European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 25, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes wednesday february 25,1987 William Buckley threat of totalitarianism can begin at Home further on the subject of the fuss kicked up by Abc s amerika the planted axiom of most of the critics goes beyond merely thai soviet occupation of the United states is inconceivable. Whether it is is an arguable question. But the derivative question of course is whether something like life As lived under soviet style totalitarianism is conceivable for America. So preposterous docs this seem the critics disdain even talking about the possibility even As they would disdain to talk about an animal kingdom or the land of of. We exhibit Here inc highest form of ethnocentric hubris. Without saying so we arc saying that such a thing could happen just about anywhere else but not of course Here. It pays to remind ourselves that he totalitarian lash k inflicted primarily by natives. We hear much of the terror in the soviet War in Afghanistan is to subdue the proud afghan people. But tic proud afghan people constitute the resistance and that is a Small minority. In Afghanistan Here arc he proud and Noble then there arc those who Are either apathetic or afraid and then there arc the collaborators. There arc 15 million people in Afghanistan and we hear most often about the 110,000 russian soldiers. Granted that unlike the afghan peasant the russian arrives on the scene with machine guns in hand and hand grenades at the ready. Bui the Over whelming majority of the crimes being carried out on the afghans Are crimes by Oiher afghans the collaborators. Why should we be surprised the nazis who occupied France during the second world War relied Pri Marily on French collaborators to implement the nazi will. The Collaborator vastly outnumbered the Resis Tance for the very simple reason that few Are courageous. After All that s Why we give medals to the few. Does the typical czech fear a russian police Man no. He fears a czech policeman. So is it in Bulgaria and Romania. Poland s general Jaruzelski is not a soviet official. Needless to say Hitler relied on germans Mussolini on italians. Menei Slu on ethiopians pol pot on those cambodians he forgot to kill. A but America again inconceivable Ponder his paragraph from Armando Valladares Book against All Valladares is he cuban pod Patriot who spent 22 years in Castro s torture Chambers for declining to proclaim himself a communist. Cape. Herman f. Marks an american whom fide Castro had appointed head of the Garrison of la Cabana and official executioner was the Man who tired those coups de Grace pistol shots to assure that the condemned is truly dead and carried out the inspect Anthony Lewis tons. When he was drunk which he was very frequently Marks would order the Garrison to form up in full military gear and attack the prisoners he called the prison his private Hunting Reserve another of his amusements was to stroll through inc prison Halls and Call out to those who were to be tried for offences which carried the death penalty he would ask them behind which ear hey wanted the coup de Grace. He had a dog he took with him to inc executions so the dog could Lap up the dead men s blood. Years later he resumed to the United that Man Herman f. A a re a is somebody s quiet neighbor maybe in Fredonia n.y., maybe in Coral Gables Fla. Is he unique no he is not unique that is the Point. If we want evidence that americans Are capable of violent crimes such evidence is hardly difficult to come by. Evidence thai americans would harm children we do so All the time torture Kidnap kill there ii nothing practice systematically by the totalitarian society that we do nol engage in on a free Enterprise basis it is by no Means inconsistent to have a High Opin Ion of one s countrymen and yet to know thai Trie Devil in every Man s nature is always there alive and responsive to pressures. That such pressures might under certain circumstances materialize was made brilliantly Clear in the novel of Walker Percy love in the that did. For the american temperament what Orwell s "1984" did for inc British adaptations in each Case of the cultural profile of an individual country to the demands of totalitarianism. The Point then is to remind ourselves that even if the soviets did not play directly their wretched hand in running the affairs of a defenceless America Hie Sovi ets could find native Talent As they did in Cuba to take on the Job. Another reason for reflecting on the lessons of at times it s As though there were no president As the Iran affair unravels Wilh one ugly disclosure hard upon an other. President Reagan s authority crumbles. Feuds rage unchecked in the White House policies go undecided it is. At times As if there were no president. Yet Reagan himself still has a strange degree of personal immunity when the arms sales to Iran and other wrongdoings arc examined the attention is on his subordinates Donald Regan Oliver North. John Poindexter William Casey and the rest we hear again and again thai the president could reclaim his authority if Only he cleaned House. Why does t he fire his self regarding chief of staff Regan Why does t he order col. North and adm. Poindexter to testify As if somehow the Buck stopped there. But in docs nol and it will not ii is inc thai Reagan is extraordinarily detached from the details of govern ment. He always has been. What he said about the Iran disaster when he last talked about it publicly in november merely dramatized How Little he cares for facts How easily he converts wishes into assertions. But a person in charge of an Enterprise cannot escape responsibility by saying amiably that Green is purple. In the United slates we elect just one person to a National office with real Power to Sepa rate that Power from responsibility would be to undermine he idea of democracy. In watergate the impeachment process carried Forward so impressively by the House judiciary committee viewed the president s responsibility in constitutional terms. Each of the three articles of impeachment approved by he committee found in different partic ulars that president Nixon had violated the duty put on presidents by the Constitution to Lake care that the Laws be faithfully executed the abuses of Power now known to have taken place in the Reagan administration Are More serious More Funda mental than in pc involved in water Gate. That is evident even at this Early stage of inquiry. Nixon set up the plumbers to Deal with leaks and other problems in citrate Gal ways. He tried to misuse the Cia and other agencies for personal ends. He tried to deceive Congress. He tried to cover up crimes. Those were the recitations in in articles of impeachment. The Reagan White House set up a subterranean government far More powerful than anything imagined by the plumbers or their masters. The secret government sold arms abroad in violation of declared policy and regulations. It used private individuals us secret agents of the United states. Ii begged Money from foreign governments. There was Brazen disregard for Law. When Congress prohibited Aid to inc nicaraguan contras the Reagan White House arranged to get Money to them in Covert ways. When the president approved arms sales to Iran the Legal obligation to inform Congress intelligence Cammil Iees was ignored for months. The theme running through All this was disregard for our constitutional sys tem. Congress had vetoed Aid to the contras but that formal expression of our constitutional process was contradicted. The Public would have been out raged by Selling arms to Iran soil was done in coven violation of commitments and Law. The coven operations become Ever More extravagant As we learn about them. In 1985 a lebanese group trained by the Cia under a Reagan coven pro Gram killed so people with a car bomb in Beirut. Last year the president signed a finding allowing the Cia to Kidnap sus pc co terrorists abroad. Seymour Hersh reported in the new York times mag Azine on sunday that the real intention of last year s raid on Libya was to kill Moa mar cad bail. All these were the policy of the president nol of a subordinate. Nor can there be any doubt now. That a cover up was attempted after the Iran Story began to come out last no vember White House aides frantically constructed a false chronology of events minimizing the president s role. Lies were told. What we do nol yet know is the degree of Reagan s participation in Icse mat ters. The judiciary committee s impeachment Bill in watergate spoke of Ninon personally furthering wrongs. But if we cannot fix Legal responsibility As yet for All the abuses of the Reagan White House the political responsibility is Clear. It was nol Donald Regan or Oliver North who let our government get dangerously out of hand in these last years to was he president of the United states. New Folk Timtim Nowls of i
