European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 30, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes Friday. October 30,1987 columns William Buckley with a Little help or can outbox Gorby on ski i in to. Tue not memo to the Boss from or faithful s Al Xvi Here s How i look ill in. Or. Sovil Union has Obilt Marthd us. You nil. I know you disagree with me about this & that. Bul you hired me Loire off inc occasional memo giving in 10 of Wilh he Basso prof undo. So Here is the sequence of events As View in. Which is How i m betting history will View in Gorbachev enters the scene Anil he is the in w soviet Lender. In Foci he is. Hut Whyl you care about i unchanged. The simplest Way to put this. Boss is thai How Ani Whai we have. The sum of inc Sovil military technological Effort during the past 15 years has been to build up overwhelming nuclear strength. The soviets have just Aboul got this done when you pop up March 1983 Wilh Star known to some As the strategic de sense initiative. They know thai Star wars will ruin what icy most want which is the kind of preponderance that subjugated the Western will. They know this because their own people Are deep into Star Gorbachev is truly unhappy about this which comics in on top of his other problem. That is you Success in deploying the per things in Western Europe. The Kremlin knows it s one thing for you id Lei Omaha to fire one if Gorbachev strikes against West Germany something much less than thai Finato does what it s supposed to do fire one to a Cir a soviet Blitzkrieg. One could mean a nuclear War. Big scale. One would be merely a theater defense by nato but wit i the per things which could reach right to the Kremlin. Gorbachev figures take Reagan up on the Zero option. Massive popular opinion will be in favor of thai and after Boih sides have withdrawn i hair theater nuclear weapons Well be left Wilh a situation in which no european missiles Ean reach Russia bul Russia has plenty left hat can reach Europe. So. Al the hype goes into this there is talk about a major nuclear retrenchment and the whole thing fits into the picture of the new soviet Leader. But inc new Sovil Leader is thinking not Only about improving his position in Europe bul about the main target which is Star he Epos at the idea of coming on Over 10 Washington and signing the inf treaty and he has you right to the Point where the bleacher people have practically begun building for the big Parade Gorbachev the new Sovil Leader who brings peace to our Lime is coming to town. A. He says to Shutlz Secretary of stale. George in Moscow there is he problem of Star wars you told Shultz you weren t going to bargain on Star and Gorbachev says Loo pad Well there in t All Hal much Point now. Is there in going to washing ton James Kilpatrick wifi sufi a s. Lots 3&uwesummft v t so the pressure increases or is Aboul Star wars inc Way or has been about More Taes Overmy dead body and Gorby retreats into his Castle and just Waits for Western opinion to work on you and. Boss on whoever your successor is going 10 be. What s going to happen what s going to happen is this he will execute the inf treaty. Of Don t doubt that for a minute. He wants those per things out of Europe no matter on the Coli Ness bit and on the joint visits 10 the Tomb of the unknown Soldier and that whole bit he is going to Lake inc hard line. No step two the reduction of strategic nuclear weapons until some one gel that someone agrees to the strict Ini crore Lalion of inc abm treaty which Means no testing of inc kind we need to develop the Star wars program Hal and an Extension or the abm treaty for Maybeno years which it All the russians need to Complete their Star wars program. Now my guess is thai Gorby does t think he can wring this out of you. No matter. He will have the democratic candidates eating out of his pocket and he thinks he has the peace Niks Well on their Way to con trolling Congress. So he figures in 1988 hell get inc beginning at the retirement of the penning front Europe and some Lime in 1989 he will get Star wars either formally put to one tide or else gutted by con Gress and lied into Knoll by the Nunn Reading of the abm treaty. He figures that some time in 1989 or 1990 he can visit you Amhe ranch in Sanu Barbara on his Way to Disneyland. He will Tell you then maybe Haho to thai Star wan was always something that belonged to Disney not to the great Powers when Star wars goes Public Well hear about it the Way we heard about sputnik in 1957. My advice Tell him Hii thoughts about the need forbore comprehensive arrangements Are Good idea and so you be decided to abandon inf and lie the theater weapons to a general strategic disarmament pending the development of Star then go to work on Congress and make Star wan the big Issue of the 1988 Campaign. Lei me know f i m fired. La syndic i populace not willing to accept Belt tightening most of the talk around town this week is of deficit reduction and that is mostly what it is talk in the Wake of inc Market s crash of oct. 19. We Are wit Nessing one of those spasms of virtue that occasionally afflict our statesmen. They Are feeling a wild impulse to do something constructive. One Day soon they will lie Down until the impulse goes away. Forgive my pessimism. Events May prove me wrong. Maybe just maybe both the White House and inc Hill have been sufficiently seared. Maybe these High level negotiations at last will result in effective action but Don t hold your breath until Hal Hap pens. This is because the american people hypocritical Lothe Core Are unwilling to accept inc measures that ought to be imposed. The Congress reflecting that hypocrisy precisely will abide by the people s wishes. When it comes to increasing revenues or decreasing outlays the cry is almost Universal Don t tax me tax the other fellow and Don t Cut my Pel projects Cut somewhere this is the attitude Hal has Given Usa debt of 12 trillion. President Reagan is basically right. Al the Feder Al level the problem is not Wilh taxation. We arc not taking too Little we Are spending Loo much. And the reason we arc spending too much is that the people love the spending. They truly do or at least they love the spending Hal benefits them. What they hate is the idea of paying for in. Look Al the mess we Are in. The other Day inc House appropriations committee approved outlays of nearly $55 billion for agricultural and nutritional programs in the 1988 fiscal year. The total includes j24 billion for crop supports and 110 billion for " ural devel the sums arc preposterous grotesque indefensible bul they Are virtually mandated As the Cost of financing programs already on inc books. The time has Long since passed when these bloated farm subsidies should have been phased out. One study after another has demonstrated that the great bulk of payments winds up in the hands of the richest farming corporations. Congress has no stomach for turning off the flow of Money. And Why not because the Farmers insist they cannot otherwise survive. You will hear no squawks from this hawkish Corner at the thought of culling the defense budget. Of course it can be Cut prudently safely pm. The armed str ices Wallow in waste bul suppose thai a Cut involves cancelling a contract for a Trainer the air Force positively does not need. Suppose the Pentagon moved to reduce the purchases of prime beef for army mess Halls. Let our boys Cai Chuck heaven forfend the contract is vital says a senator fron new vol. Noih ing but the Best says the meat Indusi y. So it goes. Thinking of cows let us think of that Moil sacred of All sacred cows social Security. Is there any valid reason Why retired persons Wilh High incomes should not be taxed on All their social Security benefits no such reason comes to mind but at the very mention of such an heretical thought members of Congress turn Pale and shut their eyes. The problem is a problem of Altitude. Congress will not economize on the big things because in is unwilling to scrimp on the Little things. Through the National endowment for he am the taxpayers Are subsidizing local symphony orchestras. Somewhere in the budget is an appropriation for an endowment for democracy it is pure piffle. Somewhere else is Little i a Tor i commission to observe in 1992 the 500th anniversary of Columbus discovery. Through the National institutes for health we Are financing a thousand projects of medical research. Are All of them necessary All of them must they be undertaken now All of them our government is in the Public Utility business. It is in the housing business to is in the Railroad business. None of these businesses is the business of govern ment. Not until Congress gets serious Aboul culling spend ing will in be Lime to acl on raising revenues. Maybe Congress is now prepared to get serious bul there is not the slightest sign of it yet
