European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 3, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Andrew j. Glass commentary separate wartime roles for Media military Washington a the wars final Days bound the nation together in a shared sense of Pride Over the Swift Victory. But did it also help heal the deep scars Between the Media and the military _ an image stands out a Marine among the first to enter Kuwait City drapes an american Flag at the . Embassy. /. A it had been Given to him during the tet offensive in Vietnam in 1968 by a buddy who later died in his arms. For that Soldier a stain of shame was lifted. And so it was As Well for others who were enabled by the satellites to become witnesses. During Teti the White House plied us with charts that proved it was said that the offensive had broken the enemy a Backbone. But when we heard Walter Cronkite on the lbs evening news narrate the Brazen attack on the Saigon embassy we knew that it was not so. Now Cronkite was Back with an essay in news week declaring that a with an arrogance foreign to the democratic system the . Military in saudi Arabia is trampling on the american Peoples right to know. It is doing a disservice not Only to the Home front but to history Ancito i s own Best  v yet Cronkite the revered retired network Anchorman had to admit that when the press and the military fight Over Access people scorn the press and Back the military. On the night the War began the Pentagon gave me a along with 126 other reporters photographers and technicians a a seat on a military charter to what Saddam Hussein called a the Mother of All  with a pal i soon left for the front. We nosed around dodging my patrols that did no to want a a Maverick reporters nosing around. Before Long we found Vii corps Headquarters. We Learned the command had shifted 100,000 troops the Cream of the army Well to the West of Kuwait. The bold plan called for jumping the vaunted Republican guard from behind. We returned to Riyadh and told an officer who worked for Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf the theater commander what we had seen and found. A so you Guys Are going to blow the whole thing a the officer said. A Are you also going to write that the Marine amphibious brigade thing is a deception a he asked sarcastically. The Marine feint was news to me. But it really should not have been. For nearly every other Day it seemed the command scheduled a a background briefing on the latest amphibious rehearsal. There were no briefings to be had however on the coming air land Battle the Complex Man Euver in which assault troops race through the desert to meet up with William f. Buckley or. Their fuel and ammunition dropped at an a a airhead by helicopters. Its True that reporters will do most anything for a Story. But its also True that in wartime most reporters Are also patriots. _ the military High command weaned on Vietnam has a hard time believing that a even As we chronicle their Triumph. That a Why it kept a a Pool reporters away from the awesome Armada they had assembled in the desert. And that a Why once a a pools were activated for the ground War it held up reporters copy and tapes for As Long As 36 hours. _ most people Learned from Gen. Schwarzkopf himself at a masterful briefing about the powerful left Hook that knocked the iraqis senseless. Of course we had told As much of the Story As we could without giving the game away to the enemy. One lesson of this War should be that the Media and the military can play their respective but distinct roles in society with Honor to themselves and to each other. Cox news service. Including palestinians in postwar equation this May be the right moment to make a few Points about the palestinians Given the rout of Saddam Hussein and the conviction of so Many statesmen that it is time for something on the order of a new beginning. The first problem we need to get Over is a quite natural spastic disgust at the palestinians cheering on of Saddam Hussein. It is very difficult to reconcile their behaviour on that Point with their Appeal for the moral sympathy of Mankind with their concerns the beginning of Wisdom in these situations is to remind ourselves of the Resolute axiom that the enemy of my enemy is my Friend. T he enemy of the palestinians is Israel. 1 he palestinians saw their Homeland deeded to another people and lost two wars in seeking to assert rights they considered their own they were denied in Israel civil and political rights insuring Only to the conquerors sat by in huge Camps Tor Over a generation waiting for a genuine move that might have incorporated them into what was once trans Jordan. They were victims of inept leadership a their own and their friends Rasser Arafat who looks like a gangster a in Aster As one an surrounded himself with a terrorist minded cadre pleading the excuse that the israelis own terrorists needed to be coped with. An understandable Point of View except that the terrorists of Israel Are the fruit of a beleaguered country that twice fought off aggressive designs against its very existence. So the palestinians suffered Arafat at Home and abroad the Friendship of the likes of Nasser Assad and Saddam Hussein. The great event of 1977, when Anwar Sadat hoisted a genuine Flag of truce might have inaugurated a sea of change in Frozen positions in the Mideast but the government of Menachem begin in Israel refused to go Forward in the direction anticipated by Sadat and president Carter and the Camp David accords became in respect of the West Bank and Gaza a dead letter. The assassination of Sadat triggered a hardening of the opposition. And Jordan a King Hussein presiding Over a country 50 percent of whose people Are palestinian once again forfeited the Opportunity to act creatively. His backing of Saddam Hussein required him to say in Public things about Iraq that Are forever discrediting. Clearly he Felt that he could not offer support a Little More attenuated for fear of out raging his palestini ans. The result is that he is lost As a potentate with any moral standing. To move in on the Point we have the same right to despise the palestinians for siding with Saddam Hussein that pales. Winians had to despise the United states for siding with Josef Stalin. No postwar conference should be held in which it is postulated that the palestinians must be made to suffer for backing Saddam Hus a Sein. Quot the same is not True of Arafat. Arafat has the distinctive problem that for the past half dozen years he has attempted to enlarge his constituency by stressing his concern for elementary decency is. He has tried to convince us that he is opposed to terrorism and even that his organization no longer denies the re it of Israel to exist As a state. To evolve Froff that Effort to the support of an outright aggressor who tried to do to Kuwait what he publicly threatened to do to Israel to turn Tel Aviv into a crematorium definitively disqualifies Arafat As someone who can further the palestinian cause what is needed now Are two gestures and if they come simultaneously so much the better. The first is the replacement of Arafat by the Palestine National Council the second an Advance by nod crate Arab states bucked by Israel to give the palestinians a Homeland in which self Rule but Only self Rule is theirs evolving perhaps a generation hence into sovereignty. And the hash emite throne of King Hussein is the logical casualty a _. King Hussein is in any event something of a historical artefact. And the principle of self government so ardently pursued by the palestinians in respect of the West Bank is properly pursued elsewhere in Jordan. A if Ever there was a moment for a gesture by Israel this surely is it. Its casualties in the War have been negligible. The United states is almost certainly going to pick up the Cost of the debris that did scattered damage debris caused by . Patriot missiles protecting Israel from a madman a aggression. Israel could dramatically show its disposition to labor for a new Deal in the Middle East by walking out of the Gaza strip which is in any event a White elephant. The important Point is for movement to take place now quickly before the old sclerosis takes Over again. C Universal press Syndicate