The News Tribune from Tacoma, Washington • 18

ii-' A-18 Tacoma Wed June 8 1983 Editorials and comment M' si iiiViw jrfirift mrnmmsmmii The Tacoma News Tribune Israeli occupation of Lebanon costly: 493 dead 3000 hurt 1883 Our Centennial tar 1083 HANKS BAKER 1879 I960 WILUAM ROBINSON Mjuwar ROD 0 CARDWKLL Maiufinf Kdilur KLBKRT BAKER II taker DONALD A rUGNKTTI Kdibir McChord is worthy museum project Government cannot survive more loss JERUSALEM "We era bogged down In quagmire" Volunteered by a Knesset member that comment familiar to Americana capturea the anxiety the Impatience the frustration of many here with continued Israeli occupation of Lebanon The mood Is reminiscent of Washington in the summer of With 493 dead and 3000 wounded many seriously since last June the slowly rising toll of casualties has become the central preoccupation of the government Begin is beginning to be aware this is a very costly opposition Leader Shimon Peres told me last week The prospect of continued occupation with weekly reports of additional dead or wounded is not one the present government can indefinitely survive All agree upon that How to disengage the Israeli army from the Syrians bow to bring it home while retaining the principal fruits of last summer's victory over the PLO these remain the questions foremost on every mind If only the United Slates would lean upon Saudi Arabia and its European allies to leverage Syria to get out Syria would have to go insists Deputy Foreign Minister Yehuda Ben-Meir But what compelling reason is there for Syria and the PLO to withdraw from Lebanon and hand the Israelis and the Americans a strategic victory In the Middle East which would convert Lebanon from a Syrian pawn and terrorist base camp into a de facto ally of the West? Interviewed at his office last week Prime Minister Begin seeming small frail and somewhat distracted had no direct answer as to what the Israelis would do if Syria went back on its promise to withdraw and stood its ground and if Israeli casualties continue to rise Unlike Syria this is a democratic country Mr Peres reminds where families tend to be small and the death of a single boy is national news A war of attrition may be kind of war it is not Israel's Israel Fred Johnsen has a big job on his bands and glad he has decided to do it Johnsen is the McChord Air Force Base historian and he is trying to start a McChord air museum which he hopes some day will exhibit as many as 15 examples of military aircraft which have been based at the Fierce County facility The first plane a Boeing-built B-18 bomber which was used during World War II recently was brought to McChord in the belly of a C-5 transport Volunteer Air Force Reserve members hauled it out of a in Arizona and put it aboard the C-5 Other volunteers members of the McChord Air Museum Foundation will be working to restore the craft to original condition going to be Johnsen said of the project also going to be a lot of work for those volunteers and for others who might lend help Historic restorations tend to be time-consuming often frustrating and usually more expensive than imagined If you believe that ask the hundreds of ship lovers who have given thousands of hours to restore historic Puget Sound ships such as the Wawona or the many antique auto buffs who put their relics back in mint condition bolt by bolt If the museum grows as Johnsen hopes it will be a welcome and exciting addition to historic collections Already on tap for acquisition is an F-106 Delta jet fighter and Johnsen is negotiating for a C-124 Globe-master transport The F-106 which Johnsen hopes to keep here it already is based at McChord is No 0459 and has been in service since 1956 Johnsen reports a lot of enthusiasm for his project and we hope find a lot more We also hope find support in the way of financial donations which will be necessary to make the museum a reality Prime Minister Begin pUdty he warns the Israeli Army may strike and drive the Syrians out themselves But the lack of enthusiasm for Sa third opts ecumenicaL What would tlon another war achieve? Another Israeli victory hundreds more dead thousands more wounded and the State of Israel left in possession of more real estate it does not covet and cannot bold And if the Israelis strike the Syrian Army they must first neutralise the SAM-1 batteries manned by Soviet Should the Israelis withdraw to the Awali however as Peres recommends and many expect who will fill the vacuum and block the return of the PLO to Beirut? The multinational force comes the reply Which means more American Marines In Lebanon But America's preoccupation today is Central America not central Lebanon If the Israelis are unwilling to pay the price to keep the PLO out should and will the United States? There are strands of hope to which many here are dinging Perhaps the Lebanese army divided religiously and ethnically can be organised and trained to shoulder responsibility south of Beirut Perhaps the Arabs at summit anxious to see the Israelis out will lift the mandate of the Syrian peacekeeping force Perhaps the Americans can persuade the Soviets and Syrians that a free and independent Lebanon is In their interest as well as ours Perhaps but probably not ITrlkww Cimpiiiy SynMcaM) transmission but at least it would be a car that knew its rights and was willing to pay for their defense This and not the insensate march of economic success is the essence of civilization I hope Japan will try II Maybe to show our friendship we could give than 100000 lawyers outright Just to get them started Nw Vrk Tlrtwt Nnn Itrvko) RMoimria-- Lawyers-for-cars would ease trade problem Lebanon a 'quagmire' for Peres' alternative: whatever the Syrian army does set a date certain and a date soon for the beginning of a two-stage Israeli tually no time at Simultaneously lawyers began to raise obstacles I was swamped with legal paper Writs injunctions orders to show cause requests for postponement suits for damages on grounds of lnvasioo-of lawyers Among the most annoying were the 376000 writs of habeas Ja- Snus ordering me to produce the Japanese government for the tak ing of depositions in suits to be prosecuted agi against me for and maliciously asserting" that a lawyer was worth no more than 50 to 75 cars Not surprisingly all my other les