European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 7, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday february 7, 1992 the stars and stripes a Page 13 commentary Adam Garfin Lecost of base cleanups defies calculation reprinted with permission of the Wall Street journal c Dow Jones amp co. Inc. All rights reserved. President Bush announced last month that he would ask Congress for $1 billion More to pay for the environmental cleanup of . Military bases. That raises the budget for base cleanup to $3.7 billion for 1993. Some environmentalists estimate that the Cost of detoxifying the 1,800 known polluted Sites on military bases could exceed $20 billion. But the Cost of shutting Down Domestic military bases a going to be trivial compared with the Cost of shutting them Down abroad. At first Blush it May seem Odd that getting rid of a base should be a problem. Relations with most Host government ought to be eased Money is to be saved bureaucratic tasks Are lessened and everyone lives happily every after right wrong. Relations with Many present Host governments Are As Likely to be worsened As aided. No Money will be saved for years and an enormous amount will m fact have to be spent. And bureaucracies will fight tooth and Nail As is their nature against their diminishment or the re fashioning of their tasks. To make matters worse the . Government really has no idea How to close foreign bases and for Good reason Lack of experience. It knows How to open bases but closing them is not just the same process run backward. It is hellishly complicated politically sensitive and expensive. Not surprisingly therefore no one in the Pentagon wanted to take Dirge of doing it. Last summer after the closings announcement the office of the Secretary of defense searched the organizational Chart of the worlds largest office building and hit upon a sprawling bureaucracy within the bureaucracy called planning and logistics As the logical place to site the process for the simple reason that a amp a is charged with closing Domestic bases. A amp a disagreed and tried to pass responsibility to a tiny four person office called foreign military rights affairs. The lawyers Are charged with writing the actual Legal documents that . Negotiators carry with them to Manila Lisbon Ankara and elsewhere. But the Job was too big for Fra and in the end a amp a got stuck with the task. It continues to resist however in that curious Way that Only Large bureaucracies can collective but simultaneously Anonymous insubordination. Thus no Standard procedure or coherent staff yet exists to consider the financial logistic political and strategic elements of closing bases. The few congressional staff inquiries that have gone Over to the Pentagon about this problem a mainly from lawmakers hoping that the closing of a facility abroad might offer an Opportunity for the opening of a Ork barrel facility in their districts a have either not Een answered satisfactorily or have not been answered at All. A amp a was not just being Coy in trying to avoid the Job. It knows what an awesome and thankless Burden it is As a Concrete illustration or two shows. If As seems Likely the United states leaves Tor Rejon a in Spain How should it compensate strata i Carly to maintain the same military reach with respect say to the Middle East if Torrejon is abandoned does that make negotiations with Portugal Over the azores or with Italy and Greece More important it does. Wont the portuguese italian and greek governments knowing the increased value of their facilities demand More Money they will. Should the United states pay it to All three or just one or two if one or two which one or two americans both inside and outside the government will not easily agree on the answers to any of these questions. And that is where political problem no. 1 begins one cannot sensibly go about closing certain bases without rethinking the uses and costs of the ones that will remain open. Another Bede Iling aspect of the problem is More technical. If the United states leaves Torrejon should it take the bulk of its physical property with it which includes fuel lines air traffic electronics and even Street cleaners if it does it could Render the base unusable for Spain Hurt nato and sour .-Spanish relations. The United states obviously has no interest in that but there will be bureaucratic and political pressures for it to take its property with it when it leaves. The political reason for demanding that America take its property Home with it is that Many enterprising members of Congress see the relocation of overseas assets in their Home states and districts As a Way to Buffer the economic Downside of Domestic base closings. As soon As trouble Over the philippine bases arose for example some Philadelphia area congressmen began lobbying for reconsideration of the decision to shut Down the Philadelphia naval Yard. The truth is however that much of the equipment the United states owns at Torrejon and elsewhere is obsolete redundant because of . Domestic base closings and More expensive on balance to bring Home than to give away. But if the . Government gives the equipment to Spain under what circumstances should it be done How Many americans should remain to work the facilities until the Spanish can take Over should the United states train the Spanish who should pay whom to do so and How much thinking