European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 18, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday april 18,1994 a commentary 1 the stars and stripes Page 13 it s time to after Saddam again George Gedda the tragedy in the skies Over Northern Iraq last week called attention to the largely Anonymous  military and Relief Mission in that Region in the three years since the persian Gulf War. The United states is chiefly responsible for providing Protection for Northern iraqi kurd against the Baghdad regime and coordinating with others in providing food fuel electricity and health services to the beleaguered kurd. It is also among the most vociferous backers of . Security Council sanctions against president Saddam Hussein a Iraq which have converted the one time Oil giant into a relative economic pygmy. There is a sense of satisfaction among . Officials and others that the american and Allied efforts since 1991 have kept the three million kurd alive and their would be oppressors in Baghdad at Bay. A a a a a a a a. A a a a a a a president Clinton told reporters he believes the Allied peacekeeping Mission has performed a a very valuable function in protecting the kurd. Laurie Mylroie an Iraq watcher at the Washington Institute for near East policy notes International efforts to set up Safe havens in Bosnia have failed dismally but have prospered in Northern Iraq. A a it a been a tremendously successful operation a she says pointing out that the kurd have their own local government run by elected officials. Three years ago hundreds of thousands of kurd their rebellion crushed by Saddam a army in the Wake of the Gulf War fled in terror to the safety of the mountains in neighbouring Turkey and Iran. They Felt betrayed by the decision by then president Bush not to go after Saddam. But Bush in cooperation with Britain France and Turkey agreed to ensure the kurd survival under operation provide Comfort. Through 1993, the . Contribution to the operation was More. Than $210 million. The allies also took Steps to defend the area establishing a a no Fly zone that has kept iraqi fighter planes from enter ing the skies Over kurdish territory. To Date Allied coalition forces have flown 27,000 sorties according to Pentagon is tit rates. And it was in the enforcement of this no Fly zone that . Fighter planes shot Down what they thought were iraqi Hind helicopters thursday. In a tragic Case of mistaken identity the helicopters actually belonged to the . Army and were transporting 26 passengers including 15 americans. There were no survivors. While Many consider the . Operations in Northern Iraq a Success others worry that the Issue is not receiving High level attention and that a crisis in the Gulf could flare again. Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana and chairman of the House foreign affairs committee said the United states has lost its focus on Iraq. A a we be been diverted i guess by other problems around the world a he said. A but my own sense is that Iraq is going to come Back into the news in the months ahead because there a erosion for support of the .  indeed the economies of Jordan and Turkey have been hard hit by the sanctions and both countries Nave been asking for a relaxation of the sanctions. France China and Russia All Security Council members also have shown varying degrees of support for a reassessment of the sanctions. Mylroie for one believes the United states instead of easing pressure on Saddam should increase it. A we have to be More Active a she said. A we have to actively work to get rid of  As the Price for lifting the sanctions the Clinton administration is insisting that iraqis weapons of mass destruction be eliminated and that it cease abuses against the kurd in the North and the shiite muslims in the South. Saddam has cooperated to some extent in destroying weapons. But he is no More favourably disposed to the shiites than he is to the kurd. Recent iraqi army offensives in the South have included the razing of villages and have forced Many residents to flee East to Iran . Officials say. Defending the Tough . Line against Saddam White House National Security adviser Tony Lake wrote recently that the Baghdad regime a is responsible for both War crimes and crimes against humanity a regime whose invasion of Kuwait and gassing of its own people have rendered it an International  c the associated press the Balkan connection and . Income taxes e four score years ago when americans first Aid Federal income taxes Only 357,598 had incomes High enough a $3,000 a to be taxed. They All had to sign their returns under oath in the presence of a government official and the government audited every return. A. A a a a a a a. A a in 1913, As soon As the 16th amendment was ratified empowering Congress to tax incomes Congress imposed a tax of 1 percent on incomes Between $3,000 and $20,000, with a 6 percent surcharge on higher incomes. But the next year the Balkans were heard from. There was an assassination in Sarajevo War came to Europe eventually America came to the War and by 1919 there was a top rate of 77 percent and the threshold for taxation had been lowered to $1,000. A War a said a great american Radical Randolph Bourne 1886-1918a is the health of the  War also May have been the death of Bourne who was a casualty of the influenza epidemic that raged in the wars final year. But he was right nothing matches War making As an expander of governments control of society a resources and individual lives. War can reconcile individuals to taxation. This was an Irving Berlin Lyric during the second world War you see those bombers in the sky Rockefeller helped to build them so did /. But no one nowadays sings of the democratic Joy of All participating together in paying for say Amtrak or the Peanut program. Hence the Charm in this tax season of the a to z spending cuts plan proposed by reps. Rob Andrews a no and Bill Zeliff . They propose setting aside 56 hours this year during which any House member could propose reducing outlays for any program including entitlements. There would be a Roll Call vote a no anonymity of voice votes a on each proposal. The idea was endorsed by 234 of the 435 members in a letter to speaker Tom Foley last August and 221 members a where did the other 13 go a have cosponsored the measure to make a a Tozy happen. House leaders will throw up every possible procedural impediment to prevent this happening because the spending system depends on obscurity secrecy and hypocrisy. Back Home members preach parsimony. In Washington they practice Mutual log rolling. If the impediments fail we shall see who has the courage to Cut or the courage to defend say Peanut subsidies. Of course if cuts Are made they will run smack into the fourth Branch of government a Robert Byrd  of the Senate appropriations committee. Still a a Tozy would be a step toward establishing the responsibility of individual legislators for what the legislature does. That would serve the cause of resistance to taxation. Such resistance is rising faster than taxation is for two reasons. Dissatisfaction with governments performance is rising rapidly. And there is a growing belief that government is strictly speaking irresponsible a that sheer inertia accounts for the momentum of spending and that the connection Between a National mandate and the decisions by the National legislature is attenuated to the Point of disappearance. Taxation is a moral not just a material preoccupy George f. Will Tion because Money is time taxes Are a Levy on the time we invest in being productive. Will the Levy increase a a. A a a a a a a. A a a a a a a a. A the Clinton administration says Federal spending As a percentage of Gross Domestic product will hover around 22.4 percent a historically High thanks to the Bush administration. However the Clinton projections rest on three rickety assumptions. They arc that interest rates will remain where they were before they recently began to Rise that Between now and 1999 there will be no recession to trigger increased government spending in a shrinking Economy that defense spending will decline faster than the world will permit. Hence the administration is As Peter brim Elow writes in Forbes a like a family that assumes a on rather thin grounds a that the breadwinner is going to get a big raise and the landlord is going to Cut the  a a a. A a. Regarding defense spending it is instructive that this years mid april tax time coincides with the . Intervention As an Active military participant in a civil War in the Balkans probably on the losing Side. . Aircraft Are bombing serbian forces because the Secretary general of the United nations who seems to have acquired custody of nato had decided to do whatever is necessary to relieve another City in a nation not one american taxpayer in 10,000 could locate on an unmarked map. Eighty years after the Balkans and the income tax first began complicating americans lives War is the health of the United nations with interesting consequences for american sovereignty and american taxpayers. C Washington Post