US War On Iraq
The Pros And Cons

By Ritu Raj Subedi

THE world is in 'awe and shock' as it is helplessly watching the war in Iraq, which started more than a week ago despite attempts by the United Nations to avert it. The UN arms inspectors were active in their task of finding if Iraq possessed biological and other weapons of mass destruction. Countries other than the US and Britain wanted to give the inspectors more time to do their job. Had the US waited until inspectors could come up with their final results, the war would not have begun as soon as it did. The US, without bothering to listen to what the UN had to say, decided to go ahead and attacked Iraq.

Role

Although the role of the UN has been overshadowed at the moment, its role cannot be minimised to tackle the post war situation and revive peace in the Persian Gulf.

As such, no war brings happiness to people and it can hardly be justified. Whatever the causes behind waging the war, it is ruthless and only invites disasters to a large section of humanity.
There are anti-war waves across the world. But this has least bothered the White House think tanks. They are firm in their resolve to bring down Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. Their logic for war may be strong. But its consequences may never be good.

There are many interpretations of this war. President George Bush's agenda, as reported in the media, are to destroy chemical and biological weapons, to overthrow present Iraqi regime and to establish democratic system of governance in that oil rich Gulf country. Moreover, Bush saw an Al Qaeda nexus in Bagadad. Even after achieving success in Afghanistan, Bush is not satisfied with his war on terrorism. So he considered the strike on Iraq as strategically vital in his bid against global terrorism.

Freedom, democracy and Iraqi people are recurrent themes in the war rhetoric of Bush. Bush's democratic agenda may be right. But many have questioned the means he applied to attain the goals.
At the same time there is no dearth of critics to interpret this as 'War for Oil.' Some harsh critics of the Bush administration say that Bush wants to grab the global oil market in the post-Iraq war.
One cannot compare the military budget of the US with that of Iraq. The recent US military budget was $400 billion while Iraq spent only $1.4 billion. On this ground Bush may claim his victory. But he will not overcome mistrust of many people on his administration. Bush can silence one Saddam. But ills and revenges generated by the war may spread to the nook and corner of the globe. These can give birth to more Saddams and Al Qaedas, which the US thinks are a threat to global peace and stability. It seems that post-war tentacles will not give American and British regimes to live quietly.
As Bush hinted, the war can be protracted for months. That means more lives lost and more crises triggered. This calculation might be based on the Iraqis' long experiences and tactics on war. The coalition forces must be aware that Iraqis have more than 25 years of experience in separate wars. They know how to prolong war and to give fitting reply to their enemies. Now they are attacking the coalition ground troops in guerrilla styles. They can prove the White House defence strategy wrong. The US may face humiliation as Russians had faced in Grozny while fighting Chechen rebels, who had compelled Russian forces to resort to air bombardment, which saw big loss of life and property.
On the other hand, the US has both types of experiences of wars. The US succeeded in chasing the Iraqis troops from Kuwait. The US has the most sophisticated weapons, which Iraq lack, to ensure its victory in Iraq. However, the Americans were badly humiliated and defeated during the Vietnam War and failed to topple Castro by military assistance.

Now the coalition has focused on the ground battle so as to minimise the human casualties.
Whether war is won or lost, it will have far-reaching impacts on the global politics. This war has dealt a blow to the United Nations. The danger is that it will be defunct. Its role may be limited to only humanitarian cause. Deep rift emerged in the EU. Perhaps the post war era may see a multi-polar world.

The war can even affect the US Arab allies such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which could be divided in their positions on the war on Iraq.

The way the US dealt with the Iraqi regime now has angered many of its former coalition partners. France and Russia have blamed the US of breaking the international law despite the US claim that it launched the war as per the mandate of the UN Resolution.

Daunting Task

It seems Bush will face a daunting task in reconstructing Iraq. So he has requested the Congress for the swift passage of the $72 billion budget to tackle the situation.

