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Peace at any cost is a prelude to war!
Top general raises ire of GOP leaders
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By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
TIMES --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
en. Henry H. Shelton's relations with some Republican congressional leaders
have deteriorated this year as officials say the Joint Chiefs of Staff
chairman seems more interested in stating White House "spin" than giving his
opinions.
An aide to the general denied the charge, saying the chairman has
remained above politics.
Gen. Shelton's standing with Republicans dropped in October when he
labeled "devastating" a party proposal to cut each federal department's
budget by 1 percent. One congressional aide said the broadside was
"disingenuous," given that the Republican-written defense budget this year is
higher than the one President Clinton proposed and Gen. Shelton endorsed.
Said a senior Republican defense staffer: "He came up here last winter
and said he could live with the president's budget but he would like a little
bit more. We gave them billions more.
"So then we want an across-the-board cut that would hit DOD up by $2.7
billion, and he says that would be unacceptable. . . . You think politics is
involved here? That's the kind of stuff people up here don't forget. We do
him a favor, and we get a knife in the back."
Another aide accused Gen. Shelton of "betrayal" for using the word
"devastating" in testimony before the
-- Continued from Front Page --
Senate Armed Services Committee.
The aide said it was Republican senators, not the White House, who
worked behind the scenes to encourage the Joint Chiefs to talk publicly about
each service's combat readiness problems. The chiefs agreed, and their public
comments persuaded President Clinton to give the military more money.
After Gen. Shelton's testimony, Senate Appropriations Chairman Ted
Stevens, Alaska Republican, and his House counterpart, C.W. Bill Young,
Florida Republican, fired off a scolding letter to the chairman.
"The fact of the matter is that the national security budgets submitted
year after year by this administration, and which you have testified in
support of before our committees the past two years, would have been
'devastating' to our nation's military," the two told Gen. Shelton.
The Armed Services Committee requires the top brass, including Gen.
Shelton, to pledge at confirmation hearings to provide the panel candid
military opinions, even if they conflict with the White House's position.
Capt. Stephen Pietropaoli, Gen. Shelton's spokesman, said the chairman
simply gave a frank assessment of what it would mean to the military to lose
nearly $3 billion in hard-fought dollars.
"Candor can always come both ways," he said. "He is what he is. As he
has said, and as you know, politics affects a lot of decisions in Washington,
but it doesn't affect Gen. Shelton's military advice."
Capt. Pietropaoli said that regardless of the fact that the Republicans
provided more money, taking some of it back would have required the Pentagon
to scale back improvements in readiness accounts.
"The main point the chairman made was it would have a serious impact in
the success made with working hand-in-hand with [GOP and Democratic leaders]
across-the-board in arresting this decline," he said.
The GOP's disenchantment with Gen. Shelton goes beyond his budget
testimony. Interviews with senior defense aides show they also believe:
Gen. Shelton failed to discuss candidly with Congress problems encountered by
American commanders during the 78-day bombing of Serbia.
Since the conflict's end, U.S. officers have told of a number of political
roadblocks within the 19-nation NATO that prevented execution of an all-out
air campaign.
For example, Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael C. Short, who oversaw the air war,
recently told the Senate Armed Services Committee that one country, France,
blocked American commanders from bombing a host of military targets that
increased risks for U.S. personnel.
Gen. Shelton provided excessively enthusiastic support to the Clinton-coveted
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, dismissing opposition from a number of former
Defense Department officials. His support, along with the Joint Chiefs'
support, came despite a classified CIA assessment that the treaty is not
verifiable.
He orchestrated a united Joint Chiefs opposition to speeding up deployment of
a limited national missile defense, despite an independent commission's
finding that the United States might have little or no warning before an
enemy deployed ballistic missiles capable of striking this nation.
In addition to Mr. Young and Mr. Stevens, congressional aides say other
congressional leaders have expressed public or private dissatisfaction with
Gen. Shelton's testimony. They include Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of
Mississippi and House Majority Whip Tom DeLay of Texas.
Gen. Shelton's supporters point out that despite criticism, the Senate
Armed Services Committee confirmed him twice to two-year terms as Joint
Chiefs chairman. They said the nation's highest ranking military officer
walks a fine line between not upsetting the president who appointed him and
providing Congress with an honest assessment.
Capt. Pietropaoli said Gen. Shelton's testimony on Kosovo reflected a
Washington perspective, not problems faced by commanders in Europe.
"You have to separate what Short felt were obstacles from what, at the
national level back here, the chairman faced," he said. "The chairman did not
have any difficulty getting the targets he brought over to the White House
approved."
A Senate source, who, like other Republican sources, asked not to be
identified, said Gen. Shelton's budget testimony "raised eyebrows here, big
time, in what was largely a political discussion with talking points right
out of the White House political machine."
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