European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 17, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes july 1985 columns William Buckley will the or continue to tolerate terrorism when rip Van Winkle one cant imag Ine a happier discovery than that he had slept through a hostage i have been incommunicado on the pacify and thereby avoided the awful Burden of specific advice to Ronald Twenty years responding to something i had written on the subject of South Rebecca West wrote to me i agree that any one who criticizes As i have done the policies of apart Heid bears the responsibility of describing a palatable what was reagans palatable alternative Flash Forward to his recent stirring address to the american bar Here Reagan said not in effect just Plain said that the United states is at War with a Loose confederation of International bandits whose aim is the destruction of Freedom and the isolation of the United and that their instrument is he went on to say that the Ameri can people have in the past risen to meet such Chal Lenges which is mostly True in we and that we would do so do what now Here Reagan was he told the lawyers that this speech was not an exploration of policy but rather an exercise in laying Down the factual it is a season in which we face note the word carefully the need for How freighted was that word the expense of an air strike against enemy targets int much of a sacrifice to the american an air strike Doest Cost All that much More than a vice presidential tour of of course there is the danger of the Pilot being shot but army pilots choose a profession in which risk even As firefighters and policemen what other sacrifices did Reagan have in mind surely the possibility in dealing rather forcefully Wilh our hostages might there Are three Levels at which the the survival of a hostage held by a terrorist can be the first assigns total priority to the survival of the that position was close to the position the government took during the iranian hostage at the other end is a position of the kind associated with total when we bombed Large areas during the second world we knew we would risk dropping bombs on american prisoners of in Between is the position that accepts risk for the hostages but presupposes great exertions designed to Combine Rescue and such a determination guided the israelis in rescuing their hostages in in and the United under president in rescuing our hostages in Cambodia in the Mayaguez such a position would have had the president warning the so irites in Beirut that a massive air strike against that discrete part of the City in which the so irites dwell would be ordered within 48 hours if the James Reston hostages were not what would have happened we do not they might have been and that release might have assured the serenity of future who Are bound now to multiply As a result of the Success of the shiite or the retaliatory strike might have resulted in the loss of 39 the Middle is the appropriate All of reagans rhetoric deposits us exactly at that the United states will not be we will not suffer atrocities what we need now is an one that is defensible and for reasons not Only of but also of to Rescue the government from the Igno Miny of the present there Are seven hostages in the Bekaan Ameri cans kidnapped As Long ago As in the Spring of Washington disposes of crisis management including the the National Security Agency and the department of we want our americans and whatever the differences among the fratricidal factions that govern there is a common interest in let us a hard military strike of a previously announced target that serves the country on the of soon now we will be observing yet another Annivera the contest that ended with the explosion of an atomic bomb had begun four years it began with Pearl and it ended with we now Rule out apocalyptic stakes because they Are planet shattering in but we do not Rule and Reagan has said so in As Many the Central and these Are that terrorism at the expense of american citizens will not be so will we continue to tolerate it o1985 Universal press Syndicate this president has a team to carry burdens of office the capital is concerned now primarily about the health of the and so the news is one Side or the they May disagree with but All around they like and Are longing for his recovery and he has usually been regarded As a Lucky but in the first six months of his second he has been tormented by the he was confronted by a restless Cabinet and White House his old buddy and personal William French resigned As attorney to be replaced by another old de who was confirmed by the Senate but Only after a his White House chief of James wanted to go to the and his Secretary of the Donald wanted to go to the White so the who likes to agree with switched them to concentrate on the budget but before they could move the David Stockman resigned As head of the office of management and proclaiming that reconciling the differences be tween the executive and legislative branches on the Cor Strol of the budget was beyond his then came the hostage crisis in then a Compromise Between the president and speaker Oneill on social Security and defense which infuriated almost followed by the presidents trip to the operating in the last of he first six months of the presi dents second term have been the but probably things Are not As bad As they every illness of a president sends a shudder through the so it was when president Eisenhower had a heart attack and an ileitis and when president Johnson was but the things everybody feared the most then never they recovered and met their responsibilities to the things Are different now in times of personal presidential it is no longer possible to hide from the Congress and the people the facts of a presidents inability to do his As Woodrow Wilson did in the last years of his with his doctors hiding the facts and his wife assuming his presidential Reagan met these responsibilities before he went into surgery by making Clear that vice president George Bush would act in his Stead while he was unconscious under a general thus All of the Legal responsibilities were More than that now we get almost too Many facts about the internal affairs of the with pictures and mystifying clarifications of the wonders and frail ties of the upper and lower and the danger of and the agony of the patients other things Are different since the Days of Woodrow Franklin Roosevelt was physically handicapped during four terms in the White House and it was scarcely in you could almost argue that presidents get in More trouble when they Are jumping around than when they have time to sit quietly and theres no big crisis in Washington one of the honest things about Reagan is that he never really acts As if he is in except he is not like Jimmy who tried to understand who cooked every meal and washed every and even decided who and when people could play Tennis on the White House Reagan has a different View of the before he went to the he Cut a tape for his saturday afternoon radio his own pollsters Tell him nobody listens to these saturday but he goes the chief spokesman and chairman of the the other Side of this Reagan if you can Call it is that he delegates the Power of his and does t pretend that he can do Bush has been in on every tussle and decision of this and with his experience in the House the Cia and As ambassador to China and the United is probably More ready to help out in a Reagan crisis than anybody Donald As chief of staff at the White is probably the Central at least during the presidents temporary he will Fin l alone is to replace Stockman at Umb and he has Good relations with Baker at Treasury George Shultz at state and Caspar Wein Berger at v the main thing Here is that Reagan get through the next couple of but if he takes a much deserved rest he has a team in the White House and the Cabinet that will carry c 1985 new York times