European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 3, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday March 3, 1993 commentary 1 the stars and stripes age 15must maintain doctrinal foundations Harry g. Summers if the foundation is Strong a House can usually weather a storm. The same is True of institutions. Today the military is in the Center of the storm to Cut Federal spending. But while the president the Congress and the Media focus on its physical superstructure a the Dollar costs and numbers of aircraft carriers fighter squadrons army and Marine divisions and their manpower and  almost no attention is being paid to the military a moral foundations. That s a big mistake for Napoleon s warning that in War the ratio of the moral to the physical is 3-1 still applies. That moral dimension is expressed in the military a fighting doctrine which in the words of former army chief of staff Gen. George h. Decker a provides. A common philosophy a common language a common pure age and a Unity of  significantly Decker was fired by president John f. Kennedy on the eve of our Vietnam involvement for resisting Juk s insistence that the military adopt As its foundation the ersatz Quot counterinsurgency doctrine Quot a a theory dreamed up by civilian academics seeking to use the tools of social science to change the world. Gen. Charles de Gaulle s explanation of what caused the collapse of the French army in 1940 when its defensive Maginot line doctrine proved fatally flawed applied word for word to Vietnam Quot a sort of moral inhibition made them suddenly doubtful of everything and especially of themselves. The crumbling of the whole system of doctrines. To which our leaders had attached themselves deprived them of their motive Force. A in Vietnam Quot counterinsurgency Quot was the wars Maginot line. When the War continued unabated after the almost total destruction of the Viet Cong guerrillas during and after the 1968 tet offensive it became obvious that our doctrine was fatally flawed. The Quot motive Force Quot was gone. The foundation crumbled and All the millions of dollars in the defense budget could not prevent the military a subsequent disintegration. Thankfully in a remarkable postwar 1rsn.melv�hft Awa Aflex Lujo of shoulder amp of Ftp to fac. Via Sowyn Rve oust mad a 6m> coup a no eke Renaissance the military sloughed off the civilian Quot experts Quot who had Lea it in edition and returned to its into per Battlefield the Navy and Marine corps roots. From came the maritime strategy with its emphasis on building a sea Bridge so that America s mobilization capabilities could be brought to Bear on the Battlefield. From the army came the airland Battle doctrine with its concepts of Man Euver firepower and fluidity. Meanwhile the air Borce was rethinking the role of air Power a both As a decisive Force in its own right and As part of the airland Battle. The payoff was the Gulf War. During his presidential Campaign. Bill Clinton said that among the Quot keepers Quot of that conflict were High technology and a Quality Force. While both were certainly critical to the Success of desert storm neither would have made any difference if the doctrines had been flawed. Lest we forget we had High technology and a Quality Force in Vietnam As Well. It is a tribute to the flexibility of the pre Gulf War doctrines designed primarily to fight the soviet Union on the Plains of Central Europe that they could be rapidly adapted to fight a War on the deserts of the Middle East. But with the end of the Gulf War and More to the Point the end of the cold War military doctrines had to be rethought. In March 1992, the air Force published its View air Force manual 1-1, a Basic aerospace doctrine of the United state air Force Quot which fleshed out the fundamentals Laid on in an earlier White paper a global reach a global  one of its greatest strengths one critic put it Quot is its placement of ideas about aerospace Power solidly in the context of  in september 1992, the Navy and Marine corps issued a White paper Quot from the sea which Laid out the future doctrinal focus of the naval services. Quot this strategic direction Quot it states Quot represents a fundamental shift away from open Ocean War fighting on the sea toward joint operations conducted from the sea. We will be part of the sea air land team Quot a the army too will soon publish its new version of Field manual 100-5, its Basic War fighting doctrine. Written under the direction of Gen. Frederick m. Franks jr., who led Vii corps to Victory in the Gulf it Quot extends airland Battle into a wider inter Scricc integration. And recognizes that army forces operate across the spectrum of War and operations other than  cuts in the military a physical superstructure can be damaging but the Structure will survive. Erode its doctrinal moral foundations however As was done As a prelude to the Vietnam involvement and As some would do today in the name of Quot Touchy Feely Quot the whole House inline Dou come Tut Ling Down. C to Angola time May haitians at Guantanamo left without redress there is a political problem baking under the hot Sun at Grunt Dynamo Bay a political problem ringed with razor wire housed in wooden Barracks living amid rats and scorpions while service members watch from guard towers. But the truth is that All political problems turn out to be people in one fashion or another. This one is 267 people held in a latter Day Lep Rosarium on a . Naval base wailing for a decision about what will by it me of the rest of their lives. They Are haitians mostly adults some children who left their Homeland in boats for the Succour of the United states More than year ago. Their illusions about a voyage to Freedom seem pathetic now. Immigration officials determined that All of them had credible claims for Asylum. But the haitians have had to prove that not Only their motives but also their blood is pure. The Guantanamo Bay Encampment in Cuba is Home to those who turned out to be his positive a place called limbo. It exists because of a ban the ban that forbids immigrants who Are infected with the aids virus to enter this country. The american bar association opposes the ban the american medical association has said it is scientifically specious. And Bill Clinton campaigned on overturning it. That was the Hope of the people in limbo. Last month the Senate decided to pre empt the president and voted to make the ban Federal Law. I Nis was not homophobia or xenophobia some members insisted it was fiscal prudence. Letting potential aids patients into the United states could result in. Increased health care costs. If health care Cost analysis is to be our future immigration policy then Why Stop at his infection what about cancer patients or for that matter Likely cancer patients a if a woman wants to come Here but has a family history of breast cancer do we really want to take the risk that she May contract the disease and Cost us Money  we take a second look at to diabetic immigrants immigrants with heart problems immigrants who Smove and Are at much greater risk of contracting emphysema and lung cancer than those who do not Anna Quindlen of course not. We should consider whether people Are coming Here As they always have because they fear real repression or truly seek to build a better life. And then we should let them believe As we always have that the vast majority of immigrants wind up enriching this country. A huddled masses a it says at the base of the statue of Liberty. A wretched  not a perfect  the Clinton administration has not kept Faith with the beleaguered people of Haiti. Candidate Clinton promised a change in the Bush administration policy that sent haitian refugees in boats Back to their Island Home without a hearing. President Clinton changed i mind saying he was afraid of lost lives at sea. Candidate Clinton promised an end to the immigration ban on his positive foreigners. President Clinton appears to be Loath to tangle with Congress Over this Issue. But behind every Issue there arc just people in one fix or another and the people in limbo Are essentially in jail for no More reason than that some Are sick some arc his positive and some Are family to those in the other two groups. The portable toilets Are stinking. Sheets Are Hung within the Barracks for some nominal privacy. It is difficult to imagine the same sort of provisions being made by the american government for Irish immigrants or soviet jews without considerable Public uproar. The insanitary and overcrowded conditions would be bad enough for healthy people never mind those with depressed immune systems. One immigration spokesman asked about denials of requests for medical airlifts to the United states was said to have responded a they re going to die anyway Arentt they a they wont go Back because they fear death. We wont let them in because they face death. So they sit within their cattle enclosure waiting for death. Clinton can think of this As a potentially unpopular decision for it surely is. Or he can think of it As real people with real lives like the woman who wrote from Guantanamo Bay to her two children last month a a done to count on me anymore because 1 have lost in the struggle for  so much for lifting our lamp beside the Golden door. C the now Voth Taro