European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 26, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes Stephen s. Ro5enfeld the great debate is America in decline in this season of going for the Gold it matters that the great debate of american foreign policy whether the United Stales is or is not in decline has been joined by an adviser of the Dukakis Camp who insists it in t so and whose thoughts Are regularly reflected in the candidate s own words. George Bush is unruffled on this Issue. He takes it As an item of political Faith that America is no. I and should remain no. 1. But his ringing references to the american Century Lack a demonstration to prove the Point or even a sign of awareness that the Point Joes not prove itself. He seems Content o make his daily visit to a Flag factory. Michael Dukakis in the part of his message that has been most clearly heard emphasizes the requirement for the United states to fit its policies to changing world circumstances and to the interests of other coun tries. This is of course an inescapable part of any country s policy. But people Art plainly More ready toc Alch a message of assertiveness than even an Intelli gent one of accommodation. The latter risks being Laken As a National putdown and Dukakis for some of his National Security views already has All the head aches he needs on thai score. Especially is this the Case in the autumn of an olym pics. You can Lake your own Reading of the National mood by registering the leap of your heart whenever an american wins a medal at Seoul. A candidate ignores his feeling at his peril. Dukakis is picking up echoes of John f. Kennedy by affirmations of me need to restore respect for american  he said the other Day in one of his big Security policy speeches i am running for president because i want to Lead an America that leads the world an America that does not Settle for second place or second Best which leads us to the Paul Kennedy question. He is the Yale historian whose thesis of Imperial Over stretch helped spark the continuing debate on whether the new circumstances of the late 20th Century is pc holy the economic circumstances Are making leading american role a thing of the past requiring America not so much to Lead from strength As to manage an inevitable erosion. Which leads us to the Joseph Nye answer. He is a Harvard political scientist whose article understating . Strength appears in the new Issue of foreign policy Magazine. Others have contested the economic premises and the historical logic of the Paul Kennedy thesis but the Nye analysis taxes on additional Politi Cal piquancy by virtue of his status As a Carter stale James j. Kilpatrick department Veteran who is now a leading policy adviser to the democratic nominee. Rebutting Paul Kennedy Nye says that any decline measured from the artificial High of the 1950s is misleading that the United slates is not being challenged by a rising military Power that external commitments Are not sapping America s internal strength and thai Wilh certain Domestic reforms we can adapt to the new dimensions of Power in the information age. Although the United states must now navigate among Many centers of Power and a new measure of International interdependence Nye says americans should not understate . Strength. Misleading histor ical analogies and false anxieties might prompt Ameri cans to adopt policies of retrenchment that ironically could produce the results they Are supposed to Forest  the right strategy instead is to Transfer resource from consumption to investment. To invest in new technologies infrastructure and human resources. To invest in defense Aid and institutions that afford leverage with the International system on the Man issues in which the United Stales is heavily inter Epen  Mere Nye defects a fire irony at work Reagan s debts accumulated in the name of restoring Ameri can Power and prestige have stirred the belief that the country cannot afford both its International commit ments and its Domestic investments. Nye says nay ii is important not to mistake the Short term problems arising from the Reagan period s borrowed Prosperity for a symptom of Long term american decline. The latter need not be the Case unless americans react in appropriately to global changes and inflict the wounds 5. Hon Ltd h seply he och Lor a win on court May reverse 1973 decision on abortion wash3ncton Twenty Odd years ago if memory serves Eric Seya acid of lbs was interviewing Justice Hugo Black. Their conversation turned to the supreme court s school desegregation decision of 1954, Brown is. Board of education. Sevareid remarked that in the Brown Case the court had reversed a line of opinions dating from 1896. The old Doc Trine of separate but equal which once had passed constitutional Muster now had been discarded. In this period the govern ing provisions of the 14th Amend ment had Noi changed by so much As a comma. How could the Constitution mean one thing in 1896 and a totally different thing in 19547 Black tented his hands and rocked benignly Back and Forth. That s right or. Sevareid he said. The Constitution had t changed but the judges had  in that moment. Black gave the game away. The word were the same Only the judges were different. All this came Back to mind when jus Tice Harry Blackmun spoke to a group of Law students in Little Rock Ark. Their conversation turned to Blackmun s pro abortion opinion of 197roc is. Wade. To the amazement of his audience Blackmun ventured a prediction will Roe is. Wade go Down the Drain i think there s a very distinct possibility that it will this term. You can count the  exactly. It was a most impolitic thing for Blackmun to have said he might As Well have appeared Wilh a Dukakis Button on his coat but put that to one Side. He was echoing the Imis voiced by Hugo Black and voiced much earlier by Charles Evans Hughes the Constitution is what the judges say in  the abortion decision of 1973, hold ing a Texas statute unconstitutional Drew the support of seven members of the court Blackmun Brennan Marshall Douglas Powell slew an and Burger. Justices while and Rehnquist dissented. Of the seven in the majority Only Black Mun Brennan and Marshall remain. The others have been succeeded by justices Stevens o Connor Scalia and Kennedy. You can count the votes said Blackmun. By this he was predicting As clearly us if he had named names that when Roe is. Wade is next challenged perhaps in the term that begins on oct.3, five justices will vote to overrule Rehnquist White o Connor Scalia and Kennedy. The 15-year-old abortion decision could indeed go Down the Drain. Many court observers will shed no tears at the Prospect. Blackmun s 1973 opinion was a terrible piece of constitutional Law. Justice Byron White attacked it savagely in dissent. He could find nothing in the language or history of the 14th amendment to support the Deci Sion. The court had simply fashioned Abrand new constitutional right fur preg Nant mothers. As an exercise in raw judicial Power while observed the court per haps has authority to do what it does today but in my View its judgment is an improvident and extravagant exercise of the Power of judicial  White has not changed his mind in the ensuing years in june 1983 he dissented in two abortion cases from Ohio and Missouri. In june 1986 he re turned to his theme. A Pennsylvania statute was before the court. The statute would have established certain regulations for Legal abortions. White found nothing unconstitutional in the require ments. On the contrary he found them fully within the permissible boundaries of the old Roe is. Wade decision. While persisted in urging that Roc be overruled. Yes he agreed a certain deference Musl be paid to the doctrine of stare dec Isis which teaches that settled Points of Law ought not to be Dis Turbed. But the court has not applied the doctrine rigidly in constitutional cases. Otherwise the separate but equal Deci Sion of 1896 would not have been Over ruled in 1954. The Lime has come said while to recognize that Roe is. Wade was an abuse of the court s Power it was not an act of constitutional interpretation in was nothing More than the imposition upon the people of the value preferences of seven members of the court no cases involving abortion yet Bave been accepted for the coming term but cases Are in the pipeline from Texas Indiana and Missouri that could provide the Opportunity Ibal White Welcome and Blackmun dreads. If Roe is. Wade should be overruled the Law on abortions would be returned effectively to the states. The Constitution in this regard would be returned to the people. It s. Hard to find fault Wilh that. In foul Pratt synd it the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page rep resent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government