European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 11, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse Saturday january 11, 1992 the stars and stripes a Page 13 commentary George will talk about protectionism look at America in his Campaign swing in the Orient George Bush and his equally whiny entourage represented America As the crybaby of the Western world. Even before a virus was guilty of Les amp Majeste against the presidential stomach the tour got off to a stumbling Start in Australia. There Bush with Many representatives of americans Industrial anaemia in Tow tried to chant the mantra of a a fair rather than free Trade but aussie Farmers drowned him out with complaints about huge . Subsidies of wheat exports. The far East was treated to lectures on a fair Trade from an american government that restricts Jamaica to Selling 970 Gallons of ice Cream a year in America Mexico to 35,292 bras Poland to 350 tons of Alloy tool steel Haiti a we Are protected from that colossus a to 7,730 tons of sugar. Import quotas restrict tampons typing ribbons tents twine table linens tapestries and ties and lots of other things. These delicious facts Are from a new Book the fair Trade fraud by James Bovard of the Cato Institute. Some foreign governments Are treating . Companies badly but not As badly As the . Government at the Behest of . Companies is treating . Citizens. Often the pretext is Protection from dumping occurs when a foreign company Sells a product in America for a less than fair that language leaves Commerce department bureaucrats empowered by every parochial interest in Congress to do almost anything on behalf of clients a As the bureaucrats regard them a in . Businesses. Bureaucrats a a protect american Consumers from paying what the bureaucrats consider too Little for everything from brazilian Frozen Orange juice concentrate to italian pads for woodwind instruments. Occasionally there is predatory dumping designed to cripple or extinguish a rival Industry in another nation. But most dumping attempts Only to crack a Market or enlarge Market share. Does it matter that depends on what is being dumped for How Long and for what purpose. Some a very few a . Industries deserve government Protection for reasons of Basic National Security or economic vitality microchips matter More than potato chips. But Only private aggrandizement has been served by putting dumping penalties on photo albums pears mirrors ethanol Cement Shock absorbers roofing shingles codfish televisions paintbrushes motorcycle batteries staplers and Staples martial Art uniforms radios Flowers bicycles forklifts fireplace mesh panels aspirin and Many other goods. Government subsidies such As we give agriculture products usually arc foolish but Why not let american Consumers Benefit from the Folly of foreign governments that use their tax dollars to make american consumption cheaper instead we put countervailing duties on Wool Ham Castor Oil Cotton yarn scissors carnations Pistachios sugar towels Lamb meat footwear agricultural tools Ball bearings roses Cement automobile Glass leather apparel cookware Rice and Many other things. Such american protectionism creates artificial scarcities As a subsidy for american businesses. If the Commerce department were abolished americans Standard of living would Rise. Blaming Japan particularly for our problems is a National pastime. Alibi Ike used to be a fiction a Good hitter and a Good joke. Today he is real and a senior official and a bad joke. Bush a first Commerce Secretary now Campaign director is Robert a a Alibi Mosbacher. He blames Japan in part for americans recession. Writing in the new Republic Bovard reports that since july Bush has imposed new textile quotas on a consider this list of mighty predators a Nigeria Indonesia Egypt the Philippines Burma Costa Rica Panama and Pakistan. Last year a Bush administration official coerced Hon Kong and Korea into cutting textile exports. The official called it a a contribution to operation desert America is still a world class producer of something cynicism. Some Commerce department officials candidly Hope the capriciousness of their decisions will deter foreign exporters. Were everyone candid they would acknowledge that much of , Trade policy is a jobs program protecting not least the jobs of Many incompetent and overpaid american executives. Trade policy also is a program to redistribute wealth from unorganized american Consumers to Well organized and Well connected commercial interests. Call it Republican socialism. Or Lemon socialism the survival of the feeble. Bush has read Little of Adam Smith but lots of polls and now Speaks less of free Trade and More of a a fair Trade. So subtract yet another reason from the very Short list of possible reasons for voting for him. Democrats promiscuously affix the word a fairness Quot to policies to disguise partisan politics and the absence of defensible arguments. Now Bush and other a fair traders Are adopting this policy to disguise the slovenly thinking and political opportunism of american protectionism. C Washington Post writers group it amp we boat b6em ktoqn6 no Bott. Ume float Winthe Burr and irs Ger pro Srof. Anna Quindle women in combat a study in Stark contrast videotape confers a Peculiar kind of immortality. The parents of maj. Marie Rossi can watch their daughter alive As anything Tell the world How she feels about what she does. In a Jaunty camouflage hat she stands in the desert and tells the cameras what some of us were saying in print that National defense is sex Blind. A what i am doing is no greater or less than the Man who is flying next to me a she said As pundits were opining the same on the Home front. But we were Only operating word processors while maj. Rossi was flying a Chinook chopper for the army and the Day after the cease fire the chopper crashed. She was buried in Arlington cemetery where a memorial to women in americans wars is planned. Rewind. Play. A we thought it was pretty neat that three women were going to be across the Border before the rest of the battalion a maj. Rossi tells can forever upbeat. Fast Forward. Its been a year since we went to War in the persian Gulf. Most of the veterans came Home to their bases or to their civilian jobs. The people who help the Home less say they re seeing some of them in shelters. And some came Home to verdant Green places like Arlington. Maj. Rossi was perhaps the Best known of the casualties a kind of poster figure in that War that redefined the role of military women. At banquets and memorial ceremonies her parents have become accustomed to having her come alive on tape her open face and manner summing up All that we like to think of As particularly american. A she was a very compassionate person a says Gertrude Rossi remembering her daughters last letter dated the Day before she died describing with empathy iraqi prisoners Barefoot and ragged boys and old men. It has been a year of gender wars in America at no other time have the motives mindset roles and relationships of men and women been As hotly and bitterly dissected and debated. The problem in these debates has been a classic one a a yen for simplicity for no contradictions no complications. A framework that Long ago outlived its usefulness. Either you Are a Good girl or a bad one no Middle ground. Either you Are a victim or a Strong woman not both. Either you Are a Soldier or a Mother. Choose. So Many of us have chosen lives of seeming contradictions. I remember mentioning the baby Sitter in a column once and receiving outraged letters from readers who could not understand How anyone who could write feelingly of her children would hire help with their care. When did those people think i was writing in the checkout line at the supermarket it came As a Surprise to me looking Back to see that i began the year 1990 by considering women in combat in Panama. Remember Panama and i began 1991 a by considering women in combat in the persian Gulf. The Good news is that at the beginning of 1992 the question of women in combat has gone Back to being a philosophical Issue. The philosophy will inevitably be shaped by maj. Rossi and the others like her. Like them so Many of us said matter of factly that women should do the jobs that they could do. But there was no doubt that it was a stretch for those simultaneously feminist and pacifist to fight for the right of women to freely choose what we abhorred. Some of us were afraid to argue what we really Felt that the world would he better served if we All internalized those traits that have been seen for whatever reason As female. If we stopped thinking physical aggression was the obvious Way to Settle things. If we stopped seeing talk As weak and wimpy. If world politics became less a test of manhood and More a matter of coexistence. There is accomplishment contained in this description of maj. Rossi first female combat commander to Fly into Battle. There is infinite sadness that the description is on her Headstone. Equal Access to body bags that is a Tough one to argue from the heart. I remember Reading what maj. Rossius husband said at her funeral As powerful a contrast As i have Ever heard. A i prayed that guidance be Given to her so that she could command the company so she could Lead her troops in Battle a he said. A and 1 prayed to the lord to take care of my Sweet Little c the nor Yort to knt a
