THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 7, 1995 TAG: 9506070006
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 33 lines
I fear Page 1 of your May 30 paper may prove prophetic - three columns on the left headlined ``Honoring those who served,'' and two columns on the right headlined ``Group to deploy more U.N. troops. . . .''
The latter item reports a Clinton administration official ``not ruling out contributing (U.S.) troops in a combat role - specifically, a commando action.'' Since a commando operation by definition requires surprise to have any chance of success without extraordinarily high casualties, I hope the press uses tiny type and Dan Rather, et al., speak soto voce when reporting our, pardon me, the U.N.'s plans.
The French, using their Den Ben Fu experience, have developed a scheme for regrouping the peacekeepers into nodes, as well as deploying more ground troops. It appears that the U.S., using our Vietnam experience, will supply these additional troops - in numbers and at a rate always below that needed to accomplish anything. Let us hope the Brits will use their Dunkirk evacuation experience to minimize the number of new graves we have to mourn over next Memorial Day.
DONALD E. BABCOCK
Virginia Beach, May 31, 1995
dbabcock(AT)infi.net by CNB