OCR Text |
Show P WANTED -- WANTED it3 Flora Lewis Identity Veils Reality of Mideast War FOR K) i Eastern-Custom- is I s conferencing resulted in the airlines apparently reluctant agreement to Bor- man, understandably vexed by the seizure, albeit of relatively short duration, of one of his companys major properties, asserts Eastern has been cooperating with Customs in spades and has never refused to cooperate with any government antismuggling request that would not impact on safety. Still, considering that a single flight of a single airline has been found to be carrying illegal drugs five times in as many months, there is room to question how effective, overall, the airline industrys cooperation has been in the drive to keep illegal drugs out of this country. Possibly the American airline industry ought to start using a full deck of cooperation, not just the spades. An Army of Survivors President Reagans tourist-lik- e burial visit to the ground of Chinas first emperor strikes us as an event of unusual 2,200-year-o- ld irony. Mr. Reagan is deeply involved in building a military force he hopes will be second to none. The emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi, also had an army without peer. He commanded thousands of terracotta soldiers ' whose mission was to guard him in the great beyond. Of all the human armies down through the centuries, not one soldier survives more than a few decades af-- ! ter service. But the emperors troops, long buried like their human counterparts, are in an excellent state of life-size- d preservation. This, of course, proves nothing except that terracotta in tougher than human flesh. But it is a convenient peg for contemplating the futility of raising armies and fighting wars. We suspect that most people who learn of the emperor Qin Shi Huang-di- s 7,000 or so terracotta troops lament the great waste of human effort that went into their manufacture. Yet oddly, the most barbarous, bloody war since World War I has stirred little concern And all for a bogus cause. Do these same people have similar doubts about the raising and outfitting of Alexander the Greats human regiments? Probably not, but they should. FbR R3R TERRORISM in (K) mideast: terrorism CEUTt? AL AMERICA. CIA'S Yasser arafat CASeV William F. Buckley Jr. Israel Isnt Upholding Agreements It Signed Universal Press Syndicate few weeks ago when King Hussein of Jordan blasted U.S. policy in the Mideast, concentrating on our toleration of the gradual annexation of the West Bank by Israel, I wrote substantially agreeing with Husseins principal point. The result has been letters of protest, some of them scholarly, and one from a renowned academician whom I greatly A admire, Professor Harry V. Jaffa of Mr. Buckley College in Claremont, Claremont Mens Calif. The issues are worth revisiting Hussein had said, We see things this way. Israel is on our land. I commented: This is substantially true, as witness Resolution 242 of the Security Council and, with this and the other qualification, the Camp David accords. In 1948, Jordah annexed the West Bank. The whole of the combined area had been separated from territory on the Israeli side of the Jordan River by the British in 1922. The U.N. demarcation of 1947 did not grant the West Bank to Israel, which occupied the West Bank as late as in 1967 when it triy umphed over Jordan and Egypt in the Six-Da- Looking back from the vantage point of the late 20th century, the exploits of Alexanders men seem just as futile as those of the Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi. And a few hundred years in the future, if civilization lasts that long in the face of the nuclear threat, the efforts of President Reagan and whatever his powerful legions accomplish will seem equally irrelevant. One is tempted to wonder how much the future course of human events would be changed if Mr. Reagan was ordering up terracotta MX missiles and Ml tanks and manning them with soldiers of the same material. In light of the awesome possibilities for devastation posed by the real weapons, who is to say the world would not be a better place if its leaders, like the first Chinese emperor, busied themselves with creating military forces for duty in the hereafter? be- yond the belligerents except among strategic-political experts. A leader of Denmarks t. Easterns chairman, Frank ill high-leve- l, counter-argumen- Says William von Raab, the Customs Service commissioner, If the drugs are in an area that only airline employees can have access to, Customs feels it is the responsibility of the airline to insure that those employees do not put them there. Customs agents discovered three pounds of cocaine in the avionics compartment in the belly of the plane, a portion of the aircraft no passenger has access to. Also, it was the fifth time since some