Friday, September 08, 2000

Bush vows to boost military morale

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By Howard Wilkinson
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        DAYTON, Ohio — George W. Bush took his campaign pledge to rebuild America's military Thursday to a community where the military means paychecks on Friday and food on the table every day.

George W. Bush is flanked by retired generals Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell in Dayton Thursday. (Michael Snyder photo) | ZOOM |

        Flanked by the two most recognizable U.S. military figures of the recent past — retired generals Colin Powell and Norman Schwarzkopf — the Republican presidential nominee told a cheering crowd made up largely of veterans and their families that he would create an American military with “good morale, good spirits, well-paid and well-housed.”

        “It's time for new leader ship in Washington, D.C., that will rebuild the morale of the United States military,” Mr. Bush said at a half-hour rally of supporters in the student union of Wright State University.

        Wright State is next door to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the largest single-site employer in Ohio, with 19,000 military and ci vilian employees.

        The base pumps about $2 billion a year into the economy of Dayton and surrounding communities, and many of those in the audience of about 400 at Wright State make their livings at the base.

        Generals Schwarzkopf and Powell were the star attractions at the Bush rally, spending more time talking to the crowd than the candidate did.

        Both are enthusiastic supporters of Mr. Bush's candidacy and both became national figures in the administration of Mr. Bush's father, when Gen. Powell was chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and Gen. Schwarzkopf the commanding officer in the field during the Persian Gulf War.

        Gen. Powell's address was the more political of the two. He told the audience that while the reduction of U.S. military forces and cuts in military spending may have started after the Cold War ended in the Bush administration, it accelerated after Bill Clinton became president and Al Gore vice president.

        “We had a sensible plan to bring our forces down, but the new administration came in and, without consulting anybody, said, "let's cut another 200,000 out of the military, cut the budget even further,'” Gen. Powell said.

        The Clinton administration, Gen. Powell said, allowed “a little cancer to break out in the military and the cancer has begun to grow.”

        The GOP nominee said that one of the problems with the Clinton administration's stewardship of the military is that it has overextended the armed forces, sending American troops all over the world “with no clear mission.”

        “The mission of the U.S. military is to be ready to win and fight wars, and, in that way, prevent war from happening in the first place,” Mr. Bush said. “The job of the military is not to solve all the difficult diplomatic problems in the world.”

        Mr. Bush promised to work for better housing and better pay for military personnel, to stem the tide of military officers and enlisted men walking away from the armed services instead of re-enlisting.

        “That's a message that is going to make an impression on people here,” said John Moroney, a retired Air Force officer and Vietnam veteran in the audience. “People in the armed services are giving themselves to their country; their country owes them a decent living.”

        Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, the warm-up speaker before Mr. Bush and the generals arrived, said Dayton was chosen as the location for the Bush military message because its economy is dependent on military spending.

        Dayton has also long been seen as home to many independent-minded “swing voters” who could decide which way Ohio's 21 electoral votes go this fall.

        “It's an issue that resonates with Republican base voters and gets the attention of the independents, too,” Mr. Blackwell said in an interview.

        Gore campaign officials were outside the student union, handing out press releases saying that Mr. Bush has proposed spending less than half the $100 billion in additional spending Mr. Gore's budget plan would devote to the military.

        But Thursday, the crowd at Wright State was impressed by the brass and by the Bush message.

        “You can look at the people around him and see which candidate is going to be the best commander-in-chief,” said Betty Gerhard, a 70-year-old farm wife who volunteers for the Greene County Republican Party. “Bush has the best people.”

       

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