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At Georgia Base, Bush promises
troops better pay, improved housing
by Naftali Bendavid
February 13, 2001
Chicago Tribune
FORT STEWART, Ga.- Resurrecting
a theme of his campaign, President
Bush visited an Army base in Geor
gia Monday and promised cheering,
camouflage-clad soldiers that he
would dramatically improve their
standard of living.
Bush told the troops he would set
aside $1.4 billion in the 2002 budget
for military pay increases, $4 billion
for health benefits and $4OO million
to enhance military housing.
But some experts suggested that the
bulk of the funds did not represent
an increase in spending beyond that
recommended by President Clinton.
White House aides insisted it is new
spending.
During his run for president, Bush
decried the state of the armed forces
under the Clinton administration, por
traying the military as demoralized
and unprepared for combat. On Mon
day, Bush said he was ready to do
something about it.
“Frustration is up. Morale in some
places is difficult to sustain. Recruit
ment is harder,” Bush said, as soldiers
arrayed in rigid rows grunted their
approval Army-style. “This is not the
way a great nation should reward
courage and idealism. It’s ungrateful,
it's unwise and it is unacceptable.”
Bush added: “While you are serv
ing us well, America is not serving
you well enough.”
Bush's first presidential trip outside
Washington came against the back
drop of charges by some military
leaders that Bush has not delivered
on a promise to give the Pentagon an
immediate cash infusion.
The president scored significant
political points in the campaign by
repeatedly declaring that servicemen
and women were ill-housed, ill-fed
and ill-equipped. More than 5,000
military families were on food
stamps, Bush said in his stump
speech, and back-to-back deploy
ments tore families apart.
All this will soon be over, Bush
suggested Monday.
“The freedom and security you
make possible improve the quality of
our life,” Bush told the soldiers, as
the unit flags waved colorfully in the
chilly breeze. “Our nation can never
fully repay our debt to you, but we
can give you full support, and my
administration will.”
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The soldiers of Fort Stewart, many
of whom are serving in Bosnia-
Herzegovina, are among the most
deployed troops in the Army. Two
thirds of their barracks need renova
tion, Bush said, noting that some of
the base's buildings were built in 1941
and designed to last just a decade.
“We owe you and your families a
decent quality of life," Bush said.
“We owe the training and equipment
you need to do your jobs. And when
we send you into harm's way, we owe
you a clear mission with clear goals.”
To come to Fort Stewart, Bush took
his first flight aboard Air Force One,
and he donned a flight jacket with his
name on it. Fort Stewart is the larg
est Army installation east of the Mis
sissippi River, with nearly 20,000 sol
diers. By choosing to go there on his
first trip as president, Bush tried to
send a message that a new culture has
taken root at the White House.
Rightly or wrongly, many in the
Armed Forces viewed Clinton as in
different or hostile to their interests,
and he was even ridiculed early on
for his sloppy salute.
Bush, by contrast, has sought to
wrap himself in a military aura. Al
though he served stateside during the
Vietnam War in the Texas Air Na
tional Guard, his father was a World
War II hero, Vice President Dick
Cheney is a former defense secretary
and Secretary of State Colin Powell
is a retired general.
On Tuesday, Bush will visit the
Joint Forces Command in Norfolk,
Va., the only NATO base in the
United States, where he will watch a
battle simulation and discuss military
modernization.
The following day Bush travels to
Charleston, W.Va., to mingle with
National Guard and reserve troops
and talk about the importance of citi
zen-soldiers, a role Bush played in the
Texas Air Guard.
Bush is starting his forays outside
the Beltway in relatively safe envi
ronments as he gains his presidential
footing. Military installations are
friendly, confined settings, and Bush
is scheduled to take his first foreign
trip to Mexico on Friday, a journey
that will last just a few hours in a
country he knows well from his days
as Texas governor.
Bush is visiting the bases because
his chosen theme this week is mili
tary and foreign affairs. As they did
during the campaign, Bush's advis
ers are designating a theme for each
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PHOTO BY CHUCK KENNEDY/ Knight-Ridder Tribune
President George W. Bush salutes a Marine as he arrives back at
the White House from Fort Stewart, Georgia, February 12, 2001.
Bush, in his first trip with all the trappings of commander in chief, told
U.S. soldiers that "America is not serving you well" and promised
morale-boosting pay increases, better housing and health care.
week, from education to faith-based
programs to tax cuts
This strategy has largely worked.
