A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament, a worldwide pheno

trol , has already warned that it would regard sanctions as an act of war . Resp

onsible world powers may soon decide they have no choice but to test the threat 

implicit in that declaration . Washington and South Korea know the risks of conf

ronting an antagonist as nuttily irresponsible as North Korea . With a million-m

an army and with far more artillery pieces and tanks than the South Korean army 

and the 38,000 U.S. troops that directly support it , Kim Il Sung could risk all

 on one roll of the dice and rapidly strike south , as he did 44 years ago this 

month . There is no chance that North Korea could win a second Korean war . But 

before it was thrown back and militarily annihilated it could inflict enormous d

amage on Seoul , home to 25 percent of South Korea 's 44 million people . It 's 

this possibility that prompted the Clinton administration to seek a diplomatic s

olution to the challenge posed by the North 15 months ago when it announced it w

as quitting the NPT . All good-faith efforts have now failed . The International

 Atomic Energy Agency , along with Washington , has been repeatedly bamboozled .

 If North Korea succeeds in making a mockery of the NPT , other nuclear aspirant

s Iran , Iraq , Libya will not be far behind . If North Korea can build nuclear 

weapons and put them aboard the medium-range missiles it is developing , South K

orea , Japan , much of China and parts of Russia will fall within its target zon

e . Pressures within South Korea and probably Japan to go nuclear would be enorm

ous . It willn't be easy getting a U.N. . Security Council consensus on sanction

s ; China and Russia both have expressed their distaste for such an approach . B

ut with its economy a shambles , North Korea could be highly vulnerable even to 

partial sanctions . If , for example , Japan acted to halt money transfers to th

e North from Koreans living in Japan , Pyongyang 's primary source of hard curre

ncy would be gone , and its ability to pay for vital imports would shrink . Pres

ident Clinton should promptly speak to the American people , and to the world , 

about just how serious the threat now emanating from North Korea is . He should 

candidly concede that there are grave risks in implementing sanctions . He shoul

d be no less clear in emphasizing that the ultimate risks of doing nothing in re

sponse are immeasurably greater .

 WASHINGTON I remember Pearl Harbor because my father , a World War I veteran , 

at once volunteered for military service ; he was turned down . I remember D-Day

 for the blurred combat photographs of American soldiers going bravely ashore in

to a hail of fire . We who are now pushing into our sixties grew up thinking tha

t it was as American as apple pie to take a turn in uniform . The Korean War was

 still on when we were leaving college . Some graduates were ready to taste war 

and some were not , but without debate except as to the particular branch or pro

gram you were applying for , almost everyone went in . What 's more , almost eve

ryone in my gang thought there was something good about military service . Eithe

r it taught you a lot about a much broader spectrum of Americans than any one of

 us had ever been exposed to , or it provided a first look at how a big organiza

tion gets things done , or it gave you a certain satisfaction for `` serving '' 

