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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