Page 123 - Phoenix2002-03

COMMENTARY Wednesday, April 2, 2003 - Page 7 Behold: An empire! War: Defense, not imperialism Tara DellaFranzia makes a comparison of empires Joe Palkovic responds to fast issue's anti-war commentaries with his perspective Setting: preparatory high school. wage. Reading all the propagandizing pates actively in the harboring of rest of high-ranking AI-Qaeda op- Class: impressionable young fresh- Puppet regimes and funding of of the "Commentaries" section of intemationnlrerrorists. eranve. Khalid Sheikh man. The teacher was Mr. Dwight governments that comply isjust as this paper's last issue left me utterly In 2001, there was strong bi- Mohammed. Peterson, and the subject was Latin. old as Rome as well-also poli- exhausted. partisan support for the President Another common argument we Who would ever think, though, that cies enforced by America today. When thinking about all the ri- when he stated, "We will make no hear from Anti-war propagandists Latin would be so relevant in the The most important lesson we diculous claims made by Stact distinctions between these terror- is that the US is acting out of some rest of our lives? can take from Rome, though, is its George and Tara DellaFranziacon- ists and those who harbor them." kind of "imperialistic" concern "You know what scares me?" symbolism and fall. As freshmen, cerning war with Iraq, I encountered All of a sudden, it seems people are about oil. Peterson would always say when we also viewed the film version an unfamiliar feeling, and here's all too eager to make such distinc- This is of course the most bla- discussing various emperors and of Robert Graves' I Claudius, the what it was: for once in my life. I tions. tantly ridiculous and even idiotic the corrupt nature of Rome, complex taleofan overlooked em- actually had so many refutations to Given what we know about assertion, and if you use this argu- "America. It's a lot like the Ro- peror who had sought to restore someone's arguments swimming Iraqi weapons programs, as well as ment, you should hang your head man Empire." At first. the class the republic to a corrupt and fail- around in my head that I had to lie their willingness to provide aid for in shame (Tara DeliaFranzia). found it ridiculous, but I began to ing Rome. Two symbols of Ro- down and wait for the dizziness to terrorists (who hale America, Eu- The most outspoken of the anti- see many similarities. Rome senhe man power appear in this film. pass. After I regained my bearings, rope, and our Israeli allies equally), war advocate nations, France and standard in culture, technology, and One, an eagle. The other. a swas- I began to map out my thoughts: how can we possibly reason that it Russia, are the two countries with philosophy. What it didn't take tika, in its pre-Nazi use of good First of all, we have all heard, is not only a matter of time before the most business agreements with credit for (or sometimes.just take) luck and fortune. over and over, that it is not the so- Iraq provides them with additional Iraq over oil. .. wait, why don't they from tbe Greek and Etruscan civi- With so many similarities, why lution of the Iraq situation to be the favors, like, say, chemical and bio- want Iraq to be disarmed again? It tizations, it made. It improved, and do Americans refuse to see them- aggressor in a "pre-emptive" war. logical weapons? makes me wonder, made more, and expanded ... and selve..s as Romans? The elite of However, this would not by any We also know thai all the infor- Of course I don't want there to fell. Rome and the culture beneath it means be a "pre-emptive" war. Af- mation (more than enough to draw be a war, and I don't believe there IT you're in the empire at the united (nomecessanly by choice), ter all, the conditions of the Gulf the conclusion that those who claim is anyone who really wants there right time, though, you receive a and had a good grip on the world. War cease-fire included the uncon- that religious fundamentalist terror- to be a war. Iactually have not de- lot of advantages. Think of They saw their rule as fair, they ditional cooperation of Iraq in dis- ists will have nothing to do with cided yet whether or not I feel that America between the first gulf war prospered, and had the best tech- armament, and in abandoning all secularist rulers like Saddam this would be a just war, and I am and September l lth. We have su- nology. Perhaps we refuse asso- chemical and biological weapons Hussein are gravely mistaken) that certain that it should be treated as perior information technology, dation because they fell. Or per- pursuits. what we have been given from Sec- the last option, as which I do feel military forces, politics, and medi- haps because we associate over- The UN weapons inspectors retary Powell is really only the tip it's being treated. cine. zealous rulers with the likes of were to be used as a method of veri- of the iceberg. As a Roman Catholic, I believe America needs to study its his- "Saddam' or "Adolph," and don't fication that lraq was disarming, Secretary Powell made sure to strongly in the doctrine of the "Just tory. Like Rome, we harbor the want "George" to be associated which of course it was not, did not, point this out at the UN a month War." but peace activists should not best military. While we don '1 have with them. and never will. ago, even though the US had 10 be be making ludicrous arguments like colonies, this country was based It's not so much that an empire This disarmament was a re- sure not to compromise too much America is an imperialist nation, upon the colonization of America has to be wrong, or that an em- quirement for the cease-fire. of its intelligence, which is so im- what they should be doing is rais- (also known as stealing land from peror is always wrong. It's sim- There have been seventeen "Last portant in keeping track of all the ing questions like, "Is this worth the natives by threat of violence ply that the nature of an empire Chances" for Iraq. The UN has weaponry the inspectors seem to risking the lives of innocent Iraqi and