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8The Daily Tar Heel Tuesday, April 15, 1986 cSffe 94th year of editorial freedom Lldl5u?D(o3Ds III I milium.... il iiiiiil niii riliri.iii r i i - - - -,t-m--,;.. ..v-v , l...-JMBUUaMnftiWmiimmmmMaMmmjmtU!4Mmigmmmmmmm Terrorists beware In its largest military action since the end of the Vietnam War, the United States launched a surgical air strike against Libya Monday night, justifiably destroying several targets that have been linked to the training and support of terrorists. The actions are justified because of Col. Moammar Khadafy s senseless meddlings throughout the Middle East, Europe and Africa. The Reagan admin istration has shown its decisiveness and strength in dealing with the Libyan leader, whom U.S. intelligence reports have conclusively connected to the bombing of a Beirut nightclub on April 5. The United States has tried other, less violent means of curbing Libyan invol vement in terrorism: economic sanc tions, diplomatic pressure and a display of military might in the Gulf of Sidra incident. None of these were successful; Khadafy and his cronies have even stepped up their assaults. Economic sanctions have not proven successful against Khadafy and Libya, largely because our European allies have not snared the U.S. perception. Most European countries have maintained strong economic ties to Libya. Pervasive tensions between the United States and Libya erupted in March, when U.S. naval operations near and in the Gulf of Sidra elicited Libyan , "defense" of what Khadafy claimed as Libya's. The United States proceeded to humiliate Khadafy by destroying or disabling some Libyan ships and shore installations. But Khadafy didn't take the hint and retaliated. The Beirut incident has clearly been linked to Libya. Radio Petty squabbling The recent shenanigans of petulant Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres unfortunately threaten the stability of the nation's shaky coalition government. If Israel is to successfully cope with its current financial problems, members of the government should cooperate, rather than bicker with each other. The collapse of the government seemed inevitable last week, after Labor Party leader Peres demanded the resig nation of Likud Finance Minister Yitzhak Modai. The two parties struck a deal Sunday night that calls for Modai to switch jobs with the justice minister. Originally, Peres had wanted to remove Modai entirely from the cabinet, but cooler heads prevailed in the end. Peres' desire to remove Modai as finance minister was not a result of poor performance on the Likud member's part Modai has been one of Israel's most successful finance ministers. By demanding the removal of Modai, Peres demonstrated his inability to place the needs of the country over his own political future. Last week, Modai publicly criticized Peres, charging (among other things) that the prime minister was incompetent in economic affairs. Peres responded to this criticism by asking Modai to resign, claiming that the credibility of the Technology gives And now, from the uplifting world of elevators, come reports on trends that will make all you Hamilton haunters cringe. Elevators are increasingly becoming more than just a functional part of a building. The aesthetics of elevators are receiving much more attention from architects and engineers. Such valuable materials as onyx (no one should be without their onyx), rosewood, bronze and marble are rising above the drab plastic and metal of the 1960s and 70s. Along with this elevated status, elevators are getting smarter. Microprocessors now make up to five decisions a second about an elevator cab's activity. This is a scientific way of saying: Attention, smart-alecks you can no longer go on an elevator and push all the buttons to your heart's content. This bodes ill for the insipid morons -beg pardon, misguided individuals - who plague elevator riders at various UNC buildings. Perhaps the biggest victim of these degenerate half-wits er. wrong-minded JlMZOOK, Editor... Randy Farmer, Matunmn Editor STUART TONKINSON, Associate Editor GRANT PARSONS, University Editor Bryan Gates, Neus Editor KERST1N COYLE, City Editor JlLL GERBER. Stoic and National Editor . Scott Fowler, sports Editor DEN1SE SMITHERMAN. Features Editor ROBERT KEEFE. Business Editor Elizabeth Ellen, a ns Editor DAN CHARLSON, Photography Editor traffic in Germany associated Libya to the attack even before it occurred. The United States obtained information that an attack was imminent for some location in Berlin, but, was unable to determine the location until too late. Despite public warning that the United States would not tolerate any violent acts against its citizens, Khadafy ordered further insane terrorist attacks. He apparently counted on the United States' passivity and generally handi capped state in battling terrorism. In the words of President Reagan, "He counted wrong." Reagan also said that the United States will be prepared to attack again, if necessary. This is a clear warning to Khadafy that he should take his pun ishment and quit the terrorist game. Should Khadafy resort to terrorism again, Reagan has aptly promised the same punishment. The U.S. has shown prudence in the scope of this attack. