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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 8, 2001)
Newsroom: (541) 346-5511 Room 300, Erb Memorial Union RO. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403 E-mail: editor@dailyemerald.com Online Edition: www. dailyemerald. com Editor in Chief: Jessica Blanchard Managing Editor: Michael J. Kleckner Editorial Editor: Julie Lauderbaugh Assistant Editorial Editor: Jacquelyn Lewis Editorial Columbus Day needs to serve as a reminder In 1492, Co1 muDus sailed the ocean blue, rammed right into the Ameri cas and is now best known for his infamous imperialization of Native American land. Christopher Columbus may be immortalized for his explo ration of the New World with a national holiday, but the massive deaths and concurrent destruction of native cul tures has marred his historical image. And the meaning of the holiday com memorating the man has become as convoluted as the history lessons Americans have been teaching their children about the explorer. Originally, Columbus Day was a holi day for Italian-Americans to honor the great Italian explorer who opened the door to the New World with his expedi tion. History textbooks have been writ ten about Columbus in a favorable light, focusing on the voyage of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria in the toil some journey across the Atlantic. Infor j mation about the atrocious treatment of natives once they reached land is wide j ly unknown and therefore ignored. At the time, Columbus didn’t know that what he was doing was wrong, j Explorers from a bevy of European countries were sailing the globe in search of new land and the notion of taming “savages” outside of European borders was widely accepted. Imperi alization was an attractive prospect for leaders looking to expand the reach of their empire and, after all, everybody else was torturing and killing “savages,” too. Instead of doing away with Colum bus Day altogether, as some critics sug gest, perhaps as a society we should use the holiday as a reminder of how far we’ve come as humanitarians. The quest for imperialization has now transcended into a vision of glob alization, although people argue about which is worse. As a modern society, we’ve changed the way we “civilize” foreign cultures, and we now seek to understand them. In hindsight, Manifest Destiny was not the ideal it was created to be. The celebration of Columbus Day should be focused on our commonal ties as a global community. We should acknowledge Columbus’ efforts — both noteworthy and unfortunate — because everyone needs to be taught the truth about our country’s origin, no matter how difficult the conversation may be. This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald editorial board. Responses can be sent to letters@dailyemerald.com. How do you feel about the military action? The Emerald encourages all voices to express their concerns about this sensitive topic and Its implications indie future. All tetters are limited to 250 words and guest commentaries are limited to 550 words. Letters arid commentaries can be sent to ietters@dailyemerakt.com. Seeking out the head of the snake All I fear we have done is awaken a sleeping giant, and fill him with a terrible resolve. ” — Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto, Imperial Japanese Navy Commander-in-Chief, on the occasion of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 8 (Tokyo time), 1941 We had always assumed that World War III would open — and close—with a mutu ally destructive volley of nuclear warheads. Instead, we may have seen World War III be gin with something as innocuous, we be lieved, as aircraft. On Sept. 11, as everyone now knows, four planes were hi jacked simultaneous ly from East Coast air ports. Two of these planes were piloted deliberately into the side of the towers of the World Trade Cen _ter. Once the trade marks of the New York skyline, the towers were gone in the blink of an eye. A third plane, apparently meant to hit Air Force One or the White House, in stead crashed into the Pentagon. A fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania instead of whatever target it was intended for, thanks to passengers who used the last moments of their lives to retake the plane. Columnist The war began Sunday with an odd open ing volley: As we are conducting strikes to try to halt the Taliban’s air power, we will soon be sending billions in food and medical aid to the Afghan people themselves. In the same vein that World War III opened unconventionally, it will most likely be fought unconventionally. We had promised retaliation if the country of Afghanistan did not turn over Osama bin Laden, the Saudi exile millionaire thought responsible for the attacks. The Taliban leadership has thus braced for invasion. They’re gonna wait a while. This will not be a “go in, fight our way to the Rhine and spank Hitler” style of opera tion. If anything, it will probably resemble the exploits of Merrills’ Marauders in the Pa cific, or the British Long-Range Desert Group and the Special Air Service (still in existence today) against the Afrika Korps. Both were small groups of commandos who fought a guerilla war, equipped, armed and trained for long stretches in territory that is hostile in every sense of the word. There will most likely not be an in vasion of Afghanistan in the same way we attacked Iraq during the Gulf War. History is against that course of ac tion. The main body of Afghanistan is mountainous, es pecially in the eastern districts, in cluding the capital of Kabul. This is territory that—while inhos pitable —the natives know like the back of their hands. The Afghans put this knowl edge to good use during the pro longed Soviet invasion of 1979 1988. The Soviets were eaten alive by the Mujahideen soldiers who were, ironically, armed by the United States. Those soldiers now form the core of the army of the Taliban, Afghanistan’s de facto leadership. So there will be no reinstatement of the draft. We won’t have troops marching tri umphantly down Kabul’s streets. This will be a weir unlike any other, and as secret a war as possible. We are looking at a war fought from both the air and the shadows, where public airstrikes to destroy the terror ists’ training and lo gistical capability will be merely a supplement to a war of assassination and sabotage. I have no illusions that we will “rid the world of evildoers,” as President Bush suggested. What we can hope to do instead is perhaps make these men, who are so willing to die for Allah or bin Laden or anyone else—as well as the men and governments who bankroll them— think twice before trying something else as audacious and outrageous as the attack on the World Trade Center. All I can say is this: Now that we have Peter Utsey Emerald gone in, we had better go straight for the head of the snake and cut it off entirely. Bin Laden now knows that we are coming after him. We had better take him out this time, because it’s almost certain he will try to deny us a second chance. Pat Payne is a columnist for the Oregon Daily Emerald. His views do not necessarily represent those of the Emerald. He can be reached at patpayne@dailyemerald.com. Poll Results: Last week’s poll question: Which academic department is most underfunded? Results: 68 total votes Art history ~ 10 3 percent, c>: /oteo pmpnaim iterators - > ,i f Education—19.1 percent, or 13 votes Geological studies— 11.8 percent, or 8 votes Marketing—2.9 percent, or 2 votes Mathematics—8.8 percent, or 6 votes Theater arts—13.2 percent, or 9 votes Don’t know—26.5 percent, or 18 votes Maybe the local media need to examine more departments in-depth to reveal the extent of underfunding. This week’s poll question: Which anniversary is the University celebrating this year? The choices: : toth I 125th 150th 200th Don't know Letters to the editor Drug war may have funded terrorism What do the United States government and the Taliban have in common? Unbridled fanaticism. When the U.S. government gave $43 million to the Taliban in exchange for the Taliban declaring opium poppy farms to be “against the will of God,” the U.S. sought to fuel its own fanatical obsession, the “War on Drugs.” Despite U.S. knowledge that the Taliban was an oppressive 'rogue regime' of religious fundamentalists with documented abus es of human rights, the U.S. government ignored the Taliban’s sys tematized cruelties in order to push its own domestic and dogmat ic anti-drug agenda. In the wake of the Sept. 11 calamities, it is grotesquely ironic that “we” gave millions in anti-drug aid to Afghanistan’s Taliban, the regime that, in addition to committing countless crimes against Afghani people, still harbors bin Laden and his network of sus pected terrorists. By militarizing the Taliban to punish Afghani farmers growing opium poppies — farmers desperate for a cash crop to feed their families in a country of destroyed agricultural in frastructure — the U.S. government may have indirectly subsi dized terrorism. It’s just one more example of the drug war caus ing more harm than good. Wrye Sententia associate director, Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics Davis, Calif
