DATE=05/13/02

TYPE=U-S EDITORIAL DIGEST

TITLE=MONDAY'S EDITORIALS

NUMBER=6-125666

BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE

DATELINE=Washington

INTERNET=YES

EDITOR=Assignments

TELEPHONE=619-3335

INTRO: The editorial pages of many American dailies are dealing with mostly national issues as the new workweek begins. There is plenty of discussion of the self-propelled Crusader howitzer artillery piece the Secretary of Defense has decided to cancel. Many other editorials are critical of Attorney General John Ashcroft on a variety of issues including gun control.

A few editorials can be found dealing with the Middle East; the visit of China's number two man; and Beijing's on-going designs on Taiwan. Now, here with a closer look and some quotes is _______________ and today's U-S Editorial Digest.

TEXT: Last week, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced he had decided to cancel plans to build a new, more powerful self-propelled howitzer called the Crusader. Now Congress has appropriated money for the Crusader to be built despite the cancellation notice. It is making for a first class battle. Among those papers upset is The Los Angeles Times.

VOICE: Defense spending, with the excuse of wartime, is out of control. The House's vote Friday to boost military spending for next year above the 379-billion dollars requested by the Bush administration to almost 400-billion is beyond lavish and is blind to deficits. The most conspicuous outrage is a bid to restore funding for the obsolete-before-it's-built 42 ton Crusader howitzer.

Defense Secretary...Rumsfeld has made killing the Crusader a test of his ability to transform the military into a lighter and more mobile force. President Bush has rightly vowed to veto legislation that would fund the Crusader, but creating a post-9/11 military that fights terrorism, not the old Soviet Union, will require more sweeping cuts.

TEXT: In Pennsylvania, Allentown's Morning Call is also critical of the eleven-billion dollar Crusader howitzer but is even more worried about additional nuclear-armed weapons that it feels "could start a new Cold War," such as the "bunker buster" missile and small "battlefield "nuclear weapons.

Attorney General John Ashcroft is coming in for substantial criticism on a number of fronts, especially his approval of a change in philosophy over gun control. The Detroit [Michigan] Free Press complains:

VOICE: The gun lobby and firearm owners were no doubt pleased last week when the administration of President George W. Bush - - through Attorney General John Ashcroft - - changed the government's 40-year-old view of the Second Amendment [to the U-S Constitution.] And the worst fears of gun control advocates were realized. A Justice Department brief filed with the … Supreme Court … asserts that [the] U-S Constitution "broadly protects the rights of individuals" to possess firearms. The brief contradicted the Justice Department's position since the 1960s…

TEXT: Another major daily, the Chicago Tribune is equally incensed, writing:

VOICE: Brick by brick, the Bush administration is systematically dismantling the protections the country has built over the past several decades against the threat of illegal guns and gun violence. … this latest broadside is the most serious yet.

TEXT: The Attorney General is also being criticized by Michigan's Detroit Free Press for trying to override the assisted suicide law in Oregon.

VOICE: No matter how much that state struggled over its decision to make assisted suicide legal … [Mr.] Ashcroft believed he knew better. … [Attorney General] Ashcroft's job is to uphold the nation's laws, not twist them to fit personal doctrines.

TEXT: On the issue of domestic terrorism, today's Palm Beach [Florida] Post commends the father of the college student now accused of planting several pipe bombs in Midwestern mailboxes. Cameron Helder informed the F-B-I that his 21-year-old son Luke was probably the bomber. Says The Post:

VOICE: At a time when so many American institutions - - the accounting professions, the securities profession, the Boston archdiocese [of the Roman Catholic church] - - are trying to avoid even a shred of accountability, Mr. Helper's refusal to turn away from public responsibility seems all the braver.

TEXT: Internationally, the Palestinian situation draws this from today's Boston Globe.

VOICE: Since the talks last Tuesday between President Bush and Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the two governments have given contrasting versions of a central issue in their discussions: the need for deep and comprehensive reforms in the Palestinian Authority. … Disingenuous as [Mr.] Sharon's stalling tactics may be, they are based upon a glaring truth: [Chairman] Arafat's reign over the Palestinian Authority has been an unmitigated calamity for Palestinians and Israelis alike.

TEXT: Still in the region, today's Pittsburgh Post Gazette cheers last Thursday's municipal elections in Bahrain because they were both democratic and, lauds the Pennsylvania paper, included women candidates in an region where that is very rare.

In a related note, The Saint Petersburg Times is frustrated at the treatment by the Immigration and Naturalization Service of a Palestinian-born University professor at the University of South Florida, Mazen Al-Najjar. He has been imprisoned without trial for six months because the government thinks, but apparently can't prove he has ties to the terrorist group Islamic Jihad.

To Asian affairs, and this assessment of Beijing's number two man, Hu Jintao, from today's Cleveland, Ohio, Plain Dealer.

VOICE: …publicly [Mr.] Hu deviated not even an iota from Beijing's standard script. He refused to accept letters from members of Congress about human-rights issues. He warned that U-S support for Taiwan could hurt Sino-American relations. He insisted that China was making progress toward modernizing its economic and political systems.

TEXT: As regards Taiwan, The Fort-Worth [Texas] Star Telegram takes the side of Taipei in its fight this week in Geneva to gain observer states at the World Health Organization. The Star-Telegram feels the island government should actually have full membership, despite China's moves to block such action.

The Cincinnati Post writes of condolences from the American people to the Dutch who suffered their first political assassination last week when right wing Prime Minister candidate Pim Fortuyn was shot to death.

And on the long-simmering Greek-Turkish dispute over the Mediterranean Island of Cyprus, The Dallas [Texas] Morning News says talks to reunify the Greek and Turkish parts of the island are gaining new urgency.

The United Nations' June deadline for reaching a settlement is approaching, and many of the hard compromises that would be required to end the 28-year-division have not been made. Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot negotiators should seize peace and reconciliation while the opportunity presents itself.

TEXT: On that hopeful note we conclude this editorial sampling of Monday's U-S Press.

NEB/ANG/KBK