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Show (She gait akf tribune Sunday Morning Section January 12, Opinion 198li A I 'age Tribune Editorials 1G Common (Airrier Letters Quiet Curbs on Terrorism Beat Assassinating Libyas Khadaly dont deliver, that raises morale and Howard H. Metzenbaum, probably has considerable company when he suggests assassinating Libyan strongman Col. Moammar Khadafy. Nevertheless, no matter how visecrally appealing the thought Sen. is, whets the appetite on the other side." What Mr. Schlesinger was talking about is the course of action President Reagan alluded to in his last press it is wrong To deliberately hunt down and kill Khadafy would, first of all, lower the United States in the eyes of the world to the despicable level of the terrorists who shot up the airports. in Rome and Vienna. It is. therefore, heartening to see administration rejections like that of White House spokesman Edward Djerejian. who quickly called the senators suggestion "not a policy option of the United States government." Secondly, and probably more importantly. to assassinate Khadafy would, in all likelihood, solve nothing. Nor would it serve to curb acts of terrorism Rather, it would probably create a very high profile martyr; someone terrorist leaders and organizers could offer as a rallying symbol of their cause. This point was underscored in Time magazine recently when its Washington bureau chief, Strobe Talbott, interviewed four directors of the Central Intelligence Agency. The chiefs stressed the importance of a consistent approach to terrorism. Extreme measures, such as assassination, along with bombastic rhetoric, are likely to backfire, they told Mr. Talbott. Typical of the CIA directors responses was that of James R. ex-CI- low-keye- A d, Schle-singe- r, who said, "The character of the punishment of terrorists matters a helluva lot less than the certainty that they will be punished. That means establishing a pattern over a period of years. It means avoiding sending conflicting signals. It means not issuing threats and then backing off. If you make a threat and then conference. He told reporters, "We have actually recorded in the last year, and know, that we have aborted 126 terrorist missions. Now, I won't go any further and I'm not going to tell you how this was done." Those two sentences are additional evidence that the Reagan administration is shaping an policy more closely resembling that advocated in Time by those former CIA directors: consistent and devoid of bombastic rhetoric. The administration course hasnt always been so moderately fashioned. Remember when the U.S. hostages came home from Iran on Jan. 27, 1981, and Mr. Reagan told the world, "Let terrorists be aware that when the rules of international behavior are violated, our policy will be one of swift and effective retribution?" Well, like the old cigarette ad says. "Youve come a long way, baby." The press conference statements, including the announcements of tough economic sanctions against Libya and the frustrating of terrorist missions, reveal the United States has adopted a less flamboyant but far more effective course in dealing with terrorism. That strategy involves, in all likelihood, the quiet infiltration of terrorist groups, along with the etfectivc gathering and swift analysis of anti-terrori- low-keye- st d, Pregnancy Should Be Private Affair By Anita Creamer Dallas Times Herald My friend Rebecca is three months pregnant with her second child. She and her husband, Robert, are ecstatically happy about having another little one. Their son. Chandler, who will be 5 when the baby comes, is beside himself. Every day he asks how soon the baby will arrive; he's determined hes going to have a little sister to take care of, Rebecca reports But Rebecca, inching into the second trimester of her second pregnancy, is bracing herself for the coming months It's not the long months of pregnancy that bother her. It's not labor and delivery she's worried about No. Having been through pregnancy and birth once before, Rebecca knows she's about to become an unwilling part of the public domain. She calls it species pregnancy'' -"You know, the assumption people make that they have an investment in other people's pregnancies because, I guess, we re all part of the human race. Your pregnancy is their pregnancy, too." The species pregnancy phenomenon manifests itself in all sorts of odd transgressions and insensitivities, good intentions gone awry. "The worst." said Rebecca. happened to a friend. She was looking at shoes in a department store, a total woman and a middle-agecame up. put her hand on my stranger! friend's abdomen and said. Well, when are we due?' " Perhaps. I suggested, the older woman somehow regarded the pregnant, vital , intelligence. With 126 "wins" to its credit, the administration seems, at last, to have found the way to a