
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 9, 1991                   TAG: 9103110275
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A/11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PLOWSHARE'S POSTERS ALWAYS CRITICIZE U.S.

EACH FRIDAY at noon, Plowshare Peace Center appears outside the City Market Building carrying signs of protest. With the commencement of Operation Desert Shield, the cause of the month shifted from American policy in Central America to the Persian Gulf. The sentiment is allegedly anti-war.

The signs strikingly demonstrate the group's curiously selective view of which violent world events deserve the organization's ire. When the Chinese freedom movement was gunned down in Beijing, the signs outside the market building were about the United States and Central America.

When unspeakable acts of barbarism were committed against the people of Eastern-bloc countries by their own governments, Plowshare protested the United States in Central America.

When Iraq used chemical weapons against innocent Kurdish women and children, the signs objected to the United States in Central America - even when Iraqi tanks rolled against Kuwait.

Only when Operation Desert Shield began did the signs abandon Central America and begin to carry tired Berkley-esque slogans protesting the U.S. presence in the Persian Gulf. When Soviet troops massacred unarmed civilians in the Baltics and Scud missiles were raining down on residential neighborhoods in Israel, Plowshare somehow could only find fault with America.

With Operation Desert Storm now complete, and amid mounting evidence of Iraqi atrocities committed against the people of Kuwait and clear-cut examples of Iraqi acts of environmental terrorism, the slogans are still against the United States. The Plowshare magic markers were quick to lament the casualties sustained by Iraqi combat troops, but have yet to mourn American dead with so much as a ballpoint pen.

The recurring message throughout the Plowshare campaign is not anti-war. What emerges is an unmistakably anti-American theme. If the organization is dedicated to peace, then where were the signs protesting the violence of Saddam and the wanton killings in China and the Baltics? What credibility is there for a self-styled peace group that ignores the heinous acts of others and denounces only Americans?

For myself, I place credence in the mass public support for young Americans doing the work of freedom. The signs that have real meaning are those carried by Kuwaitis expressing their thanks to those same Americans. Plowshare could learn a valuable lesson by reading those signs and sharing in the pride of the nation.

MARK H. BOWER

ROANOKE

by CNB