“ae Carl
= Bloice

| FROM
| MOSCOW

__SAN FRANCISCO—Some day, per-
haps, we will get the story straight. After
the basic decisions have already been
made. After the bodies start arriving back
in black bags. Perhaps then we will know
why they took us to war. Can’t say we
know now. The people who watch and
study and supposedly answer such ques-
tions can’t agree on an answer. Indeed,
they seem to be floundering around in
search of one.

“President Bush did not order Amer-
icans to face death in the desert to save a
few cents on the gallon,” writes New
York Times columnist A.M. Rosenthal,
who becomes ever more bellicose with
each passing moon. Rather, he writes, the
aim was to prevent half of the world’s
supplies falling into Saddam Hussein’s
hands.

On another day, on the same page,
William Safire, calling for an immediate
“decisive, conventional World War 1/2,”
writes that U.S. troops have not been sent
to guarantee access to the oil beneath the
Arabian sands.

Meanwhile, says Zbigniew Brzezin-
ski in the Washington Post: “The truly
vital American interest in the Kuwait
crisis is the secure and stable source for
the industrialized West of reasonably-
priced oil.”

Karen Elliot House observes in the
Wall Street Journal that “our vital inter-
est,” to be defended militarily, is the “free
flow of oil at tolerable prices.” And Wil-

If these people -
haven't figured
out, or can’t agree
on why we are in
Saudi Arabia, it —
‘has to be difficult
for the average
person to
comprehend why
their sons,
brothers, sisters,
mothers and
lovers are being
sent over there.

War fever gripping
U.S. commentators

liam Raspberry comments in the Post
that “going to war to guarantee a con-
tinuing supply of cheap oil hardly seems
appropriate.” But right above him, on
the same page, Irving Kristol writes: “...
the statistic on dependency for imported
oil is beside the point. It is the price of
oil that counts.” :

Robert Reno in Newsday says that
while President Bush “insists on making

“our part in this squalid confrontation

into thing altogether celestial, the
average : knows what the
average Arab knows, which is that we’re

there for oil, their oil, and novia pursuit
of some vaguely conceived set of ’civit.
ized ideals’ by which the Kuwait monar-
chy hardly measures will.”

Not everybody thinks our “vital inter-
est” and “our way of life” is connected to
oil. Former aide to President Jimmy
Carter, Hodding Carter II, has a unique,

rather alarming view involving 23 other

Saddam Husseins-He says the country is
“at war, an undeclared war” that is going
to be “a very long haul” and a “protracted
and bloody crisis.” Why? Carter says,

“there are a baker’s dozen more cut from -

his clothes from one end of the arch to the
other, each with an itch to march across
frontiers.” He wrote in the Journal: “Let
Saddam succeed, or escape unscathed
and there will be no restraining them.”
(One suspects Carter used the marching-
across-frontiers image because it doesn’t
apply to Panama or Grenada.)

I figure if these people haven’t figured
out, orcan’t agree on why we are in Saudi
Arabia, it has to be difficult for the aver-
age person to comprehend why their
sons, brothers, sisters, mothers and lovers
are being sent over there. Maybe if we
knew we might give our consent — or
withhold it.

There is something frighteningly
eerie about the war-about-to-happen.
Grown people are calmly writing in the
newspapers about the imminent start of
something just short of a world war and
the president’s off fishing. Members of
Congress don’t consider the moment im-
portant enough to reconvene in emergen-
cy and carry out their constitutional duty
to represent their constituents at a time

when tens of thousands of them are being ~

shipped off to a foreign war.

Jt’s-hard to say who is away from
Washington — the cats or the mice.
“Still, even in a hot, humid month when
much of Washington is now on vacation,
there is a rush of excitement here,” R.W.
Apple writes in the Times. “In news bur-
eaus and Pentagon offices, dining rooms
and lobbyists’ hangouts, the fever is back
—the heavy speculation, the avid gossip,
the gung-ho, here’s-where-it’s-happen-
ing spirit, that marks the city when it
grapples with great events.”

It’s hard to keep in mind that this is a
major military operation and not the eve
of the Super Bowl. But we must. Speak-
ing of the bloody long haul being pre-
pared, Council on Foreign Relations ex-
pert Michael Mandelbaum says that to
“liberate Kuwait” will probably require
“several hundred thousand men and a
grinding bloody campaign.”

Carl Bloice is Moscow correspon-
dent for the U.S. People’s Daily World.