have bee activities have been brought to a halt Though I expect to prevail eventually when my cases are finally decided by the Supreme Court in the second quarter of the next century this is no comfort to one whose only dream is to see the day when Japan will be as blessed with lawyers as the United States For this reason it pains me to be attacked as I was last week by the Japanese Minister of Motion are certain Western schemers envious of abil Pooches of Purdy help handicapped withdrawal The first stage would disengage the Israelis from the Syrians and the Beirut area and move it to the defensible South Bank of the Awali River a line about 40 kilometers north of Israel After the forces of Major Haddad had been trained and organised to pacify and patrol South Lebanon the army would come home What if the PLO should move into the vacuum and return with Syrian complicity into Beirut? Would it be worth another war to drive them out? answer is no "TO be the custodians of Lebanon forever is an impassible task for Hawks like Menachem Sa vidor speaker of the Knesset hold out another option If the war of attrition continues with Syrian com- ity to keep moving he said schemers have plans for infesting our society with hundreds of thousands of men cunningly trained in the arts of stopping all constructive activity of bringing entire societies to a dead standstill Yes I speak of lawyers are plans afoot for ship-us enough lawyers to stop all ard motion in Japan as they have stopped it In a certain country I need not identify They call this trading lawyers for cars Ito understand its true nature howev- er I suggest that you try to imagine what kind of car Japan might produce if beset by 611964 law-yen WeU been trying to imagine It and I think it would be that terrible The tires might have each other tied up in court when you wanted to drive to the seashore the engine might sue every time you forgot to change the oil on time and the gear shift on the show-room model might charge you with discrimination if you tried to buy an automatic Some inmates of the Purdy Treatment Center for Women are going to the dogs and the results are worthy of praise The women are participants in the People Pet Partnership (PPP) program in which dogs are trained to help the handicapped The first graduate of the program an Australian shepherd named Glory has been trained to do everything from answering the telephone to picking up dropped coins can assist me when I Burt Pusch her new owner told The News Tribune Glory can open the sliding door in five minutes It would take me Simple tasks which the non-handicapped take for granted often are formidable efforts for the disabled It will be the role of the dogs to provide help in those tasks Other dog-training programs have proven of invaluable aid to people with handicaps The seeing-eye dog project for years has given the blind mobility and security they otherwise enjoy Hearing-ear dogs have given the deaf access to the world of sound they could not have had without the help PPP takes the notion of dogs helping people to a new level of sophistication Glory can be a pack animal when Pusch goes camping can pick up his cordless telephone when it rings and hand it to him and can even control the comings and goings of other pet a cat The kind of work it fakes to train an animal for such work come cheaply even with the volunteer services of the Purdy women Some $1800 to $2500 is required for each graduate pooch Financial help from the public although it has been adequate so far will be important in the future Purdy inmates who are participating in PPP the administrators and professional trainer Dawn Jecs should be congratulated for their foresight and effort in creating this opportunity for those who need it NEW YORK While Japan was producing automobiles the United States was producing lawyers American lawyer production has more than doubled since I960 with the result that there are now 613000 on the market or one lawyer for every 390 Americans On a per capita basis this is 30 times the number of lawyers available in Japan These figures are the basis of my proposal for solving our trade problem with the Japanese As first proposed to the White House my plan called for exporting one lawyer to Japan for every car Japan exports to the United States The Japanese objected to this They argued that we would need to keep at least 300000 lawyers for ourselves leaving only 413000 for export On a one-for-one basis they noted Japan would be permitted to ship us only 413000 cars which is far below their present export level As I explained to the White House the Japanese estimate was far off base Since the United States could function very happily with no more than three dozen lawyers we should be able to send Japan 611964 lawyers by the end of the year Under State Department pressure however we sought to please the Japanese by changing the car-to-lawyer ratio to a three-for-one swap We would ship 611964 lawyers they would ship 1835893 cars in the present year Moreover we would change the ratio in future years in view of the fact that after the initial shipment our exports would decline At present we produce only 35000 new lawyers each year We proposed annual shipments from inventories of 34998 new lawyers at an exchange rate of between 50 and 75 cars per lawyer At this stage the Japanese revealed that they had been toying with us A letter from the Japanese Lawyer Import Commission said are dismayed to find that the 611964 lawyers you propose to ship us are almost totally Ignorant of the engineering and production skills necessary for the making of superior automobiles and highly sophisticated electronic machinery If we would agree to put the lawyers through a 10-year retraining program Japan would be prepared to consider a deal do not believe this is an unreasonably kpg retraining period" they said our studies show that to an American lawyer 10 years is vir Surprising statistics of the nirprUog statistics of the IMOs was one of the most welcome too Last year contrary to the predictions highway deaths actually declined Traffic fatalities in 1982 were down by about 10 percent Nobody seems to know why but a statistic we hope is the start of a trend The savings in lives and dollars that would accrue from safer highways is WJ.