Letters to the Editor

Killing the children

I am absolutely appalled that the UW administration has invited Madeleine Albright as commencement speaker this year, especially after students told the regents their concerns about her record as secretary of state. Do we really want to honor the person who said the deaths of 500,000 innocent children as a direct result of the sanctions was "worth it?" "Worth it" for what? Saddam Hussein is still in power, and he now has a new tool to use against the Iraqis who have struggled for democracy in that country - the scarcity of clean water, nutritious food and medicine caused by the sanctions the United States continues to support.

I'm sure Osama bin Laden thinks the deaths of the people in the World Trade Center was worth it - is Madeleine Albright any different? I do not support the killing of innocent people for any reason, and that is why I cannot give Albright any respect when she speaks at commencement.

People who don't know the impact of the sanctions should check out the documentary Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq, which will be showing in HUB 209 at 2 and 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday next week. Decide for yourself if this is the kind of person the UW should be honoring, and be sure to let the administration and Albright know that her policies and attitude are not what we wish to honor.

Michelle Cobban

senior, women studies

Commencement speaker Tony Soprano

Would the UW Board of Regents give an honorary degree to a Mafia don? How about the don's "secretary of state"? Of course not! The UW would never honor someone responsible for killing hundreds of people.

Instead, this year it is honoring someone responsible for policies that killed not hundreds but hundreds of thousands! Madeline Albright, President Clinton's secretary of state, helped enforce the U.N./U.S. sanctions against Iraq. On TV in 1996, she was asked if killing 500,000 children in Iraq from the sanctions was worth the price to go after Saddam Hussein. She replied, "The price is worth it!"

This policy continues under Bush and kills 5,000 Iraqis a month. We need to let the world know that we do not "honor" that policy. We need to organize to stop it -- and all the other wars the U.S. government is waging and planning.

Please join us in expressing your opposition to honoring Albright and continuing the murder of Iraqi children! Let the UW Board of Regents and the world know that they acted "not in our name!"

Students and community groups opposed to Albright and U.S. wars will picket her appearance at Husky Stadium on commencement day, Saturday, June 15. Picket from 10:30 a.m., rally at noon outside the stadium.

Steve Leigh

UW staff, health services

International Socialist Organization

Keep fighting for workers

This is in response to a letter from Dayna Dawson (April 29) concerning the article on Initiative 777 the so-called "Right to Work" initiative (April 23). In states where there are "right to work" laws, wages are substantially lower for all workers, unionized or not. In states where union shop laws exist, like here in Washington, wages and working conditions are far better.

It is every worker's right to have union representation, and it if hadn't been for workers fighting, and in some cases dying, for that right, we would all probably still be working for a dollar an hour, if we're lucky. I personally will never take that right for granted, and will fight to keep with every breath I take. Otherwise, the people who fought for it back in the 1800s and later in the 1930s and '40s will have done so, and some died, in vain. We cannot let that happen. The struggle will continue.

Patrick Switzer

UW staff

Turn your head around

Is there any doubt why I agree with Ron Kamara's column ("Where I stand," June 5)? Compare his column with Hashem Said's June 3 column ("The only solution"). The difference is night and day. And just as Ron said, though both have done wrong, and both have strong arguments, one side of this conflict seems to have their heads screwed on a little more tightly than the other.

Joshua Newman

senior, industrial engineering

The real solution

In Hashem Said's editorial "The only solution" (June 3), he claims that the Palestinians owned all of historical Palestine, then Palestinians were deported to surrounding Arab countries against their will. In reality, both Jews and Arabs lived in the region for hundreds of years before the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. In the early 1900s, Jews began purchasing additional land from Arabs, which Arabs sold willingly and Jews bought at high prices. This land was largely uncultivated, swampy and mostly uninhabited at the time.

Said further implies that, the solution would be for Israel to unilaterally withdraw to the 1967 borders. Said fails to mention that Israel captured this territory in self-defense, when Israel was attacked by four surrounding Arab countries simultaneously.

Said goes on to address the issue of refugees. The fact remains that had the Arabs accepted the 1947 U.N. resolution, not a single Palestinian would have become a refugee, and an independent Arab state would now exist beside Israel. The responsibility for the refugee problem rests with the Arabs. In fact, Arab leaders encouraged Palestinians to leave their homes, so that Arab armies could go in, defeat Israel, and then Palestinians could return. However, Israel unexpectedly won these wars, and thus the refugee problem was created.

The real solution begins with the Palestinians believing in a peaceful co-existence with Israelis. The Palestinian militants must learn that their dreams and aspirations can only be obtained through political negotiations and not by killing innocent Israeli civilians.

Daniella Chotzen

junior, international business