Viewpoint
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Wednesday
May 20, 1981
Slouch By Jim Earle
T believe you've solved the sun problem. Squirt!'
Reagan buying time
on foreign policy
By HELEN THOMAS
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President Reagan, has
managed to keep his domestic program of
massive federal spending cuts on center
stage, but in the foreign policy field he is
still feeling his way.
The policy so far has been marked by
ambiguities and contradictions with no
apparent overall direction. A hard line vis-
a-vis the Soviets appears to be the hallmark,
but even that seems vulnerable to other
pragmatic requirements.
Reagan’s overall goal was to wipe out any
perception of U.S. weakness in the world.
One of the first moves was to make it clear
that human rights is no longer a major con
sideration in foreign policy as it had been in
the Carter administration.
After talking tough to the Soviets for
some three months, Reagan carried out a
campaign promise and lifted the embargo
on sales of grain to Russia that had been
imposed by President Jimmy Carter after
the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Reporters pressed White House officials
for a reason for the switch: What has
changed, they asked, to cause the one
pressure point against the Soviets to be
eased?
A lessening of an immediate prospect of a
Soviet invasion of Poland was cited as one of
the reasons. But the most telling motivation
was Reagan’s campaign pledge to farmers to
remove the embargo, and the administra
tion’s new farm bill that needed support on
Capitol Hill.
Then there is El Salvador. At one point,
the administration has focused so much
attention of the civil strife in that small Car-
ribbean country that it was being viewed as
another potential Vietnam. But it is now on
a back burner.
The administration’s policy on nuclear
arms control remains murky. White House
counselor Edwin Meese recently said that
Warped
Pentagon lacks imagination
By STEVE GERSTEL
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President Reagan’s
military budget swept through the Senate
unscathed and untouched, leaving the im
pression that the document was without a
flaw.
The vote was 92-1, a margin reserved for
times of war (except Vietnam) or the older
days when matters of the military under
went only cursory scrutiny in the Senate.
Sen. Mark Hatfield of Oregon, the lone
dissenter, issued a statement decrying the
cost (136.5 billion) of the bill.
And there was the predictable grumb
ling about waste, costs and the failure of
NATO allies to do their share.
Overall, however, there seemed to be
genuine agreement that the Pentagon
needs all the hardware the legislation au
thorized.
And hardware there is: the MX missile
system, a new manned bomber, a pair of
battleships, a nuclear carrier, cruisers and
all sorts of planes and tanks — enough to
make any general or admiral happy.
And the debate — what there was of it —
centered on these weapons and weapons
systems, as it always does.
So, it was not surprising that a speech by
Sen. Gary Hart, DColo., made its way into
posterity with almost no notice.
For those who still insist on remember
ing that Hart was campaign manager of
George McGovern’s ill-fated presidential
peace campaign, it is well to note that since
coming to the Senate, he has become a
voice worth heeding in the arena of military
affairs.
In effect, what Hart told the Senate was
that the time has arrived when the military
debate must shift from the “more-is-better
vs. less-is-better” theme to one dealing
with “what history suggests is important to
winning wars” and the “art of war itself . ”
Hart found a lack of this reasoning the
“great deficiency” in the bill which he
nevertheless supported.
He said it provided “more of the same:
more of the same general kind of ships,
planes and tanks we have been designing
and buying for decades. ”
And Hart said, the bill again equates
capability on the battlefield with kill prob
abilities derived from highly structured
tests.
“In contrast,” Hart said,
gests a few different characterisli
might seek in the development!
equipment.”
Among the shifts Hart offered I
sideration:
—Emphasis on a change inweapt
creates a new situation for the enemj
said making a plane or tank lOpercen
ter than the previous one does mI|
great problems for the other side,
—Greater stress on quantity, evel
expense of quality. Hart said that titty
mans in World War II had thebestf
plane and tanks but the United Stataj
Soviet Union had more.
—Accent on weapons that \
war” and are not so dependent ono
maintenance.
Hart said the defense debate inGs
and the Pentagon has “simply failedtil
on what wins wars.”
