Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.issues,americast.usa-today.issues From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: issues Mon, Sep 28 1992 Date: Mon, 28 Sep 92 04:52:55 EDT Message-ID: 09-28 0000 DECISIONLINE: Issues & Debate USA TODAY Update Sept. 28, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network Here are some of the issues and topics being debated across the nation Monday morning in USA TODAY: U.N., Real estate, Israel. TODAY'S DEBATE - UNITED NATIONS: USA TODAY'S OPINION: Just last autumn, Yugoslavia's people were among Europe's most vibrant. Today, 10,000 of them are dead in a brutal war that saw new Serb attacks Sunday in Bosnia. Survivors lack food, medicine, shelter. ... The world feels their pain but for long months did little to ease it - or to stop the war that drives Somalian starvation. U.N. rules bar stepping into such one-nation disputes earlier, when opportunities are better for averting bloodshed. Those failures are ominous. U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali warns that if the world community doesn't learn to resolve such ethnic rivalries loosed by the Cold War's end, hundreds of Yugoslavias could crater the future. There is a better way: Create a permanent, armed U.N. peacekeeping force, which Boutros-Ghali proposed in June and U.N. founders envisioned 47 years ago - but which Cold War friction shelved. Then find ways to intervene in disputes earlier, before they flare into war. "Diplomacy is quicker and more helpful ... than the most successful peacekeeping," British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd said Tuesday. ... President Bush praised a strong U.N. peacekeeping role last week and offered to train U.S. forces for that job - reserving the say on when they'd fight. But he offered no money to make a U.N. military force a reality or even to pay the USA's $733.1 million overdue U.N. bill. The U.S. should speed that repayment, then take the lead both in using diplomacy to defuse potential civil wars and in creating a U.N. force that can intercede quickly when diplomacy fails. The need, and possible gain, seldom have been as clear. U.N. peacekeeping troops went from 11,000 to 51,000 this year. The U.N. runs Cambodia's government, is about to assume Somalia's and may need to provide such stability in Liberia, Angola and elsewhere. The alternative is unconscionable. We will have defused the Cold War threat of global annihilation only to face the certainty of endless local destruction. OTHER VIEW: HARRY SCHWARTZ, a Scarsdale, N.Y., writer who was for 29 years a member of The New York Times editorial board: It's easy to understand why high-level U.N. bureaucrats want the United Nations to have its own armed forces. But why should anybody else back this silly idea? Certainly, the United Nations has no shortage of military manpower when it needs it. At present, soldiers from a dozen or more countries ... are serving the United Nations around the globe, and more are available if needed. Some people argue the present system is unwieldy and requires time-consuming negotiations with every country that contributes troops. But this is hardly a fault, since situations like those in Somalia and in Bosnia are not short-term crises where the loss of a few days is intolerable. When the United Nations needs troops, the need may stretch for years, so a few days make little difference. But while few if any real problems are caused by the present system, creation of a separate U.N. army ... could create serious future problems. Giving the secretary-general his own armed forces raises the possibility of serious troubles ahead. We know from recent events that there can be major disagreements between the Security Council and the secretary-general. ... a future secretary-general could move militarily on his own initiative, evading the present safeguards designed to assure that the USA and other permanent members of the Security Council have veto rights. ... A future U.N. army might even be used against the USA or against U.S. interests. To avoid such possibilities, let's stick with the present system. VOICES ACROSS THE NATION ON INTEREST RATES' EFFECT ON HOME BUYING: DETROIT, Mich., Cassandra Nelson, 35, commun. serv. dir.: Mortgage rates may have declined, but the cost of living has gone up. It's harder now to buy a home than ever. People are staying where they are. New homes cost more in 1992 than ever before. I don't think the rates will be a help to many people. RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif., Douglas Moore,57, teacher: We're in the process of refinancing now to take advantage of lower rates. A lot of people can't come up with the money to get a new mortgage. If you're unemployed or working at minimum wage and houses are $200,000, what good would lowering rates do? KREMMLING, Colo., Mark Gillen, 36, camp program dir.: My housing is provided, so I haven't given it much thought. The issue is greater than actual mortgage rates; it's the economy as a whole. The media's portraying it as hideous inhibits a buyer who would purchase in another climate. KANSAS CITY, Mo., Irene Salazar, 27, children services dir.: They won't affect my housing situation. I live with my parents, so I'm not really out there. Nor do I see myself being out there in the near future. The economy is scary, period. TOPIC - ISRAEL: Shimon Peres, Israel's foreign minister, was interviewed by USA TODAY's Lee Michael Katz. IS THERE REALLY A CHANCE FOR ISRAELI PEACE WITH SYRIA? I think the Syrians understand that the world has changed- that they cannot build a strategy of threat or war. Syria has lost its most important support - Soviet Russia. That no longer exists. Many of the strategies in the Middle East were based on the old Cold war. But with the end of the Cold War, the countries now have to make a living on their own. There is no easy money. There is no free supply of arms. There is no support for belligerency. WHEN DO YOU EXPECT TO CONCLUDE A PEACE TREATY WITH SYRIA? In half a year. WILL ISRAEL WITHDRAW FROM THE GOLAN HEIGHTS, AS SYRIA WANTS? We have never said that we shall not withdraw from an inch of the Golan Heights. We have made clear we are ready to discuss three subjects: peace, security and borders. Issues & Debate Editor: Kate Coughlin. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. 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