The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • 11

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1990 THE SUN 11A Opinion Commentary from the evening sun A War You Are -What You Read baltlmore Vuti jwim iiw.i.y.fij till hi," I 'l yPi? Aquarium tc0V if IT The Gulf and the Home Front people, says that blowing up things is wrong. Is this effort a show of American resolve In the new world order, or a nostalgic swan dive in an abandoned role, like Britain's 1982 re-conquest of the Falkland President Bush and the United States have much to win or lose. Winning means budging Iraq out of Kuwait without war. Losing means acquiescing in Iraq's conquest. Unleashing a war of destruction, with the loss of allies and trashing of the economy, also means losing.

Squelching a war that a suicidal Saddam Hussein Insisted on starting, would be winning. Staying the course in the Gulf is essential In the cause of resurrecting the American world role. But even more necessary to that Is reversing the economic decline that mandated the previous abdication of power. The budget agreement between President Bush and congressional leaders was the first meaningful attempt to reverse the deficit It was only a first step In a longer campaign that, like the one in the Persian Gulf, would require prolonged purpose and And liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans In the House of Representatives agreed that they weren't having any part of It The Gulf crisis and the failed budget compromise were equally part of the effort to restore American power and Influence. The alternative Is to accept greater chaos In a dangerous world.

blanche to pursue his border dispute with Kuwait, without realizing Saddam Hussein meant to gobble up the whole place. Several aspects were disquieting. First was Saddam Hussein's perfect mimicry of the aggression by European dictators and Japanese generals In the 1930s that the Untied States and allies fought World War II to undo. The second was his move to control one-quarter of world oil production in hopes of dictating the market and the world economy. The third was the clear Indication that he would use greater oil wealth to underwrite weapons of greater reach and destruction, He already has artillery that out-shoots U.S.

guns. His quest for nuclear weapons resumed after the Israeli air raid In 1981. He has missiles, and he manufactures nerve gas. Experts believe he has the capability of germ warfare. Though he talks of Israel to attract Arab support, he has hurled his war machine at Iran, Kuwait and Iraqi minorities.

There is really no telling what he would hit next. Mr. Hussein had one more reason to provoke this crisis. He is hopelessly In debt and apparently never intended to repay any of It. Economically, he needed to demobilize, a prospect he found Intolerable.

So he acted. And on August 6, President Bush reacted, pushing through the U.N. Security Council unprecedented resolutions demanding Iraq leave Kuwait. The next day the president announced dispatch of a thin line of American troops to Saudi Arabia's oil-field border with Kuwait. Then he organized the world In support.

He showed that there Is no world division for Iraq's dictator to exploit Meanwhile, Gen. Colin Powell and colleagues threw blocking troops, an aerial armada and a naval blockade into the conflict zone with blinding speed. Americans, were thrilled. The display of military zest was so awesome that Arab, European and Asian countries joined in. Never mind the problems of coor-.

dlnation that have probably not been solved. They needed to show which side they are on. Even Argentina, with economic problems that began with world ostracism in reaction to its World War II sympathy with Nazi Germany, sent a warship to the Gulf. Argentine and British warships sail side by side in the same cause. It is two months since all this began.

What is desperately required Is for the U.S. to remember what ft started: a military defense of Saudi Arabia from potential attack, and an economic boycott to force Iraq out of Kuwait. You hear a lot of comment that this may not be working and bombing may be required. Presumably such talk Is disinformation designed for the attention of Saddam Hussein. He should believe It; we should not.

We should listen rather to our surprising new ally. Gen. Mikhail A. Moiseyev, chief of the Soviet general staff, who says the U.S. strategy Is working and requires patience on the part of its inventors.

He, of all UNTIL AUGUST 6, the United States was demonstrating at every turn its abdication from the exercise of power. Helmut Kohl steamrollered the unification of Germany against the By Daniel Berger deep anxiety of virtually every non-German European over 30, and then won their acquiescence, approval and applause. The U.S. gave tepid support but basically played no role In the most fundamental change of the year. Tremendous support and organization gathered for a Marshall Plan for Eastern Europe, to bring communist satellites Into both democracy and capitalism.

