NEGLECT OF DEFENSE MATTERS HURTS KOSOVO

For the first time, the Clinton administration last week threatened to veto a bill providing money for the conflict with Yugoslavia, aid for Central America and other items, citing a host of objections. Indications were, however, that such a confrontation might be avoided. Previously, administration officials had threatened to veto a stand-alone aid measure for Central America and U.S. farmers because it would cut domestic programs and add environmental and other programs the White House opposes. Executive branch officials had complained about a separate bill in which the House more than doubled President Clinton's $6 billion request for the Kosovo campaign.

In a letter to House leaders, White House budget chief Jacob Lew mentioned the likelihood of a veto if certain details weren't to their liking. Before, members of both parties had said privately that they don't think Clinton would veto the Kosovo package as long as it was kept at the $13 billion range the House approved week before last.

The extra money the House added was for U.S. military operations and installations around the world and for a pay raise for troops. House leaders believe that with American troops in the field and with Clinton himself now joining those who are calling for more Pentagon spending, the president would be hard-pressed to veto the measure.

"We haven't settled anything yet," said House Approriations Committee chairman Bill Young, R-Fla. Some GOP congressional sources expect the package to be scaled back to about $10 billion. The likeliest item to be dropped is $1 billion the House added to modernize U.S. bases overseas.

It is to be hoped that agreement can be reached that averts the threatened veto. Not only is support for our troops in the field a vital matter, but so is redressing the deplorable down-sizing of the U.S. military that has unfolded on the Clinton watch. In the much-vaunted balanced budget, virtually every penny of savings has come from defense. Our once-mighty military capability is one half the size it was nine years ago, on the eve of Desert Storm. This atrophy raises serious questions about whether we could today accomplish the simultaneous, two-war strategy that has guided American defense planners throughout the last 50 years. Foreign dictators from Iraq to North Korea have watched as Clinton had to order an American aircraft carrier from Asia to the Adriatic to support the Kosovo operation.

This president's neglect of defense matters has been disgraceful. It is time all agreed on the need for reversal of this trend, and it should begin with his signing of a reasonable version of this measure.