By
Mike Cohen, Guest Author
Published in the South Marion Citizen, October 13, 2000
Looking for an issue that might win them a few votes, the Republicans are now attacking the Democrats' handling of the military. Under Clinton/Gore, they say, the military has become a hollow force. The military is sagging, says former president George Bush, a man who will say almost anything to win an election: ("Read my lips; no new taxes.")
Hey look: It was this same President Bush, with Dick Cheney (current Republican candidate for Vice President) at his side as then Secretary of Defense, who put in place a 25 percent cut in our armed forces. It is the Clinton/Gore administration that is now in process of rebuilding. New enlistments are up; reenlistments are also up.
Republicans complain that we are not ready at this time to fight two major wars simultaneously. They don't tell us where on this planet they can find two major adversaries.
Morale of the military is low, they tell us, the troops are bored. Maybe. When you run your troops through the entire training curriculum and at its conclusion have no war to send them to, what do you do next? You run them through the drill again. And again. Sure all that stultifying chicken gets boring. But in view of the possible alternatives, this is the best kind of military situation a nation can hope for: troops poised in readiness - and yes, somewhat bored by inaction - and nothing non-boring to do with them.
Okay. I hear you; you want to talk about Bosnia and Kosovo, you want to talk about an editorial in the Star-Banner (9/11/00) that complained about sending American soldiers on these peace keeping missions that detract "from the ability to perform at high standards in the other (areas) - defending the United States - if for no other reason than training time is lost." Whoever wrote those words was never engaged in preparing troops - or himself - for battle.
All the stateside dry run training the mind of man can dream up cannot fully prepare men for actual combat. My outfit in World War II trained in the United States and Northern Ireland for 2 years. We went through the entire curriculum again and again. And again.
There wasn't anything in the field manuals that we didn't know forward and backward. Yet when finally we landed in Normandy, what we hit and what hit us was totally beyond anything we had seen in training. It was start-all-over-again time, this war was for real.
Contrary to what the Star-Banner says, the American troops serving today as peacekeepers are not dulling their battle readiness; they're honing it. This may not be all out combat (for which we are grateful!) But the potentials are there, the hazards are there and our soldiers are learning to sleep half awake and see through the back of their heads. This is no longer blue force versus red force in the maneuver playgrounds of Fort Belvoir, Virginia; training is past, this is live ammo experience.
What I wonder is why the Republicans object so shrilly to the humanity of a few small rescue deployments but accept so placidly 63,000 American troops in Germany, 37,000, in Japan and 37,000 in Korea. Actually I don't wonder at all.
I know and you know that the Republicans have always portrayed themselves as the tough
guy advocates of big muscle military, defenders of American virtue and all that. It's really
kind of weird; look who's talking.
George Bush Sr., with an overwhelming force of half a million American troops on the
ground in Iraq, didn't know what to do with the victory his heroic forces were trying to
hand him. With Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney (the current Republican vice president
wannabe) at this side, Bush bugged out to leave Saddam Hussein still in charge with his
Republican Guard almost intact to continue his evil machinations with nerve warfare,
germs warfare and nuclear experiments. Newsweek (7/31/00) reported on Brent Scowcroft,
President Bush's National Security Advisor during the Gulf War: "In hindsight
Scowcroft's one regret is that the ground war didn't go on for 'another 24 hours or so' in
order to destroy Saddam's Republican Guard." Let it be known that in addition to Bush,
Cheney and Scowcroft, also concurring in that quit-too-soon decision were Colin Powell
and Norman Schwartzkopf whose names have been mentioned as possible members of a
George W. Bush cabinet. So ask yourself this: Are these the people we want leading our
armed forces in case of a major war? Two major wars? If the Republicans want a shot at
winning this election, let them listen to the advice of this Democrat: Talk about something
else. Get off the military before somebody asks why George W. Bush was hiding out in the
Air National Guard in the States while Al Gore and a half a million other patriots were in
Vietnam.
Mike Cohen
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