RUSTLINGS

"Our strategy for dealing with this Army (Iraq) is very simple: First we're going to cut it off, then we're going to kill it."

--General Colin Powell

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IRAQ has 5500 tanks; 100-ft. deep ground bunkers; 700-plus aircraft; an unknown quantity of SCUD missiles; over one million soldiers; chemical warfare arms; was developing nuclear weapons; SAM defense systems; the willingness to use environmental warfare by dumping millions of barrels of oil ... etc. etc. etc.

NOW ... we understand what the DEBATE to go to war for the FREEDOM of KUWAIT and the suppression of this man who sends to the firing squads those who disagree (or fail in the goals he seeks) is all about.

NO one who debated against the war uses the above statistics, now or then.

But Saddam Hussein felt his position was secure. He didn't know that the PATRIOT ABMs would intercept and stop his potentially destructive raids on Israel and Saudi Arabia. And ... neither did WE! Or at least not with the increasing confidence we have now.

The POINT? HUSSEIN and IRAQ had to be stopped NOW! Their NUCLEAR capabilities had to be destroyed. This is NOT a rational/moral opponent.

Yes ... Virginia, ... there IS a "boogie man".

Four years into the war with Iran, at a time when Iraq was losing, Saddam gave a reeling definition of his goal: "Defending ourselves until the other side gives up."

Many think that Saddam's idea may be to just hang in there (although I expect some major offensive efforts by "Sadly Insane" first) until the U.S. public loses interest in supporting this war. He thinks the anti-war movement will grow. It WILL ... but he's underestimated the U.S. people, our military, our resolve, and the fact that we DO understand what kind of a man we're dealing with.

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War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. When a people are used as mere human instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service and for the selfish purposes of a master, such war degrades a people. A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their free choice, is often the means of their regeneration. A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever-renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other.

--John Stuart Mill

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Take the time to listen to President Bush's "State of the Union Address" this Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. Hear it ALL from him, with HIS emphasis and inflections. Don't just rely on the soundbites and news analysis of what he allegedly said, didn't say, or meant.

With the DOMESTIC problems in this country coupled with the Middle East situation ... this message is too important to miss.

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A dread of ending up on the losing side has cooled support for Saddam Hussein. As an Arab proverb puts it: "Kiss the hand you cannot bite." Today that is the American hand.

From a column by Daniel Pipes discussing why the "Arabs aren't rioting" as predicted. Now is the moment of truth for many prognosticates of the war and "what if" games played out in the media.

ECONOMISTS are the other major "what if" game players today. How does one project his personal and business future based upon the mixed predictions of the "professionals"? The answer: VERY CAREFULLY.

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Where is the ENVIRONMENTALIST'S protest against Saddam Hussein's dumping the oil in the Persian Gulf? They'll probably put the blame on the U.S. for defending Saudi Arabia.

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"If the Iraqis are being bombarded by missiles and smart bombs, Americans are attacked around the clock by CNN. If there is anything more dangerous than not enough information, it is too much.

Information, TRUE and FALSE, speculative and indeterminate, rains down on the American public like so much chaff, saturating the public consciousness, overloading the political circuits and undermining confidence in ALL reports, useful or useless. News becomes whirl, authority something to be automatically doubted."

Worth repeating from column

by Paul Greenberg

Friday Southeast Missourian

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CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK is in progress (Jan. 27-Feb. 2). On Sunday we ran a 12 page tabloid that included pictures and articles about eight area catholic grade schools and Notre Dame High School.

These schools are financed by the parishes, tuition charged to the parents, and the hard work of parents, volunteers and teachers. The total enrollment is 1573 students which includes: St. Denis, Benton, 90; St. Ambrose, Chaffee, 109; Immaculate Conception, Jackson, 180; St. Augustine, Kelso, 143; Guardian Angels, Oran, 132; St. Joseph, Scott City, 77; St. Mary Cathedral, Cape, 230; St. Vincent de Paul, Cape 378; and Notre Dame High School, 234.

The tabloid was informative and my compliments for the following achievements (and some information).

1) Teachers support these schools through their belief in the system and dedication while being paid at a lower salary than their counter parts in the public system.

2) These nine schools together showed a total income of $2,058,472 during the 88-89 school year with an average per pupil cost of $1308 for each student in grades K-12. (excluding building costs etc.)

3) Over 90 percent of Notre Dame High School graduates enter college.

4) 90 percent of Notre Dame juniors and seniors take the ACT test (an avg. 55 percent of public school students take the test) and the average score in October was 22.3 percent (above average). This year the sophomores took the ACT with their average score being at the 80th percentile of college bound students nationwide (who took the test).

5) The cost per student for the 1990-1991 year at Notre Dame is $2500. The parents in a Catholic parish pay $800 to the school in addition to their weekly contribution to the parish. The Catholic parish then pays $700 per student in addition to a parish assessment. Students who are not members of a Catholic parish pay $1810.

The remaining per student cost (I assume this includes operating costs, etc.) of the total $2500 per student is paid by the Education Fund Foundation and fundraisers.

6)Religious classes are taught three days each week and 14 percent of the students are not Catholic at Notre Dame.

The curriculum is more concentrated on a basic educational curriculum, and in general, parents must provide transportation to and from the schools.

I invite you to read the "KALEIDOSCOPE" report. I also invite more information about any of this area's educational institutions and the cost/benefits. Especially as we report the increased requests for funding of public elementary, secondary, and higher education.

Also, the current slow economic climate; pressures of lower teacher pay; limited resources; fewer nuns or priests for teaching; increasing costs; and the added parental expense of paying extra to send your child to a private (rather than public) school has got to present a continuing dilemma for these Catholic schools..

These are ongoing problems for discussion. My compliments to the Catholic schools for their achievements.

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To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.

--Theodore Roosevelt