Birmingham Southern College - Southern Accent Yearbook (Birmingham, AL)

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A truck bomb exploded in front of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut on April 18, 1983; 17 Americans were killed. On October 3, of the same year, 241 U.S. servicemen were killed when a truck bomb exploded at the U.S. Ma- rine headquarters in Beirut. An Italian cruise liner, the Achille Lauro, was hijacked on October 7, 1985 by four Palestinian terrorists; one American passenger was k illed. On December 27, 1985, 20 people, in- cluding 5 Americans, were killed when terrorists attacked the airports at Rome and Vienna. On April 5, 1986, a bomb exploded in a crowded West Berlin discotheque frequented by American servicemen. Two people, one an American soldier, were killed. Another 155 people were injured. These and other incidents illustrate the rising amounts of violence and ter- rorism prevalent in our world today. Recently, the focus of international ter- rorism has been centered on Libya ' s Moammar Khadafy, and his role in fos- tering these events. In an effort to curb these acts of vio- lence. President Reagan imposed eco- nomic sanctions against Libya, an act that many other countries did not fol- low. On January 7, 1986, President Reagan ordered all Americans to leave Libya, and severed the remaining eco- nomic ties between the U.S. and Libya. At the same time, he ordered U.S. air- craft carrier groups into the Mediterranean, off the coast of Libya. Monday, April 15, 1986, the United States conducted a bombing raid on the Libyan capital of Tripoli, as well as other Libyan targets. President Reagan, in a speech informing the American public of the raid, cited proof of Libya ' s involvement in current world terror- ism. The American raid on Libya has been a very controversial subject, perhaps the most controversial of the President ' s two terms of office. Emo- tions have ranged from pride to sadness to fear. Americans seem proud that we are not standing idly by while groups of fanatics hold the world hostage; we feel sad at the deaths of in- nocent people, both through terrorist acts and retaliatory raids; we are afraid of entering another Viet Nam type war and increased terrorism as a retaliatory measure. Perhaps, in a sense, international politics has entered a new phase, where power is wielded by those that can induce people to kill innocent bystanders in an attempt to pressure the older style of international rela- tions; that of war. The Lq BeiJe discotheque after the explosion of a powerful bomb that killed 2. Speculation on responsibility has led to Lib- ya, but is still undetermined. o ■CT» e » t» Pride, Sadnc33, or Fear? By Bert Oliver 234— Issues

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By Rob Faircloth fW g WhaVo the next move? Moments after lift-off, the Challenger exploded. The ex- plosion was the first in-fJight di- saster in 56 U.S. manned space missions. Tfie two spirals of smoke in the photograph are the shuttie ' s rocliet boosters. NASA officials originally believed that the boosters were the cause of the explosion, but now they are When the team was assigned to de- sign and build the Apollo 11 the first manned spacecraft to the moon, thousands of ordinary men and wom- en — project managers, secretaries, tech- nicians — suddenly became super- achievers who were doing the best work of their lives. The manager of that team, after it had gone from the bottom 50% in productivity to the top 15%, once pointed to the moon and told his assistant, The reason we ' re doing so well is that people have been dreaming about going there for thousands of years, and we ' re going to do it. On January 8 of this year, the dream of mankind on the moon and space flight in general was tested as seven members of the Shuttle Challenger died moments after it took off. Those seven astronauts dreamt of going into space, and they died fulfilling the same dream that had inspired the members of the first Apollo team. After Neil Armstrong took man ' s first step on the moon, and after the first U.S. shuttle, Columbia, made its orbital test flight, the dream to be in space never died or became less intense. It is unsure now whether or not that dream will fade after a disaster such as the Challenger. Recently NASA and America ' s space program have come under heavy fire for the Challenger tragedy and three successive missile failures. Hopefully the intensity and drive for space flight will not fade as a result. Columbia ' s triumphant reentry and return five years ago marked the beginning of a new era for the United States in the space age. As astronaut Robert Crippen, upon emerging from Colum- bia, put it, the U.S. was back in the space business to stay. In the wake of the Challenger tragedy, people mourned the death of the astronauts and were shocked out of the idea the space program was infallible. The space program has, admittedly, stubbed its toe— and fell flat on its face. But President Reagan told the nation exactly right, Nothing ends here. Whatever the causes of the Challenger disaster and NASA ' s re- peated failures of late, one conclusion is clear. The U.S., for whatever reasons, cannot pull back from space. We can ' t afford to be gun-shy. We get back up, remember those who gave their lives for the sake of their dream — the nation ' s dream — and we begin again. Nothing ends here The Challenger— 233

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Terrorism — 235