European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 12, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday. October 12, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 13 cowardly columnist free with others lives Harry g. Summers. First there were the interventionist doves anti military americans who opposed every military intervention especially Vietnam and every military Bud get in their lifetimes. But remarkably a nce the end of the cold War they have in at the fore front of those who demand that . Troops intervene in Somalia Bosnia Rwanda and Haiti. Now they have been joined by an even More despicable lot Best described As the  the Story is told that during the 1899-1902 Boer War there was a certain Fop pish English aristocrat who had refused to serve with his regiment there. Far from cowering in disgrace he shame Lessly flaunted himself in cafe society As the celebrated Coward of the Boer  vying for that title after the Viet Nam War was Richard Cohen a columnist for the Washington Post. In his columns Cohen bragged he had joined the District of Columbia National guard in order to beat the draft with the full intention of deserting to Canada if his guard unit were mobilized. He publicly justified his duplicity by saying that his Mother who had been Given Sanctuary by the United states when she fled from the nazi holocaust gave her bless ing for his betrayal of the country that had saved her life. Far from hampering his career As a journalist his questionable conduct seems to have Given it a certain cachet especially in the circles in which Cohen moves. And far from holding it against him most Vietnam veterans Are Only too glad to accede him the title of the celebrated Coward of the Vietnam War what they would not accede however is his new found role As a courageous cow Ard. Writing in the sept. 22,1994, edition of the Post Cohen begins by decrying . Policy in Haiti. The policy i have in mind actually More of a National ethic is the one that states that . Lives Are so valuable that the loss of a single one is the Stan Dard by which military intervention is to be measured he says. It was certainly the Standard by which Cohen judged the Vietnam War when the loss of a single life his own the Solly s Pul?1t. Outweighed All other considerations. But now when his life is no longer on the line Cohen has become courageous indeed with the lives of other americans. Our exaggerated solicitude for the lives of our soldiers has hobbled our National ability to mount a vigorous foreign policy he writes one in which Diplo Macy is backed by the threat of  he is oblivious to the fact that his own actions during the Vietnam War actions in which he takes such great Pride helped bring about just such attitudes. No draftees serve in the . Military he writes. A Are volunteers some for hazardous duty evidently forgetting he too was a Volunteer when he joined . National guard while he brags that when he volunteered for military service he was fully prepared to run away to Canada if he were called upon to do his duty he no sees soldiers no differently than i do policemen or firemen another group of volunteers who sometimes risk and lose their lives to do what you and i would not do ourselves. But unless cops had guns and were Able to use them unless they occasionally risked their lives Crooks would sneeze at them and you and 1 would be alot less Safe \ never stopping to explain Why the same logic did not apply to him when he was in uniform be concludes that " harm s Way is where soldiers Are paid to be to Cohen military service is just another Job and today s soldiers Are just the latest form of con Ottieri the mercenaries who presided Over the de Cline of Europe in the Middle Ages. Foreign to his thinking is the Ideal stated in the preamble to the Constitution that providing for the common defense is the duty of every american citizen Cohen included. Today s Young men and women in uniform May be to a steers but they arc not mercenaries. As anyone who has Ever been in combat knows you can pay a per son to get shot at once but no amount of Money in the world is enough to get shot at again. There must be some higher Moti vation. Some Call it Pride some Call it Honor some Call it patriotism concepts with which Cohen seems unfamiliar. He also seems unfamiliar with the Mili tary axiom that it is a fundamental duty of leaders to ensure the welfare of those under their command. Cohen who knows no one now in uniform Calls it a Crip pling solicitude for their  defense Secretary William Perry recently quoted the old testament in Prais ing America s soldiers. God said whom shall i Send and who will go for me and Isaiah replies Here i am. Send me by contrast Cohen and his fellow courageous Coward colleagues say i m too Good to go. Send him and her Clos Antolos times cancer in body and society Sherwin b. Nuland s Book How we die succeeds admirably in its Mission of helping us no land s fellow physicians included to be More accept ing of death. I commend it to anyone with a terminally ill family member or Friend. I m writing now though because of the Light this extraordinary Book in a chapter on cancer a Sheds on social disorganization. Both cancer and social depredation Nuland believes Are the result of what might be called arrested development. Two things happen to Stem cells As they move closer to Normal maturity their penchant for rapid re production diminishes and their ability to perform use Ful functions increases. But some Stem cells Don t grow up and that s where the trouble starts if these arrested development cells Are in the intestinal lining they reproduce themselves at an extraordinary rate but they Don t help put in Diges Tion. Their development is arrested at a stage where they Are still too Young to have Learned the rules of the society in which they  they Are without the re sources to do anything but cause trouble and Burden the hard working Community around them. They Are re productive but not  these permanently immature cells Are of course cancer cells and Nulan sees them in chillingly human terms. A Cluster of malignant Ceils is a disorganized autonomous mob of maladjusted adolescents raging William Raspberry against the society from which it sprang. It is a Street gang intent on mayhem. There comes a Point at which Home turf is not enough r offshoots of the gang take Wing invade other communities and emboldened by their a resisted depredations wreak havoc on the entire common wealth of the  like All analogies this one can be pushed too far. Not even Nuland would say of anti social youth what he says of a mob of adolescent Stem cells if we cannot help its members grow up anything we can Doto arrest them remove them from our midst or induce their demise anything that accomplishes one of those Aims is  but it does make sense to Stop practices that we know or ought to know produce these abnormalities. Cancer says Nuland is a state in which a break Down has occurred in the communication and Mutual interdependence Between  but cancer is an effect fortunately we know at least some of its causes from toxic waste to Asbestos particles. The last ditch pleadings of the tobacco Industry notwithstanding we know that cigarette smoking causes cancer. We also know something about the agents that break Down communication and Mutual interdependence Between human beings childhood neglect and abuse failure to inculcate the Basic cultural values arrested development resulting from the inability to envision one s Niche As a socially productive adult. We ought to be As concerned to reduce the Preva Lence of these toxins in the social world As we Are to re Duce the prevalence of carcinogens in the physical world particularly considering that we Are not All that Good at curing the cancers once they have spread i should note that Nuland s analogy May be mislead ing in one important Way not All the social cancers involve out of control juveniles. A lot of them involve predatory adults Many of them in the respected precincts of our society. Furthermore much of the dangerousness of our children is the result of the mistakes made by adult including the mistaken Assumption that after the fact punishment is a reliable cure. The truth is we Don t know with any precision and predictability what does cure. Nuland s reminder is less breakthrough Medicine than common sense that we should t leave to their own devices children or Stem cells that Are still too Ypung to have Learned the rules of the society in which they live and who Are without the resources to do anything but cause  7 c Washington Post