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger said Monday night that every effort was made to restrict the air strike to targets that were clearly defined as support and training positions for the military and for terrorists. The targets were also chosen with consider ation for the maximum safety of the pilots and civilians. Events in the past few weeks have shown that the Reagan administration has made serious efforts to try less drastic measures than resorting to the military to secure its interests. Failing this, the United States has been required to resort to more direct means. Khadafy and his band of international renegades must be taught that their trade has not, will not and cannot ever be accepted. government was endangered by such internal attacks. According to Peres, the final compromise served to teach other coalition members "the limits a minister should not exceed when criticizing a government of which he is a member." Such a lesson might have been conveyed if Peres had settled for nothing less than Modai's complete removal , from the cabinet. By simply placing Modai in another position, Peres is clearly showing that he is more disturbed at Modai's financial policies than with his offensive rhetoric, which he is free to continue. The policies that irk Peres so are those threatening his pork-barrel programs. Modai, for example, opposed a proposal to use federal money to bail out a Labor Party-affiliated construction company. As finance minister, Modai tried to cut government spending in what was an overheated Israeli economy. Peres apparently would prefer to spend as much money as possible, in hopes of essentially buying off the next Israeli election for the Labor Party. By going out of his way to create a national crisis, Peres dramatically injured the credibility of the coalition. He furthermore damaged his own reputation as a statesman above politics. And he threatened to cause a long-term disruption of a government that needs to work as a unit. hooligans the shaft Yho Ccem Lfno young men and women is Hamilton Hall, whose lifts are already among the pokiest this side of the Mississippi. Officials representing Swiss Time have clocked Hamilton's Elevator 1 at 3.574 feet per week. Elevator 2, thankfully, is much faster. It has made it to the fifth floor three times thus far this semester. A Burnout-like fete is rumored should Number 2 climb to the top before Reading Day. Editor's note: This is only a rumor. Please remain calm and do not become distracted from your studies. If an actual celebration occurs, you will be instructed where to tune in your area for official news and information. We now return to our (irregularly scheduled column. Or not. - E.B. VeteFlim Mmy off a maiii-Maie MgMmaFe Editor's note: The following is the first of a two-part series by Richard Behan. a veteran of the Vietnam War, who will speak at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in room 205 of the Student Union. The speech is sponsored by the Carolina Committee on Central America. Behan x column contains graphic language that, even in censored form, would ordinarily be inappropriate for publication. Considering the scope and complexity of the subject matter, however, a waiver was made in this case. How much will we have to pay this time? Millions, billions or another 58,000 boys, this time in Central America? 1 graduated from high school in June 1965. I had pre-enlisted for September 1965. After they shaved my head and 1 finished eight weeks of basic training at Fort Dix, it was down to Fort Benning. Ga. for Jump School (Airborne), then on to Fort Polk, La., for ranger and jungle training. But 1 wanted to be the best, so on I went to Fort Bragg, N.C., for Special Forces (AKA Green Beret) training for 16 weeks. 1 became a jungle warfare specialist, and how I loved it! But 1 was only 18. What did I know? I had never killed a human. But I was about to get a first-hand feel of it. 1 arrived in Vietnam in June 1966 with an "A" Team of Green .Berets. After a few days in Da Nang, we were told to go up into the central highlands to open camp 105-A and train the hill people to protect themselves and to kill the Viet Cong. Before we started to 105-A, the Cong knew where, when, how many, what everything. So many spies within the people. On our first night at the base, we got hit with mortars. A few minor injuries, but no dead yet. As we built the camp, we had to send patrols to look for Viet Cong, nicknamed "Charlie." "He was a farmer by day, a killer by night. The camp was built. All living quarters, the command post and the como shack were sandbagged. Sixty percent of the bunkers Were underground, with gun slots at the right places. The perimeter was rigged with trip flares, razor wire, Claymore mines and tin cans, with stones in them, to hear Charlie at night coming through the wire. The VC would turn the mines around so they would fire back at the base when they exploded. But the best was "Fu Gas," a 55-gallon drum filled with glass, BB rounds, razor blades Live by the Bible To the editor: The editorial in The Daily Tar Heel on April 10 ("Recognize cultural roots of rape") was a weakly founded generalization. 