
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 11, 1991                   TAG: 9104120345
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

JUST WHAT DID U.S. ACCOMPLISH FROM GULF WAR?

NOW THAT this patriotic orgy appears to have run its course; now that two countries have been destroyed and untold thousands of men, women and children burned to a crisp; and now that we have poured billions of dollars down the drain, dollars that we didn't have, I would like to ask: Just what have we accomplished?

Saddam Hussein is still in power and is still torturing people, but something new has been added. Kuwaitis are now torturing Palestinians. Torture seems to be a way of life in the Middle East, and if Saddam is eventually erased, he will probably be replaced by someone worse.

Kuwait, the country we were supposed to rescue, is ablaze and won't recover for decades. The emir is back on his gold-plated toilet, but his people are starving. And all this just so we could kick a little butt.

It seems that no matter how bad things get here at home, if a president sees his popularity slipping, all he has to do is start a splendid little war, and the flag-wrapped jingoes will flock to his defense. Ironic, is it not, that while Billy Graham was at the White House blessing the troops, Saddam was praying to his god and promising his troops Nirvana, Valhalla and all that if they died in battle. It just proves the adage that God is on the side of those with the best cannon. Smart bombs and dumb people.

With a church on every corner, you would think that the Prince of Peace would win out over the warmongers. But as long as we can wrap ourselves in yellow ribbon and watch the war on TV, peace doesn't have a chance. Down through the ages, the preachers have been more warlike than peace-loving.

Poets recognize the problem, but they can't do anything about it. Matthew Arnold said it best over a hundred years ago: "We are here as on a darkling plain swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, where ignorant armies clash by night."

Have a nice day! JOHN W. SLAYTON ROANOKE

by CNB