Military Support

The clash over who should rule Russia took an ominous turn Monday when Communist Party leader Gennady A. Zyuganov called on the armed forces to prevent President Boris N. Yeltsin from dissolving parliament. Addressing the Duma, the parliament's lower house, Zyuganov warned that if Yeltsin ignores Communist demands in the debate over forming a new government, "everything may spill into the streets." "I am appealing to all people, especially to those who wear a uniform," he said.

For years, Indonesians dared criticize President Suharto only in whispers. But with opposition to his rule becoming more outspoken by the day, people are beginning to ask: How long can Suharto last, and who comes next? The answer, most agree, is that with no clear opposition leader in sight and with military commanders solidly behind him, the 76-year-old president may well serve until he dies.

"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth gets its boots on." This old proverb is especially true in today's era of instantaneous mass communications. It is with great frustration, then, that I find myself lacing up my boots to challenge a number of wildly inaccurate assertions published by the Los Angeles Times on Dec. 22 ("U.S. to Send Ton of Sand Into Space") and sent around the world on the L.A. Times-Washington Post News Service. The story in question quoted a number of unnamed sources professing that the Air Force is planning to launch "2,000 pounds of sand" into orbit on a Milstar communications satellite at a cost to the taxpayers of "$70 million."

"The framework for U.S. national security is changing," a leading advocate for a new national defense policy wrote recently. Rather than worry only about itself, he wrote, the Pentagon must now start ensuring that the country's civilian technology base is strong too, yet its policies "are increasingly at odds with successful commercial practices." Those are fighting words at the Pentagon.

Six months after European Community leaders signed a historic treaty for political and economic union, their two-day summit that ended here Saturday exposed all the stubborn national rivalries that still divide Western Europe. The list of issues on which the 12 EC leaders could not agree was long and deep: the Community's next budget, the timetable for admitting new members, the countries that will serve as home to a host of new EC agencies.

The constitutional crisis in Peru, the Haitian military's overthrow of Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the violent turn of pro-democracy demonstrations in Thailand highlight a principal weakness in international efforts to promote democracy. There are no legal principles outlawing recognition of de facto military regimes or of those that arbitrarily breach the constitutional order. The establishment of such principles, and the creation of mechanisms for their implementation, would do much to foster democracy throughout the world.

Faced with a potentially serious desertion in the war on drugs, the Bush Administration announced Friday that it is holding up more than $90 million in aid to Peru until its government can ensure its military will stand behind the fight against narcotics. "The Peruvian military did not generally support Peruvian law enforcement units in counternarcotics activities" in 1990, the State Department said in a report to Congress on progress in the worldwide drug war.

"Without supplies, neither a general nor a soldier is good for anything," Clearchus of Sparta said in a 401 BC speech to the Greek army in Asia Minor. Many things have changed in the 24 centuries since, but the need for supplies--if anything--is even more critical in a modern, highly technical military than it was in the days of sword and chariots.

After weeks of secrecy, Navy officials announced Friday that 1,800 Seabees from Port Hueneme are being deployed to Saudi Arabia to build facilities for the buildup of U.S. forces. So far, Navy officials said, one Port Hueneme-based air detachment of 90 men has arrived in Saudi Arabia. Another air detachment of 90 men and 30 pieces of large construction equipment is in the process of being loaded on 20 C-141 Starlifter cargo planes in Puerto Rico, destined for the Middle East.