European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 21, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes sunday decomber21,1986 George f. Will Reagan needs to inflict some presidential fury9 on am1ktam Battlefield where  were killed or  d on what remains Amenta s blood Iest Ai Here stands a Majestic Monument to a ser Geant. H is 30 fed loll and crowned by a sloni1 Eagle and is inscribed sergeant Mckinley co. E., 23rd Ohio vol. Nifty. Wink in i Harge of Fth commissary department Ort the afternoon of the Day of the Battle of Ani islam sept. 17. Ib62. Personally and without orders served hot Coffee and warm food to every Man in the regiment on this i in. And in doing so had to pass under  Coffee served personally and without orders can be commemorated As heroism if the server later gets elected president As William Mckinley did. Heroism Enn he in he eyes of the beholders. Perhaps the place to begin plumbing the deepening mystery of Ronald Reagan s reaction to the soup he is sinking into is with his notion that Oliver North is a hero. If his nation Ever again needs to win a War it will learn the Folly of its current practice of dogging the u per reaches of the armed services with uniformed bureaucrats rather than warriors like North. On the other hand the White mouse has Learned the fully of pulling warriors like North where they do not belong. North who looks More like a Marine than anyone has looked since Lime began May be one of those men who. Regarding material wealth arid personal Fame want but Lille Here below heaven. Bui people like that in politics need to be watched carefully precisely because they do not care a Straw for the Marc mundane satisfactions that fill the lives of the less passionate. Between the asceticism of the Mizii and the severity of the fanatic there s a differ ence Misc Linn s so Small As to be in Discerni ble there is. Presumably less Novelty bubbling in the barrels of he administration now that North s stupendous Energy and ruinous resourcefulness Are absent. But what remains is Reagan s penchant for strewing ban a peels in his own path. North was such a Peel As was Reagan s subsequent Celebration of him us a hero. Realm s assessment is the judgment of a Man prone to measuring moral qualities by intentions rather than re sults the judgment of a sentimentalist an anti political judgment an unserious judgment. One meaning of that judgment and of the Oliver North k a hero Lapel but tons it has Given Rise to. Is that some conservatives Are determined to Haveth Crown sixties in the eighties. Reagan came to prominence during and to a significant extent because of. The eruption of extremism throughout the culture of the l%0s. Extremism on the left was rationalised by incompetent Chi costs who regarded an intense inner life sincerity As a justification for wilful Public actions including Many actions that Vio lated Laws manners and other forms of due process. Anthony Lewis conservatism grew particularly among intellectuals in reaction against such politics conserva lives asserted traditional concern for process As a Check against excess. Now the betrayal of that concern is not even eliciting a countervailing passion of Indig nation from the nation s Foremost conservative. A character Trail that helped plunge the president into crisis is becoming More pronounced As the crisis worsens. Indeed the trait is a cause of the worsening. The trait is More alarming than a Mere detachment from administrative details. It is a Low and evidently declining level of political Energy. That is Why Rea Gan s while House now resembles that Dinosaur whose nervous system was so sluggish that an injury to the Tail did not Register in the brain for Many seconds. Where one wonders is Reagan s anger i f i i is True that North and others acted on their own initiative Ihen North and those of hers some of whom Are almost certainly still on Reagan s payroll have permanently diminished him. If. As seems sickeningly possible it is discovered that th5 commits wants to some iranian Money seeped into Domestic politics the scandal will acquire two new assets venality and Politi Cal corruption. If so Reagan s Public accomplishments Over 20 years will be indiscriminately devalued by an angry Public. Yet Reagan showed More anger Over control Ufa microphone in 1980 in Nashua. N.h., than he has shown about the injury done to himself and More Iro por Tant to the nation by his  absence or presidential passion fury for starters feeds the suspicion that an inability to eel reflects in inability to understand what is engulfing him and it producing entropy at the Center of government Reagan is Friendly Man with i suspect few close friends however one of them As an act of Friendship must give dutch a dutch Uncle s talking to. Explaining that some presidential fury should be self inflicted. The beginning of recovery must be Reagan s belated recognition that nothing North did was More indefensible than Reagan s own policy whatever it was Ransom ing hostages or courting iranian moderates that North thought he was serving.1c  . Can do More to bring apartheid s demise two Vars ago 35 conservative republicans in the House of representatives wrote to the South Afri can ambassador in Washington urging an Early end to apartheid. They wanted Good relations Between our two countries they said hut he reality of apartheid and the violence used to keep in in place make it Likely that our relations will  what the prescient letter foresaw has taken place. As the South african government has determinedly held to the apartheid system As the repression and violence needed to enforce it have increased relations with the United states have deteriorated. Pretoria blames the economic sanctions approved by Congress Over president Reagan s veto. President . Botha even accused Reagan of taking up the sword against us on behalf of the soviet  the Ruth is As the House conservatives saw in two years ago apartheid is the cause of bad relations. When Pretoria ceased to make any pretence of casing racism a rupture was inevitable. That turning Point came last Spring Long before the sanctions legislation was approved. Botha turned away from the possibility which he had seemed id entertain of seriously negotiating with South Africa s Black majority. He sent an Eminem Commonwealth mediating Mission packing. Botha has underlined the message in Stark terms Ever since. Al Home he has taken emergency Powers detained thousands and throttled the press. Abroad he has bombed and carried out raids in Many neighbouring Black ruled countries. That is Good Domestic politics for him Given his White constituency bul it makes friction with the United Stales inevitable. The question is what the United states can do about it. The Reagan administration has merely wrung its hands and expressed concern. A Resolute washing Ion with a sense of the american interests urgently Ai stake would find much to do 1. Immediately sever All intelligence connections with the South african regime. President Reagan restored the practice ended by president Carter of cooperating with South Africa intelligence. The practice apparently goes As far As our supplying Pretoria with material on anti apartheid movements. That we should do so is a scandal. 2. Help South Africa s neighbors protect themselves against its raids and subversion. Michael Armacost. The undersecretary of state for political affairs Aid in Botswana the other Day thai the United states was deeply disturbed by the recent South Africa Cross Border raids into Swaziland and by South african threats against Botswana and its other  his words certainly struck the right note bul deeds would Mailer More there is an emergency Case for american military support of any of those countries that asks for help. A symbolic american presence would also be helpful. When South african forces carried out murders and kidnappings in Swaziland for example the . Ambassador in Pretoria might have flown there at once to demonstrate our disapproval of such terrorism. 3. Support efforts of the frontline Stales to end their economic dependence on South Africa. Secretary of state George Shults has endorsed the single most important economic plan of South Africa s beleaguered neighbors to upgrade the rail lines and roads from land locked Zimbabwe to the Moz Ambi Quan port of Beira. But the Beira corridor idea requires not just capital investment but political and Mili tary support Mozambique is now at the mercy of a South Afri can supported guerrilla movement. Rena to. A deter mined american government would give military Aid to Mozambique a step that would require removal of a congressional ban on such Aid. A sensible administration would also gel Over its pique at a foolish speech by a zimbabwean minister in our embassy last july 4, and repair relations with that critical country. 4. Disentangle ourselves from South african intervention in Angola. The angolan guerrilla movement Unita Long de pendent on South Africa now gets Covert american Aid too. The involvement Only cripples . Efforts to mediate regional disputes and earns us opprobrium As a partner of Pretoria. In All these actions the United Stales would be act ing in its own interest. Otherwise the Black countries of the Region will be forced to turn elsewhere for Hup against an increasingly Prussiani Zed South Africa and elsewhere is the East