European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 14, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse V wednesday september 14, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 15 Clinton needs to Bone up Harry s. Summers there is a memorable scene in the movie Patton where As German Field Marsha Erwin Rommel s attacking pan Zers close in on the . Ii corps defensive positions at Al Huettar in Tunisia in March 1943 George c. Scott As maj. Gen. George s. Patton jr., shouts you sob i be read your Book what we desperately need now is for president Clinton to shout to Cuba s Fidel Castro North Korea s Kim Jong ii bosnian serbian Leader Radovan Karadzic and haitian Gen Raoul Cedras and others of that ilk you sobs i be read my for Patton the Book in question was Rommel s infantry attacks which according to Patton s diary he actually read in november 1944 while advancing on the Siegfried line. For Clinton the Book is his own a National Security strategy of engagement and enlargement published in july 1994 and distributed by the White House this document was mandated by the Goldwater Nicholas defense depart ment reorganization act of 1986, and its purpose is for the president to provide annual Public guidance on the direction of foreign and military policy. Clinton s first such report was Long overdue for the last such statement was by president Bush in january 1993.if one did hot know that . National Security policy was in almost total disarray this would be a most reassuring document for it says All the right things. This report elaborates a new National Security strategy for this new Era Clin ton says. Focusing on new threats and new opportunities its Central goals arc to credibly sustain our Security with Mili tary forces that Are ready to fight to Bol Ster America s economic revitalization and to promote democracy but in what has become the hallmark of his administration there is a credibility chasm Between what Clinton says and what he does. The same month his. National Security strategy touted military forces that Are ready to fight there were reports that the precise opposite was aircraft Carrier squadrons at Alfr f at Haiti Whitbey Island naval air station have been fully or partly grounded because the Navy does not have enough Money to pay for training flights and foreign operations at the same time reported the Seattle Post intelligencer on aug. 24. A few Good men Are being stretched too thin said the Christian science Monitor on aug. 19, recalling How the 24th Marine expeditionary unit had returned to Camp Lejeune n.c., in june after a six month deployment in the Mediterranean Only to be ordered Back to sea a week later to the Caribbean for the Haiti crisis. A study released in Early August by the defense department study group on readiness reported that pockets of difficulty if left a remedied could bring the military Back to the hollow status of the 1970s. Last week a senior Marine officer told me that it was already begin Ning to happen with the 3rd Marine div on Okinawa where because of budget cuts firing batteries were being stripped from the artillery regiment and Rifle battalions from the infantry regiments. Worse the antiquated helicopters they depend on to bring their assault Waves ashore required four hours of maintenance for every hour they were in the ago the marines made a calculated Gamble not to sign on to the army s uh-60 Black Hawk helicopter and in Stead develop the v-22tilt-Wing Osprey tailored to their needs. Now they need it Clinton seemed to know that during his Campaign and made a Promise to sup port the v-22. But in August a defense department memo ordered the military to plan for the possible cancellation of major weapons systems including the v 22. Instead of Marine expeditionary units that Are ready to fight the cancellation of the y-22 Calls into question their future ability to project Power ashore at All. Of All the elements contained in this strategy Clinton concluded none is More important than this our administration is committed to explaining our Security interests and objectives to the nation and seeking the broadest possible Public and congressional support for our Security but so far first in so Malia then in Bosnia and now in Haiti this has been Clinton s major failing. In 1944, the infantry journal trans lated and published Rommel s infantry attacks As part of the world War ii know your enemy series. Now Clinton s the National Security strategy of engagement and enlargement should be required Reading by himself and his staff As part of a know yourself series. For As the chinese strategist Sun Tzu said More than 2,000 years ago if ignorant both of your enemy yourself you Are cer Tain in every Battle to be in c Pope due some respect Ite a. Pope John Paul ii surely deserves something better than he got at the hands of some of his critics atthe population conference in Cairo Egypt. Consider that in his eyes the demise of the moral and political Scourge of soviet communism was almost certainly meant to release something of a global re birth to give the Western world one More Chance be fore the millennium to reach for a higher destiny. Yet what does he find but by his lights a coarse and pervasive Western dominated secular culture denying much of his Faith s deepest values a rot currently and flagrantly exemplified by a in. Conference whose debates however they spin out in Cairo can hardly slow the decisions of millions of women to terminate pregnancies by abortion. Don t share the Pope s views on abortion. I hesitate to say he is wrong in his emphasis on the Sanctity of life before birth. But it is Clear enough that the More permissive Point of View embraced by an evident . Majority not to promote abortion As an instrument of family planning but to encourage states to make it Leeal Safe and rare has its own compelling moral aspect finally thai aspect consists of easing the lot of disadvantaged billions born and unborn. It requires care in application but no apology. In any event notwithstanding the intensity of the debate in Cairo abortion is Only one item and tar from the make or break item in a Broad menu o social economic and political choices that All states and individuals everywhere must make to ensure their eco nomic and environmental futures. The stronger basis on Challenge the Pope s views on population and development lies elsewhere in the assertion As made by his spokesman in Rome that the very Effort to control human population is based on an arrogant assertion of state Power and in fact proceeds according to a questionable theory of world resources and human in Short Why worry there is always an arbitrary element in How we pick our gurus. I pick mine from among those who address the reality of human misery. The Vatican s tendency to dismiss the notion of any population crisis at All. Takes it out of the Circle of seriousness on this Issue. Still on the narrower value Laden Issue of abortion it simply asks too much to expect the Pope and those who stand with him to accept quietly a Cairo formula that although presented to them As a modest Compro Mise must outrage their every fiber. For on the ques Tion of whether an abortion actually takes place there can be no Compromise. There Are winners and there Are losers. That is Why there must be on the secular winning Side a measure of respect for the affront that Public policy and sentiment undeniably deliver to the losing religious cide. That much is due. And perhaps More to 74-year-old polish born John Stephen s. Rosenfeld Paul. His halves cannot be separated. The belief in human dignity that fires his Zeal against abortion is the same source that fired his Zeal against communism. Yet his Public standing has notably dimmed since the end of the cold War. Once celebrated he now is patronized where he is not attacked and ignored. In his spokesman s statement published in the Wall Street journal on sept i there is a hint of personal a battlement. The Pope has received widespread if sometimes begrudging Praise for his role in the Dis mantling of marxism writes j. Navarro Valls. He has More than amply answered Stalin s question about How Many troops Trie Pope had More than enough to help undermine Stalin s still this is a Man who comes Down from the Heights of a historic Triumph Over a hateful doctrine and an evil Empire Only to find among his own people what he regards As a wholesale wrong turn. Behind the Public Battle in Cairo then there was a personal drama in Rome. A figure Cut to epic Dimen Sions appears to be playing out a deeply ironic 20th Century role including enormous achievement in bring ing Down communism a political act and enor Mous disappointment in apply ing his Core values on the Sanctity or human life a spiritual Mission. Some of us might say that whatever this combination Means for the Pope for us it is Welcome better that he succeeded in the one Endeavor and that he May be fail ing Short in the other. But More of us might take not of the authenticity of a religious Man s demanding life. C Washington Post
