European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 4, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes Jim Fain Bush deserves free hand in choosing Cabinet the Senate ought to Lake John Tower of the spit with a Quick confirmation. Sure he s been a Boozer and win Char for years As every senator knew Long before the appointment came up. An abrasive lilt a Man with an obnoxious personal Ity too. But if that s what president Bush wants in a defense Secretary he s entitled to have it. Any presi Dent should be Able to pick his official tamil As Long As the candidates arc Law abiding Loyal citizens. There s no proof that Tower s notorious fondness for alcohol and indiscriminate sex has interfered Wilh his functioning on his various jobs. Instead feb checks indicate he now has the drinking under control. As for sleeping around a Puritan Standard would disqualify half the Congress probably the More effective half. For some reason politics always has attracted Randy goats. When they abandon Alt judgment a la Gary Hart you draw the Fine at the White House. Otherwise it does t Malter much. None of which is to say Tower Wilt make the Penta gon a Good Boss. Pitted Only on the bask of political debt he s a live exhibit of the Sleazy bloat afflicting the military Industrial Complex a fact even Bush indirectly admit Ted when he likened sending him to clean up the Pentagon Lonzson s Mission to China. Tower personifies the revolving door that corrupts Washington. The. J775.000 pair him As consultant by defense contractors Sheds Light on the bribery Industry we support with Mir lax dollars. These firms arc no charities. They were convinced having him on the pay Roll would win them contracts. In his defense he claimed he did t earn the Money Jol lying them along instead with snippets of worthless advice. If so Lac ,s773,000 was a Sliver of the wast that robbed this country during the $2 trillion party Reagan threw for the Pentagon. Ohio ugly a sordid Way  i Irving one thai should earn Tower no respect much less . Unfortunately quite Legal. Platoons of sex con Gressmen and former assistant War clerics engage in similar scant. Influence Drifting is third Only to government and tourism As this town s leading Industry. It s a National scandal but in some circles much admired. The Senate armed services committee did the nation a favor by hanging out Tower s underwear for Public inspection. We need to know As much As Possi ble about the people a president selects to run the Frank c Carlucci country. We should have been belter informed about de Meuse before he was confirmed As attorney general. But with narrow exceptions a president ought to Befree to choose his Cabinet. That Way he becomes More visibly accountable. One of the lamentable results of the Reagan lassitude was a National penchant for blam ing his lieutenants for whatever went wrong. The Buck never reached the desk where it belonged like most presidents. Bush has made some other third rate Cabinet choices. It s not the Senate s Job however to protect us from his bad judgment in this area. After All. He told us during the Campaign that we could Tell a lot about How he would perform As presi Dent by watching him select a vice president. We did and elected him anyway. That s  system works. If we bar a presi Dent from choosing his lieutenants there s no Way we can make him accountable. Giving him a free hand pinpoints who s minding the store. Congress must help Dod shield Achilles Heel As i make the transition to private life look Back on a number of signify Eari i accomplish men is while at the department of defense Many of which involved the cooperation of Congress however there is one area in which we has left a significant Gap in our deter rent posture the Lack of an effective . Anli Sale Lille or asat capability i be Lieve this is the single most serious deficiency in our military posture. Today the soviet Union possesses the Means to damage destroy or interfere Wii key . Satellites. These Means inv elude ground based lasers their to Orbi la asat weapon and anti ballistic mis Sile. I mar Pori deployed As part of the Moscow abm system. Despite heir pub Lic rhetoric about the peaceful uses of outer space the official soviet military dictionary makes their View of the role of space quite clean the soviet armed fort a i shall be provided with All re in rfcs necessary1 to attain military superiority in. Outer space sufficient both to deny the use of outer space to other states and to assure maximum space based military support for soviet Offen Sive and defensive combat operations on land at sea. In air and in outer space this assertion of policy is backed up by robust soviet military space capabilities including numerous space launch facilities an extensive space Booster inventory and their asat capabilities. Lacking a Means to respond in kind to a soviet attack on one of our satellites the United states would be forced either to do nothing or resort to other military actions that could be Vic we As dangerously escalator. This is an unacceptable situation. In addition to its  capabilities the soviet Union possesses space based recon Naissance systems that Are specifically designed to identify american and Allied naval and ground forces and to direct attacks against those forces. This poses a grave threat to our security.1 for example the. Soviets could use their space based targeting systems to threaten is. Naval forces involved inthe rein  of Europe our obligation to the North Atlantic treaty organization hinges on our ability to execute our rapid reinforcement plan. Hence the Lack of an asat capability plays a decisive role in our ability to fight and thus deter conventional conflict. 1 do not accept the argument that we should not be Able to hold at risk what Are essentially observation posts directing hostile fire against our forces. One year ago with great reluctance i cancelled the Al 5 Eagle launched Minia lure homing vehicle asat program be cause Congress for the third straight year had imposed a moratorium on test ing the system against objects in space. I could not justify develop Tonga system if it could not be tested adequately. I was encouraged to see that the amendment to cd ind this testing moratorium into Fis Cal 1989 was Defeated in the House last year. Consequently in the fiscal 1990-91defense budget the Pentagon has pro posed a major asat initiative. As the Centrepiece of this initiative funding has been requested to develop Lesl and produce a kinetic Energy asat interceptor derived from the midcourse incr captor program being developed under the strategic defense  is also requested to pursue options for a i rec cd Energy asat capability. This includes modifications to the free Electron laser being developed , to enable it to perform an asat Mission and other technology development efforts in laser devices beam control and atmospheric compensation. In addition 1 have., decided to retain the sea Lilc beam director for the mid infrared advanced chemical or miracl laser thus allowing us to continue asat development work arid to provide a limited interim asat capability. Finally our initiative includes funding to up Grade our space surveillance system to improve our ability to Idun life threats to our key space systems and to hold at risk hostile space systems. Some defense commentators have suggested that the ski program is being re directed away from its goal of developing an effective defense against hostile Ballis tic missiles in favor of this More limited sat Mission. This is simply not the Case. The defense department is re questing funding to continue an aggressive ski program. 1 am very encouraged by the tremendous technical Progress thai has been made in he program Andy the sign fical reductions in the Esti mated Cost of the first phase of a strata Gic defense system by taking advantage of the hic ii and Dirac cd in Prev technologies being developed under ski and applying these technologies to the development of asat capabilities we Are get Ting leverage from the investment we Al ready have made. In inc current budget environment it would be irresponsible for the department to propose redundant technology development programs in both areas we Piave a resi�nsibiiiiyi6 the sol Diers sailors and airmen who willingly put their lives at risk to defend our free Dom to provide them Wilh the tools the require to do their jobs effectively. We Are nol living up to this responsibility if we ask Ihm to embark on  in defense of vital  Teress vulnerable to hostile attacks thai Are made possible by these space based reconnaissance systems. This Po-1 Tennial achilles1 Heel in our defense pos Ture must be corrected and i urge con. Grew in inc strongest possible terms to support he defense department s Initia Tive to do so. Cal Eccl a ii to turf by # Del to undo Pra