European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 24, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Commentary 1 utahs and 8twtf�� 8 Bosnia could make Vietnam pole by comparison Harry g. Summers is Mil Amy Jit Alt i in m in Tor a r Hulion the of it if t Aid fulfilling the in of of it til Oul by his of rtt a Well known thai by Orue enlisting under other banners than her own Aid then Secretary of stale John Quimcy Adams during an earlier Balkan Ensi in 1821, she would involve herself beyond the Power of extraction in All the wart of interest and in Trigue of individual avarice envy and ambition which assume the colors and usurp the standards of if America once Well knew that risk she has since forgotten it. According to the washing ton Post on feb. 18, 1993. Christopher made. Clear that the United states which previously had shied away from a military role in Bosnia now i contemplating committing . Forces including ground troops to enforce whatever agreement might be this announcement followed an intensive 214-week review by Clinton s principal advisers on How to Deal with the conflict in Bosnia. The administration believes it cannot stand aside the Secre tary said because our conscience revolts at the unending Cycle of murder rape and forcible expulsion of peo ple from their Homes that has come to be known As ethnic the administration really believes is that unlike Middle class tax cuts this is one Campaign prom ise it can keep at relatively Little Cost. On the hustings Clinton talked Tough about Serbia. Promising to com Mit troops there must appear to his principal advisers evidently Given their past opposition not including defense Secretary Les Aspin or joint chiefs of staff chairman Gen. Colin l. Powell to be a Low risk can t lose crowd plea scr. Before he goes much further he ought to Send Christopher to Georgia to talk with former Secretary of state Dean Rusk. In the beginning of the Kennedy administration Vietnam too was a can t lose propose Clinton led Bill Clinton s speeches have often sounded like the kind of careful Correct rather stiff compositions an a student produces when he wants to protect his Grade Point average. But his address on the Economy was about As Good a speech As i have Ever heard him was also dangerous. It was dangerous for the republicans who responded to Clinton s rhetorical magnanimity with the same old same old. There is plenty of blame to go around the president said in Bot branches of the government and both parties. The time has come for the blame to and he invited republicans who did t like his specifics to come up with specifics of their own As though they were All in this together but As soon As he was finished speak inc House minority Leader Robert h. Michel launched into a Republican response that owed More to cliched parti san Buckshot than to deficit reduction incorporating among other things the deftly wrought phrases failed big government schemes of a generation ago and biggest propaganda Campaign in re cent political Clinton came to the Congress hav ing Learned the deficit reduction lesson of Ross Perot. But the republicans seem in danger of forgetting the other part of the Perot phenomenon that people Are sick and tired of the constant bickering that passes for government m Washmon. Listening to Senate Republican Leader Robert j. Dole Carp about the democrats is Dejavu All Over again Nei ther illuminating nor pretty. But Clinton s speech was dangerous lion with a put a unlike Cut or fat Crlin where vital intr rot were invoked and the were dangerously High Vietnam appeared of be a Itofe area for a Alt Vitic crusade to Reform the world and of it it until America got blood on it hand then the very reformer and Ideal i to who had pushed for Trie involvement recoiled in horror leaving the military to Tike the heat from Tho Teluch As Linton who in their ignorance blamed the Mili tary for fighting to War that military Leader had initially Vietnam h began with adviser. In Bosnia according to Christopher i plan it will begin with peace keepers according to report any us Force sent to Bosnia would be deployed within the framework of . Peacekeeping operations those word re Call president Harry s. Truman s insistence that the conflict in Korci really was t War it was police a civilian society police keep the peace because they have a monopoly on the use of deadly Force when that ceases to be True As in most of our major cities today lawlessness reigns. As with deterrence of War peace keeping rests on the perception that the risk of any Likely gain through breaking the peace is not Worth the inevitable Cost of doing , it is the War fighting capability of the peacekeeping Force that gives it Utility. That is not obvious in areas where All parties have agreed to abide by the rules. But absent that agreement As with the hapless pakistani peacekeepers hunkered Down in Somalia before the . Intervention . Forces Are merely impotent bystanders. M.,that is certainly True of the More than 6,000 . Troops in Bosnia today whose writ is limited to guard ing Relief convoys. They Lack both the military capability to maintain the peace and More important the Mili tary authority to do so. Military authority is the perception that a military unit not Only has the Means to act but also the will to do so. The will to act is precisely what is missing from the . Peacekeeping inventory. With no Clear Cut Chain of command and a Security Council rather than a com Mander it is doubtful they can Ever attain it. Lacking military authority they Only keep the peace when Al parties Are willing to have the peace kept. Otherwise the rules of War prevail. During the police action in Korea the United nations made the United states its executive agent for the War and appointed Gen. Douglas Macarthur then head of the . Far East come As head of the . Come. At War s end . Ground Force strength stood at 302,484, while other . Forces totalled a Mere 39,145.in Bosnia the same Force ratio will apply. But this time . Forces will be enlisting under other banners than her the debacle that looms ahead could make Vietnam Pale by comparison. C the lot Angotto Tolmei to expect further spending cuts Anna Quindlen for him too because it did that most dangerous of things it raised expectations not Only for new programs but also for hard choices. To meet them he must make far greater cuts in spending than the ones we have heard about so superconducting supercollider and the space station should be shelved to save billions. These two High tech projects arc tace equivalent of luxury cars we just can t afford them right now. And the fact that both Benefit the Treasury Secretary s Home state of Texas makes their survival in Lea times look too much like pork. The military budget must finally address the ridiculous redundancies in the Way the four branches operate. The air Force has fighter wings. The Navy has fighter wings. The marines have fighter wings. And so on through overlapping Legal and medical corps and to Thor mis Sions programs and services. The taxpayers should not have to finance interservice rivalries As though the military were the big ten conference. But the most important thing the president needs to do is to make govern ment make sense. When the Issue of the elevator operators who run the automatic elevators Tor members of Congress comes up As it has before it should finally be settled in the Only Way that makes sense and that is to assume that members of Congress Are competent to push elevator buttons themselves. Not because this is a big Boondoggle it s not or because it will save lots of Money. It won because it is emblematic of How fat and disdainful government has become. Each time a taxpayer is handed from person to person to person in a bloated and befuddled bureaucracy he or she apprehends anew a system that treats the Public s Money As though it were nothing. Deputy directors. Assistant Deputy directors. Assistants to the Deputy directors. Public relations officers the rabbits of government multiplying uncontrollably. Cut email Back. Make the managers manage. C th8 new York time
