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Letters to the Editor
We are not world’s Mommy
I would just like to say that Scott Bushee's column (“The Bushee Doctrine,” Nov. 11) was awesome and right on the mark. The U. S. is not the world’s mother. It is not our job to fix all of the world’s problems and send all of our hard earned money over to people who despise us.
Also, I have a comment for Ms. Culp (“Students Must Fight Ignorance,” Nov. 11), who thinks that President Bush is God. He did handle the 9/11 thing pretty well, but now he wants to blow Iraq to hell without the rest of the world backing him up. If he wants to blow Saddam Hussein into tiny bits and pieces and the rest of the country and NATO backs him then fine, but if he tries to do it by himself, we could have Vietnam #2 on our hands. He has gotten too cocky and self assured. He thinks that because the U.S. has the best military in the world that we can do anything we want. We do have an awesome military, but we need allies to support us when things go wrong. If we don’t have that, we are in trouble. He was in the National Guard for christ sakes, he doesn't even know what combat is like, yet he wants to send thousands to possibly die in a far off country without any support to finish what his daddy started. Not smart.
Sandra Johnson
Graduate Student, Criminal Justice
Change to “Fighting Ferrets?”
So, protesters, you don’t like UND’s name and logo? Would you rather UND use a non-descript head and the name UND Fighting Folks? Fighting Humans? Fighting Homo Sapiens?
Or maybe they should change their name ... you know, to something more homogenized. How about the North Dakota Fighting Ferrets. No wait! The North Dakota Fighting Felines! Let's fire up the brain cells, folks! Help me figure out other names UND could use to replace their heritage name of the Fighting ... whoops! Almost forgot! SCSU won’t let me use that name!
Scott Bryant
Graduate, Class 2001
War arguments found wanting
Reading Miss Culp’s letter (“Students Must Fight Ignorance,” Nov. 11), I could not help but notice glaring half-truths and misconceptions.
First, trying to claim that our planned invasion of Iraq has anything to do with Sept. 11 is in itself ignorant and playing on people’s fears. After over a year of searching, the CIA has found no evidence that Saddam knew anything about Sept. 11. None of the hijackers were even Iraqis, but in fact almost all of Saudi nationality.
You say he has nuclear weapons capabilities, but the final report from the UN weapons inspectors that left in 1998 concluded that Saddam was nowhere near being able to field even a small nuclear weapon due to the sanctions. Secondly, how exactly is he going to get his biological and chemical weapons to the U.S.? He has no long-range missiles; his Scuds can only travel a few hundred miles with poor accuracy. Saddam had chem/bio weapons in the Gulf War, but didn't use them. Why, if he is such a bloodthirsty maniac, didn't he gas our troops or give weapons to Al Qaeda? The answer is that he may be a homicidal, power-hungry warlord, but he is not insane. He knows that to terrorize or assist in terrorism against the U.S. in any way would be to sign his own death warrant.
The underlying principle here isn't about oil, so we do agree there. It’s about the fact that, 14 months after Sept. 11, we still haven’t been able to bring bin Laden to justice or Al Qaeda to their knees. However, the citizens demand results, and bombing Iraq as an imaginary show of fighting terrorism is easier than digging out true terrorist groups (and gets higher ratings on CNN). This war is playing on the ignorance of the American people who are so poorly educated about foreign nations that they cannot distinguish between Iraq and Al Qaeda, between Saddam and bin Laden. War with Iraq may very well give Al Qaeda, our true enemies, more support in the Arab world, making them all the more dangerous. I imagine bin Laden is delighted by this.
Nicholas Blonigen
Senior, Biotechnology Major
Marchers spread folly
This letter is in response to the “Marchers Spread Peaceful Message” article in the Nov. 11 Chronicle. I am personally ashamed that we have professors here that don't know the difference between war and genocide. Tamrat Tedeme obviously doesn’t. His “War is Genocide” quote baffles me. Does he really think that the Holocaust — and our involvement in WWII to stop an oppressive, fascist, racist, and powerful Hitler from conquering Europe — are the same thing?
It is kind of ironic how less than five years ago we helped remove Slobodan Milosevic, who was practicing genocide in Kosovo. The bottom line is war is necessary and how things get done in some cases, it is sad but true. America doesn't go around bullying other countries. We go to war to protect our freedoms here at home and to defend countries who cannot defend themselves.
Saddam Hussein is trying to acquire nuclear weapons. Why else would he repeatedly kick out weapons inspectors? If he does get nukes, he will give them to our enemies to use on us. Stopping Saddam from achieving this is necessary for every American, even those who rally against it.
Noah Tobin
Sophomore, Economics
Natives favor nicknames
“Asked if high school and college teams should stop using Indian nicknames, 81 percent of Native American respondents said ‘no.’”
That's not my opinion. That's the scientific polling data from Peter Harris Research Group as reported in Sports Illustrated magazine, March 4, 2002, page 69.
How did they come up with that result?
From the above reference: Harris Research surveyed 351 Native Americans (217 living on reservations, 134 living off) ... their responses were weighted according to U.S. Census figures for age, race and gender, and for distribution of Native Americans on and off reservations. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percent.
I’ll side with the campus that truly allows free expression and that does not censor its own campus media from certain words and images.
I’ll side with the four-to-one majority of American Indians who say UND should not change its moniker and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Glenn Mitzel
UND 1990
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