UPEI STUDENT NEWSPAPER

MARCH 20, 2002

editor-in-chief Matthew DORRELL

copy editor Joel MEGGS

production manager Jeff COLL

news editor Erin FAGAN

entertainment editor Stephan MACLEOD

sports editor Adam GAUTHIER

photographer / style editor Jonah CAMPBELL

reporter Thomas LLOYD

advertising manager Kim TRAN

distribution manager Andrea STEELE

graphic design Bill MATTHEWS

contributors Brad DEIGHAN Marianne DOWLING Marc MACDONALD Mariéve MACGREGOR Catherine SWEET

2,000 copies of The Cadre are printed 10 times per semester. The deadline for submissions is Friday at 5:00 PM. The opinions expressed within The Cadre do not necessarily

represent the views of UPEI or the UPEI Student Union Inc.

Letters to the editor: mdorrell@upei.ca

Editorial 18: Items Unrelated

1. Last week’s editorial should have included something like: Much respect to Canadian cross-country skier Becky Scott who, upon winning bronze in the five-kilometre pursuit, dedicated the medal to all clean ath- letes. (The two Russian athletes who placed first and second ahead of Scott tested positive for banned substances in a later Olympic event.)

2. Watching Peter Mansbridge inter- view Jean Chrétien on Monday night was like watching someone trying to capture a fog bank with a butterfly net. When Chrétien was asked what he felt he had left to do for the country, what his future plans regarding Canada might be, Chrétien replied that he wanted to, “make it better.” I agree. By all means, make Canada better, Jean. Go for it. Perhaps, though, you might give us a hint about how you’re going to do this? Just a lit- tle hint?

Chrétien also hedged on the question of Canadian troops assisting the US in Iraq, saying the situation was hypothetical. Ok. Yeah, Jean, it is hypothetical, but see, that’s kind of the point. Leaders, Jean, occasionally consider hypothetical situations that might happen in the future, you know, in case, God forbid, a decision needs to be made that can’t be decided by the flip of a coin. It’s called planning. With the deafening clamour of US saber rattling and the naming of Iraq as an official member of the silly “Axis of Evil” club, it’d be nice to imagine that Chrétien might have a contingency plan. But Jean, he doesn’t even have an opinion that he’d care to

share with his constituents. When asked if Canadians had taken more prisoners Afghanistan,

Chrétien answered (!) that no more

had been taken, so far as he knew, then amended this statement, saying he wasn’t sure exactly since he does- n’t really feel the need to keep up with all the details relating to Canadian troops in Afghanistan. Apparently, being at war is not a large concern for the leader of our country.

One wonders, exactly what Chrétien does with all the time he appears not to be spending on devel- oping plans, opinions, or even mildly convincing answers. We must be able to find a better figurehead for our country than this unappetizing, amor- phous, and apparently un-opinionated man. The is something to be said for simplicity of vision, and then there are other, less flattering things to be said about someone who appears to have none at all.

3. Remember when US Defense Secretary Rumsfeld claimed that most of the thousand enemy fighters that regrouped in eastern Afghanistan had been killed by American forces? Remember when Major General Frank Hagenback ammended that count, saying that the Americans had fought between six and seven hundred enemy forces, killing an estimated 300? The current count, which the Americans suddenly don’t want to talk about any- more, stands somewhere around thir- ty. That’s some nice counting, boys.

Matthew Dorrell, Editor-in-Chief

The Cadre is the official newspaper of the UPEI Student Union.

There are meetings open to anyone Mondays at 5:00 in Main 06.

[2]

Rumsfeld meets with approximately 100 US soldiers.