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327 lines
18 KiB
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| P o l i t i c s O n l i n e M a g a z i n e |
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| Volume 1, Number 2 |
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| Head Editors ..................................... David Killoren |
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| ..................................... Josh Renaud |
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| Contributing Editor/Consultant ................... Mark Waelterman |
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| Columnists ....................................... J. Thomas Martell|
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| ....................................... |
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| Contributing Writers ............................. Shai Sachs |
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| ............................. Gary Brown |
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| ............................. Shawn Hayes |
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| ............................. Joe Antonucci |
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| Publisher .............................. GrossWorld Publishing Co. |
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| P o l i t i c s O n l i n e M a g a z i n e |
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| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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| Table of Contents |
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| Introduction to Politics Online Magazine |
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| Family Values .................................... Josh Renaud |
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| The New Political Landscape ...................... Joe Antonucci |
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| Spreading the Military ........................... Joe Antonucci |
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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| Introduction |
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\==============/
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Welcome back! This is the December issue of Politics Online Magazine! Yes,
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this is our second edition, and we are glad to get it out! Though we are still
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a little writer-deficient, we are managing. We were glad to see some of you
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taking advantage of out Reader's Write. Many of you contacted us and gave us
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kind comments and offered suggestions. We do consider all of them carefully.
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For further information on the Reader's Write, skip to the end of this issue.
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In further news: The Republicans swept the Congress away in the 1994
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elections. We've got several articles relating to that issue.
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That's about it for this month. Just remember, wherever you found THIS copy
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of POM, rest assured, there will be another next month (Or should I say next
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year?). Have safe and happy Holidays!
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... The Editors ...
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+============+
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|Rap City BBS|
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+============+
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Sysop: Dr. Dre
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Co-Sysop: Quarth
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IceNET @3454 | EliteNET @3451 (AC) Since April 8, 1992
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=============ASSnet @1004================ 213 Megs/Over 150 Message Bases
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| Family Values Update |
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| Josh Renaud |
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\======================/
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Family values. I'm sure you've heard that term countless times before.
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You're probably tired of hearing the same old "our familes are breaking down.
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What can we do?" articles. Well, in case you were wondering, this isn't one of
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those.
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The Republicans now control Congress, plus they have the majority of the
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governorships. How will this affect the family? Positively, I hope. The
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Republicans are notorious for their support of the family. Remember Dan Quayle
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and Murphy Brown? I'm sure you probably do. They have already promised to get
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prayer back into schools. How does this affect the family? In several ways: 1)
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Over the past few years, religious activity (all religions) has been on the
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delcine. Humanism has been on the rise, along with substance abuse and high
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school dropouts. Because religion of all types has been taken out of school,
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children (who spend most of their time in school anyway) are having less of a
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religious background. Because of this, religion at home is weakening, and this
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eventually weakens the family unit.
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Another point: The Republicans are going to be changing the crime bill. How
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does this affect the family? Inner city gangs would be the number one answer.
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Although most kids aren't part of these gangs, every school has cliques and
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little groups. Every school has one group notorious for it's roughness, their
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stealing, cheating, et cetera, et cetera. The updates to the crime bill will
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hopefully begin solving the problems of crime, taking away the fear, and making
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kids turn from gangs back to their families.
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What about abortion and other services like that? Abortion is a very
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controversial topic. Families are split apart by both of the arguments
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concerning it. Take the girl who gets pregnant and doesn't want her familt to
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know. She has an abortion, then her family gets mad at her. Or what about the
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family that tries to support a pregnant teen. The teen wants an abortion, but
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the family wants the babyto go to adoption. Fights ensue. What can the
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Republicans do to remedy these problems?
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Nobody knows the answers yet. Hopefully voluntary prayer will be put back
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into schools. Hopefully scientific creationism will be taught as a theory along
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side evolution. Hopefully crime will begin to break down. And hopefully answers
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will be found to the pressing health care issues. Everything affects the
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family. TV and movie violence and sex, gangs, peers, all those sort of things.
