European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 3, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes . Rosenthal new drug plan might finally get something done Well at last. Along comes a new proposal for National drug action that is Clear sensible comprehensive entirely doable. It is based on solid thinking about what the problems Are make choices about priorities sets goals and outlines organization. It could finally finally give the country a known plan and a rational strategy for fighting narcotics. It comes from democratic senators working on drug abuse and it is being circulated in the Senate just now. The democratic leadership will try to work with Republican senators to produce a Bill backed by members of both parties in Congress. If that happens if the result could be one of the most important bipartisan efforts in decades. The concept paper outlining the plan comes from a democratic group of 15 led by Sens. Daniel p. Moynihan of new York and Sam Nunn of Georgia. It is called epidemic and it is Lucid an literate sophisticated and even intellectual if you will excuse the word. It is pleasure to read which May explain in some part my seizure of enthusiasm. The first Assumption is that the drug danger is real. That May seem obvious to most americans now but it is an important reply to the substantial number of supporters of drug legalization who insist that we Are in the midst of a Media created panic. We Are talking about our future i says and there is a Shadow Over it. Young people Are endangered but most viciously virulently the Young people of the inner cities. The violence associate with drug use could drastically alter american  the senators propose to spend $3 Bil lion More than the current $4 billion but they Are not just throwing Money the have very specific ideas of How it should be spent and in what proportions. They propose to spend 60 percent of the total to try to reduce the demand for drugs through treatment education policing and punishment and 40 percent on fighting to diminish the Supply through interdiction and eradication of drug crops abroad. This will be the More controversial part of the proposal. It changes the cur Tom Wicker rent budget emphasis on stopping drugs from getting into the country. The proposal does not dismiss the need for fighting drug growing and smug gling. But the senators believe the coun try gets most value from Money spent on fighting the use and peddling of drugs in the United states. They May be wrong but it is Worth the Gamble to see if something works bet Ter than what we Are doing now which is getting us nowhere fast. And if enough Money is appropriated the attempt tonight drugs abroad and at our Borders need not be destroyed despite the new emphasis. Here Are some other proposals and concepts every level of government has to be involved. The Federal Effort now scattered among dozens of agencies should be pulled together by a Cabinet level director in the president s executive office a drug Czar who would draw up a National drug budget and strategy. Locally each Community should havea task Force involving Law enforcement education and health officials and Citi Zens representatives. On Law enforcement the plan would reduce court and prison logjam that allow drug paddlers to walk free. There would be More Money for courts an prosecutors and 20 new Federal judge ships. . Magistrates could take drug cases. Civilian drug prisoners could be housed in military facilities. Criminal penalties would be in creased. Special help would be Dis patched to particularly bad drug areas. There Are dozens of other suggestions important individually but particularly As part of a comprehensive and comprehensible plan of action. Other important drug Bills have died picked apart like a Chicken at a picnic. What a present it would be for the coun try and themselves if All of Congress acted in the spirit of the last sentence first paragraph fourth Page of the Moy Nihan Nunn working paper there is much to be hopeful about if we accept our  c new York times racing yesterday s Battles can affect today s decisions More than 60,000 spectators recently gathered at Gettysburg pa., for a partial re enactment of the great Battles of july 1-3, 1863. That s a crowd about two thirds the size of the army of Northern Virginia that Robert e. Lee led into the crucial struggle of the civil War 125 years ago. Undoubtedly some were Only on a summer Outing with the kids others May have been drawn by the welter of tourist attractions from Wax works to an elephant museum that ring the Well preserve battlefields at Gettysburg. Still so Many onlookers for a staged event attests tothe enduring fascination of the civil War even in a nation not much Given to the study of its own history. Americans seem to have an instinctive feeling for if not necessarily much knowledge about the Cen trial forming event of the National experience. That rather reverential instinct i believe has Bee important in the rising Force of opposition to a huge shopping mall and housing development that would desecrate ground Over which Union and Confederate armies waged bloody Battle near Manassas va., in the last Days of August 1862. As detailed in an earlier column the 340-acre tract i question has been rezoned by Prince William county authorities to permit development by the Hazel Peterson co. And the Edward j. Debartolo corp. The land lies adjacent to but has not yet been included in the Manassas National Battlefield Park. Its proximity to interstate Highway 66 makes it an attractive site for a mall. Now however it appears that the developers May yet be prevented from building the second largest mall in Virginia on historic ground where the Southern Gen. James Longstreet s corps charged and routed the Federal army of Gen. John Pope in the second Bat Leof Manassas or Bull run As Yankees know it. That set the stage for Lee s first invasion of the North in the autumn of 1862. Three recent developments give Rise to optimism that the Battlefield May yet be saved from Park ing lots and fast food first the army corps of engineers has halted Road and other construction that the developers had started because they May be endangering wetlands that Are scattered through the tract. If so the planned project including a 12-acre Lake would require a special permit from the corps of engineers before it could be issued Public hearing would be required at which every Federal Agency involved plus representatives of the Public including environmental groups could testify. In effect the matter would be taken out of the hands of the Prince William authorities. Second by the overwhelming vote of 371 to 40, the House of representatives voted last week in approving a $10.8 billion transportation Bill to prohibit construction of an interchange that would link the pro posed mall to interstate 66. Without that interchange the mall would be a Farless attractive project. This is by no Means final Victory. Sen. John Warner r-va., tried hard to gain approval for the interchange in the Senate Bill. He was frustrated in committee principally by sen. Frank Lautenberg d-n.j., and sen. Dale bumpers d-ark., but has said he will fight forthe interchange on the Senate floor next week. President Reagan May veto the Bill As being too expensive. Rep. Robert j. Mrazek d-n.y., a prime opponent of the mall has pointed out that the House vote indicates Strong congressional opposition to the project. Third a House subcommittee recommended by a 7-4 vote thursday a bipartisan Bill that would authorize a legislative taking of the mall tract. Under that procedure the Federal government would take immediate title to the land for inclusion in the existing Battlefield Park with the Price to be negotiated later. Passage of this Bill largely devised by rep. Frank , a Virginia Republican would be the most certain Means of defeating the mall while expanding the  Are Good in the House but Uncertain in the Senate where sen. John Warner r-va., again will be Akey figure. He s undoubtedly aware that in a postcard poll taken june 1 by the Prince William journal 80 percent of1,711 respondents opposed the mall project. A new York times