strategically should the Pentagon press for an Access Accord to Torrejon which is not As secure a footing As a base but is better than nothing or would that be counterproductive in the context of Spanish democratic politics today Tough questions every one. Another example. On oct. 24 and 25, an army of German military bureaucrats descended on Washington officialdom making a series of demands about the adjustment of . Basing rights in their country. Among their demands was that when the United states vacates bases in Germany it must pay for environmental cleanup in Accord with German Law and standards. The government accounting office began some years Back to estimate How much it would Cost to clean up . Bases All Over Europe the numbers were so huge that the report was squelched and was released in May Only in a a sanitized form. One Pentagon professional told me that the real numbers Are a utterly staggering a along the line of another a amp a  in addition the germans and not Only the germans see the residual value of the land that bases Are situated on As being far less than the Pentagon does. Also disagreements Over the terms of closing certain bases will affect the status of negotiations Over the bases that will remain. On remaining bases for example the germans want new restrictions with respect to overflight corridors training schedules and a variety of other matters. New restrictions and costs May make the remaining bases relatively unattractive and excessively expensive. So what is to be done give in or get involved in a protracted and debilitating argument with the most important country in Europe these Are the sorts of problems that the . Government will have to manage for years to come. This Means among other things that the United states will need to develop new forms of patience in dealing with its cold War allies. Negotiations with friends ironically Are often More difficult that negotiations with adversaries if Only because expectations of agreement arc High. When such a a stations Are repeatedly disappointed in the end friends become less Friendly. Adam Gart Linkla political studies coordinator at the foreign policy research Institute in Philadelphia is working on a Book dealing with . Foreign military bases after the cold War Carl Rowan Don t let japanese arrogance obscure truth i could tick off a dozen pieces of evidence that the japanese Are sinking into a a we Are the super race mania that approaches that of the a a aryans in Hitler s third Reich a few years ago then japanese prime minister Yasuhiro Nakasone said the United states will never be Able to compete with Japan because it has too Many Blacks and mexicans who Are too poorly educated to compete. Nakasone quickly apologized. Recently the speaker of Japan slower House Yoshio Sakurauchi said the United states can to compete with Japan because the . Labor Force is a inferior. . Workers Are too Lazy. They want High pay without working and about 30 percent a cannot even  Sakurauchi apologized a but after a firestorm of outrage by americans. Another report buried or ignored by most . Newspapers says that the . Banks owned by japanese companies discriminate grossly against Black americans seeking Loans. The japanese government finally gets around to apologizing for enslaving korean women and using them As a ladies of comforts during world War ii. The arrogance of some japanese has never been limited to skin color or to non asians. Figures that could enhance japanese notions of superiority were released in Tokyo showing that Japan a Trade surplus with other nations jumped 50 percent to $78.23 billion in 1991, including a surplus of More than 48 percent with the european Community and More than 43 percent with other asian countries. There is lots of evidence to the contrary but these figures seem to convince the japanese that they Are Kings of the Industrial technological Hill. I am not going further with this Litany. In be gone this far Only to show the depth of the a a War that the United states is already in with Japan. The facts cited above suggest that the War of words of trading policies is not going to end for years. It will get worse and probably will take on proportions of danger beyond a a Trade  More important i wont use the cited items to Bash Japan further because that would Blind americans to the reality that for All their crudity Nakasone and Sakurauchi have spoken just enough of the truth to make America focus on the education and training of its work Force. If we run from that Ynith we give the japanese greater advantages for the future. Now our woefully neglected americans Are not building inferior Auto parts or anything else. Most Are in unemployment and welfare lines in Lamable for bad engines computer chips or anything else. Still they represent a horribly Large Bole in America s network of competitiveness. They Are the Pool of undeveloped skills and brainpower that fully used would make America competitive with any society on Earth. Please note the bitter irony in the fact that even As we deplore the manifestations of arrogant racism from Japan we allow racism in America to prevent the education and training of Blacks hispanics indians and others a Young people who could give the lie to any japanese claims that they Are Superior to the rest of the world in intellect and Devotion to the work ethic. C North America Syndicate