European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 26, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Wednesday january 26, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 15 press ignores possibility of live pos in Laos Sydney h. Schanberg the state department Las week opened the door to the possibility that american pos from the Vietnam War could be alive in Laos. Yet no major newspaper carried the , we take up one More facet of the Mia scandal the ability of the main Stream press to ignore the evidence that a. Large number of american prison ers of War per haps hundreds were not returned by Hanoi at the end of the War and that some of them May still be alive. What happened was that the stat department re leased its answer to questions that had been posed the Day before by report ers at a regular briefing. They had asked a department spokeswoman for the Agency s comments about recent reports based on archival documents that prisoners had been left behind in Laos. The department s answer first quote from a 1993 Senate report that said american officials did not have certain knowledge that any specific prisoner or prisoners were being left the state department followed this with its own new divergent com ment however we cannot Rule put the possibility that live americans May be held in then came another stunner in which the state department pointed its Finger directly at Hanoi. It was a response that went beyond what the reporters had asked about at the briefing. It said "505americans remain unaccounted for in Laos. However More than 80 percent of the persons unaccounted for in laps were actually lost in areas under the control of the North this is the strongest language about unreturned pos to emerge from offi Cial Washington since operation Homecoming 21 years ago. That was in Early 1973, when the peace agreements we resigned and Hanoi sent Back 591 men contending these were the Only prisoner they had. President Nixon publicly accepted that explanation in the face of powerful contradictory evidence. At the time Nixon was caught in the coils of get alot Jocora to Tuple soil. I have digressed for history Snake to underscore the unusual Ness of the state department declaration that watergate. Since then official Washington in particular the intelligence Community has insisted there is no credible Evi Dence that any service members were left behind or Are alive there Back in 1973, amid operation we cannot Rale put the Possi Busty that Homecoming . Military intelligence publicly listed 311 men As missing in Laos and said most of them were believed Tobe Hying prisoners. The vietnamese re turned nine of these men. The laotians returned none. Laos has always been known As the Black one reason for the name was that unlike Vietnam the War there was Covert and Cia run. Another reason was the belief that in addition to the technical accuracy of Hanoi s Contention the Only Story i could find was a piece that no prisoners were being held on its filed by the diplomatic correspondent for r i a _ i United press International Sid Balman or. His dispatch plainly noted the statement s significance. It leaped out at me Balman said. Clearly they went out of their Wayto make these Points about Laos and about with but a few exceptions the main Stream press especially the washing ton corps has been ignoring this Story men who specifically went missing inlays other prisoners were moved into the Small Hanoi dominated country bythe North vietnamese to preserve the live americans May be held in statement is even More unusual for pointing out that 80 percent of the miss ing in Laos were lost in areas under the control of the North this clearly suggests that Hanoi is the respond vigorously for 20 years. Maybe it s out of sible party and it belies All the recent embarrassment the journalists might feel Washington statements that Hanoi has been cooperating impressively on Mia s. In Short the state department Decla ration had All the obvious earmarks of an important news Story or at least one that needed reporting for the record. Yet none of the nation s leading news papers ran this Story. That picking it up now would be a mortifying admission of earlier failure strange in t it that the press sen hundreds upon hundreds of reporters to cover the War in Vietnam and yet can find even a few to look into what happened to the men who went missing there. Combat ready women recast military thinking during the persian Gulf War we Crosse the Rubicon on the question of women in combat and there is no turning reality was reaffirmed by Secretary of defense Les Aspin s Jan. 13 announcement on the Pentagon combat policy for women. Prior to that War restrictions on the assignment of women on the Battlefield were based on a risk Rule that prohibited female service members from serving in positions where they were endanger of coming under enemy fire. Ironically that policy was Akin to the current Politi Cally Correct victorian notion now advanced by some feminists that women Are so weak and so sensitive that even a careless word or a sideways glance is enough to set them All aflutter and is thereby grounds for charges of sexual military women Are made of sterner stuff. During the Gulf War More than 37,000 women serve Din the combat zone some 6.8 percent of the total . Forces. Some were nurses As in past wars but mos served in regular units in a variety of assignments including truck Drivers helicopter pilots and intelligence specialists As Well As air Force transport pilots. Other were aboard Navy oilers and ammunition ships at sea. Six female soldiers were killed in action including for the first time in american history five enlisted women two female soldiers were captured and 21 were wounded in action. Some 14 female marines were awarded the combat action ribbon for their direct involvement in hostile actions against the enemy. As a re sult of that wartime experience in april 1993 the Pentagon changed its rules to allow women to Fly combat aircraft and to serve on surface banned however was assignment to direct ground combat units that engage an enemy on the ground with individual or Crew served weapons and that Are exposed to hostile fire and that have a High probability of direct physical combat with personnel of a hos tile Force. Some would have extended this infantry Armor Field artillery and special operations forces exclusion to combat support positions As Well including aviation Engineer Sig Nal military police and military intelligence units which operate in close proximity to the front effect that would have reversed the precedents set Dur Harry g. Summers ing the Gulf War where women served with distinction in just such Forward assign ments. But Aspin did not buy that argument. The risk Rule he said has really been overtake by events and we Are rescinding the risk Rule As of oct. 1, 1994." while arguments will continue Over assign ment of women to Mars multiple launch rocket system artillery units that normally operate from thereat of the Battle area and to battalion level assign ments in combat units the gains made by women in the Gulf War have been validated. No longer will it be the patronizing stigma of risk but instead practical factors such As the physical Rigours of close combat that will set the limits on female assign ments. This has profound implications far beyond the military itself. Expansion is one of the watchwords of the Clinto administration defined As expanding democracy and free Market economics throughout the world. But America expands its influence not so much by words As by deeds. The role of women is a Case in Point especially in the Arab world now caught Between Progress toward modernity on one hand and the Call by Funda mentalists for a return to a medieval theocracy on the other. The sight of american military women in the Gulf driving trucks flying aircraft unloading supplies and serving in a whole Host of what to the arabs were strictly male occupations profoundly challenged tradition Alarab views on the role of women in society. There were demonstrations by saudi arabian women for an end to restrictions. The most profound example is the Way the iranian people s Mujahideen use women in the military As a political weapon to attack the mullahs in Teheran who have made repression of women a mainstay of their Rule. One third of the 40,000-Strong Mujahideen Mili tary is female. The future is on their Side. Equality for women is defining feature of the modern world and once again As it did with racial Equality the . Military is Spear heading the Way. C lo3 angles times
