European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 13, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes thursday february 13, 1986 columns William Buckley an argument for Universal service Tor americans it comes As a Surprise to Many who lend to think of our generals and Admi rals and indeed Alt military personnel As inanimate objects who arc useful Only to drop bombs on people actually to come across such Folk and discover sometimes with a Start that hey Are As intricately concerned with questions or Genera policy is the Heads of labor unions corporations or universities. I have in mind recent encounter with the commandant of the air War College at Maxwell air Force base. That is the installation i Alabama that evolved from the dying school Orville Wright established in 1910 in .1 Litile hangar alongside a 192-foot runway. The complement was Orville five student fliers and one Mechanic. Maxwell now houses an air University andean air training Center that among other things provides instructional materials for Mare than a half million students every y in. Charles Peters the attractively opinionated editor of the Washington monthly expresses among his myriad obsessions the conviction that one of the things the United states needs is a Universal draft. We arc losing he says and writes our sense of Community in America be James Kilpatrick cause there arc fewer and fewer shared experiences. The commandant at Maxwell has Points to make. A general peacetime draft Peters correctly observes that the voluntary military is More expensive than a conscript Ive military would be because the Pentagon needs to reach in and bid for the services of Young men and women in the free Market. But the commandant Points out if you had a Universal draft you would face a Pool of 18-year-Olds 10 times As Large As the military would need. You could t draft them All anyway unless the armed services were transformed into something very different namely a huge welfare Agency sort of an adjunct of the  ment of health and human services. What device could be used otherwise to mobilize the soldiery what about a lottery the visitor asked the trouble with a lottery the Comman Dant reflected is that too much is at stake too big a  military service even in peacetime is a huge psychological and physical commitment and probably any Fis sure currently sustained by having Ameri cans who serve in a Volunteer army and americans who have never served would grate As hard in a lol cry system. We must remind ourselves the commandant said that there is a progressively smaller and smaller percentage of americans who have Ever had military service As the veterans of world War i All but disappear and As we arrive at an age when Many americans were Only 10 years old at the time the Viet Nam Wai ended. But both Charles Peters and the com mandant fed the tug of a Lack of commonly held experience. We never had the Universal military experience advocated by George Washington and Harry Truman and we be managed even so to maintain our cohesive Ness while absorbing the streams of Immi Grants who came to America with Little in common with the fledgling institutions of a Young country. But in recent years there is a hankering for the common experience. Franklin Thomas of the Ford foundation i eloquent on the subject of Universal service of some kind or other and i have written on the subject eager and inquisitive. The commandant is right uni Versal service can t be based on the Mili tary because its requirements would not need the services of an entire 18-year-old generation and the military has no Appe Tite to become so to speak an Extension of the red Cross. What s needed is imagination by the private sector. And once every five years or so i quote myself on the subject. If the dozen leading colleges in America were to specify As a condition of enrolment of a freshman evidence of n year s activity to civic charitable or religious work a common denominator being the offering of a Young person Lime for the Benefit of others an ethos might quickly develop backed by the Pri vate sector and embracing the whole country. Complicated yes the financing the regulations the exceptions. But entering College at age 19 having spent a year helping to care for old people in Homes or teaching ghetto children to read or Shor ing up Security in the subways or helping to maintain the Park and museums and libraries would add up to a Little but indelible contribution to a society that permits us so much by giving us Freedom and sovereignty and including the 24 hour per Day concern of Maxwell air Force base. Univ real pro Syndicate "1 Gorbachev proposal deserves hopeful wary look millennium carries two definitions one literal the other poetic. A millennium is a period of 1,000  is also a period of great happiness or human  the proposal advanced lust month by soviet Leader Mik Hail Gorbachev embraces both meanings. We ought to look at this proposition hopefully and warily As Well " this is what he said the soviet Union is proposing a step by step and consistent process of ridding the Earth of nuclear weapons to be implemented and completed within the next is years be fore inc end of this  in stage one Over the next five to eight years both sides would reduce by one half the nuclear arms that can reach each other s  this would in clude Long Range bombers As Well As land and sea based missiles. At the end of phase one each Side would be limited to 6,000 warheads. In a second stage beginning no later than 1990, the two Powers would eliminate their medium Range nuclear weapons and freeze their tactical nuclear sys tems. Stage three will begin no later than 1995. In this stage the elimination of All remaining nuclear weapons will be completed. By the end of 1999 there will b. No nuclear weapons on Earth. A Universal Accord will be drawn up that such weapons never again will come into  the Gorbachev proposal contains other elements. Manifestly it could not succeed unless other nuclear Powers England France China presumably is Rael possibly India joined in the Accord. Gorbachev makes the whole plan contingent upon abandonment by the United Stales of development and deploy ment of defensive weapons in space. There would also be a ban on non nuclear weapons based on new physical principles whose destructive capacity is close to that of nuclear  Gorbachev fur ther suggests the Complete elimination of such Barbaric weapons of mass destruction As chemical  finally he proposes that conventional weapons and armed forces also became subject to agreed  is one to make of All this on the record of the past 50 years the soviet Union could not care less about world opinion but Gorbachev is a Genius at Public relations. It is truly remarkable to Sec the head of the soviet state whose troops lately have been killing the Chil Dren of Afghanistan by bombs concealed in toys wrapping himself in a Messiah s Mantle of peace on Earth Good will to Ward men. Hope Springs eternal. Ronald Reagan has said Many times that he shares Gorbachev s dream of a world free of the threat of nuclear War. Could the dream turn into reality like All other accords or compacts or treaties this one has its Fine print. The term warhead for example is meaningless without calibration in terms of a warhead s destructive Power. The soviet Union s warheads k la i Lui Valint of m in ours a Crane about300,000 tons. The bomb that destroyed " of tons " 94s had he e Luisa end during this first stage when each Side would Cut Down to 6?000 warheads to is m�5 Lcarl Ould Gor re ,l�8e. Moreover the Gorbachev proposal apparently would m " to y our forces from Europe would this not leave our Western allies vulnerable to if cd massive land and air forces of the a. Saw pact president Reagan s response was exact v by what the occasion demanded. He welcomed the overture. He would look at a carefully. While it contained Many of elements it contained some new elements. Also. He would direct Pur negotiators at Geneva to examine it with care. I am sceptical. Hamlet voiced a wars ing for All Ages one May smile and j smile and be a  let us Lemiz about throw weight let us learn about verification let us approach this offer m cautiously As a cat in a co barn we Max smell a rat. But let us also move with a prayerful and hopeful heart