European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 17, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday june 17, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 17future dependent on n. Korea stand while the president has been in a retrospective Frame of mind in recent weeks ongoing history has been showing its Teeth still Sharp. Six junes after a Day confirmed the United states As the Century a Only superpower on civilization s Side aggression on the korean Peninsula became the first test of . Resolve in that role. Now As the president has been Busy paying tributes to those who in the 1940s paid the Price for subsequent peace events on the korean Peninsula Are insistently posing this question what Price must people in 1994 pay for the safety of 2044?. North koreans dash to manufacture nuclear w Capone for its ballistic missiles and probably for Export May be a decisive event for the 21st Century. If North Korea causes the entire nuclear nonproliferation Structure to collapse the next Century May be even More dangerously anarchic than this one has1 been. The Undi countable. Clinton administration with its endless and painfully ingenuous offers to Chat with North Korea is revealing that its mentality is like that of the last democratic administration a Cyrus Vance redux. President Carters Secretary of state whose aides included the Man now Secretary of state was like the current Secretary a corporate lawyer with the blinkered liberalism of people who believe that life is a setting of agreed upon rules and split table differences Vance could not comprehend Radical different Ness to the Point of saying that Leonid Brezhnev shared a your dreams and  the Clinton administration with a learning curve As Flat As Kansas cannot wrap its mind around the thought that Kim ii Sung does not aspire to domesticity within the a Community of  he has different dreams and aspirations. There is no reason to suppose any effectiveness from economic sanctions designed to a a isolated a regime that relishes isolation from the worlds contaminants such As Freedom. And if Kim ii Sung were bothered by the privations of his people he would not be a communist if North koreans Gross Domestic product declines for the next five years As it has in each of the last five he will be Brave about that. He is being rational although a rational Quot is not a synonym for a a reasonable or  he is rationally connecting available Means to his chosen ends. His goal is the preservation and Independence of the state he founded. Nuclear weapons a perhaps Only nuclear weapons a can serve that end As weapons and Export commodities. There Are occasions when diplomacy is served by ambiguity. This is not one. This is an occasion for the Clinton administration to remember lord Curzon a Maxim George f. Will know your own mind and make sure the other fellow knows it too. The administration should communicate to North Korea two thoughts. First if it attacks South there will be no a Saddam solutions a no endgame with the regime intact. Second the administration believes it has viable military  the nuclear weapons program As a noted in sen. John Mccain a speech of May 24, a Mccain r-ari/., a former Navy aviator and Eunell member of the armed services committee has paid wars Price i wounds and in  five years As a pay a in a lost War so lie knows the terrors of War and the limits to what Force Chin achieve. And he does not Call for military measures  but Mccain says North koreans nuclear ambitions May be a the defining crisis of the Post coid War period because if these ambitions Are realized the result May be the exponential growth of nuclear armed regimes. Noting that he has opposed the use of military Force in Beirut Bosnia Somalia and Haiti he says that cruise missiles and manned aircraft attacks could do substantial damage to North koreans nuclear program. A cd Wasif Raton in Samerica needs Faith in attacking its troubles its one of those things that everybody knows but that never seems to enter our discussions of social policy Peoples behaviour is influenced not merely by their external circumstances but also by their internal beliefs about duty about the worlds Workings about their place in the scheme of things. We know that some children work hard and do Well in school while others with equal ability fall by the academic Wayside that some adults avoid succumbing to drugs or manage to kick their habits without much difficulty while others become More or less permanent druggies that some families manage to claw their Way toward economic self sufficiency while others ostensibly no worse off fall into inter generational dependency. And we know that the difference a whether we Call it attitude or character or a a spunk a is belief. The people who believe in something bigger than and outside themselves manage also to believe in themselves and the result Shire Plain to see. Our failure to acknowledge what a everybody knows frustrates our search for solutions to our most pressing problems a from crime and violence to drug abuse to welfare dependency. Talk to the Rev Eugene Rivers and the Rev Ray Hammond leaders of a group of inner City Boston pastors who have managed to reclaim some Young men that others had Given up on talk to the Rev. Freddie Garcia in san Antonio where he has taken alcoholics and drug addicts off the streets and turned them into useful citizens. Talk to Lay people like Kent Amos of Washington d.c., who has made a National reputation for transforming Young lives.  Tell you that the most important things they do Are spiritual even when they Are not specifically religious. The nation of a a a a a islam however controversial its relation with lews is widely recognized Tor its ability to transform some of the most a a irredeemable elements of our society drug dealers robbers hard Core prison inmates. Does anyone suppose their Success in William Raspberry voices Only psychological counselling a it is one thing How Ever to understand the importance of spiritual transformation in the reclamation of society a poor and disaffected quite another to figure out How to accommodate that understanding to Public policy. The stricture against establishment of religion has been interpreted As forbidding All government involvement Voith ail based. Programs a not just for addicts and w Elt Aro dependents hut even for students,.no matter How obviously effective some such programs May be. The framers of the Constitution deadly. Thought it would be a disaster for the government to get into the business of establishing religion hut i m not sure they saw it As governments duly to reduce the influence of Faith in the Ordinary affairs of society. Indeed the evidence Points the other Way. The problem is that the Faith that drives behaviour takes different forms fur different people. For some it entails belief in god elaborated through particular religious forms. Fur others a May involve belief in the perfectibility i Humankind or lire supremacy of democracy. Indeed the Mil Tanev with which Soiree american intellectuals pursue the a a separation Issue a opposing not merely Public school prayer but even moments of silence during which prayer might take place a has a Good Deal in common with religious zealotry still the transforming Power of belief seems so obvious that it May be Worth while to look for ways to harness it to social purpose in a Way that avoids violence to the Hirst amendment. Ronald j. Sider and Heidi Roll and in a piece published by the Center Lor Public Justice offer one possibility vouchers. A if spirit idled conversion oriented programs Luik better than secular humanist programs a they wrote Quot voucher recipients would be free to choose them. Vouchers could he Given to people with a legitimate need for state support in housing drug rehab Job training medical care and other empowering  would that be the camels nose under the a a separation tent perhaps so. Ah1 know is that America Lias some devastatingly difficult problems and the eradication of Faith in t making them belter. 1 in a fat