European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 13, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Wednesday july 13,1994 commentary l the stars and stripes Page 15politics, diplomacy haunt nato the critical struggle Over whether nato ought to take in Eastern Europe unfolds on the premise that Russia objects to having the Alliance move East to its very Doorstep. Is this loss of a strategic Buffer russians Reward for abandoning communism and Empire it. Is asked. The question arises both from aggrieved russians and from americans including policy makers at the highest level sympathetic to their alarm. Good answers Are available including that in All due respect Russia cannot be allowed to Call natos shots. But the most telling response comes from an unexpected place Russia itself. Russia has in effect two parties a one looking West and meaning to leave Empire behind the other looking More in a Ward and readier to reassert the old order. Among the Western Zers who see no Good reason for Poland Hungary and the two halves of the old Czechoslovakia Stephan s. Rosenfeld. Not to pin nato Sergei Blag Ovoline a voice rings Clear. Blag Volin is a Veteran of the policy wars who runs an Institute in Moscow and is High in reformer Yegor Gaidar a Russia party. He and the Hudson institutes William Odom a retired general and former head of the National Security Agency explored the Issue of natos expansion in the journal novae Eremya no. 7. The idea circulates that a the russians oppose nato expansion. But Odom notes that Boris Yeltsin said in Warsaw and Prague last september that Russia would not object if they joined. Only later under pressure from a military that had bailed him out in a confrontation with the old parliament did the russian president reverse his stance. Blag Volin made the Case for expansion from russians Point of View nato has no offensive potential a condition confirmed by its unanimity Rule the Cut of american forces to the 100,000 level Ani its turn from preparing to repel a soviet invasion to refocusing on regional conflict. A Poland Hungary the czech Republic and Slovakia sit in a a military political vacuum and a completely rationally fear unforeseen developments in Russia and Ukraine not to forget Germany. They Are a More or less a compatible a a with nato and ready a unlike Many other would be members a and their participation does not threaten Russia. A generally speaking i see Only one real danger in natos expansion a the possibility that reactionary forces in Russia could use this As one More excuse to ignite anti Western a russians own entry into the Alliance would mean a a Gigantic expansion of natos sphere into an a Atlantic Pacific Structure a and Many existing nato members would rebel a in other words russian entry is a guaranteed Way to end nato practically if not Blag Ovoline a favored alternative to Alliance membership for Russia is a High level strategic partnership with the United states and nato in Europe and with the United states and others in Asia such cooperation Quot would also become an extremely effective Means for preventing a new strategic division of Europe on the basis of a a clash of civilizations which prof. Samuel Huntington predicts. Otherwise a desolate isolation from All developed countries of the world awaits it is so of course that one policy wonks article does not prove that a tidal wave of enlightenment is about to sweep Over a divided and distracted. Russian government. But it can Only help to realize that the anti expansion bluster one hears in Moscow and the sympathetic Echo of it that one hears in Washington Are something less than the whole Story representing not eternal verities but a political debate in the one place and a diplomatic posture in the other. It patronize russians to think they cannot bring themselves to understand that nato expansion 1 does not threaten them and 12 promises them Security advantage Ana much More. Nato has held off on expanding so As not to stir up russian nationalists and undercut Yeltsin. Odom warns that Western hesitation May encourage rather than discourage russian imperialist tendencies. A now it is painfully Clear that failing to hedge against the failure of Liberal development in Russia is a strategic error it can still be corrected. Russia is in no position to prevent the expansion of nato today. In a few years it May c Washington Post. A on Hurrah for the Congress. In the face of a politically Correct Media Blitz to eliminate the school of the americas at fort Benning ga., hyped by its critics As the Quot school for assassins and the Quot school for dictators a common sense ultimately prevailed. By a margin of 217 to 175, the House of representatives in May rejected an amendment by democratic rep Joseph Kennedy of Massachusetts to Cut off Pentagon funding for the school. Of All the programs of president Kennedy a 1963 Alliance for Progress the school of the americas renamed and reorganized from the latin american Center set up in 1946 has been one of the few Success stories. During the schools tenure the former authoritarian and military regimes that once dominated Central and South american nations except for Cuba and Haiti have progressed frown authoritarian and military regimes to freely elected democratic governments. But instead of praising the schools part in that remarkable transformation a fkr a Nephew has been waging a two year crusade to do away with it. His main charge is that some 10 of its 58,000 graduates have staged military coups to seize political control. With that convoluted logic Kennedy ought to be condemning the roman Catholic Church As Well since All of the dictators of latin America civilian and military alike were taught their catechisms under the Tutelage of that August institution. And unlike the . Army whose instructors Are firmly committed to democracy and civilian control of the military some of the Quot liberation theologians among the Catholic Priesthood would move latin american governments no Moward democracy but toward a cuban style a a socialist dictatorship. Although he May be Quot intellectually challenged a Joseph Kennedy is politician enough to know better than to condemn the Catholic Church even though he is joined in his dubious crusade by Roy Bourgeois a Catholic priest who led a 40-Day demonstration against the school of the americas on the Steps of the . Capitol. A we can to close an institution because a Small percentage of the participants Are bad or get off the track a rep. George a a buddy Darden d-ga., told the Washington Post. His common sense observation includes not Only the school of the americas and the roman Catholic Church but As Darden went on to say the Congress itself. A Kennedy decided to try to abolish the school after talking. Last year to Charles t. Call. Whom the army hired to give lectures on human rights there a reported the Washington Post. Quot Call reported that nobody was seriously interested in listening to him. People would be in class snickering at but the message May not have been the source of his students amusement. Maybe they were snickering at. Call himself. A if the student fails to learn a they told me at an instructors training course More than 25 years ago Quot the teacher has failed to Kennedy May have misidentified the cause of Callas problems. He certainly mis categorized the school of the americas. It is primarily a tactical school Harry g. Summers designed to train sergeants lieutenants captains and majors on the role of military professionals in a democratic society. Its courses vary from weeks Long technical courses to the yearlong command and staff course. Senior latin american officers attend the inter american defense College at fort Mcnair in Washington , ten months Long it is a strategic level War College that emphasizes education rather than training and a the detailed study of political economic psychosocial and military Fields of for some years now i have been privileged to lecture the colleges students on the american Way of War stressing the role of the . Military in society the absolute subordination of the military to civilian control and the constitutionally mandated role of the people through their elected representatives in raising the military committing it to Battle and providing rules for its regulation and governance. Far from Quot snickering a the students take particular interest in the american Model of civil military relationships. And they Are Quick to Point out our hypocrisies. A you rightly condemned our civil rights abuses during the cold War when we a disappeared those we believed guilty of subversion a said a senior Argentine officer. A you pressured us to enact Law s forbidding military involvement in Domestic affairs. No sooner did we do that than you began telling our military to get re involved in Domestic intelligence this time in the name of drug instead of his dim bulb crusade against the school of the americas which promotes democracy Joseph Kennedy might take a look at . Drug programs which unwittingly subvert it. C los Angeles times a
