European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 26, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 columns the stars and stripes sunday july 26,19b7 James j. Kilpatr1ck Gulf task Force a Token but a commitment the first two kuwaiti Ankers now have been re flagged with inc stars and stripes. American Crews arc aboard. American warships have guarded them through the persian Gulf. For Good or ill the Reagan administration Hiis taken on a fateful commitment. There can be no backing Oul now. In a series of thoughtful speeches in the Hojic Laos month rep. Les Aspin d-wis., Analysed what we arc getting into. Aspin could not resist a few partisan Jahs at the president bul setting these aside the gentleman did a first Rale Job. In his opening address he went directly to the Core of the matter there arc dangers to inc United states if we take the relating course and Uherc Are dangers if we do not. As in so Many in stances. Inc choices before the president were not choices Between Good and better. They were choices Between bad and worse. Kuwait asked for . Re flagging last december. In March after much thought and calculation the state department and the defense department United in a recommendation that the plan be approved. The alter native was to leave a superpower vacuum that the soviet Union swiftly would have filled. The is. Naval forces now assigned to con Voy duly Are at once real forces and Token forces. The ships Are real in the sense thai they Are manned by american sailors if american lives arc lost or Ameri can ships Are sunk by Iran real blood will have been shed. Bloody retaliation will have to be exacted. The task Force is a Token a presence if you please in the sense that its role is tightly limited. Kuwait has 2js merchant vessels including 22 tankers. We Are a flagging precisely 1 1 of these. This is not enough to prevent inc iranians from attacking other shipping but such tankers As the renamed Bridgeton Are � huge thai significant amounts of Oil Wilt be protected. The plan involves serious risks. Aspin does not be Lieve the iranians will attack our convoys directly either with silkworm missiles or with suicide bombers. Iran would not so openly invite massive retaliation from the United states. Iranian response More Likely will come in the form of mines which could As easily have been Laid by Iraq or in the form of terrorist attacks on . Installations in the Middle East. The Bridgeton hit a mine on the first Convoy the iranians Aspin acknowledged Are an ingenious lol. The minds that dreamed up the truck bomb and that conceived an outboard Navy to fight the iraqis amid the marshes Are probably hard at work right now trying to Spring some novel surprises on we ought to be working with equal imagination to anticipate an iranian response. One rationale behind the administration re flagging plan is thai our presence May contribute to ending the Flora Lewis now prowl Knock Rofe War Between Iraq and Iran. Actual hostilities began in september 1980, though Iran had been Irving to topple the iraqi government Long before that. Since then inc conflict has been waged sporadically and erratically by both sides. Casualty figures Are grossly inexact but Aspin finds no evidence of a War weakness sufficient to bring an armistice Pur convoys will riot Aller the belligerents determination. Since Aspin completed his series of speeches the United nations has adopted a Resolution calling on the warring parties to agree to a cease fire. Iran s initial reaction was to spurn the proposition. Alter All Iran is in de Facto Possession of a Good Deal of iraqi territory to withdraw its forces to the former boundaries would be interpreted domestically As a defeat. The Deal with have to be sweetened if Iran is to agree to restore the status quo Ante. In Aspin s View any such peace would be a phony it would leave both regimes intact and their islamic animosities unrelieved. A stalemate would end the War with two wounded snakes More dangerous to innocent bystanders than to Iraq might Well turn on Kuwait. The other five Gulf Arab stale would be equally vulnerable. Aspin ended his series about where he began there Are dangers if we do re Flag and there Are Dan Gers if we do not by refusing to act boldly we look indecisive and insecure to if we undertake the operation and soon Cut and run we Send a message of that last Point is critical. In its vapid resolutions the Congress especially the imbecilic Senate has Given an impression of feebleness and timidity. That won t do. We have taken on a Long and costly commit ment. Until Kuwait relieves us of that commitment those 11 flags will have to remain. C unt Vetrul plot band Feltl new period anticipated in German relations in september 38 years after the establishment of two rival states in Ger Many the Leader of the communist East will visit the capitalist West for the first time. Erich Honecker. The head of the Ger Man democratic Republic was bom in a mining town in the Saarland near the French Border and he will go to see his old Home. More important he will be received in Bonn with All he protocol accorded to the head of a foreign state a status Hal was refused in 1984 when he was forced by the russians to cancel his visit at the last minute. It is a sign of the limes. West Ger Many is moving bul not culling Loose from allies to Drift toward a reunified neutrality As the French profess to fear. On the contrary the Honecker visit will ratify a certain resignation in the fact that there Are two Germany in postwar Europe and there will continue to be As far As the Eye can see. Talks with leading officials make Clear Hal the cry the German question is open is not really an attempt to press for reunification or to lure the russians into a Promise of ii in return for break ing up the North Atlantic Alliance. For one thing Bonn is perfectly aware that Moscow is not in the least Temple. For another neither is Bonn rather referring to the German nation As president Richard von Weizsacker did in his recent trip to Moscow is a Way of saying the old claim has t been completely renounced despite acceptance of political partition for All practical purposes. There Are differences Here in Outlook and preferred tactics bul there docs seem to be a Strong consensus that West Germany must remain firmly lied to the West. Some of Chancellor Helmut Kohl s people argue that harping on the German question is a Way to keep the Eastern communists from preempting a Long term emotional Issue. But they will go out of their Way to show Honecker they have no intention of trying to destabilize his stale. Bonn is delighted thai in policy of encouraging contacts will enable two million East germans to visit this year More than 10 percent of East Germany s population. The Weil germans Are willing to pay a lol several billions of dollars for keeping in touch and they Don t encourage the visitors to slay. Few do. Nar is there much concern any longer that the East will find devious ways to undermine inc weal s attachment to its democratic system. In that sense West Germany is confident now. Still this is an uneasy country and people bemoan a Lack of direction. It is hard to find the source of a certain Miasma of doubt and malaise that seems to have spread rather thicker than usual. There is a great interest in the plans of Mikhail Gorbachev bul von Weizsacker s talks did t produce any More clarity on the Soviel Leader s foreign policy intentions or any special reassurance. It is understood that Kohl s proposal for one integrated French German Bri Gade is a symbolic gesture that won t change any important military arrange ments though signs of close lies with France Are always Welcome. The fundamentals of the West German position do Noi change Reliance on the . For defense guarantees Reliance on France for a european base. Von Wei Sacker says he told Gorba Chev Hal improvement of the european dimension of Easi Wesl Rel Anions can come Only if France and Germany Are cooperating. There can be no unilateral German Way. It would be completely against our there Are some Long term notions of How the pain of Germany s division and the confrontation at the Center of Europe might be cosed. Bul nobody is looking for Early moves. So Why All the disgruntled men and in certainly for one thing Washington seems to underestimate How much the Reagan Gorbachev Summit meeting it Reykjavik Iceland shocked the euro peans especially the germans who wondered if their Security Blanket was being shredded. For another Bonn has handled the arms control proposals with sinking political ineptitude. The most generous thing supporters have to say about Kohl s leadership is that he was badly advised. A Hond that there is a sense Hal a new period is coming in East West re lations and there arc no plans not even for inc next step. But for now there is loss Here than meets inc Eye no simmer ing Allied crisis. It is never Wise 10 ignore German fears and Grumpy. But neither should they be exaggerated. The Allied Structure is holding
