Thursday, November 15, 2001

House gave in, handed victory to bio-terrorists
By Tim Dragga
Skiff Staff

Today, and today only I’m offering a two for one: two issues in one editorial. (This means that you, the reader come out the winner ... or something).

Who would have ever thought the U.S. House of Representatives was such a bunch of “wimps?” Well the Washington Post sure seemed to think so the day House Majority Leader Trent Lott and company closed the House for the first time in history on Oct. 18. I’ll take a knee jerk reaction for 800, Alex. Way to stand tall and not let terrorism disrupt the government, guys.

For those of you who find yourselves unaware (I’m sure it happens often) the House of Representatives shut down in the wake of an anthrax letter sent to the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. What adds to their staggering cowardice is that Daschle himself (you know, the guy whose office the letter was actually sent to) was in the Senate the day after saying that there was no way they’d allow terrorist threats to disrupt senate proceedings.

When we’ve got soldiers risking their lives on the other side of the globe you’d think the least the House could do is show up for work.

Now I’m not trying to label every action of precaution and prudence as simply folding under pressure. I’m not trying to say that if I can’t get a pizza delivered to my door at 11:30 p.m. the terrorists have already won. But when the government, as a direct result of a terrorist threat, allows itself to be bullied around, what else can you call it but surrender?

I’m not saying the House should have been kept in session in the midst of imminent bomb threats, but this was unreasonably cautious to the point of spinelessness. We basically accomplished the senders’ mission for them.

And just when it seemed like we were going to get through last month without any elected officials being shot in the face, Israeli Cabinet Minister Rehavam Ze’evi was assassinated by members of the National Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The tourism minister and right wing conservative was killed in an apparent response to the assassination of NFLP leader Saeb Ali Mustafa. After Palestinian officials dragged their feet about taking Mustafa into custody when Israel turned over a list of suspected terrorists that included his name, Israel responded by firing a missile at his house.

Now Ze’evi was a staunch conservative who favored a policy of “transferring” or “relocating” Muslims from the West Bank and Gaza Strip to another country. This doesn’t however change the fact that he was an elected official conveying an unpopular message through peaceful means. He wasn’t running around shooting people in forehead. He was the loyal opposition.

The main difference between Ze’evi and Mustafa is one was elected with a specialty for inflammatory rhetoric; the other had a specialty for car bombs.

All this wouldn’t have been so tragic if it hadn’t happened on the eve of Ariel Sharon lifting sanctions on Palestine in an act of good favor before the beginning of renewed peace talks.

The real irony of the situation is that these people are killing each other for control over some of the worst land on the planet and all because of what basically stems from a semantic debate about how to pray to the same deity. But that kind of silliness is generally what religion tends to do to people — it manufactures differences where there would otherwise be none.

Tim Dragga is a junior political science major from Lubbock.
He can be contacted at (t.c.dragga@student.tcu.edu).