European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 12, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday August 12, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 13 commentary Ernest b. Of abortion politics Send Bush in full Retreat chatting with reporters on the Kennebunkport Maine Golf course president Bush has struck Many poses a most of them Tough As when he warned Saddam Hussein to get out of Kuwait. Never before have we witnessed him trying to be invisible As he did when asked about his administrations role in the Wichita kan., abortion protest Case. Somebody noted that the judge involved had said the department of justices intervention was a political move. �?o1 can to imagine Why a Bush said with a straight face. Pushed further he Slid away saying the whole thing was a not a matter for the president to get involved in especially on the first Day of his  i had to wonder How Many times in the Pas three years he has wished he had said those words Long ago a said abortion Quot itself was not a matter for the government but for a woman and her doctor to decide. Just about now he is regretting More than Ever that he played abortion politics in order to be nominated and elected a and then made things stickier by appointing people who thought he was serious about the Issue. His overnight conversion to the antiabortion cause in 1980, when he was kicked by former president Reagan to be is running mate could have been mumbled away once he was vice president. But his ambition to succeed Reagan drove him to court the gop right Wing which meant More rash promises. Then when he became. President he could have ignored the matter which he has indeed tried to do. But the officials he has chosen and the judges he and Reagan have nominated will not leave the Issue alone. Some of them have ambitions of their own which require right Wing backing so they keep doing things that put him on the spot. Those officials and the recasting of the supreme court in the past decade have encouraged the anti abortion movement to provoke new confrontations to create new test cases. Thus in the courts and in state politics abortion is looming like an thundercloud Over a 1992 re election Campaign that the White House hoped would be As peaceful As a sunshiny picnic. George will the Wichita Case is one of a flurry headed for Resolution at higher Levels probably in time to mobilize both sides before the voting 15 months from now. Attorney general Dick Thornburgh about to run for a . Senate scat in Pennsylvania moved to lift a Federal court order barring anti abortion demonstrators from blocking Access to three clinics in Wichita. That intervention has infuriated women a rights groups some of them republicans. The presidents forthright position can be summed up As a who me a the White House maintains that he was not involved in the decision to intervene that he did not even know about it. But of course Bush appointed the attorney general As he Ana Reagan have appointed a majority of Federal court judges and the supreme court. And abortion cases Are making their Way through that system toward Washington from Utah Pennsylvania Louisiana from All directions. In Louisiana a Federal District judge ruled against that states new anti abortion Law tuesday but added that he did so with regret. The supreme courts Roe is. Wade decision legalizing abortion is still the Law he said. The Louisiana attorney general said the state would Appeal the judges ruling immediately asking to expedite the Case to the supreme court. Thus the Reagan Bush High court May revisit Roe is. Wade in time to affect 1992 politics. For Bush abortion politics was useful from the night when Reagan picked him As no. 2 until the night he was nominated As president. But for him and in the nation the dynamics of the Issue have changed. A Strong anti abortion stance consolidated Bush with the hard right end of the party which dominates the Nomi nation process. But polls show that it is a liability with the general Public. Bush needed the right More in 1988, when the nomination was contested now that he is president renomination is certain and he must think beyond it to the general election. That is Willat he was doing when he tried to disappear before questioners at Kennebunkport when he said he did no to know about the Wichita Case when he said that was none of the presidents business anyway. The White House already has scheduled a hectic foreign travel schedule for the months ahead. As the Campaign approaches there will be elaborately staged Pep rallies at Home Between those trips. There will be a flood of 30-Sccond Bush commercials on to. Done to expect any of them to mention abortion. C Tho Baltin Noro Sun misplaced worry Over recurring nationalism when in 1840 France moved Napoleons remains from St. Helena to the in Halides the Duke of Wellington said he did no to care a two Penny Damn what was done with his old enemy. Europe has suffered much since then and is Wiser or at least More wary which May be much the same. So there is uneasiness because on aug. 17, Germany will move to Berlin the remains of Frederick the great. They have been in Southern Germany since being removed from the path of the red army in 1945. Frederick is considered the founder of German militarism which is considered inextricably entwined with German nationalism which is considered embryonic nazism. Both Germany and nationalism Are too important to be so misunderstood. Nazism was hitlers creation and died with him. His first political act was to immigrate from Austria to Germany in 1913 his second was to join the tiny nazi party in 1919 his third was violence against the German state a the Munich Putsch attempt of 1923. He held no office before he became Chancellor. In that office Ever attentive to civic Liturgy he subordinated National symbols to party symbols such As the Swastika National anthems to party anthems such As the Horst Wessel song and National festivals to party festivals such As the Nuremberg rallies. He was never really chief of state. He was file her personal Leader head of a party composed of a dust of disaffected germans into which he breathed life. On nov. 27, 1941, when Germany a offensive had stalled before Moscow but before a red army counterattack Hitler said a if one Day the German nation is not sufficiently Strong or sufficiently ready for sacrifice to stake its own blood for its existence then let it perish and be annihilated by some stronger Power in that Case i shall shed no tears for the German  in his slender profound volume the meaning of Hitler Sebastian Haffner noted that in 1918, Gen. Erich Luden Dorff dictator but a nationalist curtailed Germany a suffering by seeking an armistice before there was a single foreign Soldier on German soil. In contrast Hitler on aug. 22, 1944, prepared for National immolation by arresting 5,000 former civic leaders a representatives of the nation including two who were to be among Germany a re founding fathers Kurt Schumacher and Konrad Adenauer. In april 1945, Hitler ordered the destruction of everything that could sustain German life a Bridges water systems Etc. He treated Germany in 1944-45 much As he had treated Poland in 1939-44. As Haffner wrote a the Only opponents or rivals whom Hitler had to consider seriously and whom at times he had to fight in the Domestic political Arena Between 1930 and 1934 were the  conservative nationalists predominated among those who on july 20, 1944, came heartbreakingly close to killing him. His most formidable european opponents were Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle fierce nationalists who understood the Radical evil of his rejection of the nation state As a moral Agency a Frame for the fulfilment of citizens through self government. Just As Marx read nations out of history replacing them with classes a a the history of All society so far is a history of class struggle a Hitler saw nations As subordinate to races a fall events in world history Are merely the manifestation of the self preservation drive of the  suspicion of nationalism deriving from a misinterpretation of modern history is weakening . Foreign policy. Two premises of that policy Are incompatible. One is that the spread of democracy spreads peace and so should be encouraged. The second is that nationalism is usually unpleasant in motive dangerous in effect and inimical to democracy and so should be discouraged. But in the modern age democracy presupposes nationalism. Nationalism is a sense of shared destiny based on a common history and civic culture within a particular territory. It involves wholesome Pride a a preference for ancestral traditions and local particularities. Democracy became possible when distinct Peoples acquired National rather than religious or dynastic loyalties. Democracy can Prosper in the old soviet sphere Only when nationalism Long suppressed by anti National ideologies flourish. C Waif i Jon Post