European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 11, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes wednesday Marti 11, columns George will speech first step on Reagan comeback Trail an elderly actor once said i m now Al an age when i be got o prove that i m just a Good As i never Rex Harrison s jest is Ronald Reagan s task. He began with last week s speech which was locked with the required moral tactical end strategic categories. There was he language or moral was tactical shrewdness in Washington the Best Way to change the subject is to change the furniture meaning personnel. And there was the strategic recognition that the open question opened by his recent behaviour concerns the sufficiency of his energies his intellectual and emotional application More than his physical stamina Alexander Hamilton the founder most relevant to he realities of the modern state stressed the Sovereign importance of Energy in the Reagan s understanding of that May still be insufficient. The Dis quieting passage in his speech was his assertion that ran soming hostages resulted because he asked too Many questions about hostages he certainly asked the wrong questions. He did not question the assumptions of the entire Iran initiative or the Wisdom of its advocates worse his diagnosis or his failure too Many of the wrong questions suggests an essentially passive presidential function the questioning of others initiatives. Until he decides to be More of an Initiator rather than a Mere inquisitor. He will not be just As Good As he never Reagan never was the irresistible Force he once appeared to be because the democratic party was such a movable object. His electoral record and Early legislative victories gave Rise to hyperbole and now Washington reversing form is saying that his shortcomings validate retroactively All the condescension of he intelligentsia. The apotheosis of Howard Baker is but the freshest evidence that Loo much Winter has unhinged washing ton s judgment. How else explain the apparent conviction that the White House chief of staff a position that a generation ago had not yet congealed from accumulated functions is now the crucial variable in the equation of government Baker is one of Washington s grown ups and will accept adulation in the spirit that Jack Benny accepted an award i Don t deserve this but then i have arthritis and i Don t deserve that such giddiness As bake mania is As american Asfa Sage has said French Toast and English muffins. But u obscures one fact our government is energized if at All from the ova of iliac not from Down the Hall. I could be accused of worshipping at Baker s shrine. He was my presidential Choice in 1980. But it is preposterous to think his White House presence is much More than the negative guarantee that outright lunacy Cam he co Tooz the a mrs a a grow will not again flourish within the while House Fence. Avoidance of lunacy is an insufficient Agenda. Maker1 Genius blossomed when As Senate majority Leader he was handed Reagan s Agenda. Reagan s task today is to hand him another Agenda. That is Reagan should not Juit Settle for the of sum Mitry and the superstition of arms control two vices by which presi dents unlike the nation Prosper Reagan s recruitment of Baker is evidence that conservatism is coming of age by acknowledging that government is a dignified demanding profession. Reagan who used to ridicule the Washington buddy system now knows that people like Baker who is everybody s buddy a come in Handy. When republicans Are in their Bluff Towel snap Ping locker room mood they sound too much the Way the White House s fallen cowboys Oliver North Al. Sounded in conversations reported by the Tower commission. The cowboys self exchanges Reck of contempt for people who practice the patience demanded by democracy and who accept the procedural accommodations required by anything As orderly As government now assuming that the Oliver norths have been removed from the precincts of Power is in ton much to Hope that their journalistic equivalents can be dated a wit has said that everything in newspapers is absolutely True except reports of events about which one has personal knowledge. 