The Colorado Democrat pred I
however, that the trend will
decade and Congress will “focus lj Gradu:
management, funding levels and 05
the services wants,
war itself . ”
and more on thi
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the United States is not bound legally or
morally to the SALT I or SALT II pacts with
the Soviets. SALT I has expired and SALT
II was not ratified, but over the past 10
years the United States has said it would
abide by the spirit of accords to limit super
power nuclear arsenals.
While Meese was making his statement,
Secretary of State Alexander Haig was
announcing in Rome that the United States
will have talks with the Soviets later this
year on the question of reducing medium
range nuclear missiles in Europe — some
thing that Soviet President Leonid Brezh
nev ardently seeks.
Rowney was on the SALT II negotiating
team under Carter. He denounced the
pact, quit the team and lobbied strongly in
the conservative camp to line up enough
votes in the Senate to defeat it if it ever
came to a vote.
During the campaign, Reagan described
the nuclear arms accord as “fatally flawed”
and claimed it put the United States at a
strategic disadvantage.
As for the Middle East, the perennial
tinderbox, Reagan is rising to a crisis situa
tion with the old Kissingeresque shuttle
diplomacy. He has sent veteran diplomat
Philip Habib to Lebanon, Israel and Syria
to try to enhance an uneasy truce.
Like all of his recent predecessors,
Reagan has found that there are no easy
answers to the problems in the Middle
East. His decision to sell sophisticated
radar planes and equipment to Saudi Arabia
caused such an uproar from Israel and
members of Congress, he has had to put off
until next fall any move to win congression
al approval.
The administration these days has a stock
answer to most foriegn policy problems: “It
is under review.”
The diplomatic translation means it is
buying time and trying to figure out what to
do.
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Lovers make better joggers
By DICK WEST
United Press International
WASHINGTON — One of the most recent
fitness surveys, of which America is blessed
with great abundance, purports to show
that jogging makes people better lovers.
Studies of this sort sometimes raise ques
tions as well as spread enlightenment. This
one started me to wondering whether the
reverse also might be true — that is,
whether loving makes people better jog
gers.
I don’t have the facilities to do full blown
scientific investigations. I did, however, re
search the question as best I could and my
findings indicate there is indeed a correla
tion between improved jogging ability and
an active love life.
Lest someone be tempted to bestow a
prize on this project, let me make clear at
the outset that all of the joggers mentioned
in the study are fragments.
If you lumped together parts of the case
histories of four joggers to form a single
entity, you would have a composite. What I
did was take one jogger and split him into
four case histories.
Some cases show how stepped-up loving
makes better joggers. In others, the vice is
versa.
First Case — H.R., 29, swizzle stick in
spector. Subject was a lackadaisical jogger.
So poor was his form he never once ac
quired blisters, bunions or strained ten
dons.
One evening, subject visited neighbor
hood massage parlor. He was smitten by an
attractive female attandant, became a
steady customer and eventually began shar
ing an apartment with her and two other
girls.
Subject now has chronically cramped
thigh muscles, torn knee cartilages, spa
vined ankles and collapsed metatarsal
arches, and runs in marathons.
Second Case — J L., 57, consultant.
Subject started jogging several nights a
week at the YMCA. Two laps were enough
to have him panting and wheezing louder
than other joggers on the track.
One night, subject’s jogging aspirations
were heard by Hollywood talent scout.
Now subject has new career breathing on
as com
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sound tracks for X-rated movies
Third Case — K.B., 38, punchkeytj i 0 w bei
ator. Subject’s wife left home, complaf armed ii
that she and husband were athletical >aid.
compatible because of his tendency to! ( ^kl
fault during tennis games. ^ught a
Subject began jogging in nearbypj J I s
kill the lonely hours. ^ om ^
One day, subject happened to jojj aFrederl
tennis court where estranged wife wasp ! in gCayl
ing. His sensuous stride filled her' ? est ed (
overpowering emotions. Nowthereis ,® ac " er
of reconciliation.
Fourth Case — R.P., 23, doorbells hlimpoi
man. Subject strongly desired to! ‘“one
meaningful relationship with older# ^
considering girls his own age immatori
rather flighty.
Subject took up jogging and seek-
age overnight. Now has his pick off® ttfU
companions old enough to behisAuntf
riet.
>jn
By Scott McCullar
The Battalion
MEMBER
I SPS 045 .’460
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Southwest Journalism Congress
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science :
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W Joint
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