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Show alt akc tribune alK January Monday Morning Section 27, 1986 aSe 10 A Tobacco Critics Suddenly Shift Arguments Anti-Advertisi- ng have little trouble getting that product declared illegal. When it is illegal to produce and sell tobacco, of course, advertising it also could be restricted Spokesmen for the American Medical Association, and some of their apologists in the current campaign against tobacco, have subtly shifted the argument they make against tobacco product advertising. The emphasis has moved from forced to "voluntary controls. Ever since The Tribune, along with other publications throughout the country, objected to the AMA House of Delegates call for congres-sionall- y banning all tobacco product advertising, a chorus of medical and other types have been howling about newspapers not being responsible enough to voluntarily reject advertising of a harmful product. But this newspaper did not editorially respond to a proposal of volunteerism. We are willing to be corrected on the point, but didnt the AMA House of Delegates endorse the idea of a federal law which would declare illegal all tobacco product advertising? If that is a correct understanding, we, then, stand by our original conclusion: Such a law would be censorship, in violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States; it condones a precedent perilous to free speech in a free society and should be rejected out of hand. If tobacco is the obviously and proven health hazard AMA spokesmen and their allies contend it is, then these acknowledged experts and humanitarians should anti-tobacc- by law. As far as those who truly cherish the principle of freedom of the press and speech are concerned, the issue created by the AMA is not whether smoking, chewing or snorting tobacco is harmful. The issue is this: Should that which some learned or group decides is harmful or be barred by law from adverwrong tising space even while it remains a legal product to produce, subsidize NATO Technology Must Be Pushed well-intention- o Special Features Syndicate LONDON Most Americans tend to forget about NATO. Not here on the western edge of Europe, where the alliances strategy, tactics and technology are issues of su- publicly, market or otherwise advocate? Danger inherent in tobacco use is certainly an issue. But it can and ought to be separated from the proposition that advertising tobacco should be declared illegal even though tobacco products themselves remain legal. So far, most partisans of the AMA House of Delegates proposition have artfully blurred that distinction. They talk incessantly about voluntary controls and assail anyone with the nerve to disagree with them as g tobacco. defenders of But while they may be content to blind themselves about pitfalls lurking beyond the first step into willing censorship, thats not reason enough for everyone else to trot obediently along in sappy adbeside them, wide-eye- d miration and dumb agreement. death-dealin- preme importance. An old friend, a retired senior diplomat said, for example: Suppose you accepted Mr. Gorbachev's proposal to do away with all nuclear arms by the end of this century, where would that leave the West? Obviously, in a position of military inferiority to Soviet conventional forces far worse than we face today when we have nuclear arms. Can you see NATO raising a force of 5 million men to balance the Soviet advantage? Not bloody likely. Adroit Soviet diplomacy in the nuclear sphere has obscured the pressures from within NATO to change present strategy. One proposal seeks an alliance declaration of no first use of nuclear weapons. Another advocates raising NATOs offensive capabilities to the point at which the West could launch ground attacks into Eastern Europe in the event of Russian aggression. A third group proposes that alliance forces should be stripped of all offensive capabilities and should rely on volunteer forces armed only and with anti-tanweapons. Acceptance of any of these proposals would drastically alter the present NATO strategy of flexible response. This strategy, says Gen. Bernard W. Rogers, the NATO commander, lies in a range of possible responses to aggression. They are: our preferred response, direct defense to defeat an attack or force the burden of escalation onto the shoulders of the aggressor, continuing through deliberate escalation on our part if direct defense fails, to, ultimate- k How Spenders Thrive If anyone wonders how government budgets perpetually grow regardless of financial circumstances, Utah legislators gave almost a classic demonstration of the process Thursday. The subject was loading the excess baggage of drug and alcoholic beverage offenses onto the driving privileges of Captivated by the ineluctable moral imperative of the proposal, House Transportation and Public Safety Standing Committee members unanimously endorsed the measure, although its chief sponsor pronounced himself surprised at how much administering the law might cost. In other words, hang the cost if the purpose is compulsive enough. ' In fact, there is serious question about both the actual need and justification for this particular bill. Its author, Rep. Kim Burningham, contends that an effective way to steer teenagers away from forbidden drugs and alcohol is to threaten them with loss or postponed granting of their drivers license if they so indulge. His proposed law goes so far as to say a