1 fully agree with some of the points made, but the foundation of the argument was not there. In the fourth paragraph, the author states, "Rape is not like most crimes; it is the result of man's thirst for power and dom inance, a thirst encouraged by cultural attitudes that assert the supremacy of the male will." This is presumptuous rhetoric. Rape is the terminal result of man's (I use the word "man" loosely) unwillingness to control, through self-discipline, his own self-fed, perverted sexual appe tites. I remind you that the indi viduals who go to pornographic movies or buy pornographic mag azines choose to do so. They are unwilling to turn their attention away from their out-of-control desires to something else. This has nothing to do with a "man's thirst for power" or "dominance," and it certainly doesn't come from a "cultural attitude." Our society is ruled by a vocal minority, a group of people who have the drive to stand up and lead. This attitude is not sex-linked. Some say that the responsibility for a rape falls back ultimately to the women, because of skimpy or tight clothing or loose attitudes. This is ridiculous also. I exert control over the thoughts that I think. I can allow the way a girl is dressed to excite me or I can look the other way. 1 have a choice. Men would love to pass the buck around, and excuse themselves from having to operate self-discipline, but if they are really honest, the buck stops in their brains. The source of this moral decay, then, ceases to be some cultural ideal, and the real cause comes to light: the slow, steady removal of Biblical moral values and teach ings from our society. It is only after these values have been thoroughly trod underfoot that people could honestly excuse the rampancy of sexual deviance as being due to the overrun idea that men have it in for women. Now I would like to say some thing about the word "man" that . I used to refer to the movie watchers and magazine readers. The people who allow themselves to participate in this class of activity are weak, insecure individ uals who should not be referred to as "men." A real "man" is a , male person who walks in uncom promising integrity in every area of his life. He is known for his moral fortitude, and he allows himself no hidden voices because he recognizes such things as being beneath a person of character. A real "man" will always treat a lady with the highest consideration a quality, which I think, ladies will agree has all but vanished from the mind of your average male person. The world is hungry for such "men." In closing, the root cause for Richard Cohan Guest Writer everything was used. Then they were filled with napalm and buried in the ground at a certain angle. When they exploded, anything within 200 yards would be destroyed. During the building of 105-A. we were rocketed and mortared almost daily. 1 started to see the death boys with arms, legs gone. We could not identify some of the bodies. We still went out on patrol to find Charlie, but we didn't find him. As the war went on and the Cong strengthened its attacks against the U.S. forces, it got worse. We would go into villages the morning after the VC were there. If the civilians would not give food, money and young boys, the VC would take the village chief and his family and torture them. They would cut off victims heads and put them on stakes stuck in the ground. They would cut off c s and balls and stick them in the mouths of the heads. They would gang rape the women, then kill and behead them. The VC would cut off breasts and make tobacco pouches out of them. The United States could not fight back; we could not find the VC. We were taking losses in rocket attacks. I remember walking across the camp when Benny yelled "Incoming!" I hit the deck. When 1 looked up, Benny's back and half of his head were gone. As 1 got up and started to move, I felt a wetness on my back. I thought 1 was hit. I soon discovered what caused the wetness: it was Benny's splattered blood and brains. With the losses we were taking, we became so mad we started using Charlie's methods: make the kill, cut off the heads, put the c s and balls in the mouths, leave our calling card. We would fire artillery at certain trails and hope for a kill. We would go into the area in the morning and find the kills arms, legs, heads, bodies just blown apart. If we knew the direction the VC were going in, we would call in choppers, put all the pieces in a net, find Charlie and drop the remains on him. sir w &y pFwf P rape is not as the editorial's writer perceives it. Rape is but an isolated symptom of the moral decay which will continue until people realize what has been happening all these years. People were created by God to live in the manner outlined in the Bible. The Biblical code teaches that men are to have their thoughts focused on things that are "true, honest, just, pure, lovely," things of "virtue" and anything that is "worthy of praise" (Philippians 4:8). That people in general (even some in the so-called "Church") choose not to live by this teaching has nothing to do with "man's thirst for dominance." The solution for the whole mess simply involves people taking responsibility for themselves before God. WILLIAM LOGAN, JR. Junior Biology Stick to facts To the editor: As I skimmed over April 9th's Daily Tar Heel, the words "sexual deviance" caught my eye. Alas, I thought, a DTH article worth reading. Luckily, the article was as juicy as the title, "Sexual deviance worsened into violence, convicted rapist says." It told all about how he started out as a Peeping Tom and then progressed into a full-fledged rapist. Apparently, while he was look ing through the glass, he was overcome with such desperate passion that he decided it was time that his perversion ascended to new levels of sophistication. Also, there were little voices, he claims, urging him on. . Hey, I got a kick out of the article. It's good to know that someone else suffers from the illness of sexual desire. But all of a sudden, as I was deliciously rummaging through the article, I was struck by a most profound thought. We all get desperate at times; how come most of us do not go and rape someone? Is it because we do not have