enslavement). Like Roman goes against what the United passed resolution after resolution. have no due exists. civilians as well as American outposts, we have bases allover the Snaes we s founded to be: a state and after 12 years, still no substan- We also know that the attention troops?" world. separate from the empire (hnt tive action has been taken ill Iraq's we huve given to Iraq has nor ar aH Our similarity to Rome does nor helped found it. disarmament. hindered the "War on Terror," as -Joe Palkovic is a freshman end at these possible simple coin- I simply wish that America Many liberals (especially Demo- has been shown by the recent ar- political science major cidences. America possesses inher- would own up to it, and be taught cratic presidential candidates, it all our ent cultural and political traits of about it sooner than Iwas first pre- seems) argue that putting our at- Phrases of war time Rome. Intentionally or not, our semedtheideainhighschool. We attention on Iraq is drawing culture is the dominant world cul- are an empire, and it's wrong (0 tention away from the "War on Ter- ture. Our economy, with Japan. hide the fact. Embrace the ben- ror." Ted Rossini discusses the newspaper, without seeing Presi- leads the world economy. It is in efits, and be aware oft~e ~angers. On the contrary, we have seen Latest trend of war and dent Bush remind us of the Impor- this way that America has won half • Tara DeliaFranzla IS a intelligence from Secretary Powell what it means for us lance to Support Our Troops, you'll see various Go online of the battle an empire should senior English major that shows in fact that Iraq partici- One, year ago ~e were aU ~rged Pop-up Ads and Spam e-mails with Operation protect freedom of speech t~ cO,n~Due shoppl?, bec.au;:e:f we titles "Support Our Troops .... Buy didn I 'The Terrorists win. 'The a T-shirt!" Today in class even I Since the war and Operation: to the Academy music playing for matter how patriotic it is, should be Terrorists Win." a simple three- was reminded why it is important lraqi Freedom began. the rules on a few moments before going 10 a banned from airplay. Some moron word cliche that even sounds nice to "Support Our Troops." our beloved and sacred freedom of commerical break. caller told the OJ that he was of- and makes you feel good. But once agaio we simply found speech have changed. The first The next day, the headlines fended because the station played "The Terrorists Wm" even has a cliche Ihat has DOsubstance and ammendment applies for some but read ''Moore-On'' and "Don't Say Celine Dion's "God BlessAmerica" ~ nice juxtaposit~on,of evil. terror- makes us feel good. "Support Our not for others. Moore" as they bashed his words. because she is French and they do ISIs, and g~ wmrung. Troops" does not make you imag- There are several ways in which Number 2: You cannot say not support the war. The DJ had to I!,doesn t really tell you ~ow inc the fear of people who don't freedom of speech has changed. you are ashamed to be from the explain to the ignorant caller that she spendtng money defealS terronsm. know if the next bomb will k.iD Number one: Certain people same state as the presidenl with- is French-Canadian, is very patriotic Doeso't tackle tbe issue what them. can get up to a podium to address outrislcingyourband'scareer. The towards America, and has a lovely causes people to ~acrifice them- "Support Our Troops" will IKIt the country for 25 minutes and be Dixie Chicks' lead singer Natalie voice that is apparent in the song. selves, and others to the name of a make you wonder what goes inarticulate about the war as he made some comment about being Number 4; You can take all the cause,., through a person's mind as peopIo speaks in metaphors he probably anti-war and in a way ashamed to Civics classes and participate in all ~ It ce~y has ~ c1~ they think are surrenderiag begin does not understand. be from the same state as the presi- the Civil Disobedience workshops defmibon. But dS symbolism IS firing weapons 81 them. Documentarian and director dent who refuses to seek altema- you want, but you can't put it into wh81 is important It shows our tti- "Support Our Troops" is not Michael Moore thanked those who tives to war. Point of clarification, practice during school hours. The umpb.. . 80ing to make you question helped him with "Bowling for Col- sbe did not yeU fire in a crowded message: you can take all the tests Because If those tenonslS, who weather your life is more valuab. umbine" and then wanted to use the room, threaten his safety, or ruin and write all the papers on the sub- oppose freedom and apple pie, thaD an O1hers. talk ~~~Yh:~:~:~~:'::.~~:~;~ remainder of the time explaining his character. Yet for a few days ject you want, but you can't exer- ~·twiooing.lbenwe1'llUStbelbe And s.dl,.~ "Support Our why he does documentaries, say- after, all the media could -. Troops" wiD DOl ill lIlY way bdp , But the days of ~ to be a you save tbe life of aD Iraqi or an ing something like "I record .rehal- ~~~Jd:~n~o:a~:~~gS~~~;~:::~ an exception 10 this this new verion. ity. I live in a country Wit a WUlllCrby &imply spendhIs money Amcdcaa.,.buI at lcurk_ you fictiously appointed president from their channels. My dad was Why the hell are we silencing are over. feel better. One year later weare POW iu a whose fighting a war for fictious ::::~~t~~~~~a~~~~~dOI~~:~ :: ~~~:~~g:::I~;~~~~ le~.~=~ full war, and in times of war it is ~~~~~,~~~~ta~:i:~/~:P: was played several times during dom to turn a deaf ear on those important to "Support Our 3: If you are from ~;:~i';;~:~gSi;~~S:o;;~:;eard! for his Academy-award winning the day while he worked in thega- whose opinions you do not agree Troops." •Ted Rossini Is a Our Troops" is Yes. "Suppan mOViebutthenstaarte~b~in~~~ r~=~ber a the feel good cliche this year, You sopbomore psychologyl suggesting he be stnppe a . country who is not siding with can'l tum on a television, or read a sociology major award for such unpatriotism. HIS Bush and Blair, your music, no ·communication major. last few words were inaudible due