European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 3, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes monday september 3,1990 William f. Buckley Don t be deluded by . Vote on Persy engulf w i Iii a in i Iii sudden enthusiasm for the United nations requires sober thought lest we confuse that body with the prodigal son. Internationalists who have been pining for world government for two generations arc wildly delighted by the behaviour of the United nations in bringing an All but unanimous vote in favor of . Initiatives against Iraq. What that vote establishes is not the Plebs scutary strength of the United nations however but its inherent weakness you see what it tells you is nothing More than that when the United nations behaves it behaves. What is it that brought on this near unanimous vote two and a half developments the first being the decision of the soviet Union to Back the .-led Boycott. What caused the soviet Union to do the Correct thing not its correctness obviously tin soviet government has a very great stake in the Friendship of the United states during a period when it desperately needs . Reedil expertise and influence. In pact the soviet Union voted the right Way against the tug of its own immediate interests which Are lied to a Rise in the Price of Oil. Every Rise in the Price of Oil increases the soviet unions hard cur Rency Rev nuts for it is a major Oil exporter. The soviet Union therefore calculated that the result of a Hegemony dominated by Iraq in the persian Gulf notwithstanding the huge Rise in the Price of Oil that such a unit would bring was not Worth the Cost of defying the United states. Then China which saw nothing in the vote that damaged its own interests was clearly drawn by the Opportunity to act in unison with democratic leaders who have been looking askance at the chinese government since the affair at Tiem Enmen Square 15 months ago. And then a this is the half a came the third world straddles. We know the heritage foundation has accumulated the statistics that these nations voted against the United states and in favor of the soviet Union Back when our interests were clearly separated about nine times out of 10. The soviet direction is no longer so important As once it was Given its jettisoning of the ideological baggage. When the soviet Union was the declared enemy of . Polic amp to cat Foo Cru Fiji a amp so by whatever it was and wherever it was being pursued the third world amused itself by the twitter that it added to the soviet Roar. Without the soviet Union to inspire it the third world is no longer As inclined to such moral infidelities. So the third world voted for the most part with the United states. Even Cuba abstained rather than vote against us. Why because Cuba is vaguely angry at the soviet Union Over its Bourgeois fiction but not to the Point of registering Solidarity with Iraq against the rest of the Arab world. The notion then needs to be resisted that the absorption of Kuwait by Iraq was the occasion for a moral Epiphany that saved the soul of the United nations. These Are the Foik who have closed their eyes to most of the monstrosities committed in our time. The current vote establishes absolutely nothing other than that the concatenation of elements in the current crisis is unusual. All the pressures or practically All have generated in favor of the . Position against that of Iraq. It pays to ask the question what if Iraq had a nuclear bomb and threatened to use it suppose that it had a meager ballistic delivery system but one capable of intermediate Range with which it threatened one missile dropped on Moscow a second on Berlin a third on Cairo. Would we then see such an amalgam of virtuous forces As have been heralded this time around the question is embarrassing because the answer is so obvious. After All Iraq has not done anything that the soviet Union did not do As a matter of routine acting on its own behalf or through a client state for a generation. But in defying with the soviet Union one dealt with a nation that was a superpower if Only because of its inventory of nuclear weapons. When a nation becomes nuclear one Calls it sir. If anyone approaches the United nations in search of strategic moral sense they ought not expect much. If the United nations were serious it would have endorsed Many years ago the development of anti missile defense systems a ski a to guard against the situation not today All that Iraq has is Poison bomb but tomorrow when Iraq will have nuclear bombs. That will leave the world with the alternative of intervening to destroy nuclear repositories or encouraging the development of regional defense systems that would be capable of guarding against incidental nuclear offensives. But pending All that beware of any hypnotic delusions about the United nations. C Universal press Syndicate Kevin Cowherd any Ore colled for jury duty but few Ore chosen recently i was summoned for jury duty and had the Opportunity to observe the american judicial system up close and personal which was a frightening experience indeed. As a Petit court juror i spent eight hours performing a variety of civic duties to wit 9 Reading magazines. It Reading newspapers. A watching to. A drinking Coffee. A talking to a very Nice fellow named Jim who turned out to have some hysterical stories about disc jockey Howard Stem and his recent interview with Fred the elephant Man. Now some of you May ask a they if you were a juror How come you weren to in a courtroom deciding the guilt or innocence of some poor Slob who was caught coming Down a fire escape with a to set under his Arm a Well or. Or is. Nosy its none of your business but ill Tell you Why i Wasny to in a courtroom with some second rate burglar. Because i did no to feel like it of no. Actually the answer is far More complicated. It turns out that just because you re summoned for jury duty that docs not actually mean you will participate in a trial. Besides if All of us jurors were off gallivanting at this trial or that one there would have been no one left to hang out in the jury room and read magazines read newspapers watch to and drink Coffee. Plus Jim would have been awfully lonely and i Wasny to about to do that to Jim. What kind of fellow juror would i be if in the Middle of another anecdote about Fred the elephant Man the one about Fred looking for a Date i said a sorry Jim i have to run. They re calling me for a  that a not my style. I done to strike up a conversation and then just drop it whenever some Burly sergeant at arms motions for me. In any event my Day As a juror began at the crack of 8 30, when i gathered at the circuit court jury room with 200 other bored surly citizens Many of whom at least to my Way of thinking appeared to have police records themselves. My initial thought was this god help the poor Slob who has his Fate decided by these people. They will have him thrown to the Sharks. Of course i was not in such a swell mood either and would have been the first to punch a fist in the air and shout a a hanging a too Good for him a if actually called upon to Render a verdict. Of sure i know that jury duty is a civic responsibility. And i know that we should accept this responsibility cheerfully because the Keystone of the american system of Justice is the right to a fair trial blah blah blah. But put yourself in my shoes. I was scheduled to play Golf that Day. And suddenly i was being told that instead of getting in 18 holes i might be called upon to decide whether some poor woman with three hungry children would be hauled off to jail for shoplifting. Well. If that a not a major inconvenience i done to know what is. In any event around 10 in the morning after an hour and a half of sitting around and doing nothing we took a 45-minute Coffee break. Now i love a Coffee break As much As the next person maybe even More. But we Hadnot done a darned thing since 8 30, and we were taking a break from not doing a darned thing. Well sir it did no to make any sense to me. Nonetheless i dutifully filed out of the jury room with the others although not before whispering to a member of the court staff a if you need a Quick guilty verdict ill be at the Deli across the  forty five minutes after returning from our Coffee break we were told to take a lunch break. So maybe you see what in a getting at Here. It was not exactly like splitting rocks in the hot Sun this jury duty. Jim and i went to a Nice korean restaurant where he finished the wondrous tale of Fred the elephant Man who by this time had found a Date a wonderful woman with a heart of Gold who was willing to Overlook his speech impediment and us interesting looks. The rest of the afternoon passed in a similar frenzy of activity for us jurors More Reading More to More Coffee Etc and at 4 that afternoon we were dismissed for the Day. Who knows where All the criminals were but they sure weren to in circuit court. That was probably just As Well As i would have resented the idea of interrupting the card game just to file into a courtroom and shriek a a he Sas guilty As sin you can see it on his face a its bad enough that they Cost me a Day of Golf. Cowherd writes for the Baltimore Sun