The initial awkwardness between the commander in chief and the military he commands received some press attention a few years ago. But what this administration has done to the military in the intervening six years has gotten scant notice. And that had better change. Bill Clinton's tenure in office has been quite damaging to the military. Readiness has suffered terribly.
Morale is very low.
And attrition is leaving the Air Force with a shortage of pilots and the Navy with a shortage of officers. Because the Clinton administration has been determined to advance the cause of women in combat, the military has been plagued by sexual harassment, rape, pregnancy and low morale. The problem, she explained, was not that young healthy male and female recruits were being billeted together in tents in Bosnia, or that the flaccid sexual morality of the larger society was influencing the Army, or that it was unwise to give male drill sergeants total control over female recruits. One hopes that the warnings of Elaine Donnelly, the indefatigable president of CMR, will prove unnecessary. In Bosnia, reports The Wall Street Journal, there was one new pregnancy every three days.