European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 2, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stats and stripes tuesday june 2,1987 Jim Fain Reagan doing right thing for wrong reason Congress has even reason to be Antsy about president Reagan s Deci Sion of Mother Hen kuwaiti tankers in the persian Gulf. The Gipper has troublesome habit of leaping without looking. Because the soviets were panting to talc on the escort role he again Dis patched american servicemen with in adequate Force a fuzzy Mission and engagement rules that made them sit Ting ducks. So far 37 have died. Reagan is Hollywood formed. He mis lakes the symbolic spectacular for actual Power. He thinks sounding the charge and flying the Flag is what combat is about. Such muddle headed theatrics got241 marines killed in Beirut they were a fat target with no Mission other than Tobe visible and never mind that s the Way Ronnie did it in helical of the All of which said and frustrating As it is to Sec planning failures repeated the fact is we have Little Choice except to use Force to keep the Gulf open. Reagan is doing the right thing for the wrong Rea son. Without Energy Independence and we Are not moving on that course under his administration we have to keep the Oil flowing. That s a strategic imperative More for our allies than our selves. Sen. John Glenn a Ohio who Pew fighters in world War ii and Korea is appalled thai we pushed up the Gulf with Only seven ships no fighter cover and no Clear orders on when to shoot. Yet he is As vehement As any Reagan Cowboy thai we have to keep the lanes open. It s thai Reagan was t ready for this one. The problem has been building for years. There s never been doubt dial Kuwait and saudi Arabia would require help if Iran went after them. Months or even years ago we should have negotiated plans Tor air bases on Kuwait and saudi territory. We had the bargaining leverage then. Blue water admirals persist in the clubby conceit that surface ships can be made Invulnerable. Gen. Billy Mitchell knew belter Long before the japanese James Reston speaking of Trade imbalance proved him right at Pearl Harbor and Singapore. Ships cannot survive with out air cover. Providing it in the Gulf demands land bases. Carrier groups can t Man Euver in that restricted area. Nor can fighters from carriers outside the Gulf Range its upper reaches with out refuelling. Tankers a cd bases. We should have worked All this out Long ago. It will be difficult now. Nato already is looking the other Way. The arabs arc timid too. That All this could and should have been foreseen does nothing to negate the necessity of moving now however. We do not have the luxury of neglect ing the Security of the free world just because it s an ingrate. Reagan s mis takes make the Lask harder but no ass vital. Down the Long Road our own Freedom is at stake. Reagan wont say what he s going to do now which is of. Nobody minds his not saying. It s his not know ing that s bothersome. He should have had his meeting to fix the Mission Force Structure and rules of engagement months before he got around toil. But there should be no question of cutting and running. Unlike his Little theatrics in Grenada Nicaragua and Beirut this is big Casino. We must face this chore with adequate Force resolve and military skill. It s a president s role to gel those ducks lined up and then come to the country with the full Story of Why the Mission is essential and what it May Cost in blood sweat and tears. That s How a democracy gets a d i try Job done. Europe would rather be separate than successful the Paradox of Europe these Days is that it invented science and is spending twice As much on research and development As Japan but it is still lagging behind in the High technology race to the future. No doubt its leaders have made Progress toward economic integration but they would rather be Sepa rate than successful. The european parliament i Little More than a Symbol National self interest still dominates the european economic Community and a Quarter of a Century after the treaty of Rome Jean Monnet s dream of a United states of Europe is Sel Dom mentioned. This is not because Western Europe does not have he human and High tech resources to compete with the United states Japan and the soviet Union but because it is not thinking on the scale of the world let alone the continent and it is exporting its brain Sand its inventions it is intellectually aware of the new world econ omy. It writes better monographs on the subject than anybody else but its practical efforts Are fragmented and duplicated often without any link to Industry. In Short the critical Cap is no abroad but at Home. Its politicians Are not keeping up with its scientists. The sum of ils parts is far greater that its total performance and despite considerable Success in important sectors such As nuclear Energy biotechnology computers aerospace and some aspects of information technology most observers concede that i is lagging behind its major Industrial competitors. Monnet foresaw this before he died eight years ago at the age of 90. Many persons believe he said that in View of Europe s greater Prosperity today limited cooperation Between the european nations is enough. I think this shows a profound misunderstanding. Our own rate of Progress should not Blind us to the fact that the rate of Progress in the United states and in the soviet Union is still far greater. The Rea son is not that they Are More inventive or hard work ing than europeans. It is that despite the differences of their regimes they Are both developing their economies on a Continental another French critic of this haphazard european groping Paul Valery suggested that there would never be a european league of nations until it developed a league of minds. No doubt this is extremely difficult in a continent with so Many different languages histories and popular assumptions that their own National Way is Best but the problem re Mains. It is perhaps illustrated Best by the unemployment rates. In 1975. Europe had 8 million registered unemployed. Last year it was More than 19 million 44 percent of them Between the Ages of 1s and 24. This May give the false impression that euro pessimism is rampant. The problem is that Europe is not keeping Pace with the leaders As i could if its Many strengths human cultural and economic were unified. Many of ils inventions Are being developed More efficiently by its competitors. Many of its Best minds arc leaving for the greater freedoms and opportunities in the unite states. In a Way Western Europe with ils remarkable resources is a crippled Genius divided by history satisfied by ils Success and suffering not from poverty but from a poverty of desire. Eureka it cries i have lost the question is whether in the coming Century it really wants to regain a Paramount position in the world or whether it will become economically what it is geographically a Small Peninsula on the tip of the eurasian land mass dependent comfortable and complacent. Monnet would probably say this is Loo harsh. You have to be patient he was always saying. You have to mend before you can he saw history As a series of Ever expanding units from the Village to the Region from the Region to the nation slate and from the Nalion state to the integration of continents a ions slow Progress often achieved by disasters. Thus the Independence of America through War. The abolition of slavery in America through civil strife the Reju Vinalon of the american Economy through the depression and the reconciliation of France and Germany after two terrible world wars. It All recalls to an american visitor in Europe the fierce divisions and squabbles Between the Independent american Stales in the i8lb 200 years ago his summer at the constitutional convention in Philadelphia they formed a More perfect Monnet if he were still around would probably predict hat one Day in the next Cen Tury the divided europeans might do the same. Toto Djiji Jpn in hip Cut limn a Csini Iho eol Ine a Irais and Are in nov Lor c ing in View of thu stirs and san up or hit United s
