European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 01, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes columns Bernard e. Trainor new May not be better even in battleships defense Secretary Dick Che Ney s decision to keep four world War it battleships on Active duty Wilh the Fleet docs not end the debate on the Utility of Vintage warships. In fact he explosion april 19 in a gun Turret on the Iowa gave critics new am munition in their demands that the battleships be deactivated. Critics who opposed the Mccommis Sioning of the giant ships in the military buildup in president Reagan s first term arc again demanding that the battleships be removed from service. The destruction of one Turret Only marginally reduces the Overall firepower of the ship but if the Navy cannot repair the Iowa s damaged Turret questions arise about the Navy s Overall ability to repair Battle damage on a ship built with parts and a technology that no longer exist. Although dismayed by the Iowa explosion in which 47 sailors died proponents of the battleships continue to vigorously defend their military and political value. The Issue will probably come to a head in a Senate armed services com Mittee inquiry into the Iowa Accident which is scheduled to begin after a Navy investigation team reports on the causes of the explosion. There is no estimate on How Long that investigation will take. Critics maintain that the battleships represent old technology vulnerable in the nuclear age to attacks by missiles modern bombers and submarines. They contend that the Iowa Accident shows the ships 16-Inch guns arc danger Ous to operate and that they Are inaccurate As Well. Systems analysts argue that the battleships Are not Cost effective and because of their Large Crews Drain scarce Navy manpower. There May be a legitimate argument against the battleship for financial Rea sons but not on the basis of its age alone. It May also be disingenuous to imply William f. Buckley Khnoum 6lk1 Orr kill my Ink that the ships require too much manpower. The 1,500-Mcmbcr Crew of a Battle ship near a world trouble spot provides far greater visual evidence of american presence and interest than a comparable number of combat ready soldiers stationed in the Middle of the United states. The battleships 33-knot Speed and 15,000-mile Urc Fulcd Range Are matched Only by nuclear powered warships. Since the reactivation of the new Jer sey in 1982, battleships have been deployed to trouble spots off Lebanon Nicaragua and Iran As Well As the More benign reaches of the Atlantic Mediterranean and Western Pacific. Much of the criticism of the Battle ships military value appears to reflect an american throwaway mentality which equates new with useful and old with useless. For example the charge that the ships 16-Inch guns Are old fashioned overlooks that the most modern Field artillery snot appreciably different from that used in world War i. It also ignores that the old steel in the world War ii battleships and their guns is of a Quality that cannot be matched today. The critics also Overlook the Post-1945 changes that have been made to the battleships and the missions intended for them. The ships arc not floating coffins with big guns intended merely to fight ships that no longer exist As the critics imply. The modernized battleships arc equipped to play both a strategic and tactical role in deterring War and if de Terrence fails in fighting one. How Well they can fulfil this dual role is the real Issue in the debate not the age of the ships. A Wysk times arguments on both sides of fhe abortion Issue the Subtle probing done by the justices of the supreme court when they presided Over the epochal hour on the question of abortion expose the tactics of both sides and the difficulties of both sides. The pro Choice people Are saying this if the supreme court Bridges the right to Abon in is saying in effect that americans do not have the right to use Modem birth control paraphernalia. The decision in Griswold is. Connecticut 1965 overturned Laws against the Sale of birth control instruments of a rudimentary nature measured by common standards namely condoms and diaphragms. The pro choir cars arc now saying that to the extent that the Griswold decision rules that a state May not interfere in the Means by which couples govern the question of whether in sexual Intercourse the will procreate a child then the Griswold decision in the modern world must be understood As permitting not merely physical barriers to impregnation but also abort facies. That is those paraphernalia that move in on an egg even after it is fertilized bringing about its death. The Pill docs this by common medical understanding As docs the id and a fort Iori re 486, the Fri pro drug As yet in merchandised in the United state which aborts the fertilized egg after the first menstrual period is missed i.e., brings on the death of the egg after it is several weeks along in development. So messes and Madame justices do you really want to authorize the Missouri Law that would have the effect of depriving copulatory of the right to choose their own form of birth control that question appeared to give Justice Sandra Day o Connor pause. Stract Point and said look even the Roe decision makes distinctions. In distinguishes for instance be tween the first the second and the third trimesters. If it is possible to make a distinction along these lines then one acknowledges that it is possible to make a distinction entered on an earlier line. It is accordingly one thing to forbid an id or a Pill even though technically they Are abortifacient quite anole or thing to forbid an abortion having first weighed As the mis Souri Law docs the question of the fetus s viability. In other words the lifers maintained to the court unless you acknowledge that a line of some sort can be drawn that theoretically if you allow the use of an id during Intercourse you arc committed to allowing the Slaugh Ter of a fetus one Day before it would otherwise come to term. An extralegal understanding of any such right come about As close As one can come to saying that there is a fundamental right to infanticide unless one can find someone who can argue with philosophical plausibility that to kill a physiological package minus one Day old on the Calendar is substantially different infinitely different from killing what we know of As a one Day old baby. Now Justice Antonin Scalia was Alert to the informal use of the argument based on fundamental rights How can you assert the fundamental right of the Mother to destroy the fetus unless you first make a fundamental finding that the fetus is not a human being and therefore entitled to the protections of the fifth and 14th amendments and if that question needs to be answered who is to give the answer but then the right to lifers moved in on the a the choices replied that the answer cannot be Given save by the individual in whose womb the fetus resides. Why because there Are too Many varied positions on the question and although science can establish something called viability it cannot establish the question whether a fetus is a human  but one Justice asks where does the Constitution imply that such a finding is outside the political Power of the state if Public policy needs to be made with reference to a consensus on whether object x is a human being or not a human being How can it be made save by first making a Public finding by which human beings Are so designated what about an old Man comatose in t it the responsibility of the state to declare that he is or is not a human being what it comes Down to is the distinction Between common responsibilities and individual responsibilities. The Missouri Compromise and to an extent the Kansas Nebraska Bill asserted that it was a corporate responsibility of the state to allow or not to allow slave owning. Nobody even in those relatively dark Days asserted the right of the individual to decide for himself whether to own a slave because All the world acknowledged the existence of the other party the slave. And the argument today hangs on just such a question is there another party the unborn but viable human being Universal press Syndicate the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent 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