European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 15, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday june 15, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 17while Clinton wavers military refines its task Harry g. Summers president Clinton a foreign policy is everywhere under attack. Quot i bund people saying that we seem to be sailing without a rudder on foreign policy a said democratic Campaign strategist Brian Lunde after a recent trip through Alabama. A above All he is charged with failing to articulate a coherent set of principles or priorities for american engagement a said the financial times of London. Without a foreign policy How can one Structure a military capable of undergird ing . Diplomacy As Theodore Roosevelt warned in 1897, a diplomacy is utterly useless where there is no Force behind  but military Force does not Spring full blown from the chests of the joint chiefs of staff. It s no longer a matter of taking the Musket from Over the mantel and marching off to War. Soldiers must be recruited trained organized and equipped Well in Advance of the moment of crisis. To win on today a sophisticated Battlefield there arc enormous Lead times involved first there is the matter of developing proficiency in Basic combat skills How to shoot a Rifle How to align a howitzer How to get first round hits from a tank on the move How to Fly a fighter plane an assault helicopter or a transport aircraft How to sail a destroyer or a nuclear powered aircraft Carrier. Then there is the incredibly Complex task of taking All these tactical skills and combining them first within and then among the army Navy air Force and marines into organizations capable of applying coordinated military action on the Battlefield. Finally their actions have to be brought into Sharp focus by Clear Cut strategic plans designed to achieve . Political objectives by the use if need be of military Force. But How can we begin when those political objectives cannot be divined in Advance and Only become Clear when the order is Given at the last minute to deploy forces in their defense in Short How can the military bring the order essential for military Success out of the chaos of to Days foreign policies a your nation s past experience indicates that when the threat is ill defined and resources Are scarce a As is the Case today a the military decays a noted army chief of staff Gen. Gordon r. Sullivan and Secretary of the army Togo West. One Way to ensure that does not happen again is through the Louisiana Maneu vers. Named after its 1940s predecessor that tested new War fighting concepts doctrines plans and Force structures that were later applied on the battlefields of world War ii today a Louisiana Maneu vers Are a Laboratory to practice roles and missions to develop and explore options and to assess and direct Progress into the 21st Century. An important part of the Louisiana Maneu vers is the National simulation Center at fort Leavenworth Kan. Created to serve As the combat Developer for the army to examine tactics techniques and procedures and to train battalion brigade division and corps Battle staffs for combined arms warfare  simulations Are designed to reply cat War. This is not As fanciful As it sounds. As a battalion and corps operations officer in Vietnam i received most of my a a pictures of the Battlefield through secondhand Telephone and radio reports which can be realistically simulated. With literally millions of line entries today a computer War games can Factor in Navy Ana air Force support logistics and resupply firepower support intelligence reconnaissance Ana enemy actions. Winning is by no Means a foregone conclusion a fact that keeps Battle staffs on full Alert. Last month the army command and general staff College at fort Leavenworth conducted just such a computer simulated War fighting exercise. Called Prairie Warrior it involved the colleges some 1,000 students captains and majors who will provide the future leadership of i he army students from the British and French staff colleges and. Battle staff noncommissioned officers from the army a sergeants major Academy. Part of their exercise involved the Man Euver of a hypothetical Mobile strike Force modelled along new lines and employing what Are expected to be he technologies and weapons systems of the year 2010. It operated against the Battle come training programs opposing Force to derive insights on significantly increased lethality survivability and Tempo of land combat in the next Century. War fighting exercises like Prairie Warrior dramatically reduce the Lead Lime for deployment of military forces in support of foreign policy. When Clinton finally does decide on a course of action the military will be ready  on chaos. A c los Angola times. Legal loopholes get . Out of drug War the United states makes a specific military technological commitment to two foreign governments allies in a struggle of life and death Many lives and deaths a year after it goes into operation the arrangement starts a Legal dispute Between sets of . Government lawyers. So the . Breaks the commitment snap like that without consulting in Advance the countries Washington had talked into the Deal. They happen to think it was working Well and was exquisitely important. The commitment was to provide Colombia and Peru with information from . Ground radar and airborne warning and control system intelligence aircraft to track drug planes As they flew to their bases in those countries. The state department said the help was Legal. Lawyers from defense and some other agencies thought the . Could be sued by the families of the traffickers if the colombians or peruvians shot Down their planes. They won. Colombians and peruvians say they have been betrayed and a state department official has just flown Down to see them. The South americans say the radar information was essential not for shooting Down planes but far More for discovering traffickers distribution Points and tracking guerrilla bands working As gunslingers for narcotics gangs. And they say that since the . Folded the radar screen the drug flights have increased. How could this happen w without Congress going up in smoke without president Clinton s advisers warning him away from another breach of word one reason is our partners were just South american. Americans get interested in latin America when its name is Castro or we land troops. Name three living South american presidents. Two. Second the struggle involved was the drug War which does not grab government and journalistic trendsetters As much As it used to. It grabs the Public Allright under the heading of crime. But Washington does no to seem fired up. Maybe because the president does no to. Clinton has approved a decent budget and does from time to time speak of narcotics. But in the whole government during a years Worth of poking around i have not run into As much know How and drive about drugs As in one meeting _ with three narcotics fighters from a therapy and Job program for released prisoners. Business people who realize How essential both Are in the drug War should write to father Peter Young altar ont program 134 Franklin Street Albany . 12202. Sorry a the Clinton administration does not want it called the drug War anymore. That news comes from or. Lee Brown drug policy director. He was supposed . Rosenthal of his the new Clinton administration downgraded the Job before he was even appointed to about Captain. So no More War you hear reminds me of the time the Rockefeller government in new York state decided to grapple with the mafia by battling the word in All statements. Terrific idea a the mafia loved it so much that they blocked the truck Bays of the new York times when the paper refused to go along. The former general was out of town and the people on his tiny staff would hot say what he thought about breaking american commitments to our former partners in the former War. So let me Tell them a he will support it. Lie has echoed the Clinton administrations decision to Cut Back on one of three Basic strategies in the former War a enforcement therapy interdiction. The administration docs not think interdiction is As important As do South americans who live with drugs fit my Over their Heads. South americans had already spoken of their fears about the cutback in interception. Still the colombians and the peruvians were startled that the radar tracking program was eliminated snap because some lawyers found it Dicey liability wisc a startled bitter furious. Maybe on a trip to South America some Day Clinton will explain Why he permitted his administration to behave so to nations we said were our partners. For a president who already has troubles about this Promise keeping business it is a wound inflicted by himself or the people supposed to guard ins word and Honor. To be top general in the struggle. But through no fault