THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 20, 1995 TAG: 9501200526
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long : 107 lines
Peace is hell for many military people, senators were told Thursday, as unconventional operations in places like Rwanda and Haiti exhaust troops and drain dollars intended for training and maintenance.
Navy Cmdr. James Stavridis, skipper of the Norfolk-based destroyer Barry, said his crew has been at sea 75 percent of the past two years. He's worried that the long stretches away from home will spur sailors to ``vote with their feet'' and leave the service.
In Senate and House committee hearings, GOP lawmakers signaled their desire to put new clamps on ``peacekeeping'' operations. They used the testimony of officers like Stavridis to bolster arguments that those efforts, along with the use of defense dollars for such projects as environmental cleanups and cancer research, are damaging the readiness of many units to fight and win wars.
The hearings foreshadowed a debate that is expected to unfold on Capitol Hill this spring over how much military the nation needs and can afford.
In their ``Contract With America,'' House Republicans charged that President Clinton has cut defense spending too deeply, and they promised to provide more money.
The administration, generally with support from senior uniformed leaders in the Pentagon, contends that its plans are adequate. Though Stavridis was among several mid-level officers during Thursday hearings who raised concerns, military chiefs say overall readiness is high.
Adm. William Owens, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said concerns raised last fall - when three Army divisions were downgraded to ``C-3,'' the second-lowest rating in the military's four-step system - may have been exaggerated.
Two of those divisions are to disband this year as the Army continues to downsize, Owens said. The third is not among forces that would be called initially in a crisis.
Clinton and some other Democrats also argue that the peacekeeping efforts Republicans want to trim have been triumphs for America. The president is particularly proud of the military's success in Haiti, where a dictator has been forced from office and into exile and a democratic government restored with just one U.S. casualty to date.
At the fringe of the discussion is a vocal minority of liberal Democrats who continue to argue that the military is bloated; national security could be maintained with a smaller, cheaper force, they say.
``The demise of the Warsaw Pact and the complete evisceration of the former Soviet Union nearly eliminate the threats that occupied as much as 70 percent of our military spending during the height of the Cold War,'' Rep. Ronald V. Dellums, D-Calif., said Thursday. ``I find it incredible, as we confront the issue today, that a perception remains that the challenges on the world's stage . . . cannot be more than adequately met with our current expenditure levels.''
It won't be easy to keep the Republican promise of more military spending, Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va., acknowledged. People ``back on the village greens of America'' are telling his colleagues they want less government spending overall and no more rises in the federal deficit, he said.
So increasingly, Republicans are looking not to add to the defense budget but to rearrange it and keep defense dollars focused on real military activity.
The United States will spend about $260 billion on defense this year, more than one-third of the worldwide total. Peacekeeping expenses are expected to account for only about $2.5 billion of that, less than 1 percent.
Because specific peacekeeping operations aren't planned before budgets are written, the Pentagon has no money set aside to pay for them. The defense budget simply keeps the military on retainer, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., has noted. Using it costs extra.
In the short term, the extra money comes from operational accounts, Defense Department Comptroller John Hamre testified Thursday. Under federal law, Hamre can get at only about $20 billion without congressional authorization.
All that money, Hamre said, comes from accounts that pay for the training of soldiers, sailors and airmen and maintenance of ships, tanks and planes - activities directly related to readiness. When Hamre reached into those accounts last fall, at the close of the 1994 budget year, to pay for the U.S. occupation of Haiti, military commanders had little choice but to cut training, reduce the steaming time of ships and ground some air wings.
The beginning of a new budget year in October made new funds available, Owens said, and readiness has rebounded. He produced charts indicating that any drop last fall was within historic norms.
Hamre said that with operations continuing in Haiti, Bosnia and elsewhere, the administration will try to avoid a repeat of the readiness crunch by asking for a $2.6 billion emergency supplement to the 1995 budget Congress approved last summer. If that isn't forthcoming by March 31, he warned, maintenance and training will be slowed again as money is siphoned off.
Unmentioned in Thursday's discussions was a dispute within the Pentagon over how readiness is measured.
The four-step system the military uses is largely subjective, depending on the judgments of individual commanders about the preparedness of their units. It ``was never intended to provide the comprehensive assessment of overall military readiness that has become increasingly important,'' the General Accounting Office, the government's internal watchdog agency, noted in a report in the fall. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Navy Cmdr. James Stavridis said his crew has been at sea 75 percent
of the time over the past two years.
Graphic
STEVE STONE/Staff
THE COST OF POLICING THE WORLD
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
by CNB