Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Senators get wakeup call

Tuesday, Oct. 6, 1998 | 11:50 a.m.

WHAT A BUNCH of cheese-eating hypocrites! That's an appropriate title earned by Republican Sens. Robert C. Smith of New Hampshire, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho last week. All of them acted surprised to learn that our military forces are hurting and need more money when the Joint Chiefs of Staff appeared before them to make that request.

Because it is an election year, the three of them accused the military leaders of prior silence because of President Clinton's budget restraints. This drew a response from Marine Commandant Gen. Charles Krulak who told them he had always told the truth before Congress. "My integrity -- that's all I've got. Don't take that from me," the top Marine told the senators. That congressional threesome questioning the integrity of men the quality of Krulak, Army Gen. Dennis Reimer, Admiral Jay Johnson, Air Force Gen. Michael Ryan and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Henry Shelton is laughable.

Where have these three jokers been? The red flags of warning about our military shortcomings have been flying for years. Seems like the message never reached them or their staffs. A week earlier President Clinton had been awakened to the problem and asked for $1 billion to $4 billion in emergency funds for next year. This isn't adequate, but it at least shows he sees the problem. Even this column has been harping about the deteriorating condition of our armed forces.

GOP Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham of California, a Navy fighter pilot in Vietnam, several months ago told Congress of the serious military problems. During that speech he told them that the military service chiefs had testified that "80 percent of the equipment of all of our services, 80 percent, is of 1970 vintage." Didn't the three senators hear the military chiefs or Rep. Cunningham?

What the Senate Armed Services Committee has done this year is reject more base closings that the Pentagon has requested be shut to save an estimated $20 billion needed for modern weapons systems. This kind of response added to the purchasing of unneeded and unwanted military weapons has helped drain the Pentagon budget. A good example is the $1 billion Congress steered to produce unneeded C-130J transport planes made in Speaker Newt Gingrich's district.

A Salt Lake Tribune story last spring told of how some members of Congress used military dollars for everything but the good of our service units? The Utah newspaper told its readers, "It looks as though Fort Douglas will be transformed into an Olympic Village after all.

"The U.S. House of Representatives Saturday voted overwhelmingly to reject President Clinton's veto of military construction spending on 38 projects, a package that includes $12.7 million to relocate Fort Douglas Army Reserve Units to accommodate housing for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. ..."

We know how powerful members of Congress have misdirected needed military dollars and they have refused to listen to warnings given by some of their own colleagues and military advisers. For example, Navy Secretary John H. Dalton was so upset about the refusal to close certain bases, he wrote a widely read newspaper editorial last May.

Dalton told his readers, evidently not Smith, Santorum or Kempthorne, that "Many Americans take for granted the U.S.'s high level of military readiness. But our defenses are imperiled unless we can find new funding for the armed forces. Closing bases we do not need would be a good starting point.

"In the past 10 years, the defense budget has dropped by 40 percent and the size of our armed forces has been reduced by 36 percent. Yet even after four rounds of base closures, we have reduced the military's infrastructure by only 21 percent. We simply have too much overhead."

Dalton went on to write: "Most important, the Department of Defense is saving $5.6 billion a year from the first four rounds of base closings. An additional two rounds promise to save us another $3 billion per year. Those savings can go a long way to restoring the important balance between readiness, quality of life for our men and women in uniform and modernization of the armed forces."

Last week when questioning the military chiefs, Sen. Smith remarked, "This readiness crisis didn't come out of nowhere." That's right, senator, and if you and your colleagues had been listening it wouldn't have come as a surprise.