The U.S. played a passive role as a capital subscriber on a level with Italy In a new development bank for the purpose. In a display of diplomatic photo opportunities, President Bush declared war on the Andean drug trade and then did not fight It, which would have entailed massive investments In an alternative economy for the Andes. There was no mystery about this decline. Money is power.

The United 1 States had suddenly become the biggest debtor In the world, and could not throw money around as it did when it was supreme. And then came Iraq's Invasion of Kuwait on August 2, following an obsequious diplomacy in which the U.S. had given Iraq's dictator carte iExtinction ft I TITHIN the past two months the world has seen two nations from the map East Ger- many by Its own hand, Kuwait at ane nana 01 a Drutai neignDor. I 'While these remarkable events By Ray Jenkins gained the huge attention they deserved, precious little notice has been given to the possible Impending extinction of yet an- other nation the small West African country of Liberia. It was a little over 30 years that I made my first and only jrtslt to Liberia as a reporter, but I i was so taken with that sad little 'nation that I have followed Its '3TJlsfortunes with great sympathy ever since.

Certainly Americans should feel a sympathy for Liberia, since the nation is a child of America although neglected step-child "1s the more apt description. Li- was founded in 1847 as a reTuge for freed slaves to return to their ancestral continent. Its "very name celebrates liberation. 'ItS capital, Monrovia, is named for a U.S. president, and one of Its counties is named Maryland.

They even adopted the U.S. constitution, and the Liberlan flag Is a replica of America's, with a -single star In the blue field. But the harsh truth is that for all Its pretension, Liberia throughout its 143 years of exist ence has been a sick nation. Now there Is cause to fear that the 1 Illness may be terminal. It wouldn be the first time ''Liberia was near death.

In the "1 920s the League of Nations con sidered revoking Liberia statehood and placing it under a colo- rrial trusteeship. The reason: 'Liberia was caught engaging in the slave trade! After a lorced restructuring of Its government Li- beria survived that crisis, but the Sickness continued as a few thousand descendants of the re- patrlated slaves the so-called "Amerlco-Liberlans ran the country as a kind of comic opera "parody of the United States. 1 Had it not been for the Flre- stone rubber interests, ironically but fittingly called "the planta-1 tfon," Liberia probably would 4iave simply collapsed as an in-1 different world looked on. i i4 when I was there the president was the redoubtable William Vacanarat Shadrach Tub- Tnan, widely known as 'Shad." During the few weeks I spent "there I frequently saw him around Monrovia tc. preside over presidential ceremonies In 'tfiOrnlng coat and silk top hat an utterly ludicrous scene amid -the general squalor.

Ten years ago an army named Samuel K. Doe executed a military coup which was sort of tribal rebellion against Americo-Liberlan oligarchy. wnicn never numoerea mucn "Over 100,000 but ruled a country jof more than 2 million. Doe was "the first person from an tribe to rule. After 10 dis- 'mal years under Doe the Ameri- co-uoenans siarxea a son oi eVery-man-for-hlmself civil war which became so unrestrained In Its brutality, Including the mlnd-.

"Jess murder of women and children, that neighboring West nations themselves 'hardly models of respect for human rights set up an International force to restore a sem-" blance of order to Liberia. But before the pacification Jprce could enter the country Doe was caught and killed appar-. ently after ghastly torture and the competing factions then fell to war with one another. As of today they are fighting the West African soldiers who came to impose order. Under the circumstances, it seems out of the question that any of the rebel leaders could emerge as a acceptable national -president.

Once the neighboring r.nations have pacified Liberia, something akin to a colonial re-glme will have to be Imposed. Al-' most certainly such a regime "would and should reflect the in--terests of the 2.5 million Indigenous tribes people over the "100,000 or so Americo-Llberians Mucky enough to survive the ter-''tots of the past decade. If the country ever again gets on Its feet, the chances are that It will drop Its "American" name al-together. Just as Ghana dropped "the Gold Coast" and Zaire dropped "the Belgian Congo," and 'become lust another struggling African nation. Maybe that's the way it 'should be.

