Student group questions foreign policy
■The MIC Working Group will
discuss government decisions
and military relations
By Emily Gust
Oregon Daily Emerald
Congress’ approval ofa$1.3 billion
aid package to Colombia earlier this
year caught the attention of senior
journalism major Seth Quackenbush.
Supposedly meant to “fight the
war on drugs,” the package delegat
ed funds for several different pur
poses, including human rights
work. The biggest chunk of the $1.3
billion went to the Colombian mili
tary for the destruction of drugs.
But Quackenbush sensed some
inconsistencies in the government’s
action and its decision to give so
much money to the military.
r
“What the government was say
ing didn’t seem to explain what was
going on,” he said.
For instance, a bill that would have
moved nearly a quarter of a million
dollars from die Colombian aid pack
age into rehabilitation efforts in the
U.S. was defeated in Congress.
A study commissioned by the
Clinton administration in 1995
found that rehabilitation was the
most effective of four ways to com
bat the domestic drug problem. In
contrast, source-crop eradication —
destroying the drugs where they are
grown, as in the case of Colombia—
was found to be least effective.
In search of an explanation,
Quackenbush joined forces with
University alumna and Survival
Center volunteer Agatha
Schmaedick to create the Military
Industrial Complex (MIC) Working
Group—a forum for students to dis
cuss U.S. foreign policy and mili
tary involvement.
The idea of a military industrial
complex has existed for years. For
mer President Dwight Eisenhower
warned against its influence in his
farewell speech of 1961, and politi
cal critic Noam Chomsky has talked
about it as well.
As Quackenbush described it, the
military industrial complex is a “web
of relationships” that have developed
out of the mutual interests of the mili
taries and industries around the
world, especially in the United States.
“A lot of private industries have
profited enormously through making
weaponry for the U.S. military and so
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they have a tremendous interest in
keeping it pumped up even if it’s un
necessary,” Quackenbush said. “The
reason we’re producing weapons is
no longer for national defense. It’s to
keep the money flowing. ”
Schmaedick extends the definition
to cover more than just the military
weapons industry; she said that key
industries such as oil, apparel and
cash crops are also connected with op
pressive militaries around the world.
Military Industrial
Complex Working
Group
What: A new student group
stemmingfrom the ASUO Survival
Center. It is a forum where students
ran talk about US. foreign policy
and military involvement while
exploring the connections between
world industries and military
powers.
When: Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Ben Under Room, EMU
“Maintaining this mutually self
serving relationship is more impor
tant than respecting the rule of law
and governments of the world,”
Schmaedick said.
The group’s focus will be on edu
cating themselves, Schmaedick
said. That does not mean, however,
that it will avoid activity altogether.
A plan is in the works to send six
students to Georgia in November for
the School of Americas (SOA)
protests. SOA is a military training
school that has been connected with
human rights violators worldwide.
On Oct. 27, the group is sponsor
ing a speech by an East Timorese
woman named Ajiza Magno, who is
studying economics at the Univer
sity. The speech, which
Schmaedick said will cover military
violence and labor standards in East
Timor, will take place at 7 p.m. in
Room 100, Willamette Hall.
Schmaedick’s personal focus is
East Timor, an issue she has been
working on since she was 13 years
old, but she emphasized that she
wants the group to come up with top
ics that the members are interested in.
University alumni Takeshi Sen
giku, a former co-director of the
Colombia Support Network in Eu
gene, said that his interest in the MIC
stems from wanting to know more
about U.S. foreign policy while also
finding out which companies dictate
what happens in other nations.
“One of the things that somehow
fascinates me is the structure of the
U.S foreign policy, its military aids
and the relationship among all na
tion states in the international are
na. [It is all] so far away from us [as]
individuals,” he said.
Debate
continued from page 1
About 25 students and commu
nity members from organizations
including the College Republicans,
OSPIRG, Black Student Union and
Coalition Against Environmental
Racism (CARE) gathered together
in the EMU basement to observe
the debate and discuss their differ
ing views on the issues the candi
dates spoke about.
Many members from different
political parties believed that Gore
made the strongest overall impres
sion this round, in contrast to the
two previous debates.
Ben Zublin, sophomore geology
major and Democrat, said Gore’s
confidence won him the debate
and Bush’s answers weren’t sub
stantial enough to hide his uneasi
ness about many of the issues.
“Bush was stumbling many
times and had a hard time con
structing answers,” he said. “Gore
did a good job connecting with the
people emotionally, particularly on
issues such as education. Bush was
good at handing out trite general
izations and platitudes, but there
wasn’t a lot of substance in what he
was saying.”
Casey Singleton, co-chair of the
College Republicans, said that Bush
was less confident in this debate
because the issues discussed
weren’t his strongest areas.
“This was Bush’s weakest per
formance, even though he won the
others hands down,” he said. “He
still drove home the points he
needed to — for example, his belief
in giving money back to the people
... But in general Gore has more ex
perience in this forum.”
Michelle Averbeck, a freshman
journalism major working on the
Nader campaign, also said that
Bush’s lack of knowledge about
specific issues was one of the rea
sons he lost the debate.
“Bush ducked the issue of affir
mative action,” she said. “I believe
that’s because he doesn’t even
know what the definition of affir
mative action is ... He isn’t in
formed enough to be the president
and that showed.”
But Averbeck also believed that
though Gore appeared cool and col
lected, some of his answers were
insincere, and this was a turnoff to
her. She mentioned that Gore used
his background of growing up on a
tobacco farm to promote himself as
an American farmer but later said
tobacco companies should be regu
lated.
“Gore tried to emphasize that he
keeps his words and promises,” she
said. “But the fact is that he has a
history of fraud and denial. He
changes his platforms to suit his
cause and then denies that he ever
felt differently.”
Lynn Teresa Williams, volunteer
for CARE and environmental stud
ies major at Lane Community Col
lege, was impressed by Gore’s abil
ity to answer questions in a
straightforward manner as op
posed to Bush’s “roundabout” re
sponses.
“I wish Bush would be more up
front about issues such as affirma
tive action and tax cuts,” she said.
“When he’s not, it tells me that he’s
not telling me the truth about what
he’s going to do. I’m single, and
from Gore’s answers about tax cuts,
I felt like I would actually get some
help.”
Nader
continued from page 1
Nader, the Green Party candidate
for president, said excluding him
again would put the bipartisan com
mission “in hot water again.”
He was denied access to the Oct. 3
event in Boston even though he had
been given a ticket by a local college
student.
It was that event that prompted
the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in
Boston against the Commission on
Presidential Debates, the commis
sion’s two co-chairmen, a commis
sion “security consultant” and a
state police sergeant.
Nader called the lawsuit the first
step in dismantling the commis
sion.
“By the time I’m finished with the
debate commission, its ranking in
political opinion polls will be be
low the ranking of used car dealers,”
Nader said.