Word: drawdown
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...large measure, the White House enthusiasm was meant to persuade Congress there was no need to set a specific date for U.S. forces to withdraw. "We're on course for a rapid drawdown in our force," Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Walter Slocombe told a House committee on Friday, hours after Congress approved nonbinding resolutions calling for American troops to return home "as soon as possible." The U.S. will reduce its troop level in Haiti to 6,000 within six months, he said, and hand over peacekeeping duties to the U.N. But setting a deadline would encourage Haiti's thugs...
...problem. Most move every three years, ripping the military family from the support network of relatives and friends that civilian families count on when times get tough. The long absences of the breadwinner -- on lengthy cruises, battlefield exercises or peacekeeping missions -- add to familial stress. The military drawdown, from 2.2 million troops in 1987 to 1.5 million in 1997, compounds the problem. Soldiers and sailors who once dreamed of a secure, 20-year career and a handsome pension now find themselves facing a truncated career, no pension and bleak employment prospects in the civilian world. "Everybody is wondering about what...
...Gaza Strip and Jericho enclaves will take 21 days. But the changeover may take even longer. "There is no real deadline," says a high-ranking Israeli negotiator. "We shall stay as long as is necessary." The army preferred to complete its redeployment within a few days, fearing a slow drawdown of troops might expose the departing soldiers to danger if the P.L.O. failed to maintain order. Such concerns were magnified by the P.L.O.'s imperfect management. A day after the Cairo ceremony, the first 1,500 of 9,000 Palestinian police were to arrive from P.L.O. bases around the Arab...
Because the U.S. has had an all-volunteer force since 1974, managing this drawdown is far more complicated than the demobilizations that followed World War II or Vietnam. "You don't just have a bunch of draftees who are eager to return to a world they know," says Major Bill Crews, an Army job-placement consultant. "In many cases, these career-military persons have never had another...
...possibility of starvation in the Soviet Union: "I keep seeing these pictures of Russians. I've never seen a picture of a skinny one yet." When he argues for rapid reduction of U.S. forces in Europe, he uses the figure of 350,000. He doesn't mention that a drawdown is well under way; according to the Pentagon, the number of troops still in Europe is only...