The best editorials from college campuses around the nation

There's another death toll in Iraq

(U-WIRE) MINNEAPOLIS - A recently released study is estimating civilian deaths in Iraq to have reached 100,000. The horrifying number of civilian casualties shows more have been killed since the coalition invasion than would have died during prior sanctions in Iraq.

Though U.S. military officials aren't keeping track of civilian deaths, they say they are fighting the war with precise action to avoid as many civilian casualties as possible. But based on the study, they aren't avoiding as many civilian casualties as they thought they were.

The estimate of 100,000 civilian deaths isn't the end of it. The researchers didn't even include deaths in Fallujah, Iraq, the site of many violent air strikes and an immense amount of fighting. Researchers say the deaths in Fallujah would not have been proportionate to the rest of Iraq and would have thrown the survey.

Most of the violent deaths that were tracked down during research for the study were reported as a result of coalition actions. The study also found most of the deaths were caused by aerial attacks, and women and children are as often the victims of attacks as civilian men are.

The fact that neither the U.S. nor Iraqi forces are reporting counts on the number of civilian casualties in Iraq is disturbing. The exact number - even if it is only in the vicinity of the projected 100,000 - forces people to look at what the war is actually doing to Iraq.

- From the University of Minnesota's Minnesota Daily

Weapons proliferation reveals Bush hypocrisy

(U-WIRE) EUGENE, Ore. - Hypocrisy and the U.S. government are terms which certainly go hand in hand, but this one really takes the cake.

An ongoing federal investigation has discovered Pakistan may have illegally purchased U.S. nuclear technology through an Islamabad businessman said to have ties to Islamic militants. According to the Los Angeles Times, "U.S. law prohibits the sale of equipment that can be used in nuclear weapons programs to Pakistan and some other countries as part of the effort to curb nuclear proliferation."

Now get this. During the federal investigation into Pakistani weapons technology on one side of the White House, the Bush administration was busy with its own task - promising Pakistan the sale of F-16 fighter jets from the United States as a reward for Pakistan's cooperation in the war on terror. Pakistan requested the technology to build up the country's defenses; however, Pakistani Information Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed has firmly articulated that the sale of the jets is not dependent on a reduction in Pakistan's nuclear weapons program.

And according to The Associated Press, "Mindful of the fragile balance of power in South Asia, the administration also gave a green light to India for its own purchase of sophisticated weapons."

Our government must recognize that nuclear weapons are not a bargaining chip. Congress must make a decisive stand against this inane decision and affirm that the power to wipe out entire nations, not to mention the planet, belongs in the hands of no one.

- From the University of Oregon's Oregon Daily Emerald