[Peace-discuss] Letter in Daily Illini

[David Green]

After 4 submissions in this effort, the DI finally
printed my most recent letter this morning. I am also
including David Johnson’s column from yesterday. If
this is not racism, I don’t know what is. Sadly, this
is what implicitly passes for a representation of
Jewish student opinion.


By The Daily Illini
Published: Tuesday, October 26, 2004 

The DI recently published columns by David Johnson
(Oct. 4) and Elie Dvorin (Oct. 7) repeating Israel's
fabricated and scurrilous claim that a U.N. ambulance
was filmed loading a Hamas rocket. This charge was
disproved by U.N. Representative Peter Hansen: "On
neither count does the object shown in the film
correspond to this description: it is much thinner,
longer and obviously much lighter than a rocket ... it
is clearly a folded stretcher, a logical and
indispensable accessory in any ambulance."

This claim was later abandoned by Israel. No
retraction has been forthcoming from either columnist
or the DI. This is journalistic negligence.

These events highlight the insidious dissemination of
Zionist propaganda by IlliniPAC (AIPAC) - of which
David Johnson is an active member - and far-right Web
sites like frontpagemag.com. Such charges attempt to
distract attention from Israel's recent rampage in
Gaza, in which the murders of two Israeli children
were used to justify murdering more than 100
Palestinians, including at least 40 civilians and many
children - including at least one in while she sat in
a classroom.

Below is a small portion of a broader and more
informative perspective offered by Derek Summerfield,
an honorary senior lecturer at the Institute of
Psychiatry in London (http://
bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/329/7471):

"In conducting 238 extrajudicial executions (since
September 2000) the (Israeli) army has also killed 186
bystanders (including 26 women and 39 children).
Two-thirds of the 621 children (two-thirds under 15
years) killed at checkpoints, in the street, on the
way to school, in their homes, died from small arms
fire, directed in over half of cases to the head, neck
and chest - the sniper's wound. Clearly, soldiers are
routinely authorized to shoot to kill children in
situations of minimal or no threat. These statistics
attract far less publicity than suicide bombings,
atrocious though these are too."

David Green

University employee

The Daily Illini - Opinions 
Issue: 10/25/04 
 

Opinion: Treat the cause, not the symptoms
By David Johnson 

A historical anomaly, the only technical mastery
displayed by the enemy in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks
was the ability to hijack and fly jumbo jets into
skyscrapers - neither of which they were capable of
designing or constructing themselves. Shortly after
9-11, there was the realization that somehow, global
issues such as terrorism and Saddam Hussein's rogue
Iraq were connected. With a week left before our
presidential election, this idea is all but forgotten.

We've gone back to thinking about these issues in
obsolete terms - that is, assuming that our
adversaries are guided by the same rules of engagement
we are. However, if our opponents followed the rules,
al-Qaida would not exist and Saddam's Iraq wouldn't
have become a crisis.

One thing that both Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden
had in common was that they became wealthy through
unearned oil wealth. Much like a spoiled child who is
unable to understand that wealth is created by
creativity and hard work, the tyrants of the Middle
East - and many of its inhabitants - live in a fantasy
world filled with unearned material goods. 

The problem originates from the West, which gave the
Arab world fabulous sums for resources that could have
been taken at will. This has led to the irrational
self-contradictions of people like bin Laden and
Hussein, who have vowed to destroy the source of their
existence - Western liberalism. The threats we face
from much of the Islamic world stem directly from the
fact that for almost 50 years, they have lived
detached from reality. Because the dilemma was created
by Western shortsightedness, it is the West's
responsibility to intervene and fix the problem. 

When critics like Sen. John Kerry complain that U.S.
intervention overseas has transformed more foreigners
into disgruntled anti-American terrorists, they aren't
considering that it is impossible to rationally
explain terrorism or international aggression. Our
enemies wrongly believe these actions are winning
moves, and that's the key problem.

To protect our country, we must convince our enemies
that attacking or threatening the United States will
not further their causes. If we achieve this goal,
then it's irrelevant if some people still despise the
United States. We shouldn't be overly concerned about
what people think of us; after all, what does it say
about me if Mohammed Atta or Jacques Chirac thinks I'm
a swell guy?

How, then, should we apply these ideas to our upcoming
presidential election? Have President Bush's actions
dissuaded our foes from applying dead-end strategies
like terrorism? 

Without a doubt, the removal of the Taliban from
Afghanistan and the subsequent marginalization of
Osama bin Laden were successes. What the United States
faced in Iraq was the unacceptable possibility of
Middle Eastern delusions combined with the brutal
reality of weapons of mass destruction - a threat that
had to be pre-empted. It is debatable, however,
whether our actions in Iraq helped or worsened the
situation.

While Saddam should face justice for his crimes, is it
wise to spend billions of taxpayer dollars to build
infrastructure in a nation that glances angrily at its
watch while standing idly by to receive democracy? Is
it effective to name our conflict the "War on
Terrorism," when we're not launching all-out
offensives (nor should we) against groups like the
IRA?

Based on the premise that success in this war is
measured by whether we convince terrorists of the
futility of their efforts, the impending choice for
president isn't clear. While President Bush might talk
a tough game, post-war Iraq leaves many troubling
questions. Kerry justifiably criticizes Bush, but are
his ideas any better?

As we consider the next four years, it is important to
remember that the threats of Saddam Hussein and
al-Qaida were linked to the same root cause.
Protecting the United States should focus on
eliminating the disease at its source, not merely
treating its symptoms.

David Johnson is a senior in business. His column runs
alternate Mondays. He can be reached at
opinions at dailyillini.com.



		
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