Chemical '
Funny thing about bargaining
chips you get a couple of them
together, add a pinch of rhetoric, a
dash of charts and graphs, an ounce
of reality, and a generous helping
of contrived paranoia and you get
the need for another.
A lot of the time, all the produc
tion of bargaining chips does is
waste money as in the case of nuclear
weapons, space weapons research,
etc. But now the United States seems
to be moving toward resumed
production of chemical weapons
binary nerve gas which leaves its
victims blistered, blinded and twitch
ing until they die by being asphyx
iated in their own fluid.
The folks at the Pentagon, in their
collective acquisitive wisdom, have
decided that we need binary nerve
gas as a bargaining chip the MX
Contras only alternative for Nicaragua!! democracy
There is more than one way to
skin a cat, and there is more than
one way to look at a foreign political
situation.
The stacks of literature on the
Nicaraguan situation show two
distinct viewpoints, neither of which
is without exaggeration and a
lopsided representation of the issue.
These semantical games only serve
to cloud an already complicated
issue, making choosing sides in the
issue difficult, if not impossible.
The U.S. government has always
taken a shaky position on the
Nicaraguan issue in the past. Doing
its best to protect U.S. interests at
all costs, over and over again, our
government has supported anyone
who would not take aid from the
Soviets or Cubans. Anyone who
would do, more or less, whatever
we wanted them to do, as evidenced
by our support of past rulers like
Somoza, Diaz, and company, with
no regard to their domestic policies.
The United States did not try to
select the beneficiaries of its support
on the basis of the freedom they give
their citizens or their lack of cor
ruption, only on whether U.S.
interests were protected. Concerned
observers of the situation hear the
words pouring out from Washing
ton about "freedom fighters," or
Marxist human rights violations.
This prompts many respectable,
educated groups and individuals to
speak out about gross human rights
violations by the U.S.-supported
"Contras," while others trumpet the
tremendous educational and eco
nomic reforms of the Sandinistas.
The fight for American interests
as foreign policy is unethical. It
denies the Nicaraguan people their
right to have a part in political
decisions that concern their future.
It totally disregards the Nicaraguan
people in general.
On the other hand, a U.S. policy
of total laissez-faire in the region will
not work well for the Nicaraguan
'people on a long-term basis. That
I policy assumes that if the United
States will just leave the Nicaraguans
alone, everyone else will. If there is
another revolution, the Nicaraguans
will be able to control it themselves
and the Soviets and Cubans will not
interfere. This is ludicrous. The
Soviet Union always has an uncanny
way of becoming involved in pol
itical revolutions and manipulating
them so that a country's own
leadership ceases to be of that
particular country's choice, and
weapons become lethal toargaieiinig chips
John cbVilla
Columnist
missile, Star Wars, etc., being
insufficient. Last week, Defense
Secretary Caspar Weinberger
pushed a plan through a NATO
defense ministers' meeting that
clears the path for the United States
to openly produce chemical wea
pons for the first time since 1969.
In regard to chemical" weapons,
Secretary Weinberger notes that w
. . . everybody is against their use."
That is an understatement in parts
of the world, such as Europe, where
the collective consciousness retains
Bill Logan
The Right Stuff
instead is determined by the Soviets.
A policy of self-determination also
assumes that the government that
the Nicaraguans choose will be a
good form of government for them
in the long run. A government that
will work honestly with no oppres
sion for the Nicaraguan people to
build their country back up to
stability.
Advocates of the Sandinista
government are interested in letting
the Nicaraguans decide what they
want. They say that America should
abandon its interests in the region
in order to let the region settle down
from its years of revolution and
stabilize under whatever form of
government happens to take power,
Marxist, Capitalist, pro- or anti
American. The Nicaraguan people
should be able to elect whoever they
want, and if they don't like. the
government that does take power,
they can always revolt against it. The
problem with this is that the San
dinista government is communist,
and that automatically rules out free
elections. There will be a choice for
the Nicaraguan people the choice
between one communist or another.
The U.S. interests in the region
are important and should not be
disregarded. However, the Nicara
guan people are still the most
important consideration. They have
lived through one political fiasco
after another, and they don't need
another. The Nicaraguans need
leaders who will stand up for them,
not exploit them; leaders who will
lead them to their continued free
dom. This seems to be a fantasy
when viewed against the backdrop
of constant unrest in that area
spurred on by the manipulations of
the Soviet Union and the United
States.
The decision on who to support
is not cut and dried. It is a decision
to be made on the basis of whether
the United States or the Soviet
Union is more reliable and which
is likely to produce better living
conditions for future Nicaraguans.
Our government has chosen the
better of two fairly poor options.
The Contras are called the "demo
" cratic. resistance because they are
fighting for Church-mediated nego
tiations with the Marxist Sandinis
the horror of chemical warfare. In
World War I, over one million
casualties and 78,000 deaths were
the result of gas warfare. In the same
time frame, the Soviet Union suf
fered an additional 50,000 deaths.
During World War II, where in the
concentration camp of Auschwitz
alone, two and a half million people
were killed with gas.
The use of chemical weapons
continued when American forces
dropped Agent Orange on the Viet
Cong. It continued after the Amer
ican pullout when Vietnamese forces
killed over 20,000 Hmong, a native
tribe living in central Laos who
fought with U.S. forces during the
Vietnam War. It continues today in
Afghanistan, where Soviet forces
employ a more sophisticated gas
that causes a massive internal
tas. Their fight is for free elections
and the removal of the grip that the
communists have on the Nicaraguan
government. On a long-term basis,
this freedom for the Nicaraguan
people is exactly what they need.
The Contras don't want total control
of the government, only a share in
'"HANDS A
AMERJCA HAS
1 '
The Tar
hemorrhage in its Moslem rebel
victims.
Weinberger claims that resumed
production of lethal gas is necessary
because verification of Soviet stores
of same is virtually impossible.
Somehow, it is argued, the Amer
ican manufacture of more nerve gas
will present a deterrent to the
Soviets, forcing them to confront
their own production and use of
chemical weaponry in a such a way
that they will cease its production.
Nothing new here. The same form
of argument has been given for every
recent weapons program "By
building weapon 'X they will sob
erly consider the possibility of not
building weapon Y" So far this
strategy hasn't been successful.
When we do succeed in bringing the
Soviets to the bargaining table, as
a democratic society. Democracy
would allow the people to decide
exactly what they want. This is
better than the governmental dom
ination that the Sandinistas are
implementing along with their
educational and economic reforms.
The point is to support democracy
1
DEFINITELY RAISED MY CONSCIOUSNESS ABOUT HUNGER.
VMEN'S LUNCH?"
Heel Thursday, May 29, 198617
when they have offered a morato
rium on the testing of nuclear
weapons, we refuse their comprom
ise by exploding yet another bomb
in Nevada.
It is difficult for us as Americans
to know what our defense establish
ment really wants when they send
out conflicting signals like so much
noise on a shortwave frequency. It
is difficult for us to conceive of a
sensible response to the current use
of chemical weapons. Willingness to
negotiate in the true sense of the
word combined with a reluctance to
satisfy ourselves by stacking up
bargaining chips so high we can't
see over them are steps in the right
direction.
John deVille is a senior philo
sophy major from Highlands.
and resist the Soviets' effort- to use
the Nicaraguan unrest as an excuse
to gain control of another puppet
nation. The Contras are the only
alternative. If support is not given
to them, the United States stands
to lose and so do the Nicaraguan
people.