Bush's initiatives have been favorably
covered in the news media and his
agenda has been disrupted only in
frequently, as when Sen. John
McCain, R-Ariz., announced with
fanfare a proposal for campaign-fi
nance reform that Bush opposes.
Bush's military theme has been
sidetracked slightly by conservative
anger last week at the president's hesi
tancy to increase the 2001 or 2002
Pentagon budgets. Bush said he is
waiting for an in-depth review by
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
before making spending decisions.
Many military leaders insist they
urgently need a cash infusion to pay
for spare parts, training and other re
quirements. As a candidate, Bush rou
tinely excoriated Clinton for “eight
years of neglect" of the armed forces,
while Cheney promised, “Help is on
the way.”
The discrepancy between such
rhetoric and the lack of an immedi
ate increase in military funding has
provoked an outcry among the
military's supporters, with some com
paring Bush's stance to his father’s
famous reneged pledge, "Read my
lips, no new taxes.”
But Monday, Bush continued the
tone he set in the campaign suggest
ing that change is on the way, say
ing, “If our military is to attract the
best of America, we owe you the
best.”
Thank you for caring enough to give to
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Penn State Behrend raised $41,828 to help
people right here in Erie County.
Thanks again for making a difference
in our community.
Napster must halt
online music swaps
Napster vowed to let the band play
on Monday despite a federal appeals
court ruling that said the company
could be liable for enormous mon
etary damages if it continued to let
Internet users download copyrighted
music for free.
In rejecting almost all of Napster’s
legal defenses, a panel of three judges
on the 9th U S. Circuit Court ol Ap
peals in San Francisco ruled Monday
that Napster's service “knowingly en
courages and assists" millions of
people in violating the law.
The judges agreed with the record
industry's arguments that the exist
ence of Napster cuts into sales of CDs
to college students and also harmed
the recording companies’ own efforts
to distribute music online.
“This is a clear victory,” said Hi
lary Rosen, president of the Record
ing Industry Association of America,
a trade group.
However, the judges did not restore
an earlier U.S. District Court injunc
tion ordering the company to elimi
nate all copyrighted music from its
files. Instead, the appeals court sent
the case back to the lower court, say
ing that record companies have the
obligation to first notify Napster spe
cifically about which music is being
illegally copied.
“Napster, however, also bears the
burden of policing the system ...,”
wrote Chief Judge Robert Beezer. If
Napster refuses to take action, the
District Court could then issue the
injunction, which would essentially
put Napster out of business.
“Napster is not shut down, but un
der this decision it could be,” the com
pany said in a statement. “We will
pursue every avenue in the courts and
the Congress to keep Napster operat
Napster users, which the company
IO ,r «ps tl^
TMS PHOTO
Napster co-founder Shawn
Fanning reacts to the ruling, by
the U.S. Ninth District Court of
Appeals, on Monday, February
12,2001.
www.unitedwayerfe.org
by Rita Ciolli
Newsday
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2001
estimates to be about 10,000 per sec
ond at peak times, can get access to
digital copies of thousands of com
mercially released albums and songs
without paying for it. Napster argues
that it is not causing any economic
harm to the recording industry, only
allowing music fans to sample music
before deciding to purchase it.
This clash of business, culture and
the First Amendment was unleashed
in 1999 by Shawn Fanning, then a 18-
year-old college student who wrote
the source code for the program that
allows computers to share files.
The Napster case is the first big
battle over how copyright law should
be applied in cyberspace and its ulti
mate outcome is likely to shape how
music, movies, art and books will be
distributed online.
But both sides realize that public
opinion about whether the same rules
should apply to the Internet is just as
important as the court decisions. “Our
hope is that when this decision gets
read and talked about, the people who
would be inclined to do the same thing
now won't do it,” said Leon Gold, a
New York City trial lawyer who rep
resented one of the recording compa-
Even if Napster is stopped, it may
already be too late to change the ex
pectations that online music should be
free, said Nicholas Economides, a
professor at New York University's
business school. “There will be a pro
liferation of alternative programs and
to shut them down the music indus
try will have to start suing individual
consumers, their own customers,” he
said.
Also, a renegade company could set
up a similar operation overseas in a
country that is not bound by U.S.
copyright law. “Given the nature of
the Internet, even if it is stopped in
the U.S. it can survive someplace
else," Economides said