teens drivers license would be revoked or delayed for such behavior even if the infraction had nothing teen-ager- s. to do with driving. Currently, adults in Utah cannot be automatically deprived of their drivers license for offenses not drivMinors hailed er- or driving-related. into juvenile courts can be, if the disciplining officials deem this a suitable punishment. But Rep. Burningham and his cohorts on the House Transportation and Public Safety Standing Committee now claim mandatory license delay or revocation must be added to any sentence stemming from juvenile drinking and dope cases even if this could cost the state almost a quarter of a million dollars more annually. Thats right. The committee was told just before it whooped this questionable bill forward that implementing it could impose an additional $235,000 more a year on the states juvenile court budget. This at a time when state income and outgo is so tight public school construction is being postponed, public assistance is being denied a decent increase, and highway patrol work cant be appropriately expanded. How essential is this bill and its accompanying public cost? Not very, considering that juvenile courts already have equivalent power on a discretionary basis. But try to tell this to legislators once they glimpse an opportunity to fix their paterfamilias authority onto statutes in such a conspicuously righteous struggle as combatting drug and alcohol abuse. The chance to strut that kind of stuff is always cheap, whatever price it may inflict on taxpayers. That Deadly Fog There was something inevitable about the two traffic accidents Jan. 19 one on Interstate 80 near the Salt County line and the other in Uintah County that each claimed Lake-Tooel- e a life. Utahns, particularly those living along the Wasatch Front, had been living in fog almost continually since early December. That is a situation that is likely to breed traffic troubles. Judging from the results of initial investigations, both accidents were attributable to restricted visibility. accident happened about The 10 a.m. At that time, the National Weather Services hourly observation at Salt Lake City International Airport was reporting zero visibility, and the service was alerting motorists to areas. possible heavy fog in in the southeastMeanwhile, residents ern part of Salt Lake County were basking in sunshine, with between s visibility and about cloud cover. low-lyin- g 20-an- d three-tenth- 30-mi- le What the weather service was about that Sunday is a persis- cau- tioning tent condition that Utah motorists must keep continually in the back of their minds during the winter. Fog is a perennial part of winter here, espei t dally in the low parts of valleys and canyons. Temperature inversions that trap air near the valcolder, ley floor also can set up the sort of deadly situations that existed that Sunday: Bright, pleasant weather in one spot and deadly, driving conditions only a few hundred yards further along the road. It is a set-udestined to trap the unwary with disastrous, damaging and deadly results. While at no time of the year is it smart for anyone to drive eompla-centsight-obscurin- g p l. Utahs prolonged and cious wintertime temperature sions require extra alertness capriinver- and precautions. Motorists must be prepared to quickly reduce speeds because visibility can be almost instantly reduced from miles to feet upon entering a foggy stretch. Also, driving with headlights on, not just the parking lights, is an almost constant daytime requirement in areas. A car without its lights on is an accident looking for a place to happen. And all the defensive driving techniques acquire a greater importance, like maintaining adequate stopping distance away from the car in front. fog-pron- e anti-aircra- ft ly, the general nuclear response that poses the threat of intercontinental nuclear strikes on the enemys homeland." Americans are likely to forget, but thinking Europeans are not, the two threats posed by the Soviet Union. The first is overt aggression into Western Europe. The second, which increasingly concerns NATO military and political leaders, is the constant buildup of Russian military strength to the point at which Moscow will be able to exploit its advantage over the West to achieve its goals in Western Europe by blackmail, intimidation and coercion, without firing a shot. To Rogers the various proposals for changes in NATO strategy fail to come to terms with military and political realities. Our primary goal, he said recently, is to deter all war, not just nuclear war. A nuclear weapons strategy, military planners emphasize, would make it appear that NATO would rather accept a defeat by conventional arms than use nuclear weapons. Nor could the alliance be certain of a successful defense, because the Russians could choose the time, place and weight of an attack. Proposals for offensive retaliatory attacks also overlook two key facts. The Wests non-nucle- objective is to end a war on favorable terms with all territory restored. And, as Rogers said, even if the concept of retaliatory attacks into Eastern Europe were politically acceptable (which, he noted, it is not), the acquisition of military strength to hold present defensive positions and, at the same time, invade Eastern Europe would require more forces than are likely to be available. For the forseeable future, the general said, "flexible response and forward defense is the only strategy