European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 12, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes saturday april 12, 1986 Tom Wicker military might can t solve problem of terrorism when the . Navy recently Dis played its Power against libyan forces in the Gulf of Sidra some were tempted to claim that Only such shows of Force could make people like Moa mar khad Afy Call a halt to terrorist attacks. When the bombing of a Twa Airliner Over the Mediterranean then resulted in the deaths of four americans and an explosion at a Berlin nightclub killed another some were tempted to say that military retaliation for terrorist attacks can Only generate More of the same. Neither attitude answers the problem. Plainly the action in the Gulf of Sidra whatever message it May have sent to khad Afy has not put a Stop to the kind of terrorist attacks in which he is alleged to be complicit. Nor will such a reaction Ever do so for these attacks Are not the doing of some sinister Mastermind or the product of any one country or group. It s not at All certain for example that khad Afy was behind the Airliner or night club attacks or for that matter the earlier Airport bombings in Rome and Vienna Austria that were part of the . Motivation for the Gulf of Sidra action. Syria and Iran May Well be More Active centers of terrorist training and planning than Libya. And though several nations May give Aid Comfort and shelter to terrorists some attacks probably Are carried out by groups that Are not controlled by any government. Bombing raids naval gunfire and most available forms of . Retaliation therefore not Only would be indiscriminate in that innocent people might be Hurt or killed which would tend to blur the distinction Between their terrorism and our responses. Such attacks might not even be directed against the right targets. Even if a particular retaliatory action did find a proper and limited target that target would not be the Only and not even necessarily the prime source of terrorism. But if a policy of retaliation cannot have the sweeping effect some hawkish Ameri cans like to imagine it s True that the United states and the West generally can not stand by and do nothing to deter or thwart terrorism. At the most elementary level for example the United states and other terrorist target nations need to exert constant pressures for greater airline and Airport Security measures particularly on William buckleyoxon6l,but your insurance has 8kn nations that May themselves tend to be unsympathetic to . Policies. The Reagan administration is on sound ground too in pushing its allies for More and stronger economic and diplomatic sanctions against nations believed to Foster or protect terrorists. The Berlin bombing and a number of terrorist episodes in France seem to be having a salutary effect in persuading europeans of what ought to have been obvious that it s not just . Citizens who Are being put at risk but any innocent person of whatever nationality who comes within Range of the terrorist s gun or bomb. When moreover the United states has a properly identified and limited target for military response As with the Achille Lauro hijackers who were intercepted by . Fighter planes Over the Mediterranean and forced Down in Sicily it has every right to act speedily and forcefully. The International legality of that interception can be plausibly defended and had Italy been willing to hold Mohammed Abbas a major terrorist Leader might have been put out of action. K even that however could not have brought an end to terrorist attacks in the Mediterranean conceivably it might have stimulated More of them As the Navy action in the Gulf of Sidra May have done. Abbas could have been made Over into a Martyr in the Arab world As some Evi Dence suggests has happened in the Case of khad Afy. Nor should typically impatient Ameri cans in their Confidence that there s Al ways a Quick fix for anything that s wrong believe that if Mediterranean travel is unsafe this year fast and effective . Action can make it Safe by next year or the year after. The United states does not have the Power to make it so. Terrorism Springs from the deep seated grievances real or imagined or both of people who have few if any other Means to fight powerful adversaries. In the Mediterranean area these grievances Center on the  Israel the plight of the palestinians and the belief that . Policies Are mainly responsible for both indeed in the Case of Iran for All the evils of the modern world. Powerful cultural differences moreover make it pos sible for some Middle Eastern terrorists not Only to sacrifice their lives in a Way that few westerners would but to commit acts of violence that in Western eyes seem Barbaric. While All this is the Case a War the United states is ill equipped to fight is Likely to continue a hard lesson in the limits of Power. C new York times How much that s the key question in civil suits state Legislatures Are finally getting around to doing something about the civil suit scams we have All been read ing about which threaten to leave much of american uninsured and uninsurable. But begin at the beginning. A Drunken Driver runs Over and kills your 12-year-old boy. What then Well under the Law he is twice liable. The state goes after him for committing a crime driving under the influence of alcohol As they phrase it. And depending on this or that he might get a suspended sentence or he might get 10 years in jail. But you also have a civil Case and you Are approached by a lawyer who volunteers to press that Case in return for one third of the Money you Are Able to wrest from the Driver Well yes certainly the Driver. For one. As the lawyer explains there is also the watering place where the Guy got drunk  for letting him get loaded. And maybe he was drinking a particular Brand of Vodka friends reported you should go after the liquor manufacturer claiming that the Vodka has a special toxicity. And so on and so Forth. They Call the Jumble above joint and several  that Means that you search out the deep pockets i.e., the wealthiest people around however tangentially involved in the Case because the Guy who actually killed your boy might not have $10 in assets. Many states Are going to do away with the doctrine of joint and several liability or else they Are planning to stipulate a ceiling beyond which a plaintiff can t go say $50,000 for the bar he got drunk at that kind of thing. The trial lawyers Are obviously opposed Why should they vote for wage and Price controls for lawyers the insurance companies Are in favor As Are other american businesses As Are Doc tors who Are paying More and More Mal practice insurance As Are construction companies indeed everyone who fancies some  of limited liability. One begins by asking a philosophical question what is human life Worth it is obviously impossible to answer that. In one sense it is infinitely valuable there is no replacing that 12-year-old boy who got killed. But to concede that a life is infinitely valuable is also to undermine the notion of just compensation. How can you compensate for something that is irreplaceable when the Vatican sent Over Miche langelo s Pieta to the new York world s fair in 1964, there was no insurance on stat All. That much granted we Are talking not about a fair Price paid for human life but about compensation which needs to be finite. How do you measure it Early in 1930s, we Are told a Brash Young lawyer was suing a company whose employee had been mangled in an Industrial Accident resulting in his emasculation. The resourceful lawyer brought in a Young woman who looked exactly like the voluptuous wife of his 25-year-old client. He asked his witness what was her profession and she answered demurely that she was a lady of pleasure. Well the lawyer pursued his Point How much did she charge her clients a $25. The next witness was a doctor and the question to him had to do with the number of unions a 25-year-old might expect with his wife before Well before dying or retiring from the Field. The Law yer triumphantly multiplied that number by $25, and told the jury his client should receive $175,000, and the jury agreed. Not All complaints lend themselves to calculations of such architectural neatness. And the thrust of remedial legislation is to separate damages actually sustained from the pain and suffering impalpable with which prosecutors love to Deal. If the slain child lingered in the Hospital the lawyer would ask compensation for the pain he putatively sustained. If the child was killed outright the lawyer might begin by trying to calculate How much Money he d have earned in a Normal lifetime. But the objective would be to limit claims to economic losses plus a measure of punitive damages. If the doctor left his pliers in your Stom Ach and you go Back for another operation to pull them out obviously that doctor or his insurance company has to pay the hos Pital Bill plus what in punishment for his carelessness that is the question How much if there is no ceiling pretty soon there won t be Many signs of economic life. Universal press Syndicate