create a group that takes care of stray animals found on campus. Leah Enzler said she plans to publicize the Val R. Christensen Service Center and to strengthen the center's programs by focusing on the interests of the current institutions. • DEMOCRACY From page 13 Saddam Hussein represented lem with the readiness argua threat to U.S. national secu- ment is that it imagines a rity interests - in the weapons choice that policy-makers he was thought to possess rarely enjoy. Yes, we might and to crave, his flouting of welcome the benign dictator international norms, his total- who would nurture the "rule itarian example and his ambi- of law" until his nation was tion to dominate the Middle "ready" for democracy - and East. then would give way graceThe second notion - that it -fully to his matured people, is foolish to press for democra- But for the same reason that cy in unready societies - also we wish for civil society as a is less useful than it appears precursor, most dictators do at first blush. Oi course elec- everything they can to squelch tions don't it. Egypt's make for a _ President democracy; Hosni Mubarak the Soviet gives space to Union conthe Muslim Brotherhood while persecuting his secular ior years. liberal opposiAnd its true imagine it will succeed ' '^ tion, because he that many . M ,/ wants to be the ofthecoun- quickly. • • - only acceptable tries that alternative; he doesn't want a have develcivil society. In much of the oped democratically in the autocratic world - Central past two decades began with Asia, Russia, Burma - the advantages that not everyone picture is the same. shares, such as (in parts of So it's fair to oppose Central and Eastern Europe) democracy promotion, but memories of a democrat- only if you're honest about ic past between the world the alternative. Throughout wars. But other nations prog- much of the Muslim world, ress without that head start. that alternative is not a gentle Everyone would acknowledge flowering of civil society but that it's difficult; that culture, the conditions that after Sept. history and ethnic politics 11 were recognized as threatmatter; that totalitarian hab- ening: closed and stagnant its take decades to recover economies that leave milfrom. But it's hard to look lions of young people unemaround the world - to democ- ployed; brutal secret police racies in South Korea, India, services that permeate society South Africa, El Salvador and and stifle education and free Indonesia - and come up thinking; corrupt rulers who with rules to predict where nurture religious extremism democracy can succeed and to shield themselves at home where it can't. and make trouble abroad. The unreadiness argument Those who promote is often applied to countries democracy as the best alterwhere the election results, as native do not imagine that in the Palestinian Authority, are not welcome in the West. The fallacy of this thinking it will succeed quietly, or in pressplaces. autocratic such as is that it supposes that with- all It's allies important to Mr. Mubarak to create more out elections Hamas and other fundamentalist move- space for political parties, ments could be suppressed so that when elections do or excluded from the political take place Egyptians can take advantage of them responsisystem. But radical Islamists and bly. Of course elections aren't others hosti le to Western i nter- enough; of course civil sociThey are powerful forces in ety and prosperity and the ests cannot be wished away: emergence oi a middle class the until Th Middle Eastf l that, f i their recent participation in matter, too; and which comes elections, pursued tneir goals first, and in what ways, will by terrorism. Democratic par- be different in every country. ticipation has caused Hamas, But without elections, Lebanon's Hezbollah and at or the prospect of elections least some of Iraq's Sunni and - without some measure of Shiite groups to scale back accountability to the people violence at least temporarily. - what will induce a dictator Over time, it is more likely to allow civil society to grow? than exclusion and suppresThe "realists" need to answer pp sion to moderate their politi- that auestion, too. h editorial appeared in This cal aims. A more fundamental probSunday's Washington Post Those who promote democracy as the i f ^ T bestaltemtivedonot Money should channeled to reformers in Middle East !n Cairo last week, Secretary is ruthlessly stamping out any of State Condoleezza Rice semblance of moderate, secusaid she had spoken "candid- lar opposition to his autocly" in her meetings about the racy,, so that the only alternative in Egypt imprisonment of II* will be Islamic liberal democratic reformer Ayman VlGW fundamentalism. Nour, which she Nour's Tomorrow called a "setParty has been back." Apparently . destroyed and President Hosni Mubarak other moderate parties refused wasn't impressed. Within days legal registration, even as of Rice's visit, prosecutors the Muslim Brotherhood