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Answers must be found before it's too late. Do you and your family a favor.
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Write or call your Congressmen and tell them what YOU believe. That is the only
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TRUE way to make a difference.
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%*************************************************************************%
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| The New Political Landscape |
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| Joe Antonucci |
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With a flip of a switch, the voting populace changed the workings of the
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American political machine, from one of Democratic supremacy to a more
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conservative base, by engaging the cams of Republican directions.
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For the first time, in 8 years the GOP now has a senate majority. For the
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first time since 1954, they have taken control of the House majority. And for
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the first time since 1970 do they hold a majority of state gubernatorial
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positions. The Republican party, having always had a stronghold in the midwest
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now found itself strengthening it's foothold, on what were once predominantly
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liberal Democratic regions. Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and the
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southern states offered up little or no resistsance to the changing of the
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guard.
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This change of political demography offers many scenarios to the balance of
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the present administrations agendas. The president may focus more attention to
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foreign affaiars, as a retaliation to congressional friction on domestic
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issues. Foreign policy, offering less of a congressional overstructure, would
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still not be without it's conflicts or obstructions, whereas in concerning
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countries with blue chip interests,( i.e. Iraq, Israel, etal), he will find
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little or no contention. He may be faced with a certain degree of resistance
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to "nation building" on purely humanitarian interests. New Senate Foreign
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Relations Commitee Chairman Jesse Helms ([R] N. Carolina) has already expressed
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his mistrust with this administrations handling of foreign affairs, and is
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reassessing the outlook of future programs in this issue as well as the whole
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of it's programs. The Serbian peace treaty, should there be one, may find no
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U.S. troop involvement to enforce the ratifications and agreements to their
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desired conclusions.
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The domestic policy of the coming years, as with foreign policy, will find
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many conflicts of interest, stemming from taxation, and health care on through
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to welfare and gun control, with some of the programs enacted by the former
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Democratic congress actually being reversed or ammended to. Governmental
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downsizing may offer the biggest stumbling block to the health reform act, as
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will the reviewing of the newly emplaced tax rates, such as sin taxes and this
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administrations tax hike of 1992. Gun control once again will take a front seat
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in both house and senate hearings, with new ammendmants to the Crime Bill
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actually nullifying or reversing some of it's underlying constraints and a
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possible reassessment of the second ammendmant resulting in
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unconstitutionalizing many of the restrictions enacted since 1954.
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The changing profile of the political landscape leaves many questions to be
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seen answered. For instance, how will foriegn policy hold up under world wide
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scrutiny, could it cause worldwide ramifications? How many of the previous
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programs will be challenged or reversed? Can the new Republican congress not
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only hold their current footing but add to their foundation on a more
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overwhelming scale come the 1996 elections ? The next two years will hold many
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answers and many changes, and although with change comes hope, there also comes
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learned uncertainty. The only course that remains for us, is vigilance, and
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although with change comes hope, there also comes learned uncertainty. We will
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see what happens.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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| Spreading the Military |
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| Joe Antonucci |
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Over the last few years, extensive budget cuts, accompanied by increased
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responsibilities, have put a great strain on the workings of the U.S. Armed
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Forces. In September of 1994, the first year of the Clinton budget, the
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United States Military ran out of money. Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. William
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Owens says that despite the budget cuts, "We've gotten better since 1991
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and can get even better with surveillance and smart technologies to offset
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manpower losses.", however if you look at the areas that the cuts have hit the
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hardest you will notice that the R and D, and Procurement budgets just can't
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allow for the amount of aquisitions that would offset such losses.
