European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 22, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Wednesday december 22,1993 commentary the stars and stripes Page 13foggy Conception of War Clouds . Policy there a no denying Clinton administration is that the to find a Harry g. Summers trying prudent Post cold War level for America s Active and Reserve military forces. Rather than arbitrary cuts As some had feared there has been an attempt to use logic and careful analysis to arrive at the minimum forces necessary to Safe guard the american Homeland and preserve protect and enhance our vital National interests abroad. Part of this process was the Quot Bot Tom up review of our land sea and air forces earlier this year to determine the size and shape of our armed forces. Most recently there has been a decision to scale Back the army and air Force National guard and the army air Force and Marine corps and naval reserves. But All of this a scientific analysis Quot lacks a critical ingredients a Basic Conception of War. It has been so Long that we lacked such a Conception that we forget its fundamental importance. Beginning in the 1930s with the Rise of fascism there was agreement where and How America would eventually fight. And with the defeat of fascism in 1945, the communist menace in turn defined our National strategy for the next 45 years. But now such a Conception is lacking. What is americans military role in the Post cold War world will our military become an adjunct to the United nations primarily engaged in nation building peacekeeping and other such a a humanitarian operations will we unilaterally disarm and Retreat into a defense of fortress America in Short what is americans role in the world and what forces Are necessary to sustain it. Almost 80 years ago America was asking much the same questions. While Europe was embroiled in world War i America was debating whether to stay uninvolved or to prepare to make an Entrance on the world stage. Advocating an Early version of a a Bot Tom up review Navy it. Cmdr. Later Commodore Dudley , writing in the March april 1915 Issue of the naval Institute proceedings warned that a to reach the ultimate goal of War efficiency we must. Build from the foundations upward and not from the roof Down Ward. A for example a he continued a it is important to determine whether our strategic. Operations shall be offensive or defensive in this question is once again at hand. In world War ii the . Policy was Quot Rollback and liberation Quot and our military took the offensive against Germany Ana Japan to do just that. In the cold War however the National policy was a containment a and the military went on the defensive where stalemate not Victory was the Only obtainable Battlefield option. What is our National policy now with the 1991 persian Gulf War it appeared that Quot Rollback and liberation were once again the policy and the military was Back on the strategic offensive where it could bring its full military Power to Bear. But with Somalia Bosnia and Herzegovina and now North Korea we appear to be Back on the strategic defensive where military Power must be severely constrained. Which is truly the Case before one can rationally decide the size and shape of our armed forces As Knox pointed out nearly 80 years age that fundamental Choice must be made. As he warned in words particularly timely today Quot the determination of such matters As these produces a a Conception of War which furnishes a Point of origin without which we. Arc As Uncertain of our bearings As a vessel in a the problem does not lie with the military. After the Gulf War each of the military services re examined its War fighting doctrines. The air forces Quot global reach a global Power outlined How air Power could be used to undergird . Foreign policy. The Navy and Marine corps Quot from the sea doctrine explained How sea Power could do the same. And the army s revalidation of its a Fairland Battle doctrine Quot made the Case for land Power As Well. But All need a coherent National policy to bring them into focus. That a the Job of the military a civilian overseers a president Clinton and his National Security advisers. They need desperately to heed Knox a Sage advice. A the disastrous results that must follow a failure in Washington to hold similar views about fundamentals Are in words All too True today Knox said Quot there can be no fixed policies no enduring organization no uniformity of rules and methods and no stable Progress. Efficiency must become the football of momentary expediency. Things done today will be undone tomorrow and again the Day after. A both ashore and afloat we therefore imperatively need first of All a Conception of War. Once this is created we will be enabled to proceed with our eyes open and our course Well marked. Without it As Seneca said 2,000 years ago of a Man docs not know to what port he is steering no wind is a c los Angelo Olmos drug hysteria squelched decriminalization debate the notion of individual responsibility is popular at the White House where president Clinton a credentials to being a Quot new Breed of Democrat include his determination to a Send welfare As we know it Quot and help people take control of their own lives. But done to even whisper the idea that government should let people take responsibility for the substances they choose to ingest or even hint that criminal drug enforcement like welfare has been a bureaucratic failure that has created More suffering and dependency than it has prevented., in fact done to even suggest it s a question intelligent people might study out of a perfectly sane concern Over the epidemic of violence connected with criminalization. It never mind that decriminalization of drugs is supported by such conservatives As George p. Shultz Milton Friedman and William f. Buckley. Surgeon general Joyceyn elders brought Down the roof on herself by casually suggesting decriminalization is something we ought to study. She was All but disowned by the White House and denounced by Many republicans who had earlier branded her a a condom Queen a j that left practically nobody to defend her but Buckley who said simply a she a quite because of the hysteria attached to it the debate Over drugs rarely puts drug abuse into its True perspective which is As a Public health problem suffered by a Small minority of the population. Think of it. Seven percent of americans have heart conditions. Eleven percent have High blood pressure and 12 percent have arthritis. Five percent have haemorrhoids and 3 percent have varicose veins the figure for smokers is 27 percent and for users of alcohol 51 percent. But Only 0.9 percent regularly use cocaine according to the National Institute on drug abuse. Even if this figure is understated you have to More than double it to equal the National rate for ingrown toenails or chronic constipation which Are 2.3 percent and 1.9 percent respectively. Drug related violence May seem epidemic but clearly drug abuse Isnit when compared with most diseases. If it were a permissible subject of debate some of the questions we might ask. A just ask mind you a include do these numbers justify the billions spent on drug enforcement with All the violence that results Robert Reno would in fact drug use Rise significantly without enforcement or is the Mere demonization of drugs a prime Factor in their attraction to the Young would civil Laws treatment education and economic Opportunity work better to discourage use much As government has dramatically and effectively discouraged and reduced the use of tobacco in the last 10 years does stricter criminal enforcement have the economic result of vastly increasing profit margins and attracting Large numbers of entrepreneurs to what would otherwise be just another Low volume Low profit Market in products made from commonly available weeds have we really come anywhere since 1918, when the Treasury department estimated there were 1 million addicts or have we merely ended up making a chronic but otherwise manageable Public health problem More expensive socially destructive and poisonous to our politics and what does it say about the maturity of a nation when its chief Public health official cannot even discuss these questions without causing the body politic to swoon a c now Day
