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THE HERALD Wednesday February 13 Page 11 Opinion Willow Park residents deserve a reprieve This is another call for anyone in Hills with a piece of pro perty that may be appropriate to house mobile homes to apply to the Halton Hills Planning Depart ment as soon as possible The residents of Nervals Willow Park off Highway will be grateful knowing they will be out on the streets if a site for their mobile homes isnt found The point couldnt have been made clearer during a Willow Park Relocation Committee meeting at the Town Civic Centre Thursday night During the meeting one resi dent explained that he along with the majority of other residents each have significant outstanding mortgages on their homes Residents and politicians alike attending the meeting agreed the people couldnt pay off the mor tgage by selling the mobile homes The value of a mobile home is reduced by up to per cent if it isnt on a piece of proper ty As the resident states there is no way he could afford that kind of loss support a- family and have the money to pay first and last months rent on a new apart ment Willow Park residents must leave the park by May 15 because the land has been expropriated by the Credit Valley Conserva Authority CVCA The CVCA expropnated the land because it lies in the Credit River flood plain meaning the residents lives would be jeopardy if a serious flood hap pened The residents expected to move to an Acton location but despite Town Council approval the application was appealed by the people living near the propos ed site to the Ontario Municipal Bens Banter by Ben Board where the appeal was upheld On the possibility of an exten sion of the eviction deadline CVCA General Manager Vicki Barron suggested it would be unlikely since the authority has already extended the deadline twice in the hopes the residents would be permitted to move to the Acton site The authority cant justify another extension with no new proposed site on record and the continued threat to life still ex isting if the people are allowed to stay in Willow Park The residents cant afford to leave the property and the cant afford to permit them stay The only compromise that would allow the people to keep their mobile homes is if another viable site is brought forth Ms Barron suggested at the meeting an extension is more likely to be considered if there is a real chance the residents could move to another park Another scenario would be in volvement by the province Hills Mayor Russ Miller estimated the Acton application cost the Town Willow Park residents and the proposed sites applicants approximately and in the words of Mayor Russ Miller all for nothing Its unfair to expect Town residents Town council and others to pay out similar amounts of money to process a new ap plication when in the end it too could be rejected Since the pro vincial government appears to be a big advocate of affordable bous ing and mobile homes fit this description it seems reasonable for the province to step in Halton North MPP Noel said he would set up a meeting between Willow Park residents Town officials and Ministry of Housing officials to determine if a solution can be found It would be nice to say time will tell but the point is there is no more time Consumer confidence still at stable level OTTAWA In what passes for the Canadian economy these days one must seek good news wherever it can be found So stretching the point a bit one turns to the Conference Boards latest survey of con confidence The best that can be said is consumers were no more gloomy about the economy in the final months of than they were earlier in the year Thats the good stuff Naturally this dubious tidbit of hope needs to be balanced with some bad news To wit con confidence remains at historic lows Theres precious little reason indeed for consumers whose spending accounts for about 60 per cent of economic production to be happy In the depths of recession it seems better to hang on to what one has and wait out the storm Paul Darby the boards direc tor of forecasting and analysis sums it up Although low the bright side is that consumer con fidence has remained stable for the last three quarters This may indicate a bottoming out We ex pect to see consumer confidence pick up by this summer eel better now The board a private research agency finds the pessimism is consistent right across the coun try an unusual phenomenon And its worse when the board asks about job prospects over the next six months SHAKEN CONSUMERS This question really shakes consumers up Confidence is at the lowest level since the survey began in 1960 Theres a good reason for this Statistics Canadas helpwanted index described as an early in dicator of demand for labor fell 7 per cent in January with all regions contributing Meanwhile economists are predicting a jobless rate for most of 1991 which may mean some months of double- digit unemployment The year started off badly with a 9 5 per cent rate Businesses are no more Ottawa Bureau by Vic Parsons Thomson News Service spirited than shoppers The board found entrepreneurs are more pessimistic than at any time since the final three months of 1982 when we were in a reces sion Nearly three of four business leaders expected their firms financial position and profits would deteriorate over the next six months This was the worst reading in 14 years of the survey Half of businesses have decided the first six months of is a bad time to invest and not sur prisingly have decided to slash their investments Weak con sumer demand doubtless arising from that depressed feeling among shoppers and high in terest rates are cited as key wor ries StatCans latest leadmg in dicator which is used to predict trends wont help the public mood The last report showed the indicator dropped by per cent in November with household spending leading the plunge WOES COMPOUNDED The results of a survey by the federal agency of economists shortterm predictions only com pounds things Their mean