that continues to meet both the political and military realities of the NATO environment. Advanced military technology is the alliances highest card. NATO is already pushing programs to enable it to hit targets deep into the rear of attacking Warsaw Pact forces with conventional weapons. These weapons, many senior officers believe, are the forerunners of the strategic weapons, with an accuracy measured in feet and inches, which will be developed in the next decade as an alternative to nuclear attacks that would leave millions dead from the blast and radiation. NATO progress on these and other weapons suffers from a duplication of effort among the leading industrial nations. Michael Heseltine, who recently resigned as Britains defense minister, pointed out last year that there are 16 companies in seven NATO countries making weapons and 18 firms in seven countries making ground-to-ai- r weapons. Such duplication of effort in an alliance already at a disadvantage in conventional weapons and overall manpower is seen by authoritative military sources as an even greater weakness than doubts about overall military strategy. Otis Pike Oil Glut Hasnt Rendered OPEC Harmless Newhouse News Service The oil ministers from five OPEC countries are to meet in Vienna again this week. But now the rest of the plang et does not tremble in awe of the Peof of the Organization power troleum Exporting Countries. WASHINGTON havoc-wreakin- During the presidency of Jimmy Carter, as the price of oil soared and inflation soared with it, Carter donned his sweater, got on the tube and solemnly warned us that the world was running out of oil, that we would have to use much less of it and that the inflation was all OPECs fault. Ronald Reagan, of course, said inflation was Jimmy Carters fault. Thanks in large part to programs put into effect under Carter mandatory for automobiles, tax credits for insulation and solar heating systems and thanks also to some benign winter weather, the supply of oil today seems limitless. with them on limiting production. They want banks to hurt, and would like some of them to make sure they have our attento fail tion. When the OPEC nations read, as they did oil compa- last Wednesday, that worry over nies and banks Jias pushed our stock market down, they are happy. When they read that the declining value of North Sea oil has again hurt the British pound, they are delighted. There is some sign that the pain is working. Norway has said it would consider some arrangement with OPEC. Britain has said it would not, but the pain has only begun. The worlds largest oil producer, the Soviet Union, has said nothing, but it is unquestionably feeling the pain and would certainly like to see the drop in the price of oil halted. Nothing is more likely to trigger a real financial crisis in the United States than the failure of more major banks than our banking system can bail out. Nothing is more likely to trigger that than the inability of oil companies, their suppliers and nations to repay their debts. The meeting in Vienna shouldn't strike terror in our hearts. The ability of any group that includes both Iran and Iraq to discipline its own members, let alone outside producers, is dubious at best. Still, OPEC already has shown its ability to inflict pain both by cutting off the supply of oil and by pumping a great deal of it. We should keep a wary eye on their dostanings. Cutting back on dards and conservation in such a volatile energy environment is just plain dumb. The tax credits are being dropped, the requirements for automobiles are being relaxed, and a handful of people with remarkably short memories are even feeling sorry for the oil companies. The meeting of the OPEC ministers strikes no terror in anyone's heart. The fall in the wholesale price of oil, while hardly visible at the pump or in the heating bill yet, has been remarkable. In one grade of Texas crude oil hit a high of $31.50 a barrel. Last week it was $20.30. If this massive drop isnt visible at the pump yet, it must be shortly. What can only be good news for most of us is devastating to some. Without bleeding for the refiners and distributors who were so fast to pass on price increases when oil prices were rising and now are so reluctant to ease them down consider a debtor nation like Mexico. Last year, Mexico was brutalized by an earthquake in its capital city and volcanic eruption in the countryside. The government was counting on oil revenues in its need for massive reconstruction and capital. It renegotiated its foreign debt only last August, getting easier terms, more time to pay and promises of more loans. Already last August's deal is inadequate. Mexico cant pay the very lenders from whom it must seek more. The U S. banks that have loaned money to foreign governments dependent on oil revenues, and domestic oil producers, are watching their earnings tumble. The value of their stocks dropped hard last week. The Saudi oil minister said the price of oil could go below $15 a barrel. U.S. consumers would love that, but it would be punishing to friendly countries like Mexico, Great Britain, Norway, Venezuela and Nigeria. OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, is pumping out 18 million barrels of oil a day to a world that is consuming only 16 5 million barrels of their oil The OPEC nations want the producers to feel the pain of not going along non-OPE- Lix lIt takes a while for price reductions to reach the consumer. I |