1 know there arc journalists who recently would have lost their reputations for seriousness had they such by writing he rubbish that has been said about Nancy Reagan. It has been feverishly reported she issued a statement she did not Issue attended a meeting she did not attend caused the hiring and departures of people whose hings and departures she had nothing to do with and espouses views she does not hold. No won Der that when Howard Baker asked her opinion of the appointment of William Webster As Cia director she recoiled saying she did not want to have opinions about everything c the suggestions that mrs. Reagan is a Cathe Rine de Medici Are issuing from the same press corps that six years ago believed with equal certitude that she was Valley girl emeritus interested Only in clothes and China tableware not the country. Some washingtonians who preen themselves on perfect attune Mcmo feminist sensibilities seem scandalized by mrs. Rea Gan s audacity in having opinions and her impertinence in not sealing them in a Mason Jar. The prize for solemn nonsense goes to those who have contrived to conclude that an opinionated first lady is an affront to the Constitution imagine a first lady who has opinions. Who does she think she is a citizen an editorialist Eleanor Roosevelt win Nglam flt Wink a Road Anthony Lewis world opinion Colls for soviets to quit Afghanistan Mikhail Gorbachev under stands that the soviet Union pays a Price in the world for its abuses of human rights. The end of Andrei Sakharov s exile and the release of some important political prisoners were at a minimum gestures to the opinions of Mankind. In Complete As we May think them we have to understand that they were bold Steps for a soviet Leader. A mate profound rest of Gorbachev s undemanding boldness and political skill is now at hand. The Issue is Afghanistan. Soviet policy there has caused human suf Fering on a scale so targe that it is hard to grasp. Unless and until the policy changes Afghanistan will cast a Shadow on All West pm negotiations with the . Seven years after the soviet invasion 115,000 soviet troops Are in Afghani Stan. It is a faraway place and we have not paid enough attention to its suffer Ings. But if Moscow thinks Afghanistan will be forgotten or somehow kept Sepa rate in our minds from East West relations generally it is wrong. Consider one Stark fact. There arc roughly i million refugees from Afghani Stan now. That is half the refugees in the world a third of the pc invasion Popula Tion of Afghanistan. And of those remain ing in the country perhaps 2 million More have led their Homes because of soviet bombing of villages and other dangers. The Best studies of Afghanistan s Tor ment were published jointly last december and a year earlier by two private human rights organizations in new York Helsinki watch and Asia watch. One practice they described is the use of toy bombs explosive devices disguised As toy trucks dolls and other objects. When children pick them up they explode blowing off hands maiming blinding the victims. The practice of using toys to kill is such an outrageous concept that Many have refused to accept it As True the1986 report of the two watch committees said. Yet Helsinki watch has receive scores of testimonies about such weapons from credible witnesses who often have no notion of the significance of what they were children Are also the targets of an extraordinary soviet political Enterprise. That is the sending of afghan children to the soviet Union in Large numbers for indoctrination. No one knows exactly How Many Chil Dren have been taken to the . But sources among the Mujahid can or resistance movement put the figure As High As 60,000. Two men in the Resis Tance movement who Are now visiting the United Stales Mohammed Eshaq and Wakil a Berzai saw a deep and de pressing message in the program to indoctrinate Young afghans the soviets came on a Short term premi aka Trzan said to safeguard their Borders. But it has turned out to Bea Long term process the Sovic Bizalion of Afghanistan and of afghan by now it seems Clear that the soviet Union cannot impose itself on Afghanistan without a continuing heavy Cost. The my a Hedern Light on. The sowl impose government in Rahul has not attracted any respected afghans to join in. Is there any Way out of a situation that is destroying Afghanistan and bleeding Pic .? negotiations just resumed in Geneva Are looking for that Way out. The crucial Issue is whether the russians who have talked of withdrawing their forces from Afghanistan Over a period of Yean will agree to withdraw in a Lime period Short enough to make the afghans and the West believe they Caffy in tend to let Afghanistan decide its own Fate. Soviet leaders no doubt fear that if they pull out unconditionally a govern ment hostile to the . Will take Over and the United states which arms the Mujahi Dot will keep sending weapons to Afghanistan. Those Are they Are risks that will have to be taken if Gorbachev wants to get out of the afghan quagmire. The Reagan administration ready to do business with Gorbachev on other matters is More Likely now to respond with restraint10 a genuine move from him in Afghani Stan. As for the afghan resistance a spokes Man said we have no real disputes wit the russians in land or economics. We can assure them that a government chosen by afghans would have a non aligned status. Isee no real problem except the Pride of a big Vot i shh a is re