Look at the budget of this war. The US and the UK have announced to bear $90 billion for this war. Had this huge amount of money been utilised to fight hunger and poverty in African and Asian region, millions of impoverished people would have brightened their faces. It could be great help in serving the humanitarian cause.

Reforming Exam System

By Laxman Datt Pant

EXAMINATIONS have come to stay as a part of our education system. They are considered to be a big nuisance and both the teachers and the students detest them. As there are many defects in them: Due to the absence of any other satisfactory system of evaluation, it is impracticable to abolish them. They are perhaps evil, yet they are indispensable.

Chance

If we accept the aim of education as the harmonious development of the personality, we observe that the examinations fail to asses this development accurately. They neither take measure of one's physical and spiritual development nor even of ones' intelligence. All they can claim to do is to last ones' memory or ones' capacity for cramming. Since a student is aware of the type of questions he will be asked and he can fairly successfully anticipate a few, if he has the knack of pleasing the examiners, he will come out with flying colours. But another student, more reflective and analytical, more inquisitive and industrious, will perhaps cut a sorry figure. It is but a well-known fact Einstein once failed in Mathematics and Hegel, one of the greatest philosophers of the world, consistently secured poor marks in philosophy. Judging by the results, Einstein and Hegel could be condemned as poor students, although later in their life, they achieved singular success in their fields of study.
Examinations are often condemned on account of the prominent role of chance involved in them. Marking of the scripts can be uniform. Even if we grant that all examiners are sincere and earnest- in fact many of them are whimsical and willful- we can still not affirm that examinations are scientifically impartial to all examinees. The possibility of the personal prejudices of an examiner beclouding his better judgement cannot be excluded. If an average script follows three scripts, it will be awarded poor marks; if it follows two exceptionally poor ones, it will earn a better award than it describes. Mr. Sharma might be too strict. He will bewail the poor standards and make fascinating crisscross patterns on the scripts. Mrs. Acharya might be a bit too lenient. She would like to give every student a pass on humanitarian grounds. How far can the awards given by these two examiners be accepted as a fair index of the relative ability of their examiners?

Under the prevailing system of examinations in the context of Nepal (especially to Tribhuwan University), the students enjoy a ten month holiday and have a two month working session. They merely skip around and flirt their time away for the first ten months. Then, as the examinations approach, one can sniff a chill of seriousness in the air. Atmosphere starts getting heavy, the infection is gradually rife and the students start poring over their books. They skim trough their syllabi, just get a hang of what they are about, manage to stuff their brains with some ill-digested facts temporarily, then forget all about them once the examinations are over. But these two months play havoc with their physique. The whole period is spent in extreme nervous tension. Shave and haircut, cosmetics and coiffures are all forgotten. Chemists are pestered to procure pills causing sleeplessness. The erstwhile lotus-eater suddenly becomes a Ulysses. But to his utter dismay, he often discovers that he is no match for the giant that examination is and collapses with acute nervous exhaustion.

This system exerts an adverse impact on the class teaching in two ways. First, a good teacher always finds himself hampered by the limitations imposed by the examination system. He does not teach, he prepares the students for the examination. Secondly, a number of students, by virtue of having a good memory, get into a class where they do not deserve to be. Their lessons being beyond their comprehension, they feel bored in the class and create mischief. It is these students who pollute the atmosphere in the class and are responsible for the widespread indiscipline found in schools and colleges.

But even the devil must be given its due. It must be acknowledged that the examinations do compel students to study a little. Or they would not study even this much. Secondly, despite all the tricks played by chance, it is never noticed that a good student has failed or a third rater has topped. Thus, examinations may not be scientifically accurate or impartial; still they do substantial justice.
If we spread out our examinations and minimise the element of subjectivity involved, we could make this system fairly satisfactory. Let us have biennial examinations with a viva- voce and let us give due weight age to class work. It is also desirable to have an interview with the marginal cases before their final result is declared. If the examinations once go through the whole script before they started marking individual questions one by one, they could improve their judgement. It involves more time and labour would not be wasted.

