European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 27, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday May 27, 1992 the stars and stripes a Page 13 commentary Anthony Lewis Bush in holding pattern until after election something has happened to president Bush. In recent weeks and months he has ducked and vacillated on issues seemingly unwilling to take decisive positions unable to Lead. It is As if he were immobilized. His supporters have noticed. They Are More and More openly expressing concern discontent bewilderment at his performance. They Are starting to look elsewhere for leadership. The most striking example of his indecisiveness and very Likely the most damaging to Bush has been his response to the jury verdict and riots in los Angeles. After the verdict he urged people to await a nonexistent a appeals  since then he has alternated Between Calls for Law and order and sympathetic talk about Urban needs. The country urgently wanted leadership after los Angeles a sense of direction a sense of Hope. Bush Tempo sized heard conflicting ideas from his advisers came up with a tired Little package of old proposals. There has been no sense of the White House As a Beacon in hard times. But the phenomenon is not limited to Domestic issues. A president who made his Mark in foreign affairs and used to revel in taking Strong stands abroad has become weak and indecisive there too. Look at Yugoslavia. The persian Gulf War is Only a Little More than a year old. Could any of us have imagined then that George Bush would be whimpering by unable to respond to brutal aggression by a serbian communist that he and his foreign policy aides would stand mute while the serbs mimicked nazi tactics by pulling non serbians out of their Homes in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the cause of a ethnic purification the question of help to Post communist Russia is another puzzling example. Bush came Forward with no proposals to help save the budding russian democracy from economic disaster until he was shamed into doing something by former president Nixon. Then there was his trip to Japan. He first cancelled it so he could look More like a Domestic president. Then in january he went and the proclaimed supporter of free Trade used the trip to act As a Willy Loman for . Auto manufacturers. The pattern reached a comic height last week in the incident of Dan Quayle and Murphy Brown. The vice president attacked the to character for a mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child and calling it a just another life style  a this threw Bush and the White House into a Tizzy. A i done to know what its about a Bush said. A where s Marlin on this a Harry g. Summers or. Marlin Fitzwater his spokesman first condemned a the glorification of the life of an unwed  a few minutes later he corrected himself praising Murphy Browne so pro life  the president himself came out strongly for a families with a Mother and  what is going on the one thing that George Bush has not been during most of his life is reluctant to act or decide. He was the youngest Navy Pilot in world War ii a Gung to character. As president he ordered the invasion of Panama an adventure that did not help Panama a problems of drugs and poverty As it turned out but that was surely bold. And then there was the War on Iraq. In personal style too Bush is the opposite of Idle. He is or. Kinetic constantly in motion a Man whose idea of a restful Seaside Holiday is to zoom around in a noisy speedboat. How then can we explain the immobilise that has crept Over George Bush the president i think the reason is politics politics of a particular kind. In this election year Bush is trying to avoid doing things that May upset people. He is trying to finesse hard issues. Thus he tries to mollify the doctors and scientists who want to use fetal tissue As it is used in every other country to cure human diseases without roiling the anti abortionists. He proposes a fetal tissue Bank that will be forbidden to Benefit from voluntary abortions a and hence will be useless. The whole strategy if that is what it is is useless. The country will not wait for action until november. The world will not wait. And the voters will not wait. C Tho now York Tim Sfire discipline vital a from 1775 to 1992 a a done to shoot until you see the Whites of their  that was the command Given on july 17, 1775, to the american citizen soldiers at Bunker Hill a actually Breeds Hill a As the British redcoats advanced on their position. In one sense it was a routine order since the effective Range of most of their muskets did not exceed that face to face distance. But in another it was quite extraordinary for it demanded enormous discipline for them to hold their fire As rank after rank of some 2,200 British regulars advanced on their position with Drums beating flags flying and bayonets fixed. The British fully expected that awesome spectacle would cause the american a rabble in arms to break and run. But against All Odds these militiamen and volunteers proved to be True professionals As they held their ground for two successive assaults giving Way Only when they ran Short of ammunition. At a Cost of 440 killed and wounded the americans had inflicted 1,054 casualties. A on the British this astonishing feat had a sobering effect a says the army s official history a for it taught them that american resistance was not to be easily  Many things have changed in the intervening years but lire discipline remains a True indicator of military professionalism. As an infantryman in both Korea and Vietnam i could easily Tell when Green troops had been committed on the front line. They were so jumpy they would carry on a night Long firefight with the wind shooting wildly As it rustled through the Trees. Seasoned troops on the other hand took it As a matter of Pride not to shoot unless they had a target firmly fixed in their sights. That is still True. It. Gen. Ron Griffith who commanded the . 1st army div in the persian Gulf told of How one of his brigade commanders radioed to say that they had the enemy in sight. There were some 460 tanks and armoured vehicles of the iraqi Republican guard to their front and they were beginning to engage. Forty five minutes later it was All Over and the enemy Force had been destroyed. The remarkable thing said Griffith was that his tankers had fired Only some 400 rounds from their main guns. The panic stricken indiscriminate shooting that too often characterizes front line combat was remarkably absent. Fire discipline throughout the Battle had been truly amazing a feat he attributed directly to his sergeants. Through combat training and simulators these gunners and tank commanders had become seasoned professionals be fore they arrived on the Battlefield. To their great credit so were the troops of the 40th inf div and 49th military police brigade of the California National guard when they were committed to help quell the recent riots in los Angeles. An Anonymous source had said that they were a not eager to place their forces in the caldron of South Central los  no wonder for in a a Normal times in 1991 there had been 771 gang related murders in los Angeles mostly in the same area considerably More than the 537 . Military personnel killed in Vietnam in the last year of the War. But eager or not the guardsmen were committed throughout the area primarily under command of their sergeants at the squad and fire team level. All 9,588 soldiers were armed noted the California National guards Brig. Gen. Jim Delk. But although they had the Means for deadly Force in hand their fire discipline was outstanding even in the face of enormous provocation. Especially during the first two nights they were often fired at by the murderous thugs in the area and were subject to constant harassment and taunts from gang members. In the Watts riots in 1965, machine gun fire had been used to restore order. But this time Only 20 rounds were fired by guardsmen during the entire crisis. Each shot was strictly accounted for. Fourteen rounds were fired at a Driver who tried to use his car to run Down guardsmen on patrol. Most of the shots were fired at his tires to get him to Stop. Two rounds were fired at another gang member trying to run Down police and guardsmen and four rounds were fired to subdue an armed robber who was resisting arrest. There were Many other serious situations says Delk including foiling a kidnapping where rounds could justifiably have been fired. But they were not. When it came to the crunch the men and women of the California National guard like their Active duty compatriots in the 1st army div in the persian Gulf and their forebears in the opening Days of the american revolution proved they had the discipline to control their fire. A lecturer in strategy and distinguished fellow of the army War College. Col Summers is the author of the recently published on strategy ii a critical analysis of the persian Gulf War Clos  times the opinion expressed in the columns end cartoons on thle pegs represent those of the Euth Ore and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government