your country despite the fact that those of us who ended up in what was the peac

etime military did not serve in any dangerous way . A young second lieutenant wh

o had never bossed a soul suddenly found himself formally in charge of the work 

and welfare of 30 or 40 people , including kids but also older noncommissioned o

fficers who had seen combat . It was a maturing experience . It left many of us 

quietly appreciative of the system that had offered this opportunity . Mark me d

own as one who regrets that a few years of military service no longer constitute

 part of an average young person 's universe . Alas , the whole notion of servic

e turns out to be generational . As we embark on what will be a long year of 50t

h anniversary observances of victory in World War II , it is worth noting what h

as been gained and what lost by this fundamental change in a citizen 's public o

bligations . What is gained is an extra two or three years ' worth of personal f

reedom no battlefield risk and no one ordering you around . To serve is now ofte

n considered , I gather , strange , nutty , uncool , a waste . Even in peacetime

 circumstances , the benefits of nonparticipation are prized by many young peopl

e , and not only young people . They are prized specifically over the forgone be

nefits of military life in terms of people met , places seen and challenges face

d . What is lost is the experience of working in a public enterprise . True , se

rvice in uniform can breed cynicism as well as civic-mindedness . I would not in

sist that military veterans make better citizens . But at the more enlightened e

nd of the spectrum , there are lessons to be learned from living under a code of

 discipline lessons of personal reliability and public purpose that bear directl

y on the matter of concern for others in the society . The military is one place

 where those precious lessons can be learned . Vietnam fouled us up terribly and

 still on the issue of military service . The Vietnam conflict gave life to the 

notion that individuals should choose the wars in which they take part and shoul

d not leave this question up to the elected government alone . Down that path li

es a triumph of participatory democracy but a series of dilemmas for representat

ive democracy , which is the kind we have . Bill Clinton as a student was a pick

-your-war man . He had conscientious objections to the war that happened to be o

n when his time came , and he chose not to serve . Now he 's the commander in ch

ief , struggling to be true at once to an oath of office that commands him to pr

otect the nation and to a personal code that inclines him to leave room for indi

vidual choice . His awkward straddle in these circumstances leads him to reduce 

to the minimum the contingencies in which American lives would be put at risk . 

It was a bit jarring to hear him on the radio last Saturday holding out the sacr

ifice of D-Day veterans as a model for America 's continuing commitment to freed

om . But he was right about the D-Day veterans even if the words did not fall na

turally from his lips . Such words used to come much more naturally from Ronald 

Reagan . Who does not recall his thrilling salute to the D-Day heroes in 1984 ? 

But of course he was never there , in battle , either , although he made you fee

l he was . The military draft distributed service and risk more or less fairly a

cross the American male landscape . President Nixon ended the draft by way of pr

oving to the American people he would not send their sons to Vietnam . For a sho

rt-term political purpose he did a long-term social harm : separating the popula

tion into protectors and protected and thinning the exchange between them . Cert

ainly we have a fine fighting force . We also have a military not fatally but in

 some degree less able than it might be to learn from the society and to teach t

he society in return .

 WASHINGTON The legends of the West stamps that were sold by various post office

s before being recalled earlier this year will probably be among the rarest stam

ps produced by the U.S. Postal Service . Azeezaly S. Jaffer , manager of the age

ncy 's stamp services , said that postal officials believe that the number of sh

eets sold was `` under 200 . '' Since only three full sheets of the stamps have 

surfaced , it seems likely that most of the other stamps were torn apart and use

d in the mail . Those stamps , for all practical purposes , have disappeared . T

he 250 million recalled stamps the ones with the wrong portrait of Wild West sta

r Bill Pickett are locked in postal vaults in Kansas City , Mo. . They are sched

uled to be burned despite protests from U.S. Rep. William L . Clay , D-Mo. , cha

irman of the House Post Office and Civil Service Committee , and representatives

 of stamp publications , who want the stamps sold to collectors . Postal officia

ls say that Postmaster General Marvin T. Runyon is not waivering from his determ

ination to destroy the stamps , which cost more than $ 1 million to print . He o

rdered them recalled Jan. 18 after members of the Pickett family complained that

 the portrait of `` Bulldogger '' Pickett was based on an incorrectly labeled ph

otograph of the Wild West performer . After the destruction of the recalled stam

ps , the few surviving stamps in private hands will be among the rarest American

 stamps , probably worth far more than the $ 4,200 that a sheet purchased at a M

cLean , Va. , post office brought at an auction in New York earlier this year . 