press. Association, the trade group of the nations scheduled airlines, said: The airlines want to help. But it must be in a support role. Were not cops. We dont have the authority. But the Customs Service makes an irrefutable I before the foreign curity for the Air Transport doubts about the legality of some of the things the Customs Service is asking its employees to do, along with raising questions about how the proposals could affect airline efficiency and safety. The Customs Services change in emphasis is not without logical foundation, however, if seizure of that November, say Customs officials, that cocaine had been found on that particular flight from Peru and Panama. The plane was released after k WANTED k? anti-smuggli- representatives have expressed jumbo jet in Miami criteria for judgment. to prove its charge that Iraq used f gas warfare. That is t why Iraq paraded 1 half a dozen terrified little boy prisoners perform additional measures. The airlines dont want to be involuntarily thrust into a law enforcement role. Richard Lally, chief of se- What apparently is a change in drug smuggling detection emphasis came to light after agents of the U.S. Customs Service seized that Eastern Airlines plane in Miami. In its efforts to curb entry of illegal drugs into this country, the Customs Service is beginning to concentrate on the possible role airline employees, or contract employees, might be playing in smuggling. Previous efforts were aimed at passengers and other The airline industry is not entirely happy about the switch. Industry any Khomeini PRITAIN. COL. KAPAFI Might Be Time U.S. Airlines Cooperate With Full Deck Eastern New York Times Service PARIS Opinion weighs in the world, even though as Stalin said of the pope it may command no divisions. This is why Iran sent dozens of men to die in European hospi-tal- s FOR TEC?CDR16M IK) MID EAST War. Now to question the legality of Jordans annexation of the West Bank in 1948 invites that dreary archaeology of that, as Professor Jaffa concedes, has, in the hands of fundamentalists, Mexicans Mexico when they move into Arizona or California. It can be maintained by historical purists that the West Bank is not Jordans, but to say that for that reason the West Bank is Israels requires biblical fundamentalism, and a greater obedience to biblical geography than is generally paid to biblical morality. The point to stress, surely, is: What has Israel agreed to in two documents: Resolution 242 in 1967, and the Camp David accords? Clause 1 (i) of Resolution 242 reads, The fulfillment of charter principles requires withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict. Provision 1 (a) of the Camp David accords reads that Israel agrees that in order to ensure a peaceful and orderly transfer of authority, i.e., from Israel to another government, there should be transitional arGaza for rangements for the West Bank . . . a period not exceeding five years. In order to provide full autonomy to the inhabitants, un- der these arrangements the Israeli military government and its civilian administration will be withdrawn as soon as a authority has been freely elected by the inhabitants of these areas Ninety-si- x percent of the population of the West Bank is Arab. It follows that self-rul- e of the West Bank would mean rule other than by Israel, which in fact is exercising authority over the West Bank six years after the signing of the Camp David accords. Now Professor Jaffa makes several points, among them: 1) Jordans historical title to the West Bank is insecure, to which the answer is: That is irrelevant to the obligations of Israel under agreements signed by Israel. 2) Israel saved Husseins life in 1970. True and irrelevant. 3) Hussein is a Hashemite and scorns Palestinians and ruled miserably and profanely when he had de facto authority over the West Bank and East Jerusalem. True and irrelevant. 4) A guarantee of Israeli security by the United States is as reliable as our guarantee of Vietnam security. A good point, but a point Begin had plenty of time to reflect upon when he signed the Camp David accords. And finally, 5) Israels evacuation of the West Bank cannot be done without reference to Israels own security. This point that Israel is correctly concerned with the primary responsibility of its own security was not challenged in this space. Indeed, several times in the past I have argued that only a demilitarized West Bank, on the order of a demilitarized Austria, can be responsibly created by Israel. So where are we? The whole world understood Resolution 242 and Camp David as signaling Israels agreement to vacate the occupied territories. The annexation of the Golan Heights violated Camp David, but the maneuver was so obviously related to Israeli security as not to challenge the moral conscience of Israels What is now going