European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 22, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes wednesday. July i. Columns William f. Buckley or. Reagan washers disappointed by Poindexter . Jim a Kman Tinc my from a Hinr. Inn Siml their in i Nora Hon nip Hiis become co Nimen Iviry. Tin pros Rhyl of impeaching Ronald Reagan is As Likely As the Washington Monument. The ongoing fur id Hutc Alilis with which to punish i in a1 of Fng Gais to Light in. the Cunnien Pilurs. The networks in particular c us s nightly news with Dan rather Are uniformly tendentious. When a commentator on chs had to acknowledge that i oin Dexter s testimony thai Day had absolved president Cagan of any penurious complicity in the Iron fund conversion inc disappointment was Manifasi. So the Washington correspondent said today inc investigating committee discovered who was the fall at the end of this pointless commentary the investigating committee was t organized to look for the fall Guy and anyway in had to be Point crier if Reagan was not lying when he said he knew nothing about the. Iran fund conversion Dan rather uttered his. Thanks very much John routine which came in sounding less like a routine acknowledgement used As a theatrical Bridge to move from one episode to another than in did gratitude offered to someone for swimming across the Hellespont to save one s drowning child. We have seen sadness on Public faces but Seldom such sadness As that of the network commentators As it becomes clearer and clearer that Reagan was not guilty of complicity to obstruct Justice and his aides were men of Good Faith however defective their judgment. T is ironic that the networks whose convulsions Over the whole Iran business have rested on their belief in the Public s right to know exercise so diligently i hair role in preventing the Public from knowing. Of yes there arc the highlights Given during the lop 10 minutes of the hour. But in requires Only tuning in to the Macneil Chr or news hour to discover what one has missed by relying Only on the 7 o clock news. Mancil Lochrer by the Way should be Given the Nobel prize a pulitzer an Oscar and maybe a Macar thur Grant for the work they arc doing. Their handling of their hour is the highest tribute to the successful use of the television medium and by its relative Perfec Tion the harshest indictment of the tendentious trivial Ity of the network people. After Poindexter s second Day of testimony Mac Neil Lehrer had As panellists Zbigniew Knezinski. President Carter s National Security adviser George Carver a highbrow former Cia executive and the Rev. Flora Lewis the president did not watch1tie North test Moity on to aides i report. Robert Drinan a professor of Law and former con Gressman. From the three the Public could learn what the issues really Are. Brzczinski began by making a Subtle distinction. The president is two persons a party and govern Mcnol Leader and also the chief of stale. The part of him that is prime minister is absolutely expendable prime ministers come and go the italians consume them at the rate of about iwo per year. But the other president is the Symbol of National Unity and partisan attacks on the first presidential figure if they succeed in undermining the prestige and the leverage of the second presidential figure Are going to do damage to our government. George Carver refreshed the Public by giving historical examples of the difficulties the executive can expect to run into if the idea of accountability to con Gress is interpreted with the kind of microscopic exactitude some of the congressional investigators seemed to be calling for. We were reminded that Jefferson would never have brought in the Louisiana Purchase if he had been so restricted and that Benjamin Franklin no less wrote Hal there were too Many congressmen even then to make possible collaborative work on executive policy. Father Drinan insisted that things Are Dif Ferent now but he left the impression that he was More anxious to damage Reagan than to deduce from the pre sent mess a Clear line of where in is we should now be let us concede that president Reagan ran Loo informal a shop he has made Hal Concession himself. Bui then ask whether we should be pleased with the Prospect of a lame Duck pics Ideal whose leverage on foreign affairs is diminished less by the mistakes he has made than by the agitation for which american lobbyists arc responsible. These Are the lobbyists to under mine Reagan whom they will never forgive for walk ing Back to the White House in 19s4 with 49 states in his pocket. They arc moved primarily sober commentary suggests by the desire to weaken Ronald Reagan. And