European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 4, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday August 4, 1991 the stars and stripes Ellen Goodman Page 13 commentary Summit of the watching the two men sign Start was a bit like witnessing Elizabeth Taylor a eighth wedding. God knows your wish everybody Well. But its a Little hard to get excited. This a turn in superpower relations a pass the pens uncork the Champagne a got us right Back to where we started. Nine years of negotiations and nuclear weapons were reduced by the amount they had been increased during the negotiations. At the risk of being the cynic at the Celebration there was enough material to Label this the Summit of the absurd. Absurdity one the Long Range nuclear weapons we All paid for turned out to be bargaining chips after All a for the Long Range nuclear weapons we All paid for. First we built them now we take them apart. Its like an International game of chutes and ladders. Only deadlier. Absurdity two at the end of the love fest a see Barbara and Raisa hold hands hear George and Mikhail Toast Friendship a relations Between the United states and the soviet Union were called a nearly  this is what Normal looks like 16,000 nuclear weapons pointed at each other. And no test ban. Absurdity three having helped to wreck the soviets Economy a the arms race bankrupted them moments before it bankrupted us a we May now have to help stabilize their Economy. Nobody wants some azerbaijani mayor with nukes in his neighbourhood. Absurdity four the . Is now declared a a most favored  but the United states is still paying for 300,000 men and women of the armed forces to protect Western Europe from its most favored nation. A All in All its easier to name Liz a seven previous husbands than to unravel the mysteries of our own International relationships. But the Central question is Why we Are still paying for the War we be won the War against communism coming Down from the Summit High its fair to expect that a cold War win should bring Home a Victory dividend. A big one. Not a few people including members of Congress like rep. Barney Frank a accomplished Little Tib a you la just Hafto Vijai Tyr turn mass., whose sense of the absurd is sharply honed,.think that its time to take Back some of the tens and tens of billions of dollars that go to nato. The Money was originally supposed to defend Western Europe from the Warsaw pact countries led by the soviet Union. But the Warsaw pact no longer exists. Czechoslovakia and Hungary Arentt exactly a threat. And West Germany Isnit afraid of being invaded by East Germany a they re one country. As Frank pointed out in a recent speech a we cannot afford today to help Poland reach democracy. We Are too Busy spending Money protecting France and Denmark from a polish  of course there Are still soviet troops in Germany but to lend irony to this theater of absurd that a because the soviets done to have housing or jobs for them Back Home. The germans Are now paying for the soviet troops As a kind of foreign Aid. So As Frank described the Post cold War scenario a the american troops that Are in Germany to protect the germans against the russian troops that the germans Are paying for Are being paid for by the american  it should be noted by the Way that West europeans enjoy All sorts of social amenities a like National health insurance a that americans Are told we can to afford. We Are spending our own Money protecting them from a a a threat they no longer feel. We Are also spending some $5 billion a in reimbursed tax dollars a to protect the japanese from the communists. We go deeper in the Hole to pay for their de sense and then we pay for their Toyota. My favorite line in this Summit of the absurd came when Bush was lecturing the soviets. A people must be free a he said a to work to save to own their own Home to take risks to invest in each other and in essence to control their own  that sounds like a democratic Campaign speech. Its not a bad prescription for what is needed Here. Jobs Homes savings investments a control Over our own Yves a Victory dividend is a Good place to begin. The pens they used to sign the treaty were beaten out of scrap Metal from old missiles. They make a Nice souvenir. But its much better to bring Home the Money. C Tho Boston Glo Owilliam f. Buckle despite Start we still need defense system Boris Yeltsin did no to attend the ceremony in the Kremlin on the grounds that when the time comes to talk foreign policy he does no to need Mikhail Gorbachev sitting there the foreign policy of the russian Republic being his business. What a going to happen when he and Gorbachev actually clash on that Issue we done to know. To say that the soviet people Are starving to death is to exaggerate Only a Little bit. A recent Story on Moscow by Francis Clines of the new York times had to do with the longing in Moscow to buy a modern Saucepan. The big news for the soviet Economy Wasny tour giving the . Most favored nation status. That Means Zero in Saucepan tender for a country that can sell Only Oil Silver and Vodka. The big news was the resignation of Alexander Yakovlev the Ludwig Erhard of the Kremlin whose plan to Orient the . Toward a Market Economy has obviously been rejected. What is going to happen internally when the people of the soviet Union revolt against the absence of saucepans will there be a military Putsch to hold them Down we done to know. Given that the soviet Union is both starving to death and spending More than $200 billion per year a Between 20 percent and 25 percent of its Gross National product a on the military  this suggest that the military types Are in effective command if so what Are their designs Why do they need to divert so much Money at a time when the United states is closing military bases we done to know. It was revealed by the . Examiner on july 30 that on the chemical front alone iraqi president Saddam Hussein has been cheating us to the tune of 75 percent. He acknowledged the existence of Only one Quarter of his supplies. It is logical to suppose that he has secreted equivalent resources in biological and nuclear weapons. But China has intimated that it  vote in the Security Council to authorize the resumption of military action against Iraq by the United states. Turkey has said we can to Fly out of its base this time around. And there Are ambivalent notices from France and Germany. The Bush administration takes the position that existing . Resolutions Are sufficient to justify military intervention. Is it Likely that president Bush would defy the United nations and on his own do the Saddam bit once and for All we done to know. A a but there is Good news. It is that democratic sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia having sat around for about five years letting the strategic defense initiative go into deep sleep though keeping it biologically alive is now talking about the desirability of investing in an advanced Patriot Type interceptor designed to Cope with accidental soviet missiles aimed this Way or third world missiles not accidentally aimed this Way. Nunn somewhere along the line became a treaty fetishist and dealt with the anti ballistic missile treaty As though it had been signed on mount Sinai. The result of this was to inhibit the development of space based technology in particular the so called Brilliant pebbles program. But now Nunn is sponsoring a move to use the allowance Given to us by the 1972 treaty. It specifies that both superpowers Are entitled to Emp lace in a single area up to 100 land based defensive missiles. He argues that to do so would not agitate the soviet Union for the simple reason that it has already Emp laced its missiles around Moscow and in fact recently upgraded them. Nor says he would it affect the strategic balance inasmuch As even after the strategic arms reduction treaty takes effect the soviet Union will be left with 8,000 warheads facing roughly an equivalent number if you count the missiles on our submarines. That Means that both nations will continue with a deterrent Force. It is the Point emphasized by Nunn that no one can plausibly argue that building a defensive Patriot style missile system to guard against those such As Saddam and Fidel Castro can responsibly be thought to constitute a return to the arms race. Its better than nothing and a few dollars Are earmarked for Laboratory testing of Brilliant pebbles whose most Brilliant Prospect could be a heavenly safeguard against atmospheric flight by hostile missiles. Moreover its hard to know Why if our Star wars program is finally achieved we should deny its Protection to anyone. Yes the soviet Union and yes Iraq. That Summit conference is one that would justify Universal Celebration. Put it Down for the year 2005. And go ahead be a sport. Call it Sam Nunn Day.  pres3 Syndicate