European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 10, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday july 10, 1991 the stars and stripes Page 13 commentary William Safir America must stand for self determination Mikhail Gorbachev has it almost right the breakup of Yugoslavia is a portent of the dissolution now inexorably under Way in the soviet Union. His warning however should not be directed at patriots who want to break free it should be sent to tyrants who would enforce with guns the crumbling pretensions of imperialism. The conglomeration of distinctly different Peoples called Yugoslavia will break up peaceably or Blo Odily next week or next year. Serbia is no longer in charge time is on the Side of a imposed  glue of communist dictatorship has hardened and cracked and no outside threat forces the parts together. A Zeal for self determination has replaced the drive for Empire As the spirit of the age. Gorbachev whose personal Symbol is a weather vane surely sees this March toward disunion. The assertion of National  the Long suppressed slovenians was accompanied by two other signs of the times a last week the Warsaw pact a Moscow a grand Alliance of puppet regimes and satellites a formally dissolved itself.1 a and last week the Kremlin Learned of the end of its own enforced political Unity As Yakovlev and Shevardnadze architects of perestroika joined with reformist mayors of Moscow and Leningrad to let it be known that a fresh political party will soon compete with the sclerotic communists. Think of that Yugoslavia Breaks apart the Warsaw pact dissolves and the soviet one party system gets a competitor a All around our Independence Day. Great Days for believers in one people one country. But an opposing thought intrudes. Done to we of All Peoples illustrate the ability of Peoples of different cultures to build a nation did t we fight a civil War to prevent our own disunion yes but. We were unified by a common language and a revolutionary heritage we were geographically isolated and we annealed our Unity by adopting a majority Rule for human Freedom and against slavery. Majority Rule with individual rights protected is the essence of democracy the notion of a minority losing and separating to set up shop for itself would make democracy in Lincoln sword  but that Absurdity ends when individual or minority rights Are trampled by the majority or by a tyrannical clique. Then it becomes absurd to stay together. That a when empires especially of different cultures split apart. That is Why we must react with moral and diplomatic consistency to the realignment of parts of the Austro hungarian Empire. The dissolution of Yugoslavia is the dissolution of the soviet Empire in microcosm. We must not stand for stability and the status quo against new births of Freedom. On the contrary where individual and ethnic rights Are not respected America must stand for self determination against the Power of Empire. Its Fine for us to urge serbs and slovenians to resolve their differences peacefully its proper for International institutions to offer Good offices in mediation. But americans diplomats must not intervene economically on Central Powers behalf or threaten to not recognize withdrawing nations in the sterile name of stability and order. _ president Bush started to make that mistake in recent weeks but then wisely Drew Back a done to you dare message to Slovenia would be read As support of the Kremlin a dominance in Georgia byelorussian Moldavia even the Baltic. If the Extension of Freedom with the avoidance of bloodshed is our aim we should get creative we should Stop mumbling vaguely about a Loose confederation and propose serious global talks on Semi sovereignty. 1 this idea whose time is upon us. Could be a transition to separate nationhood or to free association in a Commonwealth or to confederation that might Lead to eventual a coerced reunion. We can enforce Semi sovereignty in iraqi Kurdistan we can suggest Itma rom Quebec to Northern Ireland Tibet to puerto Rico we can urge it in israelis West Bank where it goes by the name of autonomy. Not the Baltic they re Independent though captive. But throughout the disintegrating soviet Empire we should support Semi sovereignty As a form of trial separation a thereby breaking up the dangerous Monolith without breaking out the nukes. C the now York Timo Scarl Rowan military should drop archaic approach to Gays there is something chillingly repugnant about the american military a dogged insistence that a homosexuality is incompatible with military  you done to have to practice or endorse a homosexual lifestyle to conclude that sexual preference ought not to be a reason either for exempting men and women from military service or for denying them the right to serve their country As a member of the military. Yet the Case of air Force capt. Greg Greeley who a came out of the closet at the Gay Pride Day festival Here last month shows that our military is obsessed with finding and driving out Gay men and women. Greeley led the Parade and gave an interview to the Washington Post which provoked some air Force authorities to hold up his discharge so they could see if he was a a Security  Greeley a computer expert who served in the air Force for four years held a clearance for certain classified information. The administrative Holdup on his discharge clearly involved nothing More than an attempt to get Greeley to reveal the names of Gays he knew in the military. When this Witch Hunt was blasted in Congress and elsewhere the air Force granted Greeley an honorable discharge with the statement a this record is clean. Everything is  Well everything wont be a Hunky Dory until the military stops Basing personnel policy on the absurd notion that every homosexual is a Security risk because a some enemy might use he fact of his or her being Gay to blackmail  there might have been something to this 40 years ago when Gay people were acutely afraid that their relatives employers and even close friends would learn of their sexual preferences. But now when hundreds of thousands of Gays Are publicly declaring and displaying their homosexuality where is the blackmail potential when i was director of the . Information Agency at the height of the cold War the soviet Union and its East european satellites were Brazen in their use of sexual favors to Compromise diplomats and other officials of the West. I recall several Security problems arising from heterosexual activities but no serious problem involving a homosexual. I think heterosexual indiscretions will always be the military a greatest Security problem insofar As the sex Factor is involved. Note that the British Are clamping Down on heterosexual liaisons in their military. They recently punished a Young male officer and a female Sailor who got together on a frigate during the persian Gulf War. The couple pleaded guilty to a being naked together without a reasonable  even if the military can be pressured into dropping the phony claim that a Gay Soldier is a special Security risk the Pentagon is Likely to fall Back on the More vague argument that having homosexuals around damages discipline Good order and morale. This stigmatizing with generalities is wrong and most americans know it. A Penn amp associates poll released in april showed that 65 percent of americans favor admitting homosexuals to the armed forces up from just 51 percent in 1977. Asked whether a Gay person in the military who is doing a Good Job should be discharged i percent said no and Only 14 percent said yes. So Why can tour military leaders walk out of the dark Ages Stop their Witch Hunts and Grant Basic rights and use the skills and resources of those who Are Gay c North Amanca Syndicate the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government