Editorials
Tuesday, June 5, 2001
Don’t cut
military contact
with China
The issue: The United States has
curtailed military contacts
with China.
Secretary Rumsfeld is right in showing American displeasure with China for Beijing's handling of the incident involving the EP3 intelligence plane, for arresting American citizens or residents of the U.S., and for a continuing barrage of belligerent pronouncements. But he is wrong in showing that displeasure by cutting off U.S. military contacts with the People's Liberation Army and should rescind that policy quickly.The modern U.S. military policy of engaging potential adversaries across the conference table instead of on the battlefield started when Adm. William Crowe, former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, invited Marshal Sergei Ahkromeyev, chief of the Soviet Union's general staff, into the Pentagon in 1988. There, in the ultra-secret room called "the tank," where the joint chiefs met three times a week to plot the destruction of Soviet military forces, Crowe and Ahkromeyev took a measure of one another. During the ensuing years, other senior American and Russian military officers visited back and forth. Some historians credit those exchanges with helping to end the Cold War.
With China, Adm. Joseph Prueher, then commanding U.S. forces in the Pacific from his headquarters at Camp H.M. Smith, was instrumental in applying the Crowe strategy to the Chinese in the mid-1990s. Prueher, now finishing a tour as American ambassador in Beijing, saw continuing merit in exposing Chinese generals and admirals to the capabilities of U.S. military forces. Adm. Dennis Blair has continued that policy, telling Congress shortly after taking over as commander of Pacific forces in 1998 that the underlying message to China was "don't mess with us."
There are five reasons for pursuing working relations between American and Chinese military leaders:
>> Reassurance: The U.S. needs constantly to reassure the Chinese that neither Washington nor the Pacific command are seeking to contain China or planning an attack.
>> Deterrence: Taking Chinese officers on visits to American warships, flight lines, marine amphibious training, and massed drops of paratroopers is deterrence at its best.
>> Undercutting Chinese hard liners: Contacts with Americans encourage those Chinese who seek peace with the U.S. and undercuts those who don't.
>> Intelligence: Intelligence planes and satellites can count Chinese hardware but only American officers, preferably Chinese speaking, can see into Chinese minds.
>> Miscalculation: Very few Chinese military leaders really understand Americans. Showing them who we are lessens the chance that they will miscalculate as the Japanese did 60 years ago.
To paraphrase the Chinese thinker, Sun Tzu, who wrote "The Art of War" about 2,500 years ago: "Know thy potential adversary." It continues to be sound advice and Rumsfeld should heed it.
Martin’s cart won’t be
the start of a caravanThe issue: U.S. Supreme Court ruled
that a golfer with a walking disability may
ride an electric cart between
shots on the PGA Tour.
PROFESSIONAL golfers tend to be purists. Their honor system in following the rules of golf to the utmost detail is unlike any other sport. Thus, their grumbling about the U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing Casey Martin to ride in a golf cart between shots is understandable -- but badly off-target.The high court, in a 7-2 decision, last week upheld an appeals court ruling that Martin, who suffers from a circulatory disorder called Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber syndrome, can ride a cart on the PGA Tour, although the rules require that players walk. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires operators of "public accommodations," including golf courses, to make "reasonable modifications" for anyone with "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities."
The ruling brought cries that it would result in an caravan of carts transporting golfers with bad backs or sore ankles. That is absurd. A Justice Department rule interprets "major life activities" to include "caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning and working." Temporary soreness clearly does not qualify as a disability.
Two years ago, the Supreme Court upheld United Airlines' refusal to hire two nearsighted sisters who had 20/20 vision when they wore glasses because United requires perfect uncorrected vision. In the same vein, Hawaii Circuit Judge Eden Elizabeth Hifo ruled last month that Island Aloha Airlines was within its rights in denying employment as a pilot to Bruce Pied, who can see with only one eye. Hifo ruled that people with only one good eye "have no substantial limitation on their vision" so can claim no protection under the disabilities law.
In the Martin case, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote, "From early on, the essence of the game has been shot-making," and walking is "at best peripheral" and "not an indispensable feature" of golf. On the Senior PGA Tour, players are allowed to ride in carts.
The Martin ruling means that Ford Olinger, who has a degenerative hip, probably will be able to use a cart in trying to qualify for the U.S. Open after being denied shot-to-shot transportation last year by the U.S. Golf Association. The Supreme Court yesterday sent Olinger's case back to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which had sided with the USGA. However, Martin and Olinger are extreme rarities, not a vanguard.
Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, President
John Flanagan, publisher and editor in chief 529-4748; jflanagan@starbulletin.com
Frank Bridgewater, managing editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
Michael Rovner, assistant managing editor 529-4768; mrovner@starbulletin.com
Lucy Young-Oda, assistant managing editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.com The Honolulu Star-Bulletin (USPS 249460) is published daily by
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