summoned Nour from prison was allowed to seat 88 of its to interrogate him on a host of members in parliament. Last new charges. month three senior civil judgThese are even more ludi- es who have been pressing for crous than the bogus forgery reforms, and who had pubrap that the regime used in licly denounced fraud in last December to sentence Nour year's voting, were stripped of to five years at hard labor. immunity and threatened with Among the 17 new "crimes" criminal charges. prosecutors raised during a Mubarak has meanwhile six-hour session Monday was relentlessly pursued his perseNour's financing of a statue of cution of Nour, who received a famous Egyptian composer, 8 percent of the vote in the which his accusers labeled an presidential election and insult to Islam. Nour's wife, is the greatest secular rival journalist Gameela Ismail, of Gamal Mubarak, who is was also summoned by pros- being groomed to succeed ecutors: Incredibly, she was his father. Lawyers for Nour accused of assaulting some of have appealed nis December the security thugs sent to dis- conviction to Egypt's highest rupt demonstrations by Nour's court, which in previous politsupporters. ical cases has overruled the A year ago, under pressure security court judges who act from the Bush administration, at Mubarak's bidding. There Mubarak announced that he are plenty of grounds for a would allow opposition can- ruling in the democrats' favor: didates to challenge him for Among many other things, the re-election, and he released trial judge ignored the fact Nour, the 41-year-old founder that one of Nour's principal of the Tomorrow Party, from accusers recanted in court, prison to run against him. Now, testifying that he had been sensing that Bush's democracy pressured into lying by the agenda is flagging, Mubarak secret police. The supreme Nat'l court ruling is expected witf in the next couple of weelc;1 thus the sudden appearancje of a raft of new charges th. could allow Mubarak to kee? his adversary in prison even fi his conviction is overturned. What's striking about th single-minded campaign that Mubarak presses it eveh though the Bush admimsta tion has made clear that it wi damage U.S.-Egyptian relz tions. Nour's imprisonmer t already prompted the susper sion of free-trade negotiation Evidently the 77-year-olp Mubarak believes the elim nation of a moderate and projWestern challenger to his son is more important than good relations with an American president in his second term. He also calculates that Bush s support for Nour and democracy in Egypt isn't shared by Congress, which soon wi I consider whether to continue $1.8 billion in annual aid to Egypt. Congress should prove him wrong. Rather than contiming to subsidize Mubarak s corrupt regime, legislators should insist that any U.S. aid be channeled to civ I society groups and democra ic reformers such as Nou\ America's support should go to those in the Middle East who are fighting for the cause of liberal democracy and ncjt to autocrats who blatantly persecute them. This editorial appeared fp Saturday's Washington Pos IRAQ From page 13 Iraq anymore - especially after the hor- descended to a Bosnia-like level of rific sectarian violence that swept the "total ethnic conflagration." But, he country following the Feb. 22 bombing says, the reciprocal violence between of a Shiite shrine in Samarra. Sunni and Shiite, the intractable struggle Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at the over political power and the growth of Hoover Institution and former adviser private militias leave the U.S. and Iraq to the U.S.-led occupying authority in "staring at the prospect of something Iraq, concisely expressed the evolving substantially worse" than the "gradual, view when he wrote in the latest issue creeping" civil strife that has bloodof the New Republic: "Iraq is in the ied the country over the last,two-plus, years. midst of a civil war." If Iraq is morphWhether or not ing from a struggle .,.,. . _.._....,._ t,r, we label it civil against insurgents war, no one dis"As Iraq pulls apart, its need into something putes that the more like a civil tension between grows for American troops to war between Sunnis Sunnis and and Shiites, Bush's Shiites jostling for serve as buffers and brokers." responses to Vargas power or settling raise more questions old scores has than they answer. become a central What does "chascomponent of the ing down terrorists" challenge in Iraq. mean when neighIn this environbors are killing neighment, fundamental bors? And does training the Iraqi forces assumptions about the war from left and to "stand up" point toward greater right in the U.S. are becoming obsolete. stability, or greater friction, when many The growing role of sectarian animosSunnis see the military as the weapon of ity in fueling Iraq's violence threatens the Shiites? Bush's calculation that strengthening Bush isn't alone in dodging those the Iraqi defense capability is the key deeper