European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 21, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday january 21, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 17 foreign Success unlikely to shift Clinton focus. /. Walter r. Mears at the Summit with Boris a Yeltsin president Clinton joked that it was Nice to be where another Leader was hav ing trouble with his parliament1, instead of facing problems with Congress him  will be soon enough. But his quip in Moscow Points to one of the assets of a president on an Over seas Mission. Presidential diplomacy is scripted for Suc Cess. Bargains usually Are made in Advance prob lems often left until later. Former presi Dent Bush once said foreign policy was the Best part of the Job be cause it was t subject to the congressional bargaining that applied to Home front topics such As budgets and , Clinton among them made Bush s specially a political target saying he was preoccupied with foreign policy when he should have been doing something about the slumping Economy at  reversed the emphasis he ran won and has governed with his focus on Domestic issues. That was Clear even in the weekly radio address he broadcast Back from Moscow. Despite the challenges we face at. Home from health care Reform to fight ing crime to retraining our work Force and creating More jobs we still must re main engaged in world affairs he said. When there was a cold War on the challenges abroad came first. While Bush s one term lasted through the end of the cold War his background and temperament kept his interest and Atten Tion on foreign  s landmark issues Are Domestic to the Point that he knew when he went to Europe some . Allies there had been worried about his View of things overseas. He described their concerns himself was America going to become isolationist this Guy got elected presi Dent on a Domestic platform. They be got their own  said he meant to clearly re establish the . Commitment to Europe with the eight Days of personal diplomacy he concluded sunday and with two More european journeys this year in the Spring entered on the 50th anniversary of a Day and next summer for an eco nomic Summit conference. Returning from that first mis Sion Clinton said he had met All of his objectives. Everything that we hoped would happen did he said. The president s had an extraordinary week in foreign policy cheered Secre tary of state Warren Christopher. Flawless virtuoso performance said vice president Al Gore. It was a Good Effort said sen. Rob Ert Dole of Kansas the Republican Leader. Those reviews in sunday to talk shows were As predictable As the Republican reminders that the arms agreement celebrated in Ukraine and in Russia were fragile ones and had been concluded i Advance not because of Clinton s Summit try. ,. Fair enough but that was no less True when Republican presidents were the Summit diplomats signing the arms deals. With rare exceptions that s simply the Way it works. Presidents and their counterparts Don t go to the Summit to argue or fail. It has happened a belligerent Nikita s. Khrushchev threatening John f. Kennedy Over Berlin at their 1961 sum Mit in Vienna Austria for example. A year earlier the soviet Leader had can celeb a Summit because of a u-2 spy plane episode. In 1986, Ronald Reagan overstated his own policy on nuclear Dis armament to Mikhail s. Gorbachev and the administration had to Back off after a Summit that ended in dispute Over the Star wars missile defense plan. Top level diplomacy like Clin ton s at nato and in Moscow customarily ratifies what has been settled. Out comes Seldom Are in doubt As they can be at Home when Congress deals with is sues such As Clinton s Centrepiece eco nomic plan passed without a vote to spare. It s Nice to be in a place where some other president s having trouble with his parliament instead of me Clinton said in Moscow. None of that is going to change Clin ton s emphasis. His economic promises and performance remain Central. C the associated press mutilation no cause for jubilation even in Battle it is the Story that made Strong men Cross their legs and Strong women Giggle about Strong men Cross ing their legs. It was the Story that made Strong head line writers give in to their weakness for puns. And More to the Point it was the Story that made my Hus band glance up from the newspaper and say for the Only time in our recorded history you could give this a Good leaving  is lord knows what i intended to do. One Case of male genital mutilation in 200-Odd years of american history you would have thought it was a massacre. After centuries of male fantasies about the castrating female we finally have one. And she becomes the Universal Symbol of a shocking new round in the Battle of the  this Point i agree with Paul Ebert who has prosecuted both husband and now wife a sleeping Man had his Penis amputated. It s not a Media event. It s a criminal  in my Book Lorena and John Wayne Bobbitt them selves Aren t symbolic of anything. She is a 24-year-old who married or. Very wrong and embezzled from her employer and Friend. She left her House on the fateful night with a Penis in her hand but also with $100 and a Nintendo game stolen from a House  Bobbitt is in the words of his own attorney not the most sensitive person and not the brightest Guy in the  the former Marine and bar bouncer who was acquitted of marital rape had been charged earlier with battering his wife. The Man who could t define foreplay on the witness stand May not have differentiated Between rape and sex in the , at the courtroom in Manassas. Va., where Lorena is on trial for malicious wounding the vendors Are Back Selling to shirts that say revenge How Sweet it  the radio station is Back giving away slice soda and wieners. Thus the people Are pronouncing that these two pathetic people Are representative of the Battle of the , i Don t know Why we Call it a Battle Only when women Are caught fighting or fighting Back. If John had abused Lorena Only we would have called it violence but not War. Only when the weapon got into her hands did it become a subject for musing on the hostile state of gender relations. This has happened before. Just a few years ago with Slasher movies filling Cine Lexes with female blood one film became the topic for worried gender watchers Thelma & Louise last year the police blot Ter was full of abused and Mur dered wives an almost unilateral massacre. But one Issue seemed to elicit the most copy from our War Cor respondents the battered woman s defense. The Packwood 26, the burning bed the fatal attraction Are All framed As skirmishes. The supreme court ruled on sexual harassment by men against women butt was the possibility of a woman harassing a Man that sets the creative juices flowing in Michael Crichton s front line novel disclosure. I know i know. Female retaliation and female Vio Lence Are still the unusual stories the news. When a 5 foot-2-Inch, 95-Pound manicurist cuts the Penis off a Ellen Goodman 200 Pound former Marine it s news indeed. But when the Urban legend arises simultaneously in a dozen cities about the Man who wakes up with a red ribbon tied neatly around his Penis and a note saying How easy it would be Well that s Battleground fantasy. Maybe we talk about the War Between the sexes now because men the ones who do most of the Label ing see a dangerous enemy where there was once a victim. If women smile at men who squirm maybe it s at that recognition of Power. A few years ago in Olivia Smith s first wives club three women plotted retaliation against powerful and abusive sex husbands. They Are not exactly looking for revenge one said but for something More sophisticated. Like  i m never keen on taking Justice into your own hands. Abuse May mitigate a woman s guilt and make her act More understandable. It rarely makes her an in Nocent. But even so this freakish episode in a single sad marriage does t represent some generic new War be tween men and women. Too Many front line correspondents suggest that As women become More Power Ful our relationships with men simply turn into a Power struggle. I Don t agree. The skirmishes in the 1950s were often the bitter sniping of people hiding behind separate roles. One of the reasons to level the Field Between sexes to Lead lives that were More alike was so that we could get closer. Many maybe most of us have. And for All the headlines the grimaces the smirks we did t get Here at knife Point. C Tho Boston Globe