European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 13, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday december 13, 1988 the stars and stripes Page 7 experts say troop cuts won t Aid deficit by Norman Black a Mil liar writer Washington Mikhail Gorbachev s vow to Cut the size of inc soviet army could put new pressure on inc United Stales to withdraw troops from Europe but such a move would reduce the Federal deficit Only if those forces Are dismissed from the military govern ment officials and analysis claim. Unless president elect Bush is prepared to reduce inc Overall size of the american military simply bring ing Home . Soldiers to match a soviet withdrawal of troops from european front lines would not save Money and might even Cost More the officials say by debatable whether you get any Cost savings and if you do they re  says sen. John Warner of Virginia the senior Republican on the Senate armed services commit acc. We Don t even have the facilities Here to accommodate  if Bush decides to separate from the military those forces withdrawn from Europe the budget savings could be substantial. Pentagon officials and top brass however will resist such a move. The service was forced to Cut its strength by 8,600 soldiers in budget cuts last year and is now Fielding its smallest Active duty Force since before the korean War in 1950 about 7 7 2,000. Further reductions would increase inc risk to inc nation s  a new army briefing paper warns. Outgoing defense Secretary Frank c. Carlucci in several recent speeches has made it Clear he will nol include any further Force Structure cuts in the Rea Gan administration s final budget proposal which goes to Congress in january he has publicly urged Bush to endorse that budget proposal and fight Congress for a 2 percent real in crease in Pentagon spending. Bringing . Troops Home from abroad would not save Money unless we deactivate  Frank Carlucci Carlucci further has sought to remind the american Public there Are important concerns besides Money that guide the stationing of troops overseas. To be simplistic he says in is far better for . Forces to engage the enemy on foreign soil than on american territory. His a strategy thai requires a , military pres ence beyond our shores not from habit not us a gift but rather for the defense of . Interests and . Prosperity he said in a speech last May. Bringing . Troops Home from abroad would not save Money unless we deactivate them there arc some expenses you incur by posting troops overseas that you Don t face Here including swings in the valuation of the Dollar higher travel costs etc.," said one lop Pentagon financial officer who asked not to be identified. But hat s Small potatoes compared to the fact that we Don t have the housing or facilities at our . Bases to accommodate these Guys. The refurbishing and construction would be a huge  the United states has about 31s.odo servicemen assigned to Western Europe of whom about 212.000 Are army troops. Another 100,000 arc deployed to other countries around inc world or at sea on Navy ships meaning roughly 25 percent of the american Active duty Force of 2.1 million is deployed outside the United Stales. Gorbachev told a United nations audience last week that the soviet Union will unilaterally reduce its own military of More than  million by 500,000 troops and pull Back 50,000 assigned to the front lines facing nato. Retired rear adm. Gene a Laracque the director of the Center for defense information and a frequent critic of Reagan administration policies argues that the United slates could easily remove 50,000 troop from Europe without jeopardizing nato Security. I m concerned thai if we Don t respond in some Way inc soviets initiative will be of no Avail to reducing forces in the Long  he says. There s nothing magic about inc number of troops we have there now. Pulling troops Back to she . Does t do anything for your budget this year but if conditions improve then we can gradually shrink our  adm. William j. Crowe the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff counters that the cuts announced by Gorbachev would still leave inc Warsaw pad with a Strong numerical advantage in conventional forces. Al Liance leaders should be first watchful and second. Wary of Gorbachev s moves Crowe said last week Barry Blechman a former government arms control executive and now a defense consultant maintains that the u United states could save $ in Bill Ion if half of its troops and 10 bomber squadrons were deactivated. The United slates should use the Gorbachev Initia Tive As a starting Point for negotiating Mutual 50 per cent troop reductions he says adding this Mhilary Competition is out of sync with today s politics and  most think Christmas is too commercialized new York Ai most americans intend to spend at Casl j 200 on Christmas gifts this year and one in four will spend at least $500. A Media general associated press poll shows. Given those figures in was nol surprising that a vast majority 85 percent said they think Christmas is too commercial cd. The Survey of 1,084 adults in the Continental u filed states was conducted by Tele phone nov. 10-20. The results of inc poll show that Ameri cans remain strongly religious and have a deep fondness for inc Christmas season. But it also showed significant differences in viewpoints among regions and age groups. Eighty nine percent of Hose answering the poll identified themselves As Catholic or protestant the rest were jewish other or had no religion ninety six percent said they celebrate Christmas and 87 percent said they look Forward to the holidays. About 35 percent said icy think of Christmas As mainly a social Holiday and about 2s Pyrc Cal said they regard it As Pri Marily  largest number 38 percent consider it religious and social. The poll also showed that nearly 70 per cent of americans Are churchgoers Ana 40 Pyrc Cal had been to Church inc week before the poll. Sixty four percent said they Gener ally go to Church on Christmas. The poll suggested Thill americans Are in a somewhat More generous mood this year than icy were seven years ago when an a a Abc news poll showed thai 69 percent i a tended to Cut Back on spending for gifts. In this year s poll 50 percent said icy will spend about the same As they have for the last few years 27 percent will spend More and 23 percent said they will spend  percent said they will give gifts to 20 or More people 69 Pyrc Cal said they intend to give gifts to at least 10 people and Only 3 percent said they will nol give any gifts. Seventy percent say they usually receive the gifts they really want while 2s percent said they Don t. The poll indicated thai americans who live in the South and Midwest have stronger religious traditions than those in the West and Northeast and thai Black Ameri cans arc More religiously observant than whiles conservatives More than liberals is he is More than prot Sun the poll also showed that younger adults Are More Likely to look Forward to Christmas than arc their ciders and Hal they also Are much More Likely to View Christmas As a primarily social Nui religious Holiday. A tree for old Ironsides a 25-foot Christmas tre is hoisted aboard the Constitution better known is old Ironsides at the Chalk Totin Nan Yard in Massachusetts. 9.7 million americans lost jobs in past 5 years Washington a nearly 10 million Ameri cans loss their jobs due to Plant closings or layoffs Between 1983 and 1988 despite the longest peacetime economic expansion in inc nation s history the Bureau of labor statistic says in the latest of its biennial reruns on worker displacement that was a slight decline from earlier bus studies of overlapping five year periods 1979 to 1984 and 1981 to 1986 which had shown that 5.1 million tenured workers loss their jobs Bui both of those Peri ods included the severe recession of 91 l82. Of 9.7 million displaced workers during that. I9s3 88 period. 4.7 million had held their jobs for three years or More. Government and private economists say the new figures show a persist ing displacement problem. Larry m islet an economist for the economic policy Institute called the decline in Job displacement after the recession years surprisingly Small. The bus began conducting the displacement surveys in 1984 Al the request of inc labor department s employment and training administration the distribution of the layoffs has shifted from Blue Collar occupations such As machine operators labourers and repairmen during the earlier periods to White col Lar management and sales occupations in inc la list  was inc icon and can Era when companies Well after Middle level managers and other White col Lar workers said Mischl. But a lot of in especially in retail Trade is also somewhat related to these leveraged buyouts it s probably  retail workers who lost their  v ,. One thing that has t changed is the percentage of workers who were. Given some kind of nonce before losing their jobs. In All three surveys roughly six of every 10  had been told in Advance. To expect a Layoff. " ,. ,