forecasts thats mean as in average not spiteful or vicious in case youre wondering predict higher unemployment and more inflation And in case youre turning an expectant eye to governments to spend the country out of reces sion the influential C Howe In stitute has called for heroic spending cuts by Ottawa in the forthcoming federal budget Heroic one suspects might be a word better applied to those who must endure cuts rather than those who inflict them By now the keyboard on which this column is written is in danger of seizing up from the tumbling tears so lets look for happier news Interest rates are continuing to come down a hopeful sign for both consumers and businesses The stock market has just had its best day more than two years and manufacturers anticipate some improvement in production over the next three months Inflation while higher because of the goods and services tax and oil prices may not be as fear some as predicted The federal Consumer Information Office has found that more shoppers now believe savings on particular items from removal of the old federal tax and its by the GST will be passed along Of course it took a recession to dampen the GST impact on prices Well take any hand up we can Land battle in Persian Gulf war is looming Not surprisingly most people find it hard to visualize where the coming ground battle in the Per sian Gulf War is going to be fought Kuwait is simply a blob on a map on a television screen or a newspaper It might be easier to unders if looked at this way The battle zone smaller than Lake Huron includes all 7000 square miles of Kuwait and as much area again in adjacent Iraq It is perhaps 150 miles three miles equals five kilometres wide from east to west miles deep from north to south The Iraqi attack on the Saudi Arabian town of was laun from the prominent southern bulge of Kuwait that lies along the Persian Gulf coast Because it can be cut off relative ly easily that bulge is unlikely to be heavily defended The Iraqi Main Line of Resistance MLR starts about or so miles north of the Saudi border and runs about 90 miles across Kuwait a straight line from the Persian Gulf to north of where the borders of Iraq Saudi Arabia and Kuwait all meet The Iraqi MLR then extends further west perhaps 40 miles in to Iraq proper before curving north to where it intersects the northeast southeast line of the Ridge It then seems to follow the Haniya another 3o to miles north to the Euphrates River The elite Iraqi Republican Guard units are east of the Haniya and south of the Euphrates MILE LONG In short the Iraqi MLR is likely 175 miles or so in length The whole area is known as the Dib- diba a steppe desert of gently rolling hills composed of slightly sandy soil There are low shrubs and at this time of year portions of it should be covered with grass and shallow pools of water Sand storms can happen anytime It is frankly perfect country for tank warfare There is nowhere to hide and excepting some bedouin shepherds no civilians Further west beyond the Iraqi defences on the Haniya Ridge the country becomes pro more rugged the ground rocky and jagged with numerous cliffs what is called the or stony desert It is not however impassable just difficult Within the area occupied by the Iraqi forces there is only one pro minent geographic feature that being the wide and usually dry depression known as Wadi a that runs northeast from the Saudi town of Hafar The KuwaitIraq border runs down the middle of it until the frontier line curves to the coast The Iraqi port of sits just north of the coastal fron tier about 30 miles south of the major Iraqi city of Basra on the Euphrates River With the geography in mind it World Affairs a by Derek Nelson Thomson News Service becomes possible to make some educated guesses about what the Allies might do There is no magic in military strategy The problem is in the implementa not the theory Current S military doctrine the concept of con tinuous mobile battle which ex alts manoeuvre above brute force in achieving victory would seem to suggest a westward flanking movement by US British French armor Such a flanking movement would have as its goal the coast near and possibly the Euphrates west of Basra with the aim of encircling the Iraqi soldiers behind the MLR and forcing them to surrender Certainly the main armored attack will not go up the coast from Khafji toward Kuwait City That will likely be left to Arab allies and possibly the US Marines PUNCHING HOLE Much more likely is punching a hole through the Iraqi lines just west of Wadi using it to secure the right flank of the ad vance while using the Allied left flank to roll up the Iraqi defence lines along Ridge from the east and rear On the other hand the mam assault may swing completely around the Iraqi MLR and hit Haniya Ridge from the west and much further north The disad vantage of this is that it greatly lengthens supply lines in a battle where a tank division needs as much as US tons S gallons of fuel alone of sup ply a day to function offensively Both of these options would ob viously put the major fighting in Iraq rather than Kuwait and re quire rolling over the Republican Guard but it would be relatively close to the Kuwait border and probably politically acceptable The lack of civilians is a bonus Other than which might be taken by II S Marine assault from the sea or airborne units no towns or cities need be entered even Basra or Kuwait City Bridge destruction by bom bing keep the whole bat tlefield isolated from Iraqi in tervention from north of the Euphrates Well know very soon The above analysis la based on Information obtained from a variety of private and public sources Write us a letter The Herald wants to hear from you If you have an opinion you want to express or a com ment to make send us a letter or drop by the office Our address is Guelph Street Georgetown Ontario All letters must be signed Please include your address and telephone number for verification The 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