European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 3, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Tuesday december 3, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 13 William f. Buckley is the time to commentary halt air traffic to Libya id sir Toh Tou a vim Mem to a a so what do we do now col. Moa mar Qadhafi has said a the evidence against the two libyan gentlemen accused of causing pan am flight 103 to explode is a less than a laughable piece of a a it is accordingly out of the question that he will permit their extradition to the United states. A on the other hand he will consent to listen to the views of a a third party whom he invites to Survey the evidence put together by the . Investigators thereafter a Libya will take on its the United states has said we will not permit the disclosure of the Quot evidence we have amassed. One must suppose this is so because there Are one or More peo it be within the reach of the colonel who were useful in inking one clue to another leading finally to Abdel Basset Ali Al Mezrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fahimah. Of yes the colonel also informs us that Libya is overrun with people called Abdel Basset Ali. From this intelligence we Are supposed to conclude that among other things it would be difficult for him to put his hands on just exactly the Abdel Basset Ali we want never mind that we have pictures of him. There is the advantage this time around that France is also exercised. France wants to put its hands on four libyans who arc charged with the bombing in 1989 of a French jetliner in which 170 people were killed Over niger. President Bush said a fortnight ago that the . Government had not ruled out any course of action to accomplish his goal. The world had been treated in the preceding 48 hours to teasing bits and pieces of a Majestic accomplishment in sleuthing. Speaking of pieces of a Fingernail that was about the size of the fragment retrieved from the pastures of Lockerbie Scotland from which one deduction after another led to the right Abdel Basset Ali and his companion. So what do we do we begin by eliminating another Reagan style assault on the libyan capital. That strike was justified when undertaken and unmistakably had the effect desired of Cooling Down Qadhafi who limited his frustration to knocking Down Here and there one passenger plane american and French. The wave of terror it was widely predicted he would initiate in reaction to the bombing never happened. But the Success of the . Operation does not suggest giving it another try. It is obvious that one goal of our Mission was to execute the colonel. Instead we executed an adopted child of the colonel in addition to a number of civilians in the Vicinity of his Palace. And of course we lost one . Plane with its Crew. If we were to try it again almost certainly we would not hit Qadhafi it being entirely unlikely that he will pass his Days or nights in Sites the coordinates of which Are familiar to our intelligence services. Besides it would be transparent that our purpose was regicide and there is a tradition and also Laws against that kind of thing never mind our designs on Lumumba and Castro in Days gone by. The time surely has come to put flesh on a Resolution taken More than 10 years ago by the International association of air transportation. What it says is direct and to the Point wonderfully consign. No member of the association will do business with a country that harbours terrorists engaged in endangering people who Fly. In every situation involving a blockade there will he those who seek to avoid that blockade in Pursuit of profit. That France is itself seeking the extradition of libyan terrorists is important because France conducts More of its air business with Libya than does any other country with Italy running a close second. But the time is Here for Bush to Call on the nations of the world to suspend All air traffic to Libya until the terrorists Are shipped out to the relevant courts. And there is a very useful Sanction available against any country that fails to cooperate in the Boycott the boycotting nations join together in denying that country in turn Landing rights elsewhere. So that if say Syria were to violate the Boycott from that moment on no syrian plane would be permitted to land elsewhere. This clearly is the next indicated step. And it need not wait for the state of the Union address to initiate it. C Universal press Syndicate Ellen Goodman remember Pearl Harbor but keep it in the past we Are getting ready to celebrate the Golden anniversary of a dark Day and images of the past Are already oozing up like Oil from the Hulk of the Arizona. The movie tone news shots of zeros and subs and ships in flames Are out of storage. There Are interviews with survivors. A Grandfather remembers a Friend who died on the deck beside him and cries As if he were 19 and not 69. The elders who were at Home Tell about the Day the world exploded into their America first living rooms. Where were you when you heard it looks As if dec. 7, 1991, is going to be a Day to relive the infamy. But there Are other snapshots As Well for this 50th anniversary. At Pearl Harbor a former Navy aircraft Mechanic who survived the attack guides visitors around the memorial. These people come from Tokyo As Well As Toledo. A it was a Long time ago a he tells a reporter. A too Long for hate to on the Mainland those who remember the War and their grandchildren watch the reruns of this grim a opening Day on japanese made television sets with japanese made cars in the garage. And while some grumble a a who won the War a a few think of the japanese As enemies. As an american born too late for such memories i hear All sorts of mixed messages in this orgy of history. But the ones that resonate the most in our world Are about the moral costs of both forgetting and remembering the past. History is alive not just in the Pacific Butyn Eastern Europe and the Middle East and everywhere people Wrangle Over wrongs. Remember a remember Pearl Harbor a the Price of forgetting any scaring moment is the fear that we will do some injustice to innocent lives that were lost or forever changed. Making bygones into bygones can weaken the claim victims have on our collective sympathy. One cataclysm settles Back into what we Call historic perspective. That endless sequence of cataclysms. But remembering with an intensity that remains undiminished Over time and generations destined people to live in the past. We become the curators of our ancestors grievances. What was the George Santayana line a those who cannot remember the past Are condemned to repeat Well those who remember too Well Are also condemned to repeat it. To be stuck in feuds far More ancient than the hat Fields and Mccoy. In this the year of our 50th anniversary the serbs and croats Are murdering each other calling up ancient hostilities from As Long ago As 800 years. In the rest of Eastern Europe where history itself was occupied by the soviets ethnic hostilities have re emerged dangling their roots. And those Are modern memories compared with the biblical datelines Over land disputes in the Middle East. There is no excuse for sending the past Down the memory Hole. The final assault of the holocaust is the a a revisionist denial of the holocaust. Even a Toyota driving american is uneasy hearing that the Young japanese know More about Hiroshima than about Pearl Harbor. Not Long ago a japanese professor told of a Junior High school student who thought Pearl Harbor was where her countrymen dive for Rikimoto pearls. But How do any of us acknowledge the past and Honor it without being trapped in it historian Carol Gluck at Columbia University makes the Case for three is remembrance reflection and responsibility. A we done to want to transmit All the burdens of the past a she says. A Twete not looking for a constant open wound. What we need is remembrance for those who died and the a Day that will live in we need reflection for understanding How it really happened. We need to take responsibility for the past and therefore the present and this is especially True on this anniversary. In All likelihood this president will he the last to have fought in world War ii. Pearl Harbor is a becoming a geriatric memory now on its Way to history. It May be the veterans who pass the Best message about history to the next generations. Like the guide on the Arizona most of them have passed through the fourth a reconciliation. In the past half Century the japanese and the americans separately and together have filled a new memory Bank. Not always an easy task but without amnesia or vengeance. So this week we remember Pearl Flar Bor but in its proper place the past. C the Boston Globe newspaper co 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
