European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 09, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday june 9, 1991 the stars and stripes Page 13 commentary m. Rosenthal War the question is How can the United Stales pull its strength and creativity together in a few months to win a military Victory thousands of Miles away but keep floundering Aroi ind for years at Home throwing away one Chance after another for social Victory the answer is i done to know but lets not argue about it right now. While we stand around debating one More Opportunity to do the country some Good is slipping through our fingers and our minds. There a still time but not much for the nation to Wake up shake its head Clear and seize a suddenly available asset in the War against drugs. By july 1, a presidential commission is supposed to report on How to close Down and get rid of dozens of bases around the country that the military no longer needs. For heavens Sake Why close them All Why not do As important anti drug therapists Are pleading almost unheard Why not take some of those bases and their already built houses school buildings hospitals and workshops and turn them into what the drug War needs Large enters for the treatment of americans desperately addicted but still Rescue blk a variety of studies show that for some sections of the population a happily including High school students a the allure of hard drugs is beginning to diminish. Anti drug education in the schools is apparently having an Impact. So is the work of the partnership for a drug free America which uses millions of dollars of advertising donated by newspapers and television to carry the message against drugs. , but. But the studies generally leave out the attitudes of americans serving time in prison of the homeless the Street children and other victims arid victimize is who Are part of a drug subculture digging deeper into society while the polls Are taking place. A. A More crack babies Are born to More unwed Young women. The babies will pay forever. So will tax payers drug addiction is already a generation to generation heritage. A. A a. A drug gangsters still casually kill each other which would be Fine except that they take with them those who happen to walk by. In Japan last month i walked nighttime streets without even thinking about danger. Howls that for. An economic advantage Over America is it Worth a million cars ten million drug addiction helps spread and deepen some of our worst social epidemics aids homelessness mental disorder child abuse criminal and Domestic violence. The Only effective strategy is the one pushed by William Bennett before he suddenly quit As anti drug administrator. That is to fight against drugs on All fronts at Home and abroad a intervention Law enforcement education. Of yes and therapy. That always seems to come at the end. But addiction is the one social disease whose victims never cease trying to spread the contagion. Without serious National Effort at cure of addicts neither disease nor subculture will Ever die out. The most effective therapy is the most demanding a a year or More in therapeutic communities. The addict who enters himself or is sent by courts has to do. Difficult things. He has to face his own truths struggle with his Woja weakness accept the discipline of the Community the Counselor teachers doctors and fellow addicts lend him strength and give him Hope. But in the end he has to do the hardest thing of All a realize that from now on there will be nobody to blame if he fails to. Keep drug free nobody but the face in the Mirror. Or Mitchell Rosenthal head of Phoenix House perhaps the Best known therapeutic Community in the country estimates that 70 percent of the addicts can liberate themselves provided they stay for a year. To build All the centers needed would All Gui a 04 to in Cost billions and involve endless Public hearings. But there they Are with All their buildings for housing and training on the bases we arc about to close and scrap. Yes then the Federal government and the states would have to spend More to help the centers operate. It is. Expensive a about $15,000 a year for a patient. And it would take a decade to handle the Core drug population. But put All together it is a deep discount on what jails and drug crime would  country decades without end and not even counting the blood. V a c now York times Sydney h. Schanber Large parades can t disguise larger failures parades can be fun filled feel Good emotionally stirring nation celebrating events. No doubt tomorrow s in new York City will have a goodly portion of All these ingredients. A a a a unfortunately for this Lover of parades the desert storm fetes have a disappointing Side too. As i listen to these particular Parade Drums i hear the sound of heavy lifting of Laboured enthusiasm of confusion Over the rationale for the Iraq War of uneasiness Over what exactly the Victory consisted of. V. 1 do not hear the spontaneous Joy and revelry of a great nation celebrating a grand Success. What i hear instead Are people desperate for an uplift depressed by the lingering ight of Vietnam weary of the ills in our Economy and our system of social care a and therefore wishing it All away with a giant circus of flyovers bagpipes tanks majorettes missiles and tons of cascading cont tit. A. A a a a a a. A a a. A a a a a a. A .1 appreciate Why people feel in need of a lift. What i done to appreciate is the orchestration by a White House using the parades As a Way to disguise both the  Home and the failure of the Battlefront Victo by to achieve any of the larger War Aims of Middle East stability and a a new world order that had been so glibly broadcast by the Bush administration. A worse one can sense behind it All a rehearsal for resident Bush a re election Campaign next year. Even it Dorsc a an late sounds like a replica of his tawdry of Campaign a a Here is the subtext resonating sadly in the Bush a Tauc Drums those who ask questions about this super Mcivory Over Iraq Are not Good americans certainly not 3s Good As those who supported the War. Those who Hail this Victory with All their hearts do not love our Flag and do not love our soldiers. In Short from behind the ticker tape snowstorm Bush a promissory lips Are saying that while you re watching these parades either standing along the route or following them on television you might want to look at the people around you to see if there Are any who done to seem enthused who arc not cheering loudly enough who Are perhaps not carrying a Flag. Those Are the people he is saying whom you  to note Down for they might not be Good americans a they might even be gasp liberals v. This is the politics of resentment. This is scare politics. And George is scaring people. Corporations afraid of being called unpatriotic Are putting up Large sums to pay for the Parade. Many of these same corporations As a result of the Reagan Bush voodoo economics recession Are laying off thousands of workers. Its Nice that there a no Money for jobs but enough to buy patriotism Protection. Quot. A. A a a Merrill Lynch one of the principal sponsors of the new York Parade Laid off More than 2,000 employees last year. Chrysler also a sponsor recently announced the closing of several plants throwing nearly 10,000 workers out of their jobs. Fri Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca earned $4.6 million last year. American airlines is another of the new York sponsors like its Peers trying to qualify for a Parade loyalty certificate. What makes american stand out is that its part of an Industry that says it lost $4 billion from the persian Gulf War because Jet fuel prices went soaring and fears of. Terrorism kept travellers at Home. Pleading poverty the Industry is now lobbying for a Cut in the Federal taxes on tickets and cargo. Translation american airlines is asking the rest of us taxpayers to pick up the difference while it puts Money into the Parade coffers to get itself in Good odor with the White House. Neat he and then oddly there Are the new Yorkus newspapers All of whom have contributed Money and or services to the Parade but none of whom stood up to the. Government when the Bush administration imposed the most rigid press restrictions in modern times on coverage of the Iraq War virtually preventing reporters from going anywhere without a Pentagon Monitor. Having Given up their Birthright with barely a whimper the newspapers compound their disgrace by blithely becoming sponsors of a Parade to celebrate a War that they were in effect not allowed to cover As professionals Bravo the other night at dinner an older woman of Many achievements troubled about recent political currents asked All at the table a will we be a Strong nation  is not if we measure strength Only by military Efficacy. A truly mature nation secure in its strengths does not have need to beat the Drums quite so loudly Over quite so modest and undistinguished a War against an opponent unworthy of us a an opponent we might remember who despite our Victory still holds Power in Baghdad. A Strong nation would be turning its energies to recharging the Economy to devising the kind of National health plan that the rest of the developed world has had for decades to setting examples not of exclusion but of tolerance and acceptance so that Blacks and other minorities can climb the ladder that earlier minorities ascended. ,. A a. 1 do not yield to other men and women the right to define patriotism the right to say that because i done to agree with a particular political party or policy or president my credentials As an american Are in question when those parades come by 1 shall Hail and Honor the soldiers who defend and protect me but 1 shall reject the politics being thrust at me. A now Daya. .