European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 29, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Aspin victimized by unprincipled Clinton staff Harry g. Summers one picture they say is Worth a thousand words. In the same dec. 16 Issue of the Washington Post that headlined the resignation of defense Secretary Les Aspin was a picture of George Stephano Poulos president Clinton a closest adviser blowing a Bubble gum bub ble during the presidents news conference at the White House the Day before. That a the juvenile atmosphere in which Aspin had to compete a a a a a unsuccessfully As it turned out for the presidents Atten Tion. A serious and thoughtful Man who had devoted some 20 years of his life to safeguarding americans National defences Aspin deserved better than that. His ignominious dismissal from office was the final blow. The charade that Aspin was resigning a for personal reasons Quot did lot survive the Day. Quot Pentagon officials were insisting. That Aspin left of his own Choice and was not pushed Quot reported tie Washington Post a but every other version of what occurred behind the scenes was at Odds with it was soon revealed that Clinton had decided to fire him More than a month before and that the White House staff had offered his Job to retired Navy adm. Bobby Ray Inman six weeks earlier. Much was made of Aspinw a culpability in the oct. 3, 1993, massacre of american soldiers in Mogadishu especially his decision not to approve the commanders request for armoured vehicles. But military officers close to the scene Tell a different Story. The request was originally made to protect convoys not troops they say and had a relatively Low priority. While they believe the request should have been approved they understand the political climate in which As pin s decision was made and especially applaud his willingness to take the heat when the situation turned into a disaster. But they have nothing but contempt for the a spin meisters in the White House who scurried for cover and claimed Complete ignorance of the whole matter. For the White House to scape Goat Aspin now and put out the word that the Somalia episode was the reason he was fired is the Neight of unprincipled hypocrisy. While the Media May buy it the troops know who had their Best interests at heart. Indeed it was Aspinw a defense of their Best interests and of the Best interests of the nation that proved to be his ultimate undoing a a defense Secretary Les Aspin was fired wednesday a said the Washington times on dec. 17, a a after losing a heated Battle with budget director Leon Panetta Over a White House demand to triple the proposed $60 billion Cut in Pentagon spending administration officials revealed yesterday. Quot a this was staff orchestrated a a White House adviser said. Or. Aspin lost the Confidence of Clinton and Clinton a but unlike the other members of Clinton steam who had Only to please the president Aspin had another constituency to answer to As Well a the men and women of americans armed forces who serve under his operational command. As a student of history Aspin knew that time and again the shortfalls in the defense budget had been paid for in american blood. In France in 1918, at Bataan in 1941, at the Kasserine pass in Tunisia in 1943, in the Pusan perimeter in Korea in 1950, our soldiers sailors airmen and marines bought time with their lives until the deficiencies in arms and equipment could be corrected. As chairman of the House armed services committee and then As defense Secretary Aspin knew that the cuts in the defense budget Over the past six years have reduced our National Security to the razors Edge. Those concerns led to his request last month for $50 billion in new defense funds Over the next five years a request that Clinton especially did not want to hear. The Secretary of defense any Secretary of defense a is impaled on the horns of a dilemma for he is charged with simultaneously executing two diametrically opposed tasks. On the one hand he is the manager of a multimillion Dollar but at the same time he is the Leader of the several million men and women of our Active and Reserve military forces. While Congress with its control of the purse provides some control Over the Secretary s managerial deficiencies there is no such Protection against failure of leadership. And it was leadership failures that led to Battlefield disaster in both Korea and Vietnam. Before Korea defense Secretary Louis a. Johnson Cut the military so severely that it was almost destroyed in the Early Days of the korean War. And defense Secretary Robert s. Mcnamara managed the military to its death in Vietnam. Aspin was criticized for being too thoughtful too scholarly too much of an old fog by the bubblegum chewers. But what he really was was a Man of Honor in a White House Quot team that knows no Honor. God save Bobby Ray Inman. C to Angola time homeless need places to live not persecution he wears camouflage clothes the Man who works the cars waiting to pass through the Holland Tunnel and a sign that says a homeless _ tucked beneath his Arm or what a left of it since he lost the part below the Elbow is a military helmet inverted now turned into a beggars bowl. But he never asks for Money and his Black eyes bespeak not entreaty but anger. The children clamor to put a Bill in the helmet and they speculate about the lost Arm about whether it was a grenade or a Bullet that did it. Never do they wonder As i do whether the Arm was lost in a car Accident whether the camouflage clothes and helmet came from the army Navy store whether the Dollar goes for drink and drugs or whether the homeless vet is nothing of the sort Mary Brosnahan the executive director of the coalition for the homeless has a term for this phenomenon a separating the worthy from the More than a decade after our fellow citizens began bedding Down on the sidewalks their problems continue to seem so intractable that we have begun to do psychologically what government has been incapable of doing pro grammatically. We bring the numbers Down a not by solving the problem but by deciding its their own Damn fault. The passive homeless Are worthy the aggressive unworthy. This is the opposite of the ethos on the streets where Only the Strong survive. The crazy homeless should go to institutions. There is Little thought Given to the possibility that having no place to go made them crazy in the first place. The unworthy homeless urinate on the streets. What Are their options politicians sensing the Public mood have become More punitive during the mayoral Campaign Rudolph w. Giuliani made himself look both ridiculous and callous by proposing a 90-Day limit on shelter stays this in new York where the average homeless family is in the system for More than twice that. Some cities Are now making panhandling an offence and aggressively enforcing loitering Laws. A woman loitered Long on a Bench across the Street from the department of housing and Urban development in the nations capital. She froze to death there and the Hud Secretary Henry a Cisneros delivered her Eulogy. But perhaps the truest words spoken on her behalf were those of a Hud employee who looked out on the ambulances and police cars and said a a it a just strange to see How Many resources a person gets after they some officials think the Way to proceed is to demonize prosecute persecute. It is an illusory remedy. Others see the reality. Aides to new York gov. Mario m. Cuomo Are considering the first increase in the shelter allowance for welfare families since 1988. Cisneros has proposed a plan for the District of Columbia that has As its Centrepiece the creation of 1,000 new units of permanent housing. Anna Quindlen the vacancy rate for Public housing in new York City is close to Zero. The vacancy rate for apartments with rents within the current welfare shelter allowance is 1 percent. There Are Many different kinds of people lumped under the Rubric there Are the women with children no longer Able to share apartments with relatives. There Are the Vietnam veterans who bed Down at the shelter on Borden Avenue in Queens and go out looking for Day work each morning the working Nom less most new yorkers never know about. There arc panhandlers and sidewalk sleepers crack addicts and violent criminals and people who talk to the Man in the Moon. Some need hospitalization some need rehabilitation and some will wind up Back in jail. But they All have one thing in common. After the rehab and the hospitals and the shelters they will All still need a place to live. The most successful programs for the homeless Over the last decade have certainly not been shelters or even treatment pro trams. They be been programs that develop affordable using. People done to Stop being homeless when they get clean and sober or when they Lake their medication. They done to even Stop being homeless when they find work. And they certainly done to Stop being homeless when the cops move them from place to place or we decide they re bad people anyhow. They Stop being homeless when they find Homes Cythe new Yolk time a a