Other sheets were purchased in Princeton , N.J. , and Bend , Ore. , but postal o

fficials have yet to release their breakdown of where the stamps were sold , wel

l before officials had fixed a release date for the stamps . Postal officials ar

e finishing their validation of the portraits and descriptions on the other 19 s

tamps on the Legends sheet . Once that is finished and officials have decided wh

at other changes to make to the stamps , Jaffer said it will take at least anoth

er 120 days before 400 million of the new stamps can be printed and shipped to p

ost offices . An internal postal review has suggested changes to which will push

 their release from June , as officials once hoped , toward fall . The delay pre

sents Jaffer with a dilemma . A number of other stamps are scheduled for release

 in the fall , including the booklets of blues and popular singer stamps in Sept

ember and the Four Wonders of the Sea stamps in October . Because the Postal Ser

vice is determined to boost the price of a first-class letter to at least 32 cen

ts in early January , post offices will have little time to sell lots of new 29-

cent stamps this fall before the rates change . So Jaffer , the top stamp offici

al in the Postal Service , is still deciding when to release the revised Legends

 stamps . One thing seems certain : There will be a strong demand for the stamps

 whenever they are released , if only as a result of the furor that the Pickett 

stamp generated . -0- The second high-valued stamp based on a design created 125

 years ago will go on sale Aug. 19 at a stamp show in Pittsburgh . The dark gree

n $ 5 stamp features portraits of George Washington and Andrew Jackson and is on

e of the few U.S. stamps to be printed in a diamond format . In revealing the un

usual design in New York last month , Jaffer said the planned release at the Ame

rican Philatelic Society show `` reinforces the commitment shared by stamp colle

ctors and the Postal Service to promote the world 's most popular hobby . '' His

 comments were aimed at easing tensions between APS officials and the Postal Ser

vice over the agency 's support for stamp collecting , an issue that arose after

 Runyon 's restructuring eliminated some stamp promotion programs . The new $ 5 

stamp will replace a stamp in the Great Americans series featuring Western write

r Bret Harte , which was first issued in 1987 . The Washington-Jackson stamp joi

ns a new $ 1 stamp based on another 19th-century stamp design released last mont

h . Postal officials say that original copies of the design for the latest stamp

 could not be located , but based on published descriptions , they believe the d

esign was planned as a 3-cent stamp by a company bidding on an 1869 printing con

tract . Like the new $ 1 stamp , the latest was printed by Stamp Venturers of Ch

antilly , Va. , on intaglio presses . Engraver Yves Baril was said to have rever

sed a Gilbert Stuart portrait of Washington for the stamp and used a John Wood D

odge portrait of Jackson for his final design . Baril also created engraved flou

rishes and lettering for the stamp , which is being printed in sheets of 20 stam

ps .

 Individuals interested in securing first-day cancellations of the $ 5 Washingto

n-Jackson stamps should purchase the stamps at their local post office and place

 them on addressed envelopes . These should be placed in a larger envelope and m

ailed to : Customer-Affixed Stamps , $ 5 Washington-Jackson Stamps , Postmaster 

, Pittsburgh , PA 15290-9991 . All envelopes must be postmarked by Sept. 18 .

 Spring and summertime sports activities offer a chance for some of the best pic

tures of your kids when they are engrossed in something they love , and don't ha

ve to be cajoled , bribed or threatened to look interested , much less happy . T

aking good action shots is sometimes easier said than done , because it often ca

n mean letting your instincts take over while shooting . Sometimes it can mean b

reaking the rules moving the camera while shooting , for example to make a drama

tic panning shot . But if you work on developing your instincts and realize that

 the only rule is that there are no rules , making good action photos becomes th

at much simpler . The best sports photographers have developed an anticipatory e

ye as well as a photographic one . You can do this too . For example , in a soft

ball game with the bases loaded , it stands to reason that a base hit will lead 

to a play at the plate , especially in a close game . So instead of looking all 

over the place for a shot , set your focus on home plate and wait for the action

 to come to you . Good sports shots most often are made with conventional 35mm c

ameras rather than point-and-shoots because they offer more flexibility and spee

d . Even a zoom lens on a point-and-shoot can be less value than a similar lens 

on a conventional camera because the point-and-shoot lens can't be immediately r

acked in and out in reaction to fast-changing events on the playing field . As f

or the best zoom lens , I 'd recommend a 28-85mm or 35-105mm to start with since

 that will give you a nice range of wide-angle to medium telephoto shots . A lon

ger telephoto or zoom , like a 200mm , will have the added benefit of letting yo

u make close-ups of faces unobtrusively . ( Your son or daughter on the sideline

s , for example , or waiting a turn at bat . ) Unless you absolutely prefer it ,

 I wouldn't use slide film for action shooting leave that to the pros . Use more

 forgiving print film so that even if you happen to be a stop or so off in expos

ure during a dramatic shot , the damage can be undone when the photo is printed 

. On most sunny days , a good all-around 400-speed film like Kodak Ultra Gold 40

0 or Fuji 's new Super G 400 will allow you to shoot comfortably at 1/500 or eve

n 1/1000 of a second , ensuring sharper pictures of flying bodies while also les

sening the effect of camera shake . If the day is overcast , switch to Fujicolor

 800 or Kodak 's Ektapress 1600 to retain the option of shooting at high shutter

 speeds . Note : Automated metering systems today are pretty impressive and gene

rally can be relied upon to give adequate exposure . But if you 've got the time

 , I 'd suggest taking a reading off shaded grass and using that reading for mos

t lighting situations that day unless , of course , the lighting changes dramati

cally . It 's old-fashioned , I know , but it works like a charm . When shooting

 sports , don't assume all the action takes place on the field . Try turning awa

y from the field now and then and shooting your fellow frenzied moms and dads fo

r some humorous photos that will do as much to capture the atmosphere of the gam

e as your shot of Jimmy or Cathy kicking the winning goal or batting in the winn

ing run . Henry Horenstein , a professional photographer and author of more than

 20 sports and instructional photography books , notes that , just as athletes p

ractice before their best performances , so too an amateur sports photographer m

ight shoot some test rolls before a crucial game . Horenstein is working with Ca

non USA to promote this year 's World Cup soccer matches around the United State

s . He stopped by recently to chat about shooting sports . It seems only sportin

g , then , to give him the last words : `` Change your position don't just stay 

in the same place . Try walking around to get different angles . Also , the subj

ect doesn't always have to be in the center of the photo . When photographing th

e players , avoid distracting backgrounds . For example , use the field as a bac

kground instead of the crowd . `` Silhouettes make interesting photos , but unle

ss you 're trying for a special effect , don't shoot directly into the light , e

ven on cloudy days . `` Taking good action pictures is a lot like playing the ga

me itself : The more you practice , the better you can be . ''

 We were playing Ticket , a game that went like this : Nobody obeyed the New Jer

sey Turnpike 's posted speed limit of 55 miles per hour . Nobody drove under 65 

mph . Everybody tried to stay in the middle of speeding traffic . The first driv

er to complete the entire 135-mile length of the turnpike without a traffic tick

et won . None of us knew one another not by name anyway . Our identities were wr

apped in our vehicles and their license plates . I was driving the 1994 Ford Mus

tang Cobra a flaming red sports coupe with blue Michigan manufacturer 's tags . 

That meant there was no way I could win . The art of mastering Ticket is inconsp

icuous speeding , which is why most players try to remain in the middle of traff

ic until an opportune time to break away . But there was no way to remain incons

picuous in the new Cobra not with its red paint , polished aluminum wheels , its

 snake-nostril hood ; not with its flared rear fenders , high rear spoiler , hig

h rear end . Too sexy . It attracted attention in `` park . '' That meant I was 

forced to run in the worst possible positions way behind the pack or way ahead o

f it , or abandoned in the left or right lanes , all spots vulnerable to radar .

 Anyway , for me , it didn't matter . I finished the Delaware-to-New York turnpi

ke run in reasonable time . I didn't have an accident , and didn't get a ticket 

; and even though I had to drive the Cobra under speed most of the way , I had a

 hell of a good time . Background : The new Cobra is a real snake , nothing like

 the cobbled-together , phony , marketing-exercise , jive-time Mustang Cobra it 

replaced . This Cobra comes with big , 13-inch diameter , vented front and rear 

disc brakes ; modified MacPherson strut front suspension ; rigid-axle rear suspe

nsion with four trailing links and two leading hydraulic links . In other words 

, folks , the thing stops right and handles even better . The engine is Ford 's 

5-liter V-8 , bumped up to produce 240 horsepower at 4,800 rpm . That 's 25 more

 horsepower than found in the Mustang GT , but 35 less horsepower than found in 

the humongous 5.7-liter V-8 of the comparable Pontiac Firebird Formula . Big who

op . Not on this side of the jail cell will you ever come close to using all of 

the horsepower in any of those cars . Torque in the new Cobra is set at 280 foot

-pounds at 4,000 rpm . Four-wheel , anti-lock brakes are standard . Ditto dual-f

ront air bags and a standard five-speed manual transmission and 17-inch diameter

 Goodyear Eagle GS-C tires . The Cobra can be bought as a coupe or convertible .

 Complaints : The five-speed gearbox could use a bit more finesse . I found it a

 bit choppy . And though the suspension is mostly righteous , there 's a bit mor

e wallow in the Cobra 's body than exists in the comparable Firebird Formula . P

raise : ISn't nothin ' but a whole lot of fun . But if you really want to have a

 good time in this front-engine , rear-drive muscle car , buy it in a color less

 conspicuous than red . Head-turning quotient : Star of the turnpike rest stops 

. Lotsa whoops . Ride , acceleration and handling : Superb ride and acceleration

 . Darned good handling , especially when you anticipate and then prepare to tak

e sharp curves . Excellent braking . Mileage : Down the hatch ! About 18 miles p

er gallon ( 15.4-gallon tank , estimated 265-mile range on usable volume of 89-o

ctane unleaded ) , running mostly highway , driver only with light cargo . Sound

 system : Kick butt ! Optional Mach 460 Electronic AM/FM stereo radio and casset

te and compact disc . One of the best auto audio sound systems ever . Price : Es

timated base price is $ 21,000 . Estimated dealer 's invoice price is $ 18,458 .

 Estimated price as tested is $ 23,000 , including $ 1,525 in options and a $ 47

5 destination charge . Purse-strings note : The Cobra is in limited production 5

,000 coupes , 1,000 convertibles which means dealers can charge anything they wa

nt . Compare with Chevrolet Camaro GT/Pontiac Firebird Formula .

 For Dwight D. Eisenhower , June 5 , 1944 , was `` the longest day . '' For over

 a year the Supreme Allied Commander had been preparing history 's mightiest inv

asion force more than 5,000 ships , almost 12,000 aircraft and 155,000 soldiers 

. Originally set for that day , the assault on Hitler 's Atlantic Wall would hav

e to be postponed 24 hours because of high winds and ominous waves in the Englis

h Channel . Then the storm broke and the most momentous decision of Eisenhower '

s life was made . `` Okay , let 's go , '' he told the men around him . For bett

er or for worse , tomorrow was D-Day . Outside his tent the gray English skies b

egan to clear . Inside he prepared for the worst . `` Our landings .. . have fai

led , '' he wrote in a statement he hoped would never be used . `` If any blame 

or fault attaches to the attempt , it is mine alone . '' Eisenhower , the global

 strategist , remained at heart a self-effacing Kansas farmboy , embodying the d

emocratic virtues of the soldiers he led . War is an unpredictable mix of organi

zed confusion , improvised ingenuity and timeless courage . Eisenhower recognize

d this when he returned to the battlefield beside the sea in June 1964 . On D-Da

y-plus-20 years , he spoke not of planes or tanks or guns or ships , nor strateg