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Clinton budget cuts 1994
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budget area.............%cut...precut...post cut
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maint. and operations .. 10% 103 blln. 92.9
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Personell ...... 23% 91.2 70.5
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Procurement .. 54% 93.7 43.3
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Research and Develop. .. 14% 42.1 36.2
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other .. +1% 9.21 9.29
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TROOP DEPLOYMENT AND MORALE
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While the cuts affected the area of procurement hardest monaterally, the
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affect upon personell cuts has had a harder impact upon morale and deployment
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capabilities. The swapping and shifting of troops has caused fatigue and
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disorientation among the service men and women.
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This shifting has meant less hometime for our troops, and as this has
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a direct influence on the reenlistment rate of a volunteer military we can
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expect less reenlistment of veteran personell and more new recruitment.
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That means more training and less experience, for a smaller force.
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The 10th mountain divis.,currently in Haiti barely had enough time to change
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their gear,(from the desert camoflauge they used in Somalia to the greens
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they are using now), before they were redeployed to aid the Haitian conflict.
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Many of the troops now deployed in the Persian Gulf were taken with little
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or no leave from the Bosnian Herzgovenian conflict.
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Troop Deployment as of Oct. 1994
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Hemisphere Troop deployment
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under 3000 over 3000
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Western (exc. U.S.) 1000 trps 5 countries Guantanamo Bay 7,700
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Panama 10,400
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Eastern (exc.europe) 8100 9 Persian Gulf 40,000
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Japan 45,000
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S.Korea 36,900
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Europe 6000 7 Germany 102,000
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Italy 12,700
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Spain 3,100
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Turkey 4,700
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U.K. 14,700
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READINESS VS. SIZING DOWN
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In the United States, American troops are used in various forms other than
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their major role of defense, some are implemented as drug enforcement units
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assisting the DEA, while others are operating in more domesticated purposes,
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such as fighting the forest fires in Idaho, and California to checking the
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borders for illegal immigration. Worldwide our country men are in over
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100 nations in the capacity of military trainers, or as peacekeeping forces.
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In Haiti and the Sanai desert they are involved in"nation building", in
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Rawanda they're part of the humanitarian relief force,and they are currently
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overseeing the peace talks in the middle east. Now as these may be generally
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safe areas of utilization, some of the forces are deployed as deterrants
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against at least two heavily armored armies, one being North Korea,
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the other Iraq, both being potentially viable situations. When asked about
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the problems of facing two areas of potential conflict,
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Chmn. J.C.o.S. Gen. John Shalikashili said, "although we are stretched we are
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not stretched too thin. We are better, in command control and communications,
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than we were in desert storm, and can handle the situations in N.Korea
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and Iraq without much difficulty," but he added, "any more cuts to the budget
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could cause significant shortfalls".
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Now while Shalikashili's answer tends to put us at ease Gen. Sullivan's
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comments seem to be a little less comforting when he states,"smaller is not
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better..better is better...at some point, when you cut enough back, we just
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get smaller and ineffective". Though we are still the strongest fighting
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force in the world, the role as super cop coupled with extensive cuts
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to the budget, seem to be fatiguing the beams, and without the money in
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r and d and procurements, then expanding the high tech to compensate for
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personnel loses and increased usage does not calculate to a winning
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proposition.
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The Editorial and Writing Staff here at Politics Online Magazine wish you
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and yours a very merry Christmas. Thanks for downloading this copy of POM, and
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stay tuned for our first issue of 1995! Have safe and happy holidays...
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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| Reaching Politics Online Magazine |
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\=====================================/
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To write a letter to the writers at POM, send us a Reader's Write letter,
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or just to make comments or suggestions, please call the following BBSes and
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EMail the Contact listed.
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If you are interested in becoming a writer or an advertiser in POM, use the
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Flash BBS instructions.
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In Area Code 314
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Rap City BBS ........ (314)963-7960
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Contact: Captain Kirk
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House of Texaco ..... (314)963-9374
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Contact: Captain Kirk
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Flash BBS ........... (314)275-2040
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Contact: Josh Renaud
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