Bombing Hussein was a good way to keep things in check, again

Thanks for coming out, Saddam Hussein.

More than 10 years ago, George Bush Sr. had to go into your backyard with Colin Powell in hand and teach you a little lesson about what is right and wrong. Now, it appears as if that same lesson is going to need to be dropped into your lap once again.

This time the bombing is courtesy of Powell with George W. Bush calling the shots. This time the lesson needs to be carried out a little further.

Hussein has allied himself with the Palestinians. America is a strong ally of the Israelis. This could be a crucial alliance to end hundreds of years of turmoil in the Middle East.

If Hussein and the Palestinians were to take over Israel, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait would be the next two victims. Then Hussein would own the entire Middle East and have the first actual stronghold in that area for the first time in a 1,000 years. And if that happens, Hussein would be quicker to get a greater gallery of friends around the world. From a press conference in Mexico, President Bush said that the mission was routine and done to protect the no-fly zone.

Bombings have been taking place ever since the Persian Gulf War ended. The successor to Hussein has been linked to a strong rebel alliance in Syria. The only reason that Hussein has been kept in power is because of fears of what could happen. The countries of the Middle East aren’t going to stop fighting over their religious differences. It’s a war that will never end, unless outside intervention is used or one group gets a slight upper hand, like an alliance with a neighboring country.

But this isn’t the only reason for the bombing. It’s good to keep Hussein in check every now and then. With Fidel Castro nearing his 150th dictatorial

anniversary and the superpower & formerly know as the USSR & now extinct, America needs someone to be at odds with. Sure, we could waste our time pretending to declare a war on drugs or reform public schools, but it’s more fun to try to take out a foreign country. Nobody gets pumped about reforming the school districts, but a good fight goes a long way. It may have even been a prelude to what we were going to see when Outkast released “Bombs over Baghdad” on its latest album. There is nothing like driving home listening to that song and then hearing that the bombs were actually dropped. It’s quality entertainment.

It sets the mood. Instead of playing the “Star Spangled Banner” or singing “America, the Beautiful,” have Outkast stand outside the Kuwaiti desert and sing to ready the troops. They’re probably going to need some motivation when you consider they are risking their lives in a strange place to save everyone three or four cents on gas.

Bush and Powell said that they were going to put a strong emphasis on our military. They did. In times where politicians are looked at as liars and cheaters, bombing the Iraqis was the best thing that he could have done. He delivered the knockout punch and started what will be four years of a strong American

government. Powell led us to victory there in 1990 and he is going to do it again in 2001.

But for everything Bush and Powell can think of, Christianity comes first. The original war was started there because of religious differences. People take

religion more serious than life, and fighting against those beliefs is near-impossible. Wanting to protect something that you believe in is good. Fighting for what someone else’s beliefs doesn’t always work quite as well.

The Bible eludes to a tyrant leader coming out of the Middle East, said to make a run at taking over the world and having a massive following & something that may make people a little more wary of what Hussein is capable of doing. Reality might say that someone who has so much trouble taking over Kuwait probably isn’t destined for world greatness, but the threat is still there.

So, all we can do now is sit back, pop in a little “Bombs over Baghdad” and let the fun begin.

NO

Bombing activity is illegal and ridiculous, not to mention unethical

By Tyler Vincent

City Editor

Dubya began following in his father’s footsteps Friday by unleashing the 13th air attack on military targets in Iraq since the end of the Persian Gulf War in 1991, despite little support from the United Nations or anyone else in the process.

The attack is part of a growing, bizarre, and ultimately illegal list of activities that suggest the U.S. policy makers are continuing the Gulf War.

The official explanation of the attack was that it was devised to knock off targets that the U.S. claimed were a threat to air patrols. The zone was established by Allied Forces after the Gulf War. The zone was established between the 33rd parallel line to the south and the 36 parallel line to the north as a safe haven for the Kurdish people who have been targets of Hussein’s wrath before.

We have routinely bombed Iraq and sent inspectors into the country to make sure that he is not building “weapons of mass destruction.” Dubya even warned Hussein that he would be keeping an eye on him.

Yes, Bush, whose major campaign issue was rebuilding the American military, is keeping a watchful eye on Hussein in order to prevent him from rebuilding his military. It reaches the level of presidential humor that has not been experienced since Ronald Reagan referred to the Soviet Union as an “evil empire” when evidence showed the horrid conditions of citizen life and the vast inferiority of their military to ours.

Assuming you were a dictator of a third world country, are you crazy enough to even think about picking a fight with the superpower of the world? Saddam Hussein is no more a threat to this country than the fly in front of your face poses a threat to the rest of your body.

Look at the Persian Gulf War, where we bravely and valiantly manhandled Hussein’s “legitimately threatening army” in less than six weeks (Five of those weeks were spent engaging in routine air bombings. Once we unleashed our ground attack, the war was over in less than 72 hours).

And while you’re at it, note the Center for Defense Information’s 1999 budget table on comparative military spending. According to CDI, the United States spends $288.8 billion dollars per year on the military. By comparison, the seven nations that America identifies as “states of concern,” including Iraq, Russia and China, spends a combined total of $106 billion a year on theirs.

“No other country is in the same league as the United States in military spending,” CDI said in a statement included with the table. “Global military spending has declined from $1.2 trillion in 1985 to $785 billion in 1998. Meanwhile, the U.S. share of total military spending rose from 30 percent to 36 percent in Fiscal Year 1999.”

In other words, we are No. 1. This is not blind optimism nor an overly-patriotic sentiment & it is the truth. No country poses a legitimate threat to us. They do not have the resources we do. They do not have the equipment we have.

What is even more frightening is the statement that the new administration sent to the world with this bombing. It rings loud and clear that the Bush administration will take military action against any country that it deems fit to attack with or without the support of the UN or the methods for military action prescribed in the constitution.

The mere existence of the no-fly zone, which was not approved by the UN, is a direct violation of international law. No country can waltz into another country, carve out a chunk of its land and say that no one can fly there. How would Bush like it if Hussein carved out the Midwest and said that no one can fly here?

The Iraqi bombing is also a violation of Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution which gives Congress the sole authority to declare war. And lest we be reminded, bombing another country is an act of war.

Not that that’s even stopped the executive branch from engaging in such imperialism before.