VIEWPOINTS
EDITORIALS. OPINIONS LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Bosnian peace doomed
if war criminals go free
■ uun uriniun.
Diplomatic solutions will
tail if perpetrators of
genocide go unpunished
As approximately 20.000
U.S. troops prepare to leave
for Bosnia on an in-your
face, no-nonsense peace
enforc ement mission, specu
lation and the realities of
that war continue to under
mine President Clinton’s
peace ac cord for the region
Clinton and his military
advisors, learning from < ata
strophes such as the mistake
in Beirut that allowed a ter
rorist to kill approximately
250 U.S Marines, will soon
send a group of well-trained
and heavily armed Amen
can soldiers to the Balkans.
This time, our men and
women will ice armed with
permission to at tually use
their weapons i( and when
they are threatened
Still, sending our troops
now to join a NAT() fori a of
about 40.000 troops, is like
applying a band-aid to can
cer or installing smoke
detectors after a house has
burned to the ground.
Though it may prove to he
too little too late. the ll.S.
has finally committed to
doing something other than
just verbally condemning
the war in the former
Yugoslavia. Sending our
troops is a good idea for
many reasons.
However, there are a num
ber of complex problems
that stand In the way of a
lasting peat e in Bosnia
any one of which could
bring the entire process to a
grinding halt.
On Saturday, thousands
of Bosnian Sorbs protested
tin* peace accord in their
frontline section of Cuba vie a
in Herzegovina i ney are
concerned that the plan,
which will all but cut
Bosnia in half, could result
in massive retaliation from
the proposed Muslim Croat
federation scheduled to gov
ern their part of the city.
The Serbs should bo
afraid.
One of their own leaders.
Slobodan Milosevic, orches
trated the bloody war that
took the lives of 250,000 of
their former countrymen,
driving two million people
from their homes and creat
ing a sea of refugees
In fact, the International
War (.‘rimes Tribunal indie t
ed two of Milosevic 's i om
rados for (hr sn'ond tirnr on
charges of genocide and
crimes against humanity. It
is no small irony that Serb
leader Radovan Karadzic,
one of the accused, recently
asked that the U.S. and its
allies guarantee the safety of
the more than 100.000 Serbs
living in and around the
city
Now that he and his
henchmen have slaughtered
thousands of Muslims and
Croatians. ho wants protec -
lion so his people won't he
handed the same fate.
If Serbs like Karadzic and
(ion Ratko Mladic, the other
iwcr ac ( used leader, are
not brought to justice for
their crimes, Croatians and
Muslims will not be able to
move forward in forgiveness
and reconciliation, and the
accord will fail The war
will begin again as soon as
American troops leave after
their one-year stay.
With the help of a NATO
c oalition force bolstered by
a U.S. contingency, perhaps
their hate can be contained
so more people won't lose
their lives.
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Dear senator: Please keep my tax money
It u^nis «s if many more eyes than usual
have turned to politics these days With
Senator Pai kwood leaving office and the
federal government debilitated by internal
strife, there is cause once again to lose hope in
the American system.
I.u« kily for us. a group of “dogs" in the Capi
tol has not yet lost hope As the deficit contin
ues to rise, and the debt skyrockets beyond
iiuiunn conception, a group of House Democrats,
known as the “Blue Dogs" to their colleagues,
has been working on its plan to conquer the
hud net
"Many Blue Dogs were on it'
called Yellow Dog Democrats,
a Southern term for someone
who'll vote Democratic no mat
ter what even if the parly
candidate is a Yellow IK>g A
Blue Dog is a Yellow Dog
w ho's been choked so hard by
the Democratic leadership that
he or she has turned blue," R
A Zaldtvnr told tbe Oregonian
(11/24/95).
IrabcMf
Instead of further attacking the Republican
party, or tunung on its own party, this group
has left partisan politics aside it an effort to cre
ate a much-needed solution.
Congressional Budget Office, Robert Reis
chauar said, "If there's a desire to resolve this on
lioth sides, (the Blue lk>g plan! is an obvious
framework on which to build It's something
that would appeal to the broad center of the
American population."
For once, that broad center seems to include
college students as a group to lie protected.
Under this plan there would lie absolutely no
cuts in student aid Hint's right, none. The
group seems to realize that it has become virtu
ally impossible for most students to put them
selves through college without going into severe
debt
The idea borrows heavily from President Clin
ton's Welfare Reform plan, but Republican ideas
an* prominent as well. Both Medicaid and
Medicare would show increased savings, most
of which would not dirw tly affect the recipient
Most amazing however, is thut during the next
seven years, while these modifications are
occurring, more than $30 billion would be cut
from the national debt (Oregonian. 11/24/05).
While $30 billion is small potatoes when com
pared with the total debt, we must start some
where.
It sounds great But w here is all this money
suddenly appearing from? How tan the budget
be balanced with just a few hundred million
dollars in cuts and yet save $30 billion?" This is
where the plan gets sticky and loses a lot of sup
port .
More people would support the Blue Dog plan
66
/ am willing to pay for a .stable government, a
balanced budget anil taking a bile out of the
national debt.
-99
it it weren't tor the so-called 'out-ot-control"
cuts. These cuts don't target a specific group
Instead, they target taxpayers as a whole. Thus,
the taxpayers would not get the $245 billion tax
cut the Republicans want to give them.
Well, so what?
Survey after survey comes up with the star
tling new "fad" that Americans would rather
balance the budget (gasp) than take a tax cut
Yes, it's true As the American people finally
fight to have the government keep their money,
the government wants to give it back
I must have heard a 100 times "You get what
you pay for." And 1 am willing to pay for a sta
ble government, a balanced budget and taking a
bite out of the national debt
Hut it doesn't look ns if we will get the
chance to do that. We have been promised a tax
cut and that is what it looks like we will get —
like it or not.
Once I pay my taxes, that money is gone. Out
the window
I consider it money well-spent, and I don't
expect a refund because I worry about whore
that money would be coming from. Every year
that we don't pay off the debt it gets more out of
control Good news for Congress — they won't
lie around to worry about it Bad news for us —
we will lie
College students today are the ones who are
going to be paying and paying ... and paying.
We will pay with our financial aid now and
Medicare when we are older. Because we are the
ones going to be hurt, we need to stop the insan
ity before it steams us over. That's why I am
encouraging all students to fight against the stu
pidity of accumulated debt and ask, even plead
their representatives and senators to please keep
our money. Sooner or later, the money will have
to lh* paid. It might as well lie when there is a
solution at hand.
Kay Kirautscheid, a sophomore majoring in biol
ogy. is a columnist for the Emerald.
WHAT 00 YOU THINK?
The Oregon Daily Emerakt welcomes your opin
ions on this and other issues You may submit a
tetter no longer than 250 words to the Emerald
ottices at Suite 300 in the EMU or send us your
thoughts via email at ode#oregon uoregon.edu