With the spread of education, there has been a fabulous increase in the number of examinees. This has brought about further deterioration in an already not- so- sound a system. Examinations are often conducted in very poor conditions. Invigilation and supervision leave much to be desired. Leakage of question papers has gone up. Examiners are appointed 'en masse' and they often do a bad job of the work entrusted to them. But then there is no better substitute for this system. We cannot abolish these examinations.

Improvement

All we can do is to improve upon them so that they cease to be a lottery. Instead of completely doing away with the system, we should try to introduce certain reforms. Semester system should make the work round the year more even. Marking scripts can be made more accurate and uniform. Examinations may be accompanied with 'viva- voce' particularly in the case of marginal students. Unfair means can be checked as well.

Everest Goes Festive

By Bhimsen Thapaliya

AS THE fiftieth anniversary of the first ascent to the Sagarmatha approaches, the globe's highest peak is already in the media spotlight. The golden jubilee celebrations with different activities will remember the day of human pride in May 29 of 1953 when a Nepalese high altitude Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and his co-summiteer New Zealand's Sir Edmund Hillary made history by conquering the towering Himalayan challenge.

One of the big headline maker was the Internet café, the grandson of Tenzing Norgay planned to set up on the snow-capped massif. This high-tech communication venture to be installed on the highest point on earth comes amid the increasing number of climbers who may be wary to convey home their urgent messages. The climbers will feel blessed to email their messages from such a challenging remote place.

Tenzing's grand child Tshering Galzen would set up the advanced communication machines in a camp fortified by stone walls to protect it from possible impact of the inclement weather the region is infamous for. He reportedly plans to install eight laptop computers powered by generators and solar charged batteries. The native Sherpa has said that it is not the profit motive with which he is launching the globe's highest PCO. He wants to utilise the revenue to clean the Everest region which is witnessing piling heaps of trash created by the climbers. Violent winds, blizzards and snow-slides cannot be ruled out in this area. The steep slopes, extremely cold temperatures, shortage of natural oxygen and high altitude sickness are other challenges climbers face.

Coinciding with the Golden Jubilee celebrations this year, activities on the Everest are going to be brisk. With over 2 dozen expedition teams reportedly waiting for the permissions to scale the mountain this season, their treatment, rescue and communication requirements will naturally be high.
A Nepal-Russia joint venture is planning to set up oxygen treatment centres in the Everest region which will also be the highest booth of its kind. The oxygen rehabilitation centres will help rejuvenate the stamina of the exhausted climbers at the charge of 100 dollars per hour. For those inexperienced ones who may be stepping into the difficult Everest terrain and drilling on acclimatisation will have two oxygen supply centres where over half a dozen fatigued people could be treated at a time. Refilling facilities will also be made available for those whose oxygen bottles may go empty while they may be needing the breathing aid.

The freshly coming oxygen suppliers are also reportedly under the final stage of the trial in designing extra high pressure and light bottles so the climbers will not have to bother about changing oxygen cylinders on the way. Once the latest design, especially meant for the purpose of Everest climbers, comes out of the lab passing the tests, summiteers to the tallest peak will be able to complete the expedition under a single bottle.

Yet another tiding about the Everest is that a medical aid centre will be set up to meet the emergency medical needs of the climbers. According to media reports, two American doctors will man the Everest clinic and assisting them will be the Nepalese staff members. This medical facility is being set up this early April by Himalayan rescue agency which will coordinate the medical aid with rescue missions.

Stage of all these new facilities will be the Everest Base Camp at elevation of over 17,000 feet, the launching pad of the really strenuous climbing phase up the snowy slopes. Since 1953, around 200 people have lost their lives while attempting the scale the peak. But such losses are not unusual. This only proves the towering challenge of the peak. Mount Everest is not just another mound where everybody will plan a stroll.