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Show Sun Advocate This time, 8a Tuesday, January 1, 1991 hostage ploy failed to work Whew! What a relief! All the Americans who wanted out of Kuwait and Iraq are out. The hostage crisis has ended. That is a tribute to the way President Bush handled it. In the first place, he didnt allow concern for the hostages to overwhelm all other considerations in making policy. In the second place, he brought overpowering military and diplomatic pressure to bear on Iraqs leader, Saddam Hussein, until Saddam blinked. It became clear that Iraqs policy of holding the hostages, or guests as Saddam called them, was counterproductive. Using them as human shields at Iraqi military bases was particularly offensive. World opinion turned against a ruler who so blatant-- ' ly violated the norms of international conduct. In the end, Saddam had more to gain from releas.ng the hostages than from continuing to hold them. But the right tone was set in the White House at the outset. Bush learned from Jimmy Carters sad experience with the Americans held hostage in the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Carter dwelled upon the plight of each individual hostage, and the American people lost sight of the overriding importance of the national interest in handling our relationship with Iran. Did they have to scale back the space station THIS MUCH?! . factor was the impact of continual of the Tehran hostage crion television coverage sis. As a communications medium, commercial television tends to focus on th9 little picture, the individual case, the human emotion. The three major networks do not do so well when it comes to abstractions like the national interest. TV simplifies and then changes the subject, in order to hold its audience. The attention span is brief, and big issues tend to be trivialized, except on CNN, and PBS. The president did not al ow that kind of news coverage to hold his policy hostage. For a long time, he did not even use' the word hostage. He made it clear that his concern for the safety of the hostages would not prevent his taking whatever military measures might be necessary to force Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait. He did not hole up in the White House and he did not permit himself to be tied up, hand and foot, with A contributing Anything under the sun Hope in the face of despair C-Sp- an yellow ribbon. . jj , V.'i Hokum lives Theres no evidence that New Madrid, Mo., hired Iben Browning, the New Mexico climatologist, to predict a major earthquake for Dec. 3. But things couldnt have worked cut better if they had. Small communities across America have tried just about everything to promote tourism. They have taken out glossy magazine ads, hired PR firms, plastered cars with bumper stickers, put up billboards and decked out the natives in old timey costumes. Just when, you thought that there couldnt be any good Ideas left, here comes a new possibility: get someone to predict an earthquake. And so the visitors rolled into New Madrid, led by television trucks that sprouted satellite dishes in every vacant lot on Main Street. There was big money spent on quakeburgers and barbecued ribs, on Earthquakes (a concoction of orange juice. Greof gin, rum and vodka), on nadine and rooms at the motel. "Its been good for business." Councilwoman Barbara Jones said. How can other towns avoid seeing the potential? Some might object that predicting natural calamities that dont happen Is a business tactic with diminishing returns. After it's used a few times, skeptics will say, people will begin to think they are being conned. But plenty of communities, from Alaska to South Carolina, can plausibly claim to live on the fault line. New Madrid was the scene of the nation's most violent quakes, in 1 81 1 and 1812. And quacks have been making earthquake predictions like Brownings for decades, to no greater effect, and still people kept their children home from school and the hordes rolled into New Madrid. It may be all bunkum and hokum, but as P.T. Barnum learned long ago, some Americans still love to buy it. half-sho- ts Policy on news stories i tubfniion of nt itm UThurtdnv nt 5 p m. for the TiKA.iy edition and Tulrty at 5 p.m for th Thuroiny Information turned in afirr thro time will be considered lor th following edition. All information mut b received in a timely manner. Information about evnU more than two week old will not bo conmdrred. Content of special written column or Wttrr published in thi newspaper do not in any way reflect th position, attitude or tup port of th Sun Advocate. All decision at to publication rest Solely with tho Sun Advocate ed.tor. Dend.in for tdil-'on- . Were 12 months nearer to the year 2000, 12 menths that brought the world closer to peace than it has ever been and then suddenly moved it to the. brink of war. Little has happened in my lifetime rs significant as the reunification of.a free Germany. The falling of the Iron Curtain and the opening of the Soviet fist have left the world awestruck and wondering what will happen next. Will the Soviets be able to feed their p ople? Can they impose the concept of free enter prise on their socialist culture successfully? The answer to those questions will determine the future of the Russian people. I dare not think of the question to be answered in the Persian Gulf. Will Hussein withdraw? Or will the shooting start? Someone recently told me the armies have been facing ca'h other for so long, they each know exactly where the enemy is. During the first hour of shooting, thousands will die, he speculated. Whether the U.N. approves the action or not, those people will be just as dead. It is too high a price for a puddle of oil. Whera will Dec. 31, 1991 find us? The possibilities do not look as promising as they did at the