Napalm Train in Vain

A trainload of napalm is riding the rails in limbo somewhere in the Texas-Oklahoma area today, after an Indiana company, under fierce bi-partisan bipartisan political pressure, withdrew its offer to recycle 23 million gallons of the incendiary substance. The Navy vowed to proceed with its plan to recycle the napalm stored at a California base, but there was no word on the immediate fate of the Indiana-bound shipment. Sure, this is like protesting a gasoline tanker, but pressure arising from the Vietnam-era associations forced Pollution Control Industries to back out of the deal. "It may be a terror weapon, but it's no more dangerous than gasoline," says TIME Pentagon correspondent Mark Thompson. "It's flammable, but not explosive." While PCI had planned to turn the napalm into fuel for cement kilns, it's now firing a frenzy of lobbying by congressmen determined to keep that incendiary train rolling right along.