8 « Pacific Tribune, September 24, 1990

Left opposition
grows.as German
unity approaches

Tribune Combined Sources

BERLIN, GDR — More than 70,000
people gathered in the Lustgarten here Sept.
8 ina rally called by the Party of Democratic
Socialism (PDS) to protest the agreement
under which the two German states re-
scheduled to be unified Oct. 3.

Abroad range of speakers from organiza-
tions in the GDR, West Berlin and the
Federal Republic of Germany warmed that
the reunification would result in the effec-
tive annexation of the GDR by West Ger-
amany and urged a continued struggle to save
thé gains made by socialism.

The huge-sally was held on the eve of a
two-day conferente-ef the PDS which was
aimed at re-establishing the-mass influence
of the party. The party has recentlytaken a
series of initiatives to frame a co-operative
working relationship with other parties and
groups both inside and outside the Bundes-
tag (parliament).

The Call for defence of democratic rights
at the rally was given a Nlew-urgency by
events the previous night whena youth fadio
station — the largest in: the GDR — was
closed because of its left orientation. The
closing was engineered by the new director
of the station in collusion with the largest
West German radio station. The frequency
was quickly assigned to a West Berlin sta-
tion which immediately began broadcast-
ing. >

But because of the massive protests —in-
cluding thousands of signatures collected at
the rally fora petition demanding restoration
of the station to the young people who had
operated it — the station’s broadcasting
rights were restored within hours of the
rally.

Joining PDS chair Gregor Gysi on the-

platform at the rally were a member of the
national executive committee of the Green
Party of West Berlin, an officer from the
GDR army, a Hamburg (West Germany)
trade union leader, representatives of 80
teachers fired in the Marzahn district of Ber-
lin and a leader of the Left Platform of West
Germany which is part of the PDS electoral
alliance.

Gysi called for a “coming together of left
forces and the building of a united socialist
force.”

He told the crowd to applause: “T will
vote in the Bundestag against any measure
not in the interests of the people of the GDR.
You can’t push aside 40 years of history and
gains of the German Democratic Republic.”

That same theme was echoed at the PDS
conference where some 1,000 delegates
urged action the party across the country to
build left unity, including united electoral
action around the Left List-PDS electoral
alliance.

“Having us in Parliament means we do
not brush any interest of the people under the
carpet,” Gysi told the conference. “Having
us in parliament means we will not accept
any German centrist-nationalist sentiment
undebated ... With us a future united Ger-
many will face a true, serious, progressive
opposition in parliament which is ready to
eo-operate with all left, humanistic and
democratic forces.

“The people need such an opposition,” he
declared.

Earlier this month, reunification of the
two Germanys was advanced another dec-
isive step as representatives of governments
in the GDR and the FRG signed a reunifica-
tion treaty. It was subsequently ratified by

i

ee eS ee ee A ND ae ee EE > ORE SS ee eee ae, Fo ee

“With us a future
united Germany will
face a true, serious, —
progressive |
opposition in
Parliament which is
ready to co-operate
with all left,
humanistic and
democratic forces.”
— Gregor Gysi

the two parliaments, although with signif-
icant opposition as the PDS and a large
section of the Social Democrats voted
against it in the GDR Bundestag.

The 1,000-page document regulates
everything from an Oct. 3 date for an all-
German anniversary of unification day to
future prospects for sports in East Germany.
It covers virtually the entire range of nation-
al life, from the environment through cul-
ture, education, science, finances, health,
election procedures and transportation to
property rights.

In its regulation of political and social
matters, it wipes out many advances made
under socialism in the GDR. It provides that
all GDR law not consistent with the FRG
constitution, the European Community or
the treaty must be made to conform with
West German law within five years.

Some compromise was reached on the
issue of abortion, however, as GDR pro-
visions for abortion on demand up to the
12th week of pregnancy clashed directly
with West German law which prohibits
abortion except in special circumstances.
The treaty permits the GDR practice to con-
tinue until 1992.

A major feature of the treaty concerns
property rights. Former owners of property
in the GDR have filed claims for return of
their former property and government rep-
resentatives have claimed that investment
has not been up to expectation as a result.

The treaty clears new investors of any
such claims and provides that former owners
or their heirs would be compensated in cash
by the government.

GDR Premier Lothar de Maiziere said
that the provision could mean the influx of
large-scale investment and could help to
provide jobs.

That is expected to become an issue
quickly since unemployment, together with —
the reduction of many full-time jobs to part-
time, have suddenly become key problems
in the GDR. Warning strikes by municipal
employees were also recently staged by
municipal employees as a protest against
impending cuts in the public service.

\