European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 16, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse Wednesday december 16. 1992 f Rnmmrmtanu-1 1 Ulm Montany i the stars and stripes a Page 13 . Can be proud of helping starving people Somalia is Gen or vat n i ,., Stephen s. Rosenfeld Somalia is Gen. Colin l. Powell a operation. As much As anyone the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff is its author As Well As executor. He made it happen by endorsing a new Post cold War Mission of peacekeeping and humanity reamsm and by releasing the military a Brake on risk in this particular Case. On the eve of the intervention Powell Laid out his rationale in foreign affairs Magazine. His prescience does credit to an uncommonly political Soldier political meaning global and Washington at the same time. Only last year Powell was dismissing the very idea of spelling out How american Power would be deployed. The Gulf War had left him saying giddily that it was enough for the United states simply to be a superpower. He was impatient at the thought of defining specific standards for military intervention. But he has since addressed these essential questions in part to fill a Pentagon requirement for military missions ample and popular enough to justify a budget. Now there Are standards for weighing Post soviet regional contingencies. Is the political objective of intervention Clear have nonviolent alternatives been tested will Force do the Job Are the risks acceptable in Somalia not All these standards have been fully met. An All business briefer Powell is Good at charts and his statements hint of no doubt. But it seems to me that in his strategy zing he did not Factor in the wave of compassion that images of somalian suffering generated and that in turn nourished president Bush a readiness to intervene. Nor did he Factor in the Subtle currents flowing from a lame Duck foreign affairs presidents reach for a last Hurrah. This intervention in Short was rushed. Still it is worthy. We americans should not strut in our cold War Mode we created the monster the deposed strongman Gen. Mohamed Siad Barre who hollowed out somalian society and spawned the prevailing anarchy. But we can be discreetly proud of this first use of Force for humanitarian purpose in a Region of no strategic significance to the United states. A Republican administration no less is setting a historic example to assert a starving Peoples right to food. Some americans warn that one two Many unhappy Somalia Are coming. More hopeful others see either a global precedent of humanitarian intervention or a regional precedent in bailing out the depressing number of mis governed african states that off camera look to be following Somalia Down the tube. As a practical matter Given the sound reasons for attempting just one difficult thing at a time the Odds Are that other such interventions wont be seriously considered at East until the results of Somalia Are in. Inside Somalia the United states has set itself a delicate task to see to it within just a few months that the guns fall silent and that starving people Are fed but to hand off political reconstruction and nation building to the United nations. Powell Calls for the a careful Matching of the use of Force to our political objectives. This leaves Tough questions. With the High cards a firepower and food in our hands How Are we not to exercise preponderant political influence what about disarming gunmen an unavoidably provocative act by which uninvited foreigners forcibly strip somalis How do we Cut Loose under conditions that deter Early appeals to return in the allotted few months can our education in somalian politics proceed at a Pace suitable to our political requirements and to Somalia a some encouragement can be taken from the state of affairs described in the press the old government disintegrated and warlords and bandits running free. But there still exist regions of relative order and the former . Representative Mohammed Dahnoun of Algeria had already begun knitting clan elders and some National minded figures into a political process. . Secretary general Boutros Boutros Ghali by the Way should Swallow the United nations Pride at being criticized by a hired hand and Cut Dahnoun an International resource ack on the Job. I take further encouragement from Powell a appointment of an Independent minded Somalia hand former ambassador Robert Oakley to guide him through the political Shoals. Hell advise not just on getting the american military into place but presumably on launching a somalian peace conference. Powell won new respect for his role in preparing and overseeing the military forces that took part in the Gulf War. Now he takes on a Mission that is comparatively simple militarily but extremely demanding politically. Powell and practically nobody else Are making the end of the Bush administration interesting. C Tho Washington Post passion a dangerous reason to risk troops . Army Gen. Colin l. Powell chairman of the joint chief of staff recently sized up the somalian Relief Effort this Way a a it a sort of like the cavalry coming to the Rescue straightening things out for a while and then letting the marshals come Back in to keep things under drawn from familiar american morality tales As portrayed in classic Cowboy and Indian movies that analogy was Apt perhaps even More Apt than intended. On the Frontier in the 1800s, military Justice was sometimes the Only Justice around. It May have lacked refinement but it was both Quick and to the Point. In a lecture on military Justice an army judge advocate once told of an outlaw tried by an army Provost court for desecrating a Church killing the priests raping the nuns and stealing the Crucifix from the altar. The sentence As approved was a to be Hung by the neck until dead dead read you dirty son of a Bitch a signed . Smith colonel cavalry commanding. As american civilization spread Westward such rough Justice came to an end first with territorial courts served by . Marshals and then by state and City courts and state and local police. In 1878, the Congress with the posse comi Tatus act forbade further military involvement in civilian Law enforcement. Now both at Home and abroad that prohibition is being eroded most recently in the name of humanitarian Relief. Once again this time in the badlands of so Malia the a a cavalry is about to ride to the Rescue. Almost alone . Rep. John p. Murtha d-pa., a Marine corps Reserve colonel decorated for valor and twice wounded in Vietnam has warned of the dangerous precedents being set. In the past he said american military deployments abroad were in response to threats to vital . Interests by definition interests so critical that the Security and Well being of the entire nation was at risk. We cannot be the worlds policeman. As former Secretary of defense Caspar w. Weinberger emphasized in november 1984 a we cannot assume unilaterally the role of the worlds defender. We have Learned that there Are limits to How much of our spirit and blood and treasure we can afford to forfeit. We should Only engage our troops if we must do so As a matter of our own vital National now in Somalia we arc assuming the role of the worlds Nanny. . Troops Are being committed for purely altruistic reasons. This begs several questions. If Harry g. Summers not hard interests what then is the criterion upon which such future commitments will be made How much treasure and How Many of the lives of our sons and daughters Are we willing to put at risk for Good works abroad the news Media not the National Security Council decide which of the Many areas of human suffering a Somalia Angola Ethiopia Sudan Mozambique Bosnia and Herzegovina or Bangladesh to name but a few a will be highlighted on the front pages and on the evening news. Decisions of which crises to cover have nothing to do with vital american interests. Their Bottom line is purely commercial. Which pictures Are so awful which victims so pitiful to Best attract the Public a morbid fascination increase circulation and audience share and boost ratings passions Are a shaky foundation upon which to build a military commitment. The very idealists calling for involvement today will recoil in horror and demand disengagement when the Media Start showing gruesome pictures of somalian teen age gunmen blown away by . Marines. Bloodshed is a real possibility. A a we re just not going to ride Shotgun waiting for people to shoot at us a Powell said. A a we la do what a necessary to eliminate the c los angles tiros