they do nol reflect Hal in doing so they weaken the United p by Syndicate French preparing for possible iranian reprisals Paris France is learning the wages of trying to make what Ollie North called a neat Deal with Ayatollah Khomeini s ran. Relations have now been broken and the French arc hunkering Down against the possibility of reprisals that could come anywhere against French diplomats in Tehran hostages in Leb anon ships in the persian Gulf or in France itself. In May be of some help that the . Security Council is about to vote a Reso Lution demanding an end to the Gulf War with an implicit threat of a generalized arms embargo against Iran if in refuses. But that is Likely to have very lined Impact if any. For one thing the Resolution has been watered Down substantially so Aslo appear diplomatically evenhanded As if Hal would matter to Tehran. For another even if the governments on inc coun cil could then do persuaded to vote the embargo in a second Resolution there is real doubt they would actually impose it. As a French Diplomat no cd last week they All know that most of Iran s arms supplies Are delivered clandestinely often with inc knowledge of governments hut through channels they Don l admit. Iran and Iraq have become the world s Pratesi Consumers of munitions and there Are thousands of jobs that depend directly on these secret exports National arms industries thai could not maintain competitive unit costs for their own countries defense needs without the lucrative Iran and Iraq markets. Over 30 countries engage in the Trade most with both sides in the War but in in l just current profits Hal motivate the reluctance of the re to of the world to face Iran in the one Way Hal could be effective. Thai would be to Iso late Ilas completely As possible and then leave it to the quarrelling factions inside inc country to establish a regime Hal could work ils Way out of quarantine. It is a foolish arrogance Hal Many coun tries have indulged including the . And Israel As Wellas France to think they can sort Oul the reasonable from the unreasonable iranian groups and buy them off. Iran is big and strategically important and someday ii will again become a viable diplomatic As Well As economic part Ner. Bui it is a mistake to expect any Long term benefits from deals with a re Gime Hal operates with tactics As shrewd and unscrupulous As it is unswerving in its goal. The fanatics Are convinced they Are serving a righteous cause and that ail Means arc justified to take advantage of big and Little Solans. Tehran understands perfectly the calculations and inhibitions of the West and of the communist and Arab states for that matter and does t Hesi Tate to play on them. It has its own neat there is an irony in is warning to France that in will nol allow Wahid Gordji who is locked up in the iranian embassy in Paris to be taken hostage thai is reminisce no of Klaus Barbie the nazi Butcher of Lyons complaining Hal his irial was the present crisis for France is Evi Donily the result of unpremeditated Esca Lalion. The French were dealing with Gordji As part of their plan la Normal ize relations with Iran. Some aspects of the Deal arc known such As the expulsion of the anti Kho Meini Mujdah Cicen Leader Massoud Raja i and the repayment of $330 million on a ii billion loan the Shah had made to France. But there arc doubtless other probably shakier aspects Hal May never known because France in l Given 10 serious Public investigation of us dirty so Crews. Domestic polities and bureaucratic i nigh. Valris led trance Nitu the imjuiu.1. Pre Mier Jacques Chirac wanted to show he could do Beller than his socialist predecessors in liberating the hostages in Leb anon and making friends despite his widely known role of having launched France s huge arms Deal with Iraq. Bui on the Home front. Chirac also wan cd to show thai he was Lougher than inc socialists on internal Security. The police were ordered especially to crack Down after inc wave of Paris bombings last september. The Trail eventually led to Gordji who says he look Refuge in his embassy Here when a French diploma warned him he was warned for interrogation faced then with admitting failure of his diplomacy and supporting the police or being seen to Cave in to iranian threats tic Premier had Little Choice. President Francois Mitterrand agreed with him on standing firm and so docs the Public at least for now. The question remains whether the Les Ion has been Learned. How Many other countries How Many other politicians will draw the conclusion that they will fare no belter than resident Reagan or Chirac Al trying to Buller up Khomeini s regime the Price of self delusion is
