European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 27, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes columns Tom Wicker mine dramatizes risks of re flagging venture if anyone from the White House on Down thought the protective is Cnoc of . Navy vessels would Gua Rantee Safe passage for a flagged kuwaiti tankers through the persian Gulf the mine that exploded against the Bridgton should have disabused them. That explosion dramatized at the outset the High probably unwarranted risks of this new american venture in the War Lorn Gulf. Despite intensive mine sweeping efforts by american kuwaiti and saudi arabian naval forces the mine demonstrated what should have been evident from Strong iranian statements that the convoys can and indeed May be at tacked. The incident raised moreover and during the very first Convoy the dilemma inherent in the re flagging scheme whether and How to retaliate if Iran should attack. It was not immediately established whether the mine was directed specifically against the american con Voy that included the Bridgeton a kuwaiti Lanker now flying the . Flag. The weapon could have been anchored some time ago or it might have floated randomly into the path of the Convoy. Such uncertainly May allow the United slates to finesse the question of Retalia Tion in this Case but the next time or the next that May not be possible. If a ship flying the . Nag and under the supposed Protection of , naval vessels should be deliberately at tacked and damaged by Iran particularly if american lives were lost retaliation would be unavoidable unless president Reagan decided to withdraw , forces As he did in Lebanon. The question of whether Reagan should have put american flags ships and lives in such jeopardy would be lost at least for a while in the demands for a retaliatory strike. Bui against what with what weapons and to what degree of destructive Ness a limited blow would All but surely invite new iranian attack which William f. Buckley then would demand another american response. That s the sort of lethal leap Frog that helped draw the United Stales into a shooting War in Vietnam As president Johnson retaliated for attacks on . Forces in South Vietnam with the bombing raids on North Vietnam. In that kind of creeping War both to protect .-Flaggcd ships and to retaliate when attacked the United states soon would need airfields in saudi Arabia. Its carriers cannot oper ate safely in the Gulf and would be Loo far South to provide the necessary planes Day in and Day out in the Northern Gulf. Saudi Arabia has Given no indication that it would la the United Stales use its airfields for such purposes since the saudis can Well imagine what the Irani an response would be if planes from saudi bases should attack Iran. The saudis want no part of War with Iran and May fear that any american use of their airfields would be taken in Tehran As an act of hostility. If it s argued that iranian attacks on .-flagged ships in the Guif would justify not just an occasional response but an unlimited american Effort to Knock out iranian air and naval forces that s to say the administration should be willing to go to War with Iran to carry out its re flagging policy. No doubt Many americans would like to hit the Ayatollah Khomeini hard but the con sequences of such a War aside from whether Victory would be easily achieved could be disastrous. Would Moscow stand by idly while the United states asserted such Power virtually on the soviet Union s Doorstep Israel might not wish to see Iraq thus freed from its consuming War with Iran. The third world would be embittered by a big Power attack on Iran. What about terrorist activities surely such a War would destroy the Hopes for an iranian iraqi peace that have been raised by a . Cease fire Resolution backed by both the United slates and the soviet Union. It would be consoling to think that the Reagan administration had consid ered All these problems coolly and realistically and concluded either that they could be overcome or that the euro Pean allies need for Middle East Oil As Well As the goal of keeping the sea lanes open outweighed the risks. Unfortunately we know that the re nagging scheme was a Hasty and reflex Ive response to the kuwaitis hints thai they might turn to Moscow thus let Ling the soviets into the Gulf though soviet ships Are there anyway and any map of the Region will raise the ques Tion of Why they should not be. Besides after the Iran con Ira fiasco How can anyone believe that this administration acts on sober judgment or can separate its ideological night marcs and its dreams of glory from the hard facts of life in a Yirk tilth the nation needs debate Nof attitude sizing when the seven democratic presidential candidates unfolded their wares one Learned thai they Are very heavy this season in opposition to Aid to the contras in opposition to the strategic de sense initiative and in opposition to our unfavourable balance of Trade. Concerning a remedy for the latter there is a rough division Between All out protectionists and easy does it candidates like gov. Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts who in t any More eager to discourage foreign consumption of Massachusetts products than sen. Edward Kennedy is anxious to bring peace in our time by closing Down Mili tary installations in Massachusetts. These political positions Are the heavy hitters of the political season and they provoked a bouncy intellectual whose specially is the perverse behave Tor of the brain and its constituent parts into phrasing and sending along what he would compose As a questionnaire for aspirant democratic presidents. Here and there lightly reshaped 1 pass it along As an item of general interest health. Professor Stephen Jay Gould of har Vard has written in the new York times that aids could Well be the nent plague of the human species wiping out 25 percent of the human race. At what Point would you recognize aids As a Public health menace and urge a correlative easing off from Lenain civil liberties positions for instance demand Public testing and the disclosure of the results giving Pri Mary attention to the question of Public health education. Do you believe Public schools should Lake on the task of leaching ethics Given the breakdown of the family millions of schoolchildren Are uninformed even about the con Cpl of Nghil and wrong and certainly uninstructed in How to distinguish Between the two. Can such matters become an object of Public education and if not Why International. Al what Point if any arc you willing to draw the line against soviet militarization in Central America would you. For instance com Mit yourself to using Force to defend the dam Coralic parties of Costa Rica speaking for the democratic party several years ago sen. Christopher Dodd said Hal his party would nol permit a fresh Satel ligation meaning beyond Cuba within the hemisphere. How Are we going to see to it that this does t happen theoretical. The traditional association of the democratic party with the Nolion that Public spending is the key to Well being and Prosperity is challenged by existing paradoxes lots of welfare lots of poverty lots of education lots of ignorance lots of Public health care lots of bad health. In the air is much Lalk about revising our opinions of the state s usefulness. What do you think might be done concretely to break the poverty Cycle l o Yuu believe in workfare and if so in what kind of workfare is there a psychological dependency Hal follows government intrusion into professional life Over protracted periods As in the gradual of agriculture Security. Is Uherc a workable Compromise be tween the position of the congressional group Hal wants to run foreign policy and the executive group that believes Congress is simply a nuisance where the development of foreign policy is concerned As things now stand the executive is resorting to ways and Means of accomplishing whal it understands to be its responsibilities and we have such messes As the current hearings incarnate. Does the democratic party want to associate itself Flat Oul with the War Powers act is there room within the councils of the democratic party for debate on the Issue of the Divi Sion of responsibility Between the two branches of government my articulate Friend holds onto the idea thai National debate ought to precede National decisions and that what we Are getting now is More nearly attitude sizing Don t Blacken the skies with nuclear warheads rather than Houghl. Whatever his own predispositions on the questions raised the Republic has a great Deal to lose from Frozen altitudes Loward Public issues such an Altitude As for instance son. Joseph Biden has adopted in respect of the qualifications of Robert Bork to serve on the supreme court. But to pry discussion from the zealots who ind to command the action at the political primary level requires thai he acknowledge that now is the Lime for All Good men to come to the Zaidof the party. On Idi mn1 thou Olim in info and at in Raj rid be Coti dem Ai g miss 01 Tho St ii Man step la to in urd is Anil c