But It's a little sad to watch this nation, born of such high hopes, fall so dismally. NewYork. NEW YORK is a newspaper-reading city. The famous subway folding of broadsheet papers, to read a half-slice of a page at a time to save space, Is a hallmark of the New York commuter. The tabloid Daily News, the biggest metropolitan daily in the the.JVeu Post and, Jn- By Nicholas King creaslngly, Newsday are the fare of most subway and bus at least In the Bronx and Brooklyn.

When the passengers from the fashionable districts of Manhattan crowd through the doors and into the aisles, the newspaper look changes. The JVeu York Times then -becomes, below the great divide: of 96th Street in Manhattan, the sail to unfurl to the acrid subway breezes. In a crowded car the sheer bulk and size of the paper becomes a protection for the traveler as well as a badge of middle-class consent This last is especially true of those who look as though there was little of that sort of consent In them. The Times Is very acceptable to the subway commuter, yuppie or Streeter, but the Wall Street "Journal la even better, as smart women executives have found out They tend to be seen reading It while they wait, whereas their male rivals carry on In false security with the Times. A visit to any East Side subway platform on weekday mornings will confirm this observation It reminds one of the days when the Herald Tribune reigned on the suburban trains, and some of the newer settlers, longing furtively, for lnner-clty atmosphere, hid the Dally News within the Tribune's ample folds.

But the prevalence of crime lias added a new twist. The other day a man who works In Wall Street and lives In the Bronx, was dutifully reading his Wall Street Journal when he was attacked and robbed 1 by a group of youths." 1 wtm-He said afterward that It had happened because of the paper he was reading that people wjho read the Journal were percelved'as rich and readily robbable and unlikely to fight back. it The conclusion Is obvious. But there is of course no tabloid big enough to hide the Wall Street Journal convincingly. Well, let the pieces fall where they may: By their newspapers ye shall know them.

I myself walk about the subway Vwlth a copy, of Le Monde In my hand making sure It shows fairly conspicuously. I was about to add that although Le Monde is far more expensive in New York, one copyiof the paper could serve many daysn succession since it was unlikely, a fellow passenger would attempt to verify the date or the headline. But that would spoil the effect Mr. King Is a New York writer. I and Hlspanlcs have some inherent disposition to break the law? 3 What this New York study (aqd a national one by the Sentencing Project in Washington) shows Is that blacks and Hlspanlcs hade been ghettolzed Into areas where engaging In violence and economic crimes are acts of survival Those Incarceration figures also reflect many elements of discrimination within our criminal-justice system.

Cops will "bust" a young black man, or a Hispanic, for of-. fenses that are Ignored If committed by a white male. A young black need only sound "arrogant" to be Jailed by white cops. A young black male Is far more likely to be found guilty and imprisoned than is a white male accused of the same crime. Despite "guidelines," a black or Hispanic is likely to get a longer sentence than a white offender.

Parole boards do not look as favorably upon blacks seeking "another chance" as they do upon appealing whites. The Incarceration of a generation of young minority males carries colossal costs for all of us. In money. In our having to live with the often-violent rage of young men not yet Incarcerated vho see the magnitude of the Injustices. In social programs, as we build more and more prisons and pay more and more for crimes, drug abuse and the sicknesses of households that will never be whole.

The pity Is that while we have found no ways to ward off wars and recessions, we could avoid social calamity If we Just abandoned the easy and cruel business of locking up young men for their skin colors, accents, attitudes. Green Scam A Generation in Jail guard the water supply and he was committed to doing Just that. A year later, when nothing had been done, Mr. Ruppersberger said that a county administrative officer, Frank Robey, "has taken the matter out of my hands." Mr. Robey, in turn, got rid of the project by lumping It In with all the other problems that the county would like the state to solve.

That seemed to kill the Issue, but It revived In the county's new Mas-ter Plan. If this "blueprint for the future" were to endorse an industrial site on the very banks of a reservoir, how was the county to maintain credibility for Its watershed policy? The Planning Board recommended that "watershed protection" zoning be returned to the oil-company property. That decision placed the council In a dilemma: Taking away lucrative zoning from a politically well-connected company was unthinkable, especially so close to an election. On the other hand, a vote against "watershed protection" was not without risk. Councilman Ruppersberger to the rescue! He got the council off the hook by introducing a vaguely worded amendment to the Master Plan that called for Identifying "Inappropriate" zoning In rural areas.