satisfactory outcome in the battle against terrorism. It is a process that shuns revenge in favor of prevention; a far more satisfactory way than assassination, even as someone as reprehensible Moammar Khadafy. of Thoughts in a Snowstorm that the Gramm-RudmaActs intention of trimming the monumental federal deficit risks a heavy hand on the meatax instead of a light touch with a scalpel is not an original thought. But the worry one goes through while riding a Boeing 737 to a snowlanding during a storm tends to reinforce that threat. Not just the flight crews of large jets, but also those of all manner and size of planes are vitally dependent upon the accurate and reliable functioning of a wide spectrum of electronic gear to get them safely into the air, to keep them on course, to prevent them from running into each other while in the air and to return them, their passengers and crews safely to the ground. Thus, when Howard Johannssen. president of the Professional Airway System Specialists, worries openly Fedthat eral Aviation Administration budget cuts will produce declining levels of air safety, he voices a concern that a lot of people quite probably ought to share. After all. as Mr. Johannssen notes. "Each second of down-tim(of air traffic control equipment) is a potential danger for aircraft, their passengers and crews. This is the kind uf tiling a person is To note n near-blindin- Gramm-Rudman-mandate- g d e apt to think about during a landing as the plane heads toward the ground at close to 100 knots: What if the threshold marker (or whatever) goes blank right now? The same tummy-tighteninthought can be applied to radar equipthe whole ment, computers, radios of electronic gear the FA A inventory snow-obscure- d - g uses. When he announced a nationwide hiring freeze, Donald Engen, the FAA chief, exempted air traffic controllers, aviation inspectors and security specialists. But, perhaps he did not include the experts who install and maintain the.FAAs short-sightedl- electronic gear. Mr. Johannssen might be relying too heavily on hyperbole to make his point when he says the Gramm-Rudmacuts "will hold the entire American air traveling public as hostage. However, the situation he fears, a declining level of competence in the maintenance of vital FAA electronic equipment, does make for a lot of worry: Perhaps Congress and the Reagan administration are cutting out muscle along with the fat. The nagging intensifies markedly as one sits in a plane that is bouncing toward a landing and the wing tip can't be seen because of a snowstorm. n pregnant woman wiih the patronizing we" as in "When aie we due'." or "How are we feeling today'''' "The men I woiked with did that all the time." said Rebecca They simply didn't know how to react to my pregnancy. Some of them stopped looking me in the eye altogether They'd look at my abdomen instead One man started calling me Mammy young woman as a fertility symbol Hob her tummy, and you. too. will glow, bursting with life. No matter. She was still rude, but you can't believe the rude, insensitive things people say all during a pregnancy." From Rebecca's comments, I olfer herewith a list of behavior to avoid around pregnant women. When you first learn that a friend or acquaintance is pregnant, do not say Are you happy about it? Wore you trying'' How many tries did it lake? And people get obsessed with how much you weigh S'ou feel like a beached whale, anyway, and people rub it in 'Oh. of course you can carry it because you're With this baby, people don't assume we're happy, for some ienson." Rebecca said. "But I mean, if it was an accident do you think I'd tell people'1 And would it be anyone's business? And these aren't close friends asking. A real friend is happy lor you unless you indicate otherwise tall ' That's what short people say," Surely. I suggested, this rush ul discourtesy ends when the baby's born "You'd be amazed." Rebecca said People really want to know all the details. They ask you all about the labor and delivery It's like they want to know. 'Does it really hurt'. Just how bad is la- "The worst reaction I had was from a woman I work with. She told me all about her miscarriages and the baby she delivered stillborn." Which brings us to our second point During a woman's pregnancy (and I understand this stuff happens among strangers as often as among friends), do not: tell all about your (your mothers, layour Aunt Helen's) gruesome the advice the woman bor, second-gues- s has received from her doctor, offer folk remedies and other advice your Amu Helen swears by Do not touch or rub the woman's tummy. unless invited to do so I'nless you know her well, do not ask how much weight she's gained And. above all. do not addiess the d bor. anyway'1' " woman's pregnancy is part of our collective trust, as we seem to demonstrate to women in countless intrusive ways, then we also must have a vested