Typical
10/27/99
Below is the standard tripe from AP.
Forgot to mention that Russia wouldn't be such a threat
if we hadn't angered them w/ the Kosovo Fiasco.Russia's economy would also not be so bad,
but for Dollar Bill's tolerence of IMF thefts.
---------------------------------------------------------------------Incoming NATO Chief Warns on Russia
By TOM RAUM Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -
Air Force Gen. Joseph Ralston, nominated to be the next NATO supreme commander, said today that Russia's economic decline poses one of the biggest potential threats to allies in Europe.``We have to do everything we can to make sure Russia does not become a failed state,'' Ralston told the Senate Armed Services Committee. ``It's important that we do not just wish the problem away.''
If confirmed, Ralston, who is vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will replace Gen. Wesley Clark in the top NATO military post in April.
Ralston said the current situation in Russia is impairing the nation's military readiness, morale, discipline and cohesion.
Worsening conditions could ``pose the added dilemma that as conventional capabilities erode, they will rely more on their nuclear forces.''
He voiced support for increased international security assistance to Russia.
Clark is leaving his job as supreme allied commander in Europe in April, two months earlier than planned.
The Armed Services Committee chairman, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., said the July announcement that Clark would leave early caused ``some confusion about that process and misunderstanding, particularly abroad.''
U.S. allies, in particular, ``were perplexed by what took place. It's time we set the record straight,'' Warner said.
Ralston reiterated the administration's statement that he must leave his Pentagon post by Feb. 29 and by law he must assume another four-star position within 60 days or retire.
Ralston said that he had worked closely with Clark over the years and ``in my judgment, he has served this nation extremely well.''
``It is the idea of fact and law that I must depart the vice chairman's position that necessitated General Clark having to leave a few months early,'' Ralston said.
Clark had argued strenuously to keep open the option of using ground troops in Kosovo, although the Pentagon ruled it out. He chafed at the graduated air campaign dictated by the 19-member NATO alliance, saying he felt hamstrung.
That made him popular with Warner, who had advocated a more aggressive prosecution of the war, including leaving a ground option on the table, but often put him at odds with Defense Secretary William Cohen.
``I think General Clark did a superb job of keeping 19 nations together,'' Ralston said. ``There are certain political constraints that are going to be inevitable in any operation, especially a coalition operation.''
But in the end, he added, ``We had 19 nations that were hanging together. That was a major factor in getting the successful outcome that we got.''
The committee also conducted confirmation hearings for Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, to replace Ralston as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs; Army Gen. Thomas A. Schwartz to command allied forces in South Korea; and Air Force Gen. Ralph E. Eberhart to be commander of the U.S. space command.
All the military nominations are expected to win Senate confirmation.
Under questioning from committee members, Schwartz said he did not believe reports of alleged mass killings of South Korean civilians by American troops during the Korean War would damage relations between U.S. forces there now and South Korean civilians.
Any impact will ``be negligible,'' Schwartz said.
``That is a theater that we fought together, bled together. I think everybody understood the context in which that all took place,'' Schwartz said.
The Associated Press on Sept. 30 reported accounts by American veterans and South Korean villagers that U.S. soldiers killed up to 400 civilians under a bridge at No Gun Ri, South Korea, inn late July 1950.
A subsequent AP report said that a short time later the Army destroyed two strategic bridges as South Korean refugees streamed across, killing hundreds of civilians.
The Pentagon is conducting several investigations of the allegations.
``We will work through this, we will study it, we'll find the facts, and we'll do the right thing as a result,'' said Schwartz.
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Eu 1999