the little voices urging us on? Something tells me that it cannot be the voices. It sounds too silly. Perhaps Brooks raped not because he was horny or because of the voices, but because he is good for nothing and is incapable of feeling the pain he inflicts on other people. Perhaps then, people rape, murder and torture all for this same reason. Who knows? This is only my intuitive guess. I am no psychologist. But it certainly would be interesting and indeed helpful to society if the media (e.g., the DTH) would report the find ings of the vast amount of research that psychologists, sociologists and criminologists have done, , rather than report a stereotyped image that some idiot spews out about himself in hope that, if he tells the public what it wants to hear, it will feel sorry for him and he can feel a little less guilty. But why doesn't the DTH report real facts? They don't have to sell their papers by enticing the reader with words like "sexual deviance" and "Peeping Toms." Their money is guaranteed. So let's see some real, respectable journalism. JUANOSUNA Junior Philosophy Pit petitioners To the editor: The Board of Trustees will meet on Thursday, April 24 to consider divestment of University of North Carolina funds from companies conducting business in South Africa. We, the UNC Anti Apartheid Support Group, believe that divestment is cruciai in doing away with the apartheid system in South Africa. We also feel that total divestment of UNC funds is a very important part of a nation wide movement which might exert substantial pressure on South Africa's economy, and thus on its domestic policy. The Anti-Apartheid Support Group is now engaged in a petition The war was at its peak, 1967-68. All hell was breaking loose. We had air support, B-52s, chopper gunships. A few "A" camps up country had been overrun. We were pissed, we wanted revenge. We thought. Let's use air power, artillery, OK, let's do it. Go out, find the Cong, call in air or arty, blast the hell out of them, then go for a fire fight. Most VC are dead, well kill the rest. But the smell of . . . Death. The remains looked like burnt firewood, silly putty hanging off trees and rocks. The destroyed, the maimed and those not dead but hurt too badly were shot in the head. The ones left alive as POWs were brought back by chopper. If we questioned them along the way and they did not give us the answers we wanted, out they went. If there was more than one, usually the last one talked. The VC were great for booby traps and ambushes. "Bouncing Betty," a bomb sprung by trip wire, could get you waist high usually in the balls, and then it's no more sex. Punji sticks were set two feet off the trails. When the VC opened up, we would dive off the trail and land on the punji sticks. They were usually bamboo that had been cut into points, dipped in s and left to dry. When s dries it turns to poison. But you have no idea what a "boy" could do with a grenade and a piece of wire. We made our own traps, punii sticks, etc. We'd take an empty can of C rations, pull the pin on a grenade, place it in the can and put it in the ground, open side down. The VC would come in and pick up the can, thinking it's food. Boom, he's dead. That was one of my favorites. We would kill men, women and children and leave our calling card. We wore amputated ears and fingers on strings around our necks. There were only five left in our "A" Team. "Flip" killed himself right in front of me. I can't take it anymore, Rich," he said, "it's going to kill me." Boom, he's dead. More brain on my face, in my hair. Oh God, how sick I got. I had to clean up his remains, Oh God, sick again. I was getting tired and pissed and really f ed up all the time then. Killing was getting easy. But cleaning up the mess made me sick. Behan served with U.S. Special Forces in Vietnam from 1966 to 1969. His column will conclude tomorrow. campaign to convince the Board members that the University (stu dents and employees) does want divestment. Please stop by our literature table in the Pit and sign the petition. And urge others to do so also. We are the University, and we have a right to withdraw our support from morally repug nant practices. HELEN MOORE Sophomore Physics Math Clothes day? To the editor. As a conclusion to Gay and Lesbian Awareness Week, we were asked to show our support for the CGLA by wearing blue jeans. I feel, however, that the CGLA is not taking full advantage of the situation. Even on a good day, only 90 percent of the students habitually wear blue jeans, and that figure is diminishing now that warm weather is here. I am sure that some students consciously did not wear blue jeans last Friday, and a number of others wore lightweight pants or shorts. The show of support probably dwindled to about 70 percent to 75 percent of the student body. I suggest that next year the CGLA ask those who support them to come to school and classes clothed, and wear those clothes like they mean it. Yes, even if they are ripped at the knee or stained with ketchup. Although 1 did manage to find an old pair of cords to wear last Friday, I certainly wonH go much further to avoid showing my support, and I doubt others will either. If the CGLA adopts my proposal for next year, they can please themselves with the notion that the entire student body supports their organization. DAVID HUNTLEY Graduate English
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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April 15, 1986, edition 1
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