European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 26, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes saturday. Aoril 26. 1986 James j. Kilpatrick next of me khad Afy must pay an even larger Price the Story is told of the Indian chief who measured his patience with pebbles. He marked every grievance by putting a Pebble in his Pouch. When the Pouch was full he went to War. So too with Ronald Reagan. The president s strike against libyan targets was Justi fied by every consideration of prudent National policy. It culminated years of provocation by Moa mar khad Afy though it was immediately triggered by the terrorist bombing of a Berlin nightclub on april 5. Not to have responded with Force would have left an intolerable image of the United states throughout the world and president Reagan did what he had to do. We now find ourselves engaged for the unforeseeable future in what defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger described As a new kind of Many americans still have vivid recollections of world War i when Battle lines could be neatly drawn across a map of France. Most americans recall the years of world War ii when conventional forces were locked in conventional War on land and sea. Even in Vietnam the War was confined to a Small and Well defined area. Terrorism is different. There can be no Battle lines no formal engagements of combat ships no counterattacks against elusive guerrillas. Questions of military tactics and strategy become almost irrelevant. Khad Afy s next attack May fall anywhere. The libyan Leader is literally unconscionable he is indifferent to the murder or maiming of civilians. He could attack a Pas David Broder Senger lounge at o Hare in Chicago or at Stapleton in Denver he could leave his bloody footprints on a sports event at Yankee stadium he could attempt some spectacular piece of barbarism when the statue of Liberty is rededicated next summer. How does one sanely defend against such lunacy the answer it seems to me is to mount a truly devastating retaliation at the next provable and significant grievance. The attack on a . Coast guard communications facility on the Island of Lampedusa might have qualified. Let us make haste slowly. The attack against Libya was measured. It was not an All out response. The president was concerned with inflicting physical damage on libyan installations of course but he was at least equally concerned with the symbolic and psychological effects of the raid. The object is to convince khad Afy that he must pay a heavy Price for his gruesome fun and games. Next time that Price must be unbearably Large. By that i mean to suggest the mining of libyan har Bors so effectively that nothing larger than a Rowboat moves. Khad Afy s Oil Fields become a feasible but difficult target. Airfields could be bombed to rubble. All of this is much More easily said than done. There would be casualties and there would be unpredictable reactions from our putative allies from Arab states and from the soviet Union. Massive retaliation to khad Afy s next atrocity will be expensive in every Way. Peaceful alternatives Are worse. What alternatives Well it is said we should give diplomacy one More try. That is essentially what the 12 members of the european economic Community suggested in their Resolution. Our Sunshine friends cherish the naive notion that a paper denunciation of libyan terrorism coupled with a chessboard movement of ambassadors May persuade Kheda by of the error of his ways. The Man is immune to civilized persuasion. He understands bombs. Another alternative is to persuade our friends in Europe to unite in economic sanctions to isolate Libya from the Commerce of the world. Even if they could be so persuaded it has to be said once More that sanctions simply do not work. Out of sympathy or out of greed men and nations would continue to Trade. What of the United nations it is inconceivable that the Security Council would take effective action against Libya. On the contrary recourse to the United nations predictably would result Only in an anti american Resolution in the general Assembly. Two Hundred years ago our fledgling Republic was being terrorized by the Barbary pirates. From Algiers Tunis and Tripoli they preyed upon shipping in the Mediterranean. Thomas Jefferson remarked in 1785 that our country was caught Between indignation and Impo we Are not impotent now. Universal press Syndicate Stockman needs to earn about political integrity you Coop say you re another off takes one to kn0w0me but that vhf ult be treating him like a he of state Down South where i have been re porting they like to say there s no Edu cation in the second kick of a Washington has lost so much of its South renness that it no longer knows that to be True. Hence the Hullabaloo about David a. Stockman s new Book. In the excerpts from the Triumph of politics Why the Reagan revolution failed published in a recent Newsweek Stockman argues that the budget and tax scheme he helped push through Congress in 1981 was a fraud. It was bound to pro Duce the devastating deficits we now have. He knew it Early he says and if presi Dent Reagan and the others High in the administration did not it was simply be cause they were so economically illiterate or politically fixated that they overlooked the obvious. Stockman s View is news Only to those who have just Learned to read or who spent the last four years with the Freedom fighters in Nicaragua. He said the same thing at the end of 1981 in his celebrated Atlantic Magazine interviews with William a. Grieder. His first confession of duplicity was for Given by the president and was so Charm ing to virtually All of establishment Washington that he was encouraged to stick around and con us through another four budgets. When he finally quit in 1985, the editorials and the speeches on Capitol Hill hailed him As the greatest Public servant since Henry a. Kissinger. I was an almost Lone dissenter at the time arguing that Stockman was Funda mentally dishonourable in staying on in continuing to express private doubts about administration policy while engaging in the conspiracy of Public silence which helped prevent serious debate about the budget in the 1984 Campaign. Now he has published a Memoir that says much the same thing. Judging by the Magazine excerpts it is More self accusatory than self serving. Once again Washington is titillated. And once again Washington is missing the Point. The Point is not his confession. There is i am sorry to say nothing new to be Learned about the character of David Stockman. He is an extremely Bright and facile Young Man. But he has advanced to the Heights without grasping anything but manipulative skills. He is Loyal to no one cheerfully insulting the talents and judgments of the president who elevated him and pardoned his first breach of Trust and demeaning almost All the others he was pleased to Call his colleagues. It is not yet Clear that Stockman has grasped the obligation anyone in Public life has to provide his Best judgment to the people he serves the president the Congress and ultimately the Public. On the fundamental imbalance in the Reagan program of cutting taxes and accelerating defense he says his tory cannot blame the president for not considering this question i never provided him with a single briefing on in his Short but variegated Public life Stockman has been consistent in Only one respect he has always been ready to denounce his previous associates in terms that will please his new ones. He recanted his student radicalism when he joined the House republicans. He trashed Congress to please the administration. And now he feeds the anti politics Bias of his new associates on Wall Street by writing a Book that reduces government policy making to the level of a Shell game run by crooked carnival con men. I can hardly wait for the next instalment when Stockman decides to re enter politics and exposes the Hanky Panky in the world of High finance. No there is nothing left to learn about David Stockman. And Washington will prob ably do its Best to learn nothing from him. The problem he helped create the Stag Gering deficit is still Here. Because of the continued intransigence of both president Reagan and the House democratic leadership the deadline for action on the first Bud get Resolution was once again missed. The serious bipartisan Effort by Senate republicans and democrats to address this problem is still stalemated. Washington would rather talk about the Stockman Book than Deal with the Stockman legacy. The second lesson Washington wished to ignore is the confirmation Stockman offers of the biggest official secret of the last five years Ronald Reagan governs Day by Day with Only the feeble St grasp of the com plex realities of Public issues. The question Stockman asks is one that requires us to keep fingers crossed for the next 33 months what do you do when your president ignores All the palpable relevant facts and wanders in circles the final lesson is the most uncomfortable of All for the Washington establishment David Stockman is a product of his City s culture he was esteemed and honoured by this City s leaders. The implications of that fact Are More staggering than any of his the Reagan administration will surely sur Vive the Stockman Book. Washington has sur Vived his tenure in Congress and in the budget office. But this government and this country Are in trouble if we Don t find leaders of Stock Man s generation who have a clearer grasp than he has displayed of the fundamental standards of personal and political integrity. Washington Post writers group
