European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 8, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 Cote miss Jim Fain the stars and stripes Congress needs to make stand on Star wars the defense budget president Bush sent Congress reflects his slice Lac Salami approach to All problems. 1 is a year late and several billion High. Booby trapped politically Taro which does t augur Well Tor peace and Harmony on capital Hill. Bush and defense Secretary Dick Cheney laced it with base closings in democratic districts knowing the affected congressmen would go ballistic. Then they la cite the resultant Brouhaha to charge hypocrisy when democrats demand cuts in weapons systems. Action on both fronts is called for but its a bit much to ask any elected representative to Volunteer his District for blood sacrifice. Chairman los Aspin a wis of the House armed services committee has the right idea recreate the nonpartisan Board that provided Politi Ca cover for last years closings. Overall. Bush s timidity about cuts verges on laughable. He wants to press ahead with a stealth bomber that was t needed even before the soviet Empire began falling apart. Now at More than $500 million a copy it s an outrage. Almost As absurd he asks $700 million More for Reagan s Pel fantasy. Star wars. Instead we ought to Cut missile defense Buck to advanced research at 12 billion a year. Treeing the other $3 billion for culling the deficit. As to the rail based my bargain it away As Security adviser Brent scow Croft argues. The soviets have deployed about 30 of its counterpart the ss-24, they say they re ready to Deal. No need to go Forward with the advanced tactical fighter either. Reduce Purchase of the c-t7 cargo plane. Forget the weird theology that makes the Navy s 14 Carrier Battle groups sacred. When such professional Hawks As Richard Perle and the last three chairmen of the joint chiefs say it s time for real cuts the cosmetic surgery Bush offers obviously is out of sync with reality. Time for Congress to face facts too. Along with base closings it needs to shed its sensitivity to dec Csc Plant patronage go along with cancellation of the v-22 Osprey and accept the localized pain of phasing Down the pc Magon pork barrel. In the Long run Well All be Butler off As National resources arc slowed Back into Industrial productivity for peaceful uses. Which is not to say we should let Down the strategic guard that kept the peace All these years. Despite their troubles the soviets Haven to Cut their nuclear punch by so much As a millimetre. They re modernizing As fast As they can. Let hard liners Lake Over there and Well need a deterrent As surely As Ever that a Why we ought to press on with Midge than a single warhead missile that can be deployed on trucks. Its the Only land based missile on the horizon that would be Invulnerable to Surprise attack. Unlike my it does no to invite one either. Even if an enemy knew where to find it head have to target two or three warheads to be confident of knocking out its one. Multiple warhead missiles such As my place a Premium on first strike since an attacker could takeout 10 warheads with one or two. Bush is right that the biggest savings lie in troop cuts involving among other things Sharp draw Downs in Europe and Asia. He a barely begun with them but there Are billions to be had by placing on hold Buck Rogers systems already in the pipeline. Thais where Congress ought to make its stand. Con no Nind Flora Lewis new South Africa could be continent s Savior Cape town South Africa a it was almost exactly 30 years ago that prime minister Harold Macmillan of Britain made his Quot wind of change Quot speech Here. It signalled Britain s sweeping acceptance of decolonization the dismantling of empires almost everywhere that has so changed the world. And in was a warning to South Africa to abandon racism As the foundation of its society. Quot our  he said Quot is non racial. It offers a future in which All will play their full pan As citizens in the countries where they live and in which feelings of race will be submerged in loyalty to two  two months later after the Sharpe Ville massacre and crisis. Gouth Africa banned the main Black political organizations. Driving them underground to a policy of violent resistance. So in a sense. President . De Klerkx so a a Nanning Quot and Call for negotiations last week moves the situation Back where it was in i960 when Henrik Verwoerd was building the elaborate trappings of apartheid. The English language newspaper Argus said last weekend Quot looking Backil is Clear that on balance or. Macmillan was right and or. Verwoerd was  that is putting it mildly. There have been 30 years of tragedy and bitter hatred now to be overcome and not everybody is yet prepared to believe in is possible or even desirable. Conservative member of parliament Louis Stofberg Stales the Ultra nationalist afrikaner position saying Quot Verwoerd fought it All out for  calling de Klerks shift Quot Mere treachery Quot he told me in was due to a combination of Quot outside pressures Quot and a belief that a a we can to afford this War any longer. We done to agree. Wed rather  while there is a new surge of Hope Here for a peaceful solution at last there is also a sense of danger ahead. If the attempt to work out a multiracial state with human and democratic rights for All Breaks Down there Isnit Likely to be another Chance before the catastrophe which has been on the horizon for so Long. A lot More than the Fate of South africans themselves is at stake. An important if Little noticed passage in de Klerks speech offered Quot discussions with other Southern african countries with the aim of formulating a realistic development plan Quot he called for a a joint program of reconstruction. Unless the countries of Southern Africa achieve stability and a common approach to economic development rapidly they will be faced by further decline and  this is obviously part of the Effort to break out of isolation and attract new capital on a basis that transcends moral and political rejection or South africans existing system. Yet it is a sound approach for the United Stales and other Industrial countries in reviewing their attitude to South Africa in terms of the whole Region. Once Domestic negotiations Are firmly engaged parallel negotiations should be encouraged with the neighbouring countries most of them in dire shape. They too have been victims of South africans policies As Well As of their own. They too desperately need a healthy cooperative South Africa to contribute 1o the whole area s Advance. It is a role this country could embrace with Energy and Pride an inspiring role to replace the narrow beleaguered idea of holding out against surrounding enemies. This is an extraordinarily Beautiful richly endowed country with the infrastructure and the skills to make a huge contribution to the most sickly continent. Facts must be faced. In those 30 years since the Quot wind of change Quot brought the rest of sub saharan Africa to Independence there has been stagnation and deterioration almost everywhere. South african exiles know and do not envy the experience of others. For a Long time excuses were made and the sorry record veiled. Bui it cannot be denied. In a stunningly Lucid and candid report issued late last year the world Bank documented the decline with recommendations for turning it around. That will take a change of attitudes which is beginning at last with recognition of Quot informal economics Quot not state controlled As the a seedbed for entrepreneurship not the Holica Lor  it will take Quot Good governments above All it said. And it will take expansion of markets an infusion of management and investment in which South Africa can make the vital difference. Perhaps the Silver lining in the passage of africans dismal 30 years is that two disastrous illusions Are collapsing simultaneously apartheid and command systems. They Are related. Both deny Basic freedoms one on grounds of Ray. The other on grounds of ideology. Neither works. The Issue is broadening if South Africa has the will and the heart to accept democracy for All its people it can be the Leader of democracy and development for Africa. That would be a gain for All even the most cramped old afrikaners.