“This year’s defense budget is about $230 billion, in 1990 dollars, [compared to] the $300 billion budget we had at the end of the Cold War before the 1990 budget summit. Over ten years, the savings from that agreement alone-as embodied in the [Bush] Administration’s ‘Base Force’-were $600 billion. . . . Additional savings from Bottom-Up Review force cuts will be another $350 billion. That is a total defense cut of nearly $1 trillion over the course of the 1990s, compared to the [1990] level . . . which was already far below the level of defense spending at the height of the Cold War.”
Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in a Senate speech delivered on October 21, 1993.
No More Mr. Nice Guy
“I say it quite plainly: When I come to power, there will be a dictatorship. I will beat the Americans in space. I will surround the planet with our space stations so that they’ll be scared of our space weapons. I don’t care if they call me a Fascist or a Nazi. . . . I may have to shoot 100,000 people, but the other 300 million [living in the territory of the old Soviet Union] will live peacefully.”
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, head of Russia’s extremist, ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party, which won nearly a quarter of the seats in the new Russian parliament.
Shameful, Decadent, Ominous
“There have been times in the past when I have disagreed with American foreign policy. This is the first time in my life when I’m ashamed of it. . . . We could have stopped that war [in Bosnia] had we been more decisive. . . . The consequence of [US inaction] politically is the progressive demoralization of western Europe. I don’t think we should underestimate the destructive consequence of the Bosnian tragedy. . . . It is undermining movement towards European unity. It is destroying the self-confidence of the Western democracies. It is, I think, revealing a degree of moral decadence [that] is very dismaying and ominous.”
Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter’s National Security Advisor, in January 9, 1994, remarks on CNN’s “Late Edition.”
Gay Guidelines, Part 1
“Situation: A service member witnesses an act of sodomy by two enlisted men in a barracks room and notifies his superiors. Military law enforcement agents who respond observe in plain view photographs of one of the suspects engaging in sodomy with other service members. Should those other members be investigated
“Discussion: Service members would not usually be asked about other partners with whom they may have had sex, absent evidence of other criminal activity. In this case, there is credible information of additional alleged criminal acts-the photographs.”
From training scenarios released by former Defense Secretary Les Aspin on December 22, 1993, to explain new Pentagon regulations concerning homosexual conduct in the armed forces.
Gay Guidelines, Part 2
“Situation: An enlisted man who sees an officer in a well-known homosexual bar and later walking with another man in a park late at night threatens to report him unless he pays $10,000. The officer says nothing but tells the MCIO [Military Criminal Investigative Organization] that he has been blackmailed. What action should the MCIO take
“Discussion: The MCIO should begin an investigation of the enlisted member’s alleged extortion of the officer but should not investigate whether the officer is homosexual.”
From the Aspin training scenarios.
Advice for Bear-Tamers
“The Americans would like to tame the bear, but they keep forgetting that they can’t do that while it’s in the forest. You have to do it in a cage.”
Poland’s President Lech Walesa in a January 3, 1994, interview with the Washington Post describing what he views as excessive US timidity in the face of Russian demands that NATO not extend full alliance membership to Poland and other eastern European nations.
The One-War Force
“We are drawing down our regular forces from about 2.1 . . . to about 1.6 million . . . by the end of 1995. . . . One-third are deployed, one-third are in training getting ready to go, and one-third are in support roles of some kind or another. In Desert Storm, we deployed close to half a million people. . . . You could sustain something like Desert Storm with . . . 1.3 to 1.5 million. . . . We are beginning to cut to the point where we may be below that, so our ability to sustain a force even the size of Desert Storm is going to be jeopardized.”
Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio), Senate Armed Services Committee, in a November 17, 1993, speech concerning the Clinton Administration’s long-term defense budget and force-structure plans.
Home of the Brave
“At one of our bases, a young security specialist asked his supervisor why they spent twenty-five minutes per person at the beginning of every shift checking each individual’s gear. It didn’t make sense; they trusted these people to guard nuclear weapons, but they didn’t trust them to have batteries in their flashlights. The sergeants in the squadron thought this through and took a brave step: They quit making the inspections. They make occasional spot checks now instead. It has been more than a year since they made that decision, and they have had a 100 percent perfect record on the spot inspections.”
Gen. John Michael Loh, commander of USAF’s Air Combat Command, in an October 5, 1993, speech on ACC organizational change.