Nevada Rep. Gibbons sounding alarm about military priorites

Scott Sonner

Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2000 | 8:56 a.m.

PHILADELPHIA - Nevada Rep. Jim Gibbons and a pair of military experts from neighboring Idaho are among the Republicans sounding the alarm about what they say is a dangerously weakened U.S. military.

"There has been a tremendous underfunding of our country's military over the last eight years," said Gibbons, the only member of Congress to serve in both the Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars.

"It is a generalization that has captured the American public - that America is no longer threatened internationally because of its military strength and the recent victories," the former Air Force pilot said.

"There is a perception that because Russia is no longer a big threat that we don't need a strong military. Nothing could be further from the truth," Gibbons, a GOP delegate, said in an interview Monday at the Republican National Convention.

Idaho Attorney General Al Lance, also a delegate, is the national commander of the American Legion.

"Clinton is the guy who drove us down this path. He has overcommitted the existing military force," Lance said. "Our delegation from Idaho is all very keenly aware of some of the difficulties and problems the military faces."

Gibbons and Lance are glad that national defense will return to center stage on the program at the convention Tuesday night.

"Somehow defense has dropped off the scope," said Trent Clark, chairman of the Idaho GOP.

"That's when we need to be worried. Our state of readiness at times of peace needs to be sufficient to prevent us from going to war," he said

Democrats, however, don't believe national defense is a first-tier issue this election.

"We just passed a defense spending bill with almost $300 billion. I don't know how much more people want us to spend on it," said Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the Democrat's minority whip in the Senate.

"We are the only superpower in the world. Whether we are spending enough on the military is not going to be an issue," Reid said.

Carolyn Boyce, the Democratic Party chairwoman in Idaho, said she doesn't hear military spending mentioned even among Republicans she knows in the state.

"When I talk to people, they talk more about state issues than something like national defense. People talk more about education, the environment or the economy," she said.

Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., said concern about whether the military is being adequately funded "is a legitimate issue."

"But I don't think the Republican Party gets any real (political) traction on that," he added.

Not so, according to Gibbons, Lance and Larry Eastland, a convention delegate from Eagle, Idaho, who was a consultant to the Nixon White House and worked for Dick Cheney when he was chief of staff for President Ford.

Cheney, who went on to become defense secretary under President Bush, is now Gov. George W. Bush's running mate.

"I don't think we have a defense policy," Eastland said.

"We have an ad hoc policy of interference wherever we feel like it is politically correct, as opposed to a military policy," he said. "The military should be an extension of diplomacy. Under Clinton, it has been a substitute."