European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 4, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday january 4,1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 13 ago crime Issue also Walter Mears americans Are on the Case president Clinton said pressing for a crime control Law to make their streets safer their Homes More secure. Just As they were 25 years ago. Then As now crime was a major political Issue ranked atop the list of Domestic concerns in Public opinion polls. Now As then there Are differences on where to put the emphasis and resources in dealing with it punishment or prevention. And the parallels done tend there. A a violence scarred and lacerated american politics through 1968,�?� Theodore s. A a a White wrote in his the making of the president chronicle of that Campaign. A crime and killing robbery and looting perversion. Riot sniping assassination All pounded on americans. A other concerns even the Vietnam War would pass White said then but not the Issue of Law and order not the Basic questions he saw in it a what kind of people were we what kind of people did we seek to become what kind of new communities did we need to create what restraints were required on expressions or purpose of communication that nourished violence a a lawlessness is crumbling the foundations of american society a the 1968 Republican platform said pledging an All out crusade against crime. A my overriding concern. Is for Safe streets in America a democratic president Lyndon b. Johnson said As he signed a 1968 crime control Bill he said would help lift the Shadow of fear. But a full generation later fear persists Over crime and violence that now seems More random and so More menacing. When the Senate passed its 1993 violent crime control and Law enforcement act the Democrat who guided it through called the Bill a a dramatic step in stemming the tide of violence that s overwhelming this  sen. Joseph r. Biden or. Of Delaware said crime was the single most pressing Issue on the minds of americans. Polls indicate that it is now but that a been a sometime thing and so has the congressional Effort to Deal with it. Law enforcement is after All primarily a state and local responsibility. So Federal Aid for police Law enforcement and crime prevention is a major element in crime Bills like the $22.3 billion measure the Senate approved this year. Gun control is an exception. The first Steps to regulate the Commerce in handguns were in Johnson a 1968 crime Bill passing the Brady Bill with its five Day waiting period was the last act of Congress in 1993. In the unfinished crime Bill the Senate voted to ban 19 types of assault weapons. That remains to be settled with the House which approved a series of separate anti crime Bills. Congress will have to fashion a final version this Winter. Clinton wants it done quickly and Senate minority Leader Robert Dole agreed that crime control should be top priority. A a it a the number one priority of the american people a the Kansas Republican said. Clinton said Congress should be getting that message a big time from the voters Back Home. A a that a our sense. That they re really hearing from the people that. They just have to have More Security on their streets in their schools in their communities a he said a week ago. A the american people Are still in it a he said. The Senate Bill authorizes $8.9 billion in Federal Aid for a five year program to hire 100,000 Giorc police officers a Clinton Campaign pledge. He said there now is bipartisan support in Congress for additional police officers and for other enforcement Steps in the Senate crime Bill. The president has just announced $50 million in Grants under existing programs to add police in 74 cities. A help is on the Way a Clinton said. It needs to be sent carefully a Tush to respond to heightened crime concerns can Plant problems. A dozen Washington d.c., police officers were arrested dec. 14 for bribery and drug conspiracy 10 of then had been hired during a hurried recruiting drive Congress forced in 1989-1990. C Tho associated press .u.s. Playing it is becoming a cliche that we have no foreign policy but since any foreign policy for the United states needs to begin with the question a How do we prevent nuclear proliferation a a policy seems to be nuclear fire on North Korea in Way to Deal with Adolf Hitler in the 1930s became not to Deal with Hitler. That policy failed. The Way to Deal with the probable emergence of a nuclear bomb in North Korea appears to be not to Deal  instinct is to suppose that the policy of the Ostrich is thoughtless and self deluding. It in t necessarily that. _ that position is taken eloquently by Donald Gregg. He was ambassador to South Korea and before that National Security adviser to vice president George Bush. He has seen to use an expression the Rise and fall of empires. Point no. 1, Gregg will Tell you is that we do not know for sure whether the North koreans have a nuclear bomb. If they do have one we done to exactly know where it is located. If we went after it and were Lucky enough to hit it the result could be a disaster on the magnitude of the 1986 soviet nuclear Accident at chernobyl and could injure As Many South koreans As North koreans. If we were to take military action against North Korea obviously there would be military retaliation and one estimate of the immediate damage to anticipate is 160,000 dead a South koreans and amen cans i what about the chinese the japanese the chinese would not endorse direct action and do not even endorse sanctions. The japanese would obviously Welcome reassurance of some sort but the principal provisioned of North Korea Are koreans who live in Japan who apparently with very Little difficulty Send Back to their Homeland the hard currency required to buy Oil for example. Well does Japan want a nuclear weapon for deterrent purposes on the record it does not. To get such a weapon would require rewriting a Constitution that specifically bars nuclear Power. _ to mobilize sentiment to do that would be difficult. Indeed it is hard to imagine such a change in settled opinion on having the bomb. The United states continues As the nuclear umbrella. The general position of the diplomatic Community is look we be had nuclear weapons around for a very Long time at one Point the property of an aggressive Power with internationalist ambitions. But no bomb went off because the deterrent Factor proved critical. Why should that deterrent Factor suddenly be inoperative on the contrary Given that the former soviet Union is at this moment effectively disarmed As a nuclear Power the Only operative nuclear Power in the world is the United states. This Means that Only we could actually Deposit a bomb if it were required that we should do so. No other country would or could punish us with a nuclear strike. But to initiate a military strike against North Korea through a pulverizing bomb is morally and strategically out of the question. President Clinton a threat to return the North koreans to the Stone age was carefully enunciated if the North koreans developed and used a nuclear bomb. It is obvious that the japanese done to think this is going to happen. Meanwhile Gregg happily observes there is something going on within North Korea that gives ground William f. Buckley for a Little optimism. Kim ii Sung is 81, and Bright and Peppy and not from any appearance disposed to commit suicide. He travelled a while ago to China and saw there a More Liberal Economy feasting off the dead tissue of a communist regime that nevertheless controls the reins of Power. It is hardly predictable that Kim will go the chinese Road. A but the cloistered society of North Korea has now been exposed to what is going on elsewhere and just enough people have a seen Parees to be restive about going Back to the farm. Rest Veness within North Korea can threaten an implosion one result of which would be a flood of people spilling into the South a a version of the marriage of the two Germany. South koreans do not Welcome such pressures As they would heighten the probability of disruptions of that kind. So then is Gregg satisfied with the Way Clinton is conducting policy in Korea in a word yes. He fears most what he Calls a compensatory  Clinton flaked out in former Yugoslavia and in Haiti and in Somalia and now feels he can compensate for these failures Only by a remember what they used to say about Landing our marines in Grenada in 1983? it wont happen he confidently predicts. C univ Oral press 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