(Never mind that that is exactly what the Master Plan already had done.) Thus a vote on the Planning Board's recommendation could be shelved and "Industrial" zoning remained firmly in place. The water supply continues to be threatened by an oil operation. County officials continue to praise their watershed policy. The "green scam" is ten years old and going strong. Mrs.

CrdtfJc lives In the Loch Raven area. Why do Baltimore County officials congratulate themselves on protecting our watersheds? This is the tenth year the county has gone to extraordinary lengths to benefit an oil corn- By Beverly C. Crook pany that has roughly 100,000 gallons of petroleum products stored underground beside the metropolitan water supply. The story begins in 1980, during the county's quadrennial rezonlng. At that time, council members had given themselves the right to slip In last-minute zoning changes without telling anyone not even the planning department Former Third District Councilman James T.

Smith Jr. used this loophole to rezone the Clark Oil Company land, on Merry-man's Mill Road, from "watershed protection" to "industrial." The zoning change not only enabled the company to legalize extensive Illegal development, but it also Increased the value of the property, permitted more expansion and opened the door for other types of Industry to locate In an environmentally sensitive area. In 1984, the next rezonlng period, a coalition of five community and seven environmental organizations filed a request to restore "watershed protection" to the oil company's property. The request was supported for 18 months through four public hearings without a single word of opposition. Nevertheless, Just two hours before the council voted, Mr.

Smith unveiled another loophole. He wou ld return "watershed protection" to part of the fetid and leave "Industrial" zoning on the rest He gave him self much credit for this "compromise," but it transpired that the "watershed protection" part was In a ravine, while "Industrial" zoning remained on all level land where development could continue. The council approved his revision, even though It violated both the word and spirit of a new reservoir-protection agreement with Baltlmore city. By the next rezonlng, 1988. the oil company had become an oil depot with trucks from other firms refueling at Its pumps.

The increase in transfers of oil between underground tanks and trucks also increased the danger of an oil spill. Once again, the coalition requested the return of "watershed protection" zoning. The change would not put the company out of business, for it could continue to operate as a non-conforming use, but It would curb expansion of the business or sale of the property to another Industrial owner, and It would prohibit rebuilding if there were a fire or other disaster. Mr. Smith, meanwhile, had become a circuit court Judge: C.

A. "Dutch" Ruppersberger replaced him on the council. Mr. Ruppersberger soon made it clear that he, too, would give priority to protecting the oil company. He told some people that he would change the zoning, others that he would not, and still others that he had not decided (sometimes all on the same day), thus keeping everyone off balance.

Despite opposition by community and environmental groups, as well as Baltimore city, the Regional Planning Council and the county's own Department of Environmental Protection and Resource Management Mr. Ruppersberger voted In favor of the oil company. He argued that zoning waii unimportant; only relocation of the company could safe Washington. THERE ARE so many things to worry about the days. The possible devastation of the U.S.

economy because our lawmakers can't deal meaningfully with a budget crisis. The likely out- By Carl T. Rowan break of a war Involving nerve gases, biological agents and even "small" nuclear weapons. But recessions, and even wars, always end at some point Some social Illnesses do not A report by the Correctional Association of New York and the New York State Coalition for Criminal Justice calls young black men "an Imprisoned generation." It says 23 per cent of black men ages 20 to 29 are In state prisons, local Jails, on probation or parole. Some 12 per cent of young Hispanic men In New York are tagged as criminals and Just 3 per cent of young whites.

On any given day 45,000 of New York's 193,000 young black men are In custody double the number of black men enrolled In New York colleges. The same Is true of young Hispanic men. The chances are dim for any increase In traditional man-and-wife families in black America when so many marriage-age males are locked up. Female-headed households will become the norm, with generations of black children never knowing the influence of a father figure, or a life in which they do not live on food stamps and welfare. Do the figures prove that blacks.