questions. Few leaders in either to restoring order and bringing home U.S. party have said much about how American troops. growing civil strife in Iraq might change That might work if the Iraqi army and the calculus there for America. But police are seen as a neutral, nationthe shift in the Iraq conflict is likely al force committed to protecting all to scramble the U.S. debate in ways of their countrymen. But, as defense unpleasant for each side.. expert Stephen Biddle of the Council on As Diamond notes, Iraq hasn't Foreign Relations recently noted, since most Sunnis view the American-trained forces "as a Shiite-Kurd militia on steroids, what we end up doing is making (the Sunnis) even more frightened for their security in a future Iraq, whicfi makes them prone to fight back harder rather than less so." At the same time, the war's changing nature undermines the argument from rnariy, Pp^the (left that the U.S. presence .is primarily fueling the violence:. That seems increasingly untenable it a point when U.S. troops look like th? only thing preventing Iraqis from tearing eacn other apart. In this murky and volatile period, the analysts who look most prescient are those, like Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich, who have insisted that the U.S. use ils leverage in Iraq to pressure all sides to reach political accommodation:.. U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad has grown more forthright in sending tfoit message too. Bush now faces a paradox. As Iraq pulls apart, its need grows for American troops to serve as buffers and broker;,. But as the sectarian violence rises, so will the pressure inside the U.S. to withdraw. However reluctantly, most Americans have not yet entirely abar doned the hope of building the Ara? world's first functioning democracy. Bit they will probably show much less patience for watching American soldiers die in the next Lebanon. Ronald Brownstein is a nationalpotit cat correspondent for tH Los Angeles T Bush caught on tape before Katrina On the day before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, federal emergency officials warned President Bush that the hurricane could be "the big one," the storm the region had long feared; that the Superdome, the shelter of last resort in New Orleans, was below sea level and might well lose its roof; that medical and mortuary teams might not be prepared; and that the levees might not nold back the floodwaters. Bush, speaking during a videoconference, a tape of which was obtained by the Associated Press, responded by reassuring state officials that " w e are fully prepared." Without a doubt, the tape provides evidence that the White House received ample warning of the catastrophe. Yet within days of that videoconference, Bush would excuse the federal government's extraordinarily poor performance by telling an interviewer that " I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." Moreover, at the time of the conference the White House had no idea whether federal emergency services were _ truly prepared. On the tape, the president doesn't ask any questions about preparedness, and there is no evidence in documents since released that he was any more engaged before or after the conference. Had anyone called the Defense Department? Was the National Guard en route? Were local Army bases prepared to help? Were emergency food and water supplies in place? The president, like everyone around him, appears to have assumed that everything would run like clockwork, just as it was supposed to on paper. Before Louisiana state and city officials get too excited about this video, it's worth noting that similar criticisms could be lodged against them. Another tape recently released to the AP reveals that Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, D, Nat'l View reassured the president that the levees had held - three hours after they had broken. New Orleans officials also understoop in advance of Katrina the scale of th|e potential catastrophe - they had carried out simulations of a levee breach - but were unable to cope. Even some specific consequences of the hurricane, such as the failure of low-income people to leav? the city, had been predicted. Yet little was done to accommodate them, either. The tape adds to a growing body of evidence that the disaster was a failure of execution, not prediction. That indicates to us that federal and local government employees must spend more time carrying out practice exercises and involve more people in disaster planning. It also should tell the nation something about the value of leadership. The Gulf Coast might have suffered less had the president just asked a few people the right que< tions. 777/s editorial appeared /}? Saturday's Washington Pos Just a reminder The Statesman will not be printed during Spring Break, March 13-17. The first paper back will be Monday, March 20. Questions about letters to the editor or placing a class ad? Come see us in TSC Room 105. |