on, however, does this exactly. Because the ruling party of Israel is in effect engaged in colonizing an area of the world to which twice it agreed to grant conditional sovereignty. Given that Israel is an enclave of Western-minde- d morality in a hostile sea, it should look after its safety not only by keeping its arsenal dry, but by maintaining its moral prestige. It is this that it is risking. ... well-wisher- s. Its more difficult these days to judge a it was when it was gauged by the number of fountain pens in his mans importance than pocket. ardent peace movement unwittingly gave the reason recently. We cant identify with it, he said. It was easy to identify with brave little Vietnamese fighting a superpower, or with Afghans. In other words, the cause isnt really peace or the massacre of innocents, it is the satisfying feeling of cheering the good side. If you cant tell the white hats from the black hats, it doesnt matter how many are killed. Nobody knows the real numbers. They have probably reached a million. Iraq refuses to release casualty figures, doubtless because its own people would be shocked and lose heart for the battle. Erik Durschmied, a CBS correspondent who has specialized in covering wars for 25 years, says he has never seen anything like the slaughter on the Iran-Ira- q front. He described one battle in the marshes near Basra. Iraqi tanks and artillery were lined up on one causeway, 25,000 Iranians on another about 600 yards away. A few hours later there were only 250 Iranian survivors. Among them were children and old men. He interviewed some who had been taken prisoner and were in Iraqi camps. One boy said he was 15. He had been a prisoner for three years. Others were 11, 12, 13. Grizzled men gave their ages as 60, 64, 72. All of them said they didnt know what the war was about. One, pointing a finger at the sky, volunteered: I don't know where it comes from. It comes from God. But there they They are are. The war has been going on for three and a half years. The boys are growing up. Nothing is being done. The International Red Cross is mute, chary even of saying how many children there are, hedging by saying, as one spokesman did: It depends how you define a child. Some countries think it normal to recruit a soldier at 15. The Red Cross is afraid of being accused of partisanship. Other sources say there are some 200 children in the prisoner camp at Ramadi near Baghdad, up to 1,000 in northern Iraq. Nobody knows what happened to the well-treate- d. Iraq has tried to send the Iranian children home. Ayatollah Khomeinis regime refused; a spokesman was quoted as saying, We need martyrs, not heroes. In any case, outsiders fear with good reason that children sent back now would be abused for allowing themselves to be captured, accused of having been brainwashed and turned traitor. If they came from anywhere else, there would surely be dozens of committees in the United States, Europe and elsewhere to move the children to a place where they could be educated and given some semblance of a normal life. It would be impolitic to send them to a country. Ayatollah Khomeini would say that Iraq was selling Irans children to the infidel.. The idea of charity is central to the Koran, but the Moslem world lacks the Western concept of private humanitarian associations to relieve distress, to help at least a little in a time of horror. The leaders know a lot, however, about the importance of world opinion. Most of them strive hard to create sympathy for their nations causes. They could help themselves as well as perform a good deed by offering to establish schools and homes for the child prisoners away from the battle until the war is over. The Arab states could easily finance the effort, but given the passions of the crusade it would probably be better to b send them to a country. Pakistan has been suggested. It is Iran's could eastern neighbor. President Zia use a little gloss on his reputation when it comes to humane gestures. His Western allies should urge him to accept the children. Tehran would doubtless be displeased,' as it is whenever anybody calls attention to these victims, but Zia is not a timid man. The United States can do something at once politically sound and eminently moral by pressing the idea on him. Of course, it is very little. It is even more urgent for strategic and political as well as moral reasons that the war be stopped quickly without a victory for either side. That would take a true concert of nations, which doesnt exist in a world that has been so hopelessly polarized. Where are the peace movements in the West and the propagandizing peace councils in the East demonstrating to demand that their governments join in the effort? Meanwhile, what the Declaration of Independence calls a decent respect to the opinions of mankind" ought at least