European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 12, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 a the stars and Stripe columns Malpress should be More critical of Panama invasion the More one looks into president Bush a invasion of Panama the More one should a and the More one wonders Why those of us in the press have been so uncritical about both the a a justification and the consequences of this egregious misuse of . Military Power. The army a own Southern come has provided More essential information than Many news organizations in this country. On March 26, for instance the Southern come announced in Panama that the actual death toll for panamanian military forces was about 50, Only one sixth of the 3 14 claimed at the time of the invasion last december. The eos Angeles times to its credit published this substantial revision and pointed out its True significance in a Story by Douglas Jehl. Since the Southern come did not lower its estimate of panamanian civilian deaths during the invasion Jehl wrote military officials were in fact conceding that four times As Many civilians As panamanian soldiers had been killed by . Military action. What s to be said about an a a invasion so weakly opposed by organized military forces and so much More destructive of civilian lives a 202, the Southern come claims to Only about 50 panamanian soldiers those figures inescapably suggest that such a sledgehammer operation was not Only unnecessary but indiscriminate. Fhe 202 figure moreover is almost surely too Low an estimate of panamanian civilian deaths. Establishment of a higher total which has been alleged in numerous other non military investigations would mean that the ratio of noncombatant to military deaths was greater than 4 to i. The los Angeles times printed this extraordinary Story Only on Page 13. To my knowledge no other major publication or broadcaster gave it even that much prominence. George will i i i i 4�?Ti�1, m a my the times article included another fact too Little publicized a that the . Military is investigating alleged misconduct by 21 soldiers that resulted in the deaths of eight panamanian non combatants. Eugene j. Carroll the retired Admiral who is Deputy director of the Center for defense information has compared the supposed necessity to protect american wami a i Lilia lift 1 w Iff a mix Mil. Ili of is ill flip lives in Panama a because of the killing before the invasion of one . Officer and the abuse of another and his wife a with the fact that 26 americans were killed and More than 300 wounded in the invasion. Thus 326 american casualties were suffered not to mention dead and injured panamanians because of what Carroll aptly termed a a level of pre inva Sion violence. Lower than exists in Washington d.c., every the toll of . Civilians could easily have been worse. Carroll quoted a Pentagon spokesman As saying that the invading forces concentrated on a reducing Quot the panamanian defense Force. . Residents in Panama were left mostly to fend for themselves. A if the Noriega a dignity battalions had been one tenth As vicious. As our government described them a he concluded a these units could have murdered countless americans a Carroll s article making these and other critical Points has been rejected by a Weveir major . nor has the fact been strongly enough emphasized that the invasion clearly violated . Treaty obligations. Bush termed it a operation just cause and insisted that it was necessary to restore democracy in Panama. In fact article 18 of the charter of the organization of american states to which the . Is a signatory says unambiguously a no state or group of states has the right to intervene directly or indirectly for any reason whatsoever in the internal or external affairs of any other state not Only would Bush or any president have excoriated the soviet Union for such a blatant illegality and properly so but the timing of the panamanian invasion must have impressed Mikhail Gorbachev it began after All on the Day the lithuanian communist party declared its Independence opening the drama still being played out by Moscow and Vilnius Bush has urged Gorbachev not to use Force and the soviet Leader has pledged not to do so. He can hardly have failed to notice however that George Bush himself had used 24,000 troops and overwhelming Force not to maintain order in what he considers an integral part of his nation but to invade a Sovereign country and impose upon it a government of his Choice. C new York times Massachusetts unusual statehouse hopeful Sion _ met of Irani in. A ,. A a a Boston a most politicians aspire to be petunias pleasant commonplace Flowers in the Public Garden t Hen there is John Silber the candidate As Thistle. If you Are looking for Kinder and gentler look elsewhere. Silber 63, a former professor of philosophy is on leave from the presidency of Boston University where he frequently fought with the faculty. A faculty member on Silber a first rate minds can be lunatics like Ezra Pound a he is seeking the democratic gubernatorial nomination in Massachusetts. A i done to speak plastic a he says. Indeed. On his by salary the highest among University presidents Quot in a not embarrassed to get one Quarter of what a mindless Anchorman on to gets. In a not any pledge not to raise taxes a Borders on insanity. Jesse Jackson Silber can to endure a the mindless rhyming pieces of nonsense on which he has built a career might be Cabinet material because every president s Cabinet a needs someone to write bumper his in ongue has always been tart. When the Young Bill Bennett now drug Czar was Silbery a student Silber compared Bennett a doctoral dissertation to Texas Chili Quot mostly Beans and Mush with the occasional a lifelong educator who has taught at Yale and Texas his words on schools Are especially a minced. Many schools Are a institutionalized programs of child neglect a the curriculum of the typical school of education a certifying the i educable to be educators amounts to a a two or three year negative intelligence a voucher system would mean a the end of Public education Quot unless teachers unions allowed outside evaluations of teachers and ensured that they Are Quot worthy mentors and available to pupils As he favors a state examination for All High school seniors. A school in which fewer than 80 percent pass would be on probation. Two consecutive such years and the school would be de certified and denied Public funds., to Stop teachers from giving a social promotions a Silber favors similar state examinations for fourth and eighth graders. A the High school diploma in Massachusetts is too often a fraudulent when Silber says Back to basics he Means basics we should begin by teaching children something that in earlier times reality taught them through the deaths of siblings and elders a they Are going to sound education depends on this Contact with reality. The presidents Campaign theme was a a done to worry be Silbery a is life is real life is Earnest life is Short. In a Lime of cloying National triumphalism Silbery a is the voice of a scold. He believes America has become self indulgent enervated by wealth and demoralized by bad philosophy. Self indulgent educational standards a Are derisory by standards that were operative in Ordinary Little country schools a Hundred years enervated the affluence that capitalism produces is dissolving the Virtues a industriousness deferral of gratification a that capitalism requires. Bad philosophy the transformation of whims into a needs a then into a rights a proceeds on the Assumption that a a sincerity creates a a values and a no fault life. Although Silber like a lot of democrats voted for Reagan and Bush he Calls himself a a traditional Liberal Democrat. He led a Texas Campaign against capital punishment helped found the head Start program and says that without preschool programs for children Ages 3, 4 and 5 who Lack adequate adult care at Home a we can Only talk Emp tily about Equality of i 1 he has been a Democrat 54 years since 1936, when his father received a Home improvement loan from an for program and enlarged his family House. But his father still praised Hoover and lambasted for so child Silber said a Why is it that everything Good that has happened to our family has happened since Roosevelt became president a the Thistle was prickly Early. If democrats can find the nerve to nominate him he should win in a state where Only 14 percent of voters Are republicans and Republican candidates must attract disaffected democrats who think liberalism has become woolly headed. However his parly May be unnerved by the accusation that he is he says charges of a a insensitivity Are used to make Many sensitive subjects such As sex and race Undis Custable. The charges Are often idiotic. Recently he was denounced for saying that a woman has an Opportunity to be a pretty girl Between say Ages 15 and 25. Critics called him insensitive to women Over 25. But Silber said what he said while discussing a Yeats poem specifically the line a what shall i do for pretty girls now my old Bawd is dead a in a High school class that Silber says included a exceedingly scruffy dirty ill kempt Young he told them they were in a wonderful window of life and instead of luxuriating in their loveliness a they were throwing it away with the assiduous Effort to be is Silber impolitic perhaps. If so so much the worse for Massachusetts polity. But if this the Only state that George Mcgovern carried in 1972, can elect the nations most interesting candidate in 1990, the democratic party May find Many democrats coming Home to it. C Washington Posl writers group
