From the TAS Web Page: Online Sampler
Robinson, Tracy & Cony, John
by John Corry, Tracy Robinson Online Sampler Togo West's Peace Mission The Army has released its long delayed report on sexual harassment, and its findings are bizarre. What are we to think when...
...Also, 8 percent say they have been the victims of sexual "coercion," and 6 percent say they have been the victims of sexual "assault...
...When testifying, Willemssen also noted that "preparing for the year 2000 is much more of a management challenge than a technical one...
...God forbid they should ever have to fight a war...
...The idea was to find out how Army men and women mixed and mingled, and what they thought of military life...
...The worst part of the Millennium Project—besides the absurdity of the federal government leading a national celebration for an inevitable date on the calendar—is that, during his speech, Clinton wasted an immense opportunity to exhibit leadership on a troublesome and expensive problem on the eve of the very millennium that he wants to celebrate: the year woo problem...
...In the Clinton new-era, war-no-more Army, nothing is as it was...
...Careful readers will notice the priorities there: peacekeeping and good works first, and then the afterthought about wars...
...most thought it should be on humanitarian and peacekeeping missions...
...the men said that they worked ten hours a day...
...Update is glad now to have straightened this out...
...What's more, Willemssen said, most government agencies are "leaving essentially no margin of error" for possible delays in the massive computer reprogramming required by the end of 1999...
...Moreover, the women had a lower opinion of the competence of their superiors than the men did...
...Meanwhile, only 33 percent of the women thought the Army's principal focus should be on fighting wars...
...So, while federal benefit checks for hundreds of thousands teeter on the brink, Clinton and supposed technological wiz Al Gore have shown little leadership on the issue...
...Despite numerous warningsfrom the Government Accounting Office projecting doom if the federal government doesn't solve the problem, the president barely touched on the year z000 problem in his millennium speech...
...West appointed the seven-member panel that drew up the report in responseto the Aberdeen Proving Ground scandal in which male drill sergeants were accused of preying on female trainees...
...As evidence that he is in touch with futuristic technologies, Clinton even touted the White House's new Millennium web site during his speech...
...to reassure fearful civilians...
...Actually that may explain some of the other overlooked findings in the report: 76 percent of the male soldiers say they have experienced "crude or offensive behavior," and 63 percent say they have observed "sexist behavior...
...It is just possible, too, that as victims themselves they might find it easier to relate to all other victims...
...Meanwhile, the projected cost of fixing the problem has jumped frorp $2.75 billion in May of this year to $3.8 billion in August, and is expected to continue to rise as the millennium gets closer...
...During his speech announcing the project, the president outlined eight themes for the millennial celebration, which, not coincidentally, are goals he has had since the 1992 campaign: make education a top priority, spread economic growth among all workers, celebrate the nation's culture through the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities, preserve documents important to this nation's history, support scientific advancement with federal funding, protect the environment, support volunteerism, and overcome racial differences and barriers...
...Perhaps someone should point that out to President Clinton as he celebrates the dawning of the twenty-first century with artists and historians, while ignoring the engineers and programmers...
...to restore public order...
...You may ponder this at length, but it has only three plausible inferences: Either homoerotic activity is rife, or Army women are predators, or—most plausible of all—the Army is even more demoralized than you thought it was, and the preposterous Togo West should resign...
...It also found, in a study of 15,000 soldiers in zzo companies, that the women said they worked eight hours a day...
...However...
...We won't be trading our earthly jeans and T-shirts for space attire, and we hope that the only 80 November 1997 - The American Spectator bolts of light in the sky will be the fireworks that we've been planning...
...The panel, along with the usual number of consultants, then visited 59 Army installations and surveyed 30,000 soldiers worldwide...
...The Times, and virtually every other news organization that reported on the eight-month harassment study, stressed only the findings on women — "Army Finds Wide Abuse of Women," the Washington Post front-page headline said—and buried or ignored the findings on men...
...While we have known about the coming computer catastrophe for years, Clinton has done little to generate solutions since he has been in office...
...and to win the nation's wars...
...For a president who likes to talk about the twenty-first century so much, Clinton seems unwilling to do anything to prevent the computer catastrophe the new century will bring...
...The preposterous Secretary of the Army does not have to resign, after all...
...And what he did say—"I want to assure the American people that the federal government...
...Their goal, after all, is equal opportunity, full integration, and so forth, and no one wants to hear anything that might set this back...
...What are we to think when we are told that 30 percent of all male soldiers say they have received "unwanted sexual attention...
...to protect and deliver humanitarian assistance...
...The report found that Army women were more likely than men to complain, not only about sexual harassment, but also about racial and ethnic discrimination...
...Nonetheless there is really no getting around it: A very large number of soldiers now think of themselves as victims...
...Speaking at the National Archives, the first lady noted, "When the millennium finally arrives, none of s will find ourselves suddenly transformed...
...As the day changes from December 31, 1999 to January 1, 2000, thousands of government computers will be in confusion, since the older systems used by government agencies were built with internal calendars that only go up to 1999, and then roll back to 1900...
...is taking steps to prevent any interruption in government services"—was light on details and hardly reassuring...
...In fact, 18 of 24 government agencies are projecting that they will not finish working their fixes until November 1999 or later...
...The press conference was a feel-good public relations event, designed to get community leaders and citizens to support programs Clinton has favored for years...
...This phoniness, however, wasn't the most unfortunate aspect of the event...
...Still, the coming of this new century and millennium presents us with a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the past, on where we've been, on who we are, and what we hope to become...
...In other words, they whined a lot...
...Clinton announced the White House Millennium Program, designed, according to the president, "to honor the past and to imagine the future, and to connect the two in our own minds and for our fellow Americans...
...The Washington Times has reported that the Army is distributing among its leaders something called "Leadership and Change in a Values-Based Army," which says: America will need soldiers who possess the moral character, firm will, and professional ability to separate warring factions...
...During congressional testimony in July, Joel C. Willemssen, director of information resources management at the General Accounting Office, pointed out that "federal agencies were just beginning to be aware of the year 2000 issue and its importance" in mid-1996—more than four years after Clinton entered office...
...But West, the secretary of the Army, will not do this, even though, as the New York Times happily reported in a story that led the paper, the report said the "Army's leadership was to blame" for the misconduct in its ranks...
...In fairness to the women, though, it should be noted that the Army seems to think that, too...
...TRACY ROBINSON TAS Online Manager Online Update September 30 - October 6, 1997 The American Spectator • November 1997 81...
...Obviously, this will severely cripple hundreds of systems that pay government benefits and administer programs that require date of birth information, or anything else that is year-dependent...
...The panel's two-volume report on this includes some wondrous findings, although most are being ignored by the press and the feminists of both sexes in Congress...
...That might not be useful in war, although probably it would keep everyone on their toes in the humanitarian missions...
...JOHN CORRY Online Update September 16 - 22, 1997 Clinton Transcends the Millennium In August, President and Mrs...
...This seems to mean that the men, just like the women, know misconduct when they see it...
Vol. 30 • November 1997 • No. 11