interest in the life, health and education of the young child I couldn't "Wrong," said Rebecca even mention the wmds corporate day care' in the office. The man worked for thought subsidized child care was a sub- " versive Hung, some kind of commie plot And that's the beauty of the species piegnancy your pregnancy may be our collective pregnancy, tiut youi child most certainly is yours alone And only the strong surv ive So if a ' 1 Goes Well With White Wine It Was the Quiche That Did Old Biff In Bv boss of all espresso coffee.' the highest rank that can be achieved in today's mob oi Jerry Zezima The Stamford Advocate Nf.ffS' ITl.M Ronald Goldsloek, the head of Seir York's Oryunned Crime Tu.sk Force, says that todays Mafia is a "yuppie crowd 'He tin- ' that they have a good idea because j new code of ethics lequiics hitmen to pick up the tabs of people they slay gangland style, especially if the victims have ordered a chefs salad and a glass ol Paul ?.lasson Such courtesy lias in 'We will kill no spired a new mob motto man before Ins time " Biff Brie, reputed to be the head of one of the country's largest and most powerful organized crime families, was shot dead the other day while eating a lobster salad at a restaurant He was 34 trendy health-foo- w d Brie was having lunch at Tweed's, described by police as a popular gathering place for young gangsters on the rise, when two men in Pierre Cardin suits and black Bally loafers walked into the crowded eatery and opened fire. The gunmen, who some witnesses said were wearing the unmistakable fragrance of Polo by Ralph Lauren, esBMW with Connecticaped in a cut plates Brie was hit twice in the chest and once in the Rolex He was pronounced dead at the scene According to police sources. Brie was killed on orders from Dom Fizz Kid ' Pei ig non. a rival in the mob war for control uf the white wine industry The two men had been at odds evci since Brit- told Perignon over a gmic of Trivial Pursuit last month that real men don't eat quiche. According to a detective at the murder scene, however, Perignon not only considers himself a real man. but In eats quiche. ' It goes good with white wme.' the detective said And sim e Fizz Kid wanted control of the white wine market, he got pretty in suited at the suggestion that he didn t eat qua he Thats why ue think he had Bill " bumped off Pm Dries body gnat d Shane Skip m who was Ills to boss at tie ,t sitting quels, tunc of the shouting escaped injury when one uf the gunmen's bullets was dellei ted bv Ins American Express card, which he Wacom mg in Ills shirt puc ket Mr Racquets is fortunate that lie was " i arivuqj the card a polu e spokesman sjitj ' high-stuke- s Polu e said ho killed Hi it- - Police said that people who are rubbed out don't get off so easily, and must pay their lunch bills beluie being killed "It's the price one must pay for being a detective said middle-class,- late-mod- - went out in style." a police source he didn't have to pav lunch bill sad 'especially since " Police said that the ciedit caid used to pay Rr ic's bill, wlm h cutne to $23.50 plus tip has been traced to Ronald "Wink" Perrier, a lieutenant in the Perignon crime family. He is the same Perignon henchman thought to have killed a Brie associate. Lance "Big Lance ulvo. last summer ' 'olu e said that Vn was going to slay Volvo gangl md stylo in Julv during a mob him h at Tweed s But when Perrier saw how mm h V dvo s lunch bill was t$70 25. accord mg to poln e ccoi ds), he decided to i ub him out instead I er leaves Imme w it tmui it Poll- e s ml that Racque's was treated at a local ho pital foi food the lob ster salad was tainted, they said - and was released He is (icing held at police- head but otlinuR would quattei's for not say if fie had identified Rues lb- - told ijs In i "Even todays young mob has its credit limits a police souict- said then kill'-i-llc- vety upset " a police spokc-u- m said of the Racquets who told lie didn t police In- is a systems analyst evi n get to finish Ins mineral wale Iolu e theol ize til it lit O' s killing w.i- - a as 01 igi g mgland lav lug and not a l O! ding to ' u.lllv si: polled I'lhoi, ale coii'idei ed lac ky by led iv s ung gal g slots wlm would mile h lath '! be slain j'a ig land sty h. a me ans of eliimii.il ion now mi sulci ed tieiidv in most ci line t tides lit te app.u cut Iv was slain gang an1 icoi u a- lie was a capo (It- nil t apple lul-ou- ( p-- i t Yestei day s slay mg. the latest in a string mob murders, will no doubt touch ell an internal battle fur oig.miz.ed i nine supiomuey Police suspect that tin mob will qo tin ougli a ti endy new i itual foi housing a new capo de tuRi cappuccino, in w liu h all the ci line la mi lies gather at some ol "Rig Kill i ones tnui.e sen br salmon mousse and take a omputei code Police soul that sollwear specialists have been t ailed in to help with the llivcsti v ote by et t |
