European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 6, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday May 6, 1992 the stars and stripes a Page 13 comment dry Carl Rowan abortion minefield no place for government As the . Supreme court reconsiders the Roe is. Wade declaration that an american woman has a right to an abortion and As Buffalo n.y., recovers from a pro life and a pro choices forces going for each others throats one thing seems Clear this argument will never be resolved because we americans can to agree As to what the argument is about let alone the ground rules for either personal or Legal confrontation. We see on television a minister carrying in his hands what he says is an aborted fetus. Since he says that life begins at Conception he shouts that he is carrying a victim of  he is confronted by people who say fervently that there is no human being and thus there cannot be a a murder a until a fetus is a viable a that is Able to live outside the mothers womb. The supreme court embraced this argument fundamentally in its Roe is. Wade decision. The Gap Between viewpoints is unbridgeable. You might think abortion is an Issue of religious Dogma that it is the Catholic Church and a few right Wing non Catholic denominations the inspired operation Rescue to go to Wichita kan., last summer and violate City Laws and recently to Buffalo to engage in whatever physical actions were necessary to close Down abortion clinics. Wrong. Many prominent and a a Ordinary catholics say that no Church Dogma should Rise above the principle that a woman is not the chattel of her husband the slave of her Church the Vassal of her government and that she and she alone has the ultimate decision As to whether and How to use her reproductive system. Pennsylvania gov. Robert Casey is not among the Catholic defectors. The Democrat was in Washington last month supporting the states attorney general Republican Ernie Preate who asked the High tribunal to validate a Pennsylvania Law that would eviscerate Roe is. Wade. Casey has eight children. That wipes out another general Assumption that the abortion fight is mostly Between a a permissive democrats and a a straight republicans. The most ardent supporters of family planning clinics and abortions if Nec Essary that i have met in my life were or Are female republicans. It clearly is not a racial Issue even though overthrowing Roe would Force More Black hispanic and poor women to have babies they do not want and cannot support than would be the Case with relatively affluent White women. Conservative Black baptists and others oppose Legal abortions. The overriding conclusion for me is this where the people cannot agree As to the religious Dogma the social priorities the political requisites that undergird a National debate it is not for the government to impose upon everyone its notions of what god prefers or of social propriety or political correctness. It is contrary to All the dreams of personal Liberty that the founders of this nation sought for the Gover ment to decide that fetal tissue May not be used by medical researchers who seek cures for some of the most grotesque diseases known to Man. Government has no business telling doors and nurses in clinics what they can say to a pregnant woman who May have life endangering physical and especially emotional reasons not to carry a baby to term. Government must regulate savings and Loans Banks and Stock markets and it should still be regulating airlines and their fares because there is no other Way to protect the people from the greed and corruption that Are rampant in this society. Government through the food and drug administration has a proper role doing research approving the Good Medicine and outlawing the useless and the dangerous and telling woman the level of danger involved in silicone gel breast implants. But government has no right in the absence of information that dictates a total ban to declare that one group of women cancer victims May get breast implants while another group of women who want their boobs inflated so they can get Rich in topless bars May not. Ronald Reagan and George Bush got it partly right in 1980 when they pledged to a get government off the backs of the  but the tragedy is that they were Bamboo Ling us. Their bureaucratic minions dismissed the talk As part of a political con game so they just wont get off the backs of americans women. C 1992 North America Syndicate inc. Harry g. Summers  forces discover cooperation works a i never saw a purple Suiter. I Hope i never see one. But i can Tell you this right now. Id rather see than be  for Many years this sentiment with apologies to Ogden Nash was All too common within the armed forces. A purple suiters i.e., those who gave Overall National Security issues priority Over the narrow interests of their own services often paid dearly for their Lack of parochialism. In his important new Book driven Patriot the life and times of James for Restal Knopf former undersecretary of the air Force Townsend Hoopes tells of an air Force colonel in 1948 about to be railroaded from the Pentagon to Korea for giving his unbiased personal opinion to defense Secretary Forrestal. Saved from exile by the personal intervention of Forrestal himself the colonel was summoned to the office of air Force Secretary Stuart Symington. A you made a serious mistake in not supporting the air Force position a Symington said. A Well sir a the colonel replied a i gave Secretary Forrestal my honest  a i have advice for you son a Symington replied. A a done to Ever let your honesty interfere with your  Symington would have had apoplexy if he Nad been at the recent conference of the . Naval Institute at the naval Academy in Annapolis my. And he would not have been alone. A the problem with you army Guys a former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman once told me a is that you have this disease of  reflecting the changes that have taken place within the military a joint operations in the new world was the very topic of the meetings first seminar. Chaired by myself the panel included three of the persian Gulf wars component commanders the 7th fleets initial commander vice adm. Henry h. Mauz or. The 9th air forces it. Gen. Charles a. Homer and the Marine expeditionary forces it. Gen. Walter e. Boomer. Also included was army maj. Gen. Barry r. Mccaffrey who commanded the 24th inf div Mech in combat there and vice adm. Paul a. Welling representing the coast guard personnel who served and who Are still serving in the persian Gulf. The theme for the panel had been set by Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf in his address to the naval Academy last year. A operation desert shield desert storm was certainly the classic example of a Multi service operation a he said a a truly joint  his words were echoed time and again As the panellists described the teamwork that made Victory in the Gulf possible. Earlier in his keynote address adm. Frank b. Kelso ii the chief of naval operations emphasized the critical role of sea lift in bringing americans combat Power to Bear. Telling How the Navy and coast guard worked together to get his tanks and infantry fighting vehicles rapidly out loaded through the port of Savannah Mccaffrey corroborated those remarks. Mauz and Welling told of Navy and coast guard cooperation in the interdiction of iraqi shipping and Boomer praised the fire support provided by the Tiger brigade of the army a 2nd army div which was attached to his marines. But the most impressive testimony came from the air forces Homer. Maligned by Many commentators sad to say myself included As the most parochial of the services the air Force in the Gulf completely reversed the Symington cynicism. The key to putting together not Only the interservice air Force Navy Marine clips air Effort but the inter Allied air coalition As Well said Horner was Complete Trust and honesty. Everyone regardless of service or nationality was treated As an equal partner. Instead of turf Battles Homer fostered a sense of Mutual cooperation toward a common goal. The narrow doctrinal arguments that had marred earlier air campaigns was remarkably absent. Winning the War not advancing service doctrine was Horner a objective. As far As he was concerned there was Only one Campaign not separate air sea and ground campaigns. This might not have sat Well with air Power zealots in Washington but it led to one of the most successful military operations in history. Like so Many buzzwords the notion of a purple suiters May obscure More than it illuminates. As Horner himself has said a you need people schooled in their own types of  but As he went on to say a then you need Trust in each  As the Gulf War proved Trust is what joint operations Are All about. A rectum in at Alagy and  Gamow Ottha army War Cou Aga col. Summary la via author at via Nasty Publ had on strategy la a critical anal Yata Ottha Panzlan quit War c Loa Angela Slmaa 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