end of 1989. The euphoria has turned to fear and despair. Recension looms, they say. War i3 on the horizon. And most of us hope our l;ves can go on abnormally as possible, affected little by world events. But at the same time, we have become a more humane world. As we have developed sophisticated weapons of war, wc have also eradicated deadly diseases. In many parts of the world, racial tensions have eased ns humans have become more accepting of those with different colored skins. We seek to provide as many people as possible with the necessities of life and consider starvation, poverty and illiteracy great injustices that must be corrected. We have looked at the damage we have done to planet earth and want to repair, conserve and preserve all that we can. We care about endangered species, the hole in the ozone and burning rainforests. We care about pristine wilderness. We care about health and safety, clean water and clean air. ' Collectively, we have become a people with causes, a people with compassion. As we confront 1991, there is fear and the threat of great horror, but there is also hope. Perhaps our better natures will prevail As always, the happiness and peace we seek must ultimately come from within. Mike royko Only 15 shopping days left for Iraq What's it been now, about five months?" asked Slats Grobnik. Since what? "Since Iraq hoisted Kuwait s and we went in to play for the Arab oil sheiks." Come to think of it, yes, it's been almost that long since rent-a-cop- the naked aggression occurred. "So after five months, have you got it figured out yet?" Yes, its clear enough. Either Saddam Hussein with- draws from Kuwait or wc wall attack the eve pluckcrs army and drive it out. When?" President Bush was the deadline. "Ycnh, but our No. 2 general in charge over there said the army wont be ready to attack by then. And he said theres nothing special about Jan. 15. Like wc could do it some other day." Thats true. On the other hand, that date falls on o Tuesday, w hich means that if w e went to war there would be no football games to interrupt I believe said Jan. 15 on TV. "Yeah, but they'd have to cut in on oil the soaps, and that could cost Bush 10 points in those approval polls. So I think a Saturday would be better." Why a Saturday? "Because the stock markets are all dosed and Dow and Jones wouldn't start foaming at the bps and getting hysteri cal. They could have the weekend to see whats happening and decide if they want to get hysterical on Monday morning." Yes, but the market will become hysterical no matter what happens. And youre forgetting Ted Koppcl. What about him?" He isn't on the air on Saturday nights. So I'm not sure ifit would be proper or even constitutional to have on international crisis without Koppcl convening a panel ofexperts to explain it to us. Whats to explain? If wc go to war, were going to win, right?" Yes, President Bush has said we will kick fanny, so I assume that means we will win. I read that he said that and it kind of bothers me because Saddam says hes going to pluck our eyes out. And if somebody's going to pluck our eyes oyt. w e ought to do more than kick his behind." We shouldn't lake them literally. Its just their way of saying that their armies will lay waste to the opposing armies. "So you think well win?" always believe my commander in chief. After all, he has secret intelligence information from the CIA and the military that the re3t of us arent privy to. "Yeah, like Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon had during 1 the Vietnam War?" Something like that. "But if we win, howll we knew it? Do we wait for Koppcl to count to 10 and hold up Bush's hand like Rocky? What does winning mean?" I assume winning means that we will have driven the Iraqi army out of Kuw ait and restored the right of that country's lawful rulers to sit on their solid-golpotties again. Thats not the way I heard it. What if we run them out of Kuwait, but this Saddam is still running Iraq? If hes really worse than Hitler, we cant just let him sit there, can we? Didn't you read that in a year he might be able to build a nuclear bomb?" Yes, but the experts say that such a primitive bomb would be so huge and clumsy that it would have to be transported on a big truck. So it wouldn't be of much military use. "Oh, no? What if he disguises it as a float and puts it in a parade? You want to go to bed at night wondering if Saddam's bomb is gonna turn up in the next Rose Parade disguised as a giant Mickey d Mouse?" A chilling thought "So we got to go in there all the way and get him or he's gonna start something again one of these days. Or aint that what Bush seemed to be saying a while ago?" Yes, I believe that may have been our implied goal But some experts say that's risky because the Arab nations that now appear friendly or neutral would suddenly be against us because they dont want us kicking their fellow Arabs around too vigorously. "What docs that mean? The ones who say theyre right behind us now, theyd shoot us in the back?" So to speak. And Saddam might become bold or crazy enough to attack Israel to gain widespread Arab support. Then Israel would, as is its custom, seek an eye for a eye. Or two eyes for an eye. Or maybe tw o eyes for a tooth or a filling. It doesn't mess around. "Then what would we do? It sounds to me like we'd be in a big war and u p to our necks in Arabs." Well, I'm not sure what wed do. I thought you said you understood it" Yes, I thought I did, but there are some things the President hnsnt explained yet Theres no reason for con- cern, though. I'm sure he sees the whole picture and has a plan. What if he don't?" Uh, did you get a nice tree this year? Yeah, Scotch pine." Good. Nice straight trunk? Yeah, sure. But I still wanna know, howH we know if we won? And what about the Jan. (Continued on P 10A) |