European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 24, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday August 24, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 15 Clinton s Haiti policy plays politics with lives Harry g. Summers one of the dirty Little secrets making the rounds in Washington is that president Clinton a determination to restore ousted haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide to Power even if takes an american military invasion to do so has Little to do with democracy there. Instead it has everything to do with winning the support of the congressional Black caucus for passage of his health Reform Bill. Shades of Lyndon Johnson who 30 years ago this month pressed the Congress for it passage of the Southeast Asia Resolution better known As the Tonkin Gulf Resolution ostensibly to a take All necessary measures to repel an armed attack against the forces of the United states and to prevent further  but As it turned out his reason and the reason democratic sen. J. William Fulbright Ramr Odded the Bill through the Senate was to derail Barry Goldwater a gop presidential Campaign. Goldwater had charged that the democrats in general and lbs in particular were soft on communism. And lbs and partisan democrats such As Fulbright were willing to pay what turned out to be More than 50,000 american lives to prove him wrong. No wonder that earlier american military strategists such As brer vet maj. Gen. Emory Upton who committed suicide in despair in 1881 were Adamant that when War starts politics must Stop. Where Karl von Clausewitz had defined a politics As the interaction of peo pies and their governments and had rightly said it was the very engine of War. Upton defined a a politics As Domestic politics the very kind of cynical profiteering for personal political gain with soldiers lives practice by lbs in Vietnam and now by Clinton in Haiti. It turned out that Johnson was too Clever by half. When accounts of his dual cities began to surface a a credibility Gap developed that ultimately destroyed his presidency. The same thing is beginning to happen to Clinton As More and More americans question his truthfulness and his motives. You would think that of All people Clinton would have avoided such a credibility Gap since As a Young Man he took to the streets to protest that breach of the Public Trust. But he evidently Wasny to Reading his own protest placards. Lbs should have gotten the hint when All of our nato allies who had previously sent troops to help us in the korean War refused to Send any to help in Vietnam. Instead he had to invent the a free world military forces subterfuge and Strong Arm our asian allies to provide a pretence of multilateral support. V Clinton should also have gotten the word when All of the members of the organization of american states who have a greater stake in democracy in latin America than we do rapidly dissociated themselves from an invasion of Haiti. Instead of furthering  american relations Clinton risks a major setback. President Carter gave up the Panama canal to avoid latin american criticism of . A a imperialism in the Caribbean. Now by proposing a unilateral . Invasion of Haiti Clinton will sacrifice All that Good will and re establish the United states As the arrogant big brother from the North. Lacking an Oas subterfuge All Clinton has is a . Resolution and even his own Senate has told him publicly that that Dodge wont Cut it anymore. As sen. Robert Byrd d-w.va., remarked recently when he looks to the front of the Senate Chambers he does no to see the . Flag there he sees Only old glory. And so do the american people. It was said of the French commander during the Franco prussian War in 1870 that he had devised a plan that if successful would have guaranteed his instantaneous defeat. His descendant must be advising president Clinton today. If Clinton persists in his Public vow to invade Haiti Over the objections of the Congress and the american people he May As planned get the support of the congressional Black caucus for his health Reform Bill. But if one american is killed in action during that invasion to gain that Domestic political advantage Clinton will surely reap the disgust and contempt of the american people for playing politics with their sons and daughters lives Garry Trudeau a doonesbury recently had a contest for a Symbol to represent Bill Clinton with a Choice Between a flipping Coin and a Waffle. More appropriate would be a caricature of lbs As the ghost of presidents past rattling his chains and warning of the Folly of Sacri firing american soldiers lives to gain partisan political advantage. To paraphrase sir Thomas More in a Man for All seasons a to risk ones immortal soul to gain the entire world is understandable. But for Haiti a c los Angelos Timos a president saddled with nation s fear of change it was one of those impenetrable sagging summer. Afternoons when the weather forecast suggests that everybody take a Day off from breathing. The president looking much the worse for Wear had finished a speech to the National governors association and arrived in the room to talk with a group from the Boston Globe. He had run the Gauntlet of the travelling Washington press corps who were in various stages of High spirits having arrived unanimously and therefore comfortably a at their Lead for the next Day. The headlines would claim that president Clinton had backed away from Universal health care coverage a gotcha when he denied it the next stories would say that he had backed away from his backing away. But in the midst of this min Flap i scratched a different impression into my notebook. In conversation tie president had compared himself rather wearily to tru Man. A the just wore people out kind of like i do said Clinton. A part of his Job was making people do what they did no to want to  a is this what the president thought it occurred to me that the Man who had run and won on a platform or change believed that one of things people did t want to do was  he believed that when push came to shove when the ideas of change came Down to the policies average Folk wound up More worried about the unknown than the known. That there were lots of people who did no to want to upset the Apple cart even when the boards on the Bottom of the cart were broken and the apples were dropping to the ground one by one. I thought of that moment As the health care de Bate erupted on the Senate floor Over watered Down employer mandates and might be filibusters. This president this administration has worked too hard for too Little. The political physics Are out of whack. More Energy is being used to go Shorter distances. Health care Reform Bills. Welfare Reform Bills. Crime Bills. The past two administrations did no to do much More than Patch and postpone. This one deserves and rarely gets a credit for wrestling with the big ones. But from the very beginning the administration has been saddled with subliminal scepticism about the country s willingness to change a scepticism honed during the Reagan years sharpened in Arkansas. These grown up baby Boomers have tried to figure out a Way to make the most possible change while upsetting the fewest possible people. To move the country without unsettling it. These worriers May be right about our reluctance to make changes in the Midstream of our country a midlife. When we talk about change these Days its with More anxiety than Hope. The Woodstock generation seems More swamped with nostalgia than with optimism. We associate the very word with our losses a of Ellen Goodman family Community economic status a not our gains. Once As a student historian Crane Brinton taught me that revolutions come at a time of rising expectations. In a time of diminishing expectations do we fear evolution today the polls that take the pulse of attitudes while they Are barely formed say that most americans have switched from worrying about the flaws of the present health care system to worrying about those of a new system. Its True that 15 percent of us done to have health care. But would the 85 percent who have it rather hang on to this Windowsill than make a move the Clinton came into health care Reform As pragmatists not utopians. They entered compromising. One of the things they have tried to do is stake out a Comfort zone for a country that wants a better health care system but a does no to want to do change. Nevertheless the agents of modest change Are now pegged As radicals. The Comfort zone they carved out has become a War zone with a right Wing wielding another carving knife. And people who have much to gain from Universal health coverage Are focusing on the imagined losses. Many americans seem to be out of the habit of optimism of believing in something better something without a catch. The supreme irony is that Many now seem afraid even of a change that promises them Security. These Days the most dangerous pre existing condition in the country is something known As cold feet. C Boston Globe