to provoke a move to save the children. Arab-Per-sia- n non-Ara- q James Brady David Kennedys Death Another Puzzling Tragedy King Features Syndicate There are scars of the soul as well as of the flesh. The boy's father might have been president. Instead, in the pantry of a Los Angeles hotel in 1968, he was shot through the head by a California nutcase. The boy s name is David Kennedy. His father died 16 years ago. Now his son is dead. He was 28 years old, handsome, a millionaire, a Harvard man. and he died in a Florida hotel room five miles from his family's Palm Beach mansion. David checked into the hotel last Friday. Good Friday. Members of the family, including his matriarchal grandmother, Rose Kennedy, spent the Easter weekend in Palm Beach. On Wednesday morning, three days after Easter, a Mrs. Kennedy from Boston phoned the hotel to ask them to check on young David. A hotel employee found his body shortly before noon If we knew why rich, intelligent young people kill themselves with drugs, if we knew why they take drugs, we would ourselves be rich. There are no answers; there are only questions. The boys uncle was assassinated in Dallas in 1963. David was just old enough, seven, to grasp the fact. A president was dead, his father's older brother. Five years later his own father, Robert F. Kennedy, was running for the Democratic nomination for president Bobby had just won the California primary Then a disturbed young man r named Sirhan Sirhan stepped out of the shadows in the Ambassador hotel and lifted a gun. When Bobby Kennedy died his son David had just entered his teens. The Kennedys, Bobby and Ethel, had 11 kids. They lived in a sprawling house in McLean, Va., just a few miles outside Washington. The house was always full of fun, of friends, of laughter, apparently of love. Touch football, pool parties, weekend guests like Frank Gifford and Art Buchwald, the Kennedy place was one long spring break from a good Ivy League cold lege. But holidays end and children grow up. In 1979 David Kennedy hit the front pages when he was robbed of $30 in a sleazy Harlem hotel frequented by addicts and pushers. It was assumed he was there to buy drugs and the deal had gone sour. A week later he was hospitalized for treatment of a heart disease often associated with narcotics abuse. The following year the family reportedly hired an 'expert,'' someone with "street smarts," to live with David e in a sort of therapy program. That same week a Cambridge shrink was found guilty of prescribing drugs for David. Last year David's brother Robert Jr., an attorney, was busted for heroin possession. Magazine articles explored the situation. Books were written. Those who were close to Ethel Kennedy refused to discuss the situation with reporters. It was a private" round-the-cloc- k matter. Ethel herself said nothing, avoided interviews, maintained her silence And her dignity. Feople admired her 1 She had gone through so much. She had tried so hard. Browsing as I am doing now through a book about the young Kennedys one is struck by how good they look, how healthy, how happy, how basically sound. It is as if you telephoned central casting and asked them to send over a dozen or so clean-cu- t American kids. But behind the grins, the suntans, the tousled hair, the preppy look, behind the sunshine, there were the shadows. I first met Bobby and Ethel in the late 50s. He was the ambitious, aggressive, and some felt abrasive chief counsel of a Senate investigating committee. It was Bobby who would eventually put labor racketeers like Dave Beck and Jimmy Hoffa in jail. He was Jack Kennedys kid brother. But there was nothing kiddish about his ambitions. Nearly every day Ethel sat there in the committee hearing room, watching, listening, chewing gum and chatting with report- er pals. The Kennedys gave parties out in McLean. You were expected to be a good sport. There were always pretty girls, plenty of cool drinks, and you paid your dues by playing football and allowing yourself to be tossed, cheerfully, into the pool. Sophomoric? Perhaps. But everyone seemed to especially all those wide-eye- d Kennedy kids who undistinguishable from one another. They had but fying characteristic, those Kennedy youngsters: Orbiting Pan (graphs A clearance sale is a device for clearing out whats left in your wallet. enjoy it, seemed The worst thing about retirement is that you can no longer look forward to quitting one time. uni- they all looked happy. It's over now for David. In Washington his uncle. Senator Ted Kennedy, said: "We all pray that David has finally found the peace that he did not find in life." Rare indeed is the ill worker who recovers enough to go to work in the afternoon. If other civilizations have mastered the metric system, you can perhaps expect a thirsty alien to ask to be taken to your liter |