European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 30, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 a the stars and stripes thursday August 30,1990 soviets hold Venice a the Security Council vote endorsing military enforcement of the . Blockade on Iraq was an impressive feat of diplomacy. It not Only strengthened the International coalition against president Saddam Hussein it blocked the temptation of american Hawks to plunge into War. The Way the persian Gulf crisis is resolved is going to have deep Impact on the conduct of world affairs for a Long time. Instead of confirming the United Stales As leading partner of All who seek a peaceful world order going it alone could have reversed the remarkable consensus creating a new weapon for peace. Participants at a meeting Here of Aspen Institute italia on a economic policies for a new Era West West and East West reflected widespread Relief that the Era probably will not Start with a bang after All. The meeting was planned Long ago but everybody came preoccupied with Iraq Oil and the questions they provoked. Tain so far has been the Advance in Ameri to anti Saddam world can soviet diplomatic cooperation. Paul Nitzsc former . Arms negotiator has called for using the momentum to Speed up More far reaching arms reduction agreements. Nitze was once a prominent member of the a committee on the present danger a critical of most deals with the soviets. Now he says president Bush a should try radically to improve the bases for .-soviet collaboration a a that is a turnaround. Nitzer a careful proposals should weigh against the Peculiar idea that the Gulf threat makes further arms control and drastic restructuring of american forces undesirable. This crisis is in part a result of the global arms race and should argue instead for a much sterner broader attempt to Block it everywhere. The soviets seem willing. Moscow is eager to reinforce the United nations As the Center for action. A everything that can be done through International or multilateral Means should be done that Way and everything we do we should do together a said a soviet Diplomat meaning the United states and the soviets should always consult and can probably agree on measures to  Are some crucial contributions Moscow can make right now to Advance Resolution of the crisis. They Are delicate and might have to be discreet but they Are a new test. They concern intelligence. There arc still several Hundred soviet military technicians in Iraq. They probably know where the hostages Are. More important Moscow knows All about iraqi forces air defences missiles equipment most of it soviet made. That information wont disarm Saddam Hussein but it must gravely undermine his Confidence if he has Toj suppose the United states has it. Most important no intelligence service anywhere has the Kab s intimate knowledge of iraqi politics especially rivalries and fault lines within the military and police establishments some of them also organized by former Eastern european Security services. The one Way to avoid War is for the iraqis themselves to bring Down their dictator. It is an illusion to think that outside pressure can induce Saddam to pull out of Kuwait and let his forces be neutralized. That would be failure and he knows his own people would not let him survive a show of impotence. He would More Likely sacrifice them. So the key is to convince others that their Chance of survival is to get rid of him or go Down with him. He came to Power through a coup. It is not an alien idea in Iraq. There is always hidden opposition secret cliques in a tyranny. They need to be Given a sense that they have More to gain than to lose in risking an overthrow. The West including israelis vaunted Mossad knows prices will remain High anyway and Western recession would Hurt them too. What they need is improved very Little about the hidden intricacies of Saddam s regime. Moscow can get word to the right people. It is wrong to suppose the soviets have an interest in prolonged crisis because of the Windfall in High Oil prices. It helps them but not nearly enough to solve their foreign currency shortage and their production has been declining sharply Over the past two years. A main his them production. Before the Gulf crisis prime minister Ruud Lubbers of the Netherlands proposed technical Aid to improve the soviet Oil Industry As a Way to help Eastern european democracies that will have to pay hard currency for these imports next year. West europeans like the idea. The United states should support it. That would be yet another innovative example of cooperation for Mutual and general Benefit. It is a new Era. The soviets need help and they can contribute. C now of k times a Mike Feinsilber Bush on shaky ground in justifying Gulf buildup when the United states goes to War or comes close id it it usually invokes one or both of two great purposes to protect the nation against an imminent threat or to protect the democratic Ideal. President hush is denied those rationales in the persian Gulf. Instead he invokes the abstract principle that might should not make right and the pragmatic View that americans a Way of life is threatened if one Man has the Power to control the Price and Supply of Petroleum. The question that remains is whether the american people will support an Enterprise based on those purposes. Hush says the lesson of the 1930s is that appeasement of tyrants does not work and he would not find widespread disagreement with that proposition among his countrymen. However a Public opinion poll probably would uncover virtual unanimous agreement with a counter balancing proposition a the United states cannot be the worlds  that is a lesson America extracted from the korean stalemate of the 1950s, the Vietnam failures of the 1970s, the budget deficits of the 1980s. Bush probably would agree. He notes that 23 nations have signed on to the Effort to push the iraqi army of president Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait and Back behind the iraqi Border. A it is Iraq against the world a Bush said last week. Hut Bush  dispute that As in Korea and South Vietnam the chief ally bearing the Burden is the United states. The end of the cold War has denied american presidents the ready explanation that the line had to be drawn against the Advance of communism. International communism is no longer a threat. It is not even very International. Its strongest remaining outposts Are Cuba a Thorn but not a menace and China with which the Bush administration maintains cordial relations. The soviet Union is Bush s somewhat silent partner in the iraqi engagement. The soviets were the iraqis chief arms supplier which causes the Rev. William Sloane coffin to observe that the persian Gulf showdown could not have occurred suggested the world could not afford to had the cold War not ended. Make the mistake it made then. A if the cold War was still Active the soviets would never have allowed Iraq to risk a confrontation with the United states Quot coffin said because such a confrontation All too easily could have led to an american soviet encounter. Part of the history of the last 50 years is How the two superpowers avoided collisions. Coffin who As chaplain at Yale was spiritual Leader of the anti War movement during the Vietnam Era is critical of Bush so enormous Quot and a a Provola Lionald buildup in saudi Arabia. He argues the Effort should have been More genuinely multinational. Just As no realistic communist Specter existed for Bush to raise in justifying his course no democracy was threatened by Saddam a aggression. No democracy existed a not in the palaces of the emirate of Kuwait or the kingdom of saudi Arabia instead Bush said a naked aggression was at play in Saddam a invasion. He equated Saddam a aggression in the 1990s to Adolf hitlers in the 1930s and a if history teaches us anything it is that we must resist aggression or it will destroy our freedoms a Bush said in a television address aug. 8 to the nation. A appeasement does not  former sen Thomas Eagleton d-mo., writing in the St. Louis Post dispatch demurs from the claim that appeasement was the Issue. A we acted for one reason and one reason Only of i la Eagleton wrote. A if Mali were to invade Turkina faso we would Send a letter of deep regret by regular  a week later Bush cited the Way of life argument declaring before a Pentagon audience a your jobs our Way of Lite our own Freedom and the Freedom of Friendly countries around the world would suffer if control of the worlds great Oil reserves fell into the hands of Saddam  that a unquestionably True but not much of a rallying cry. Associated press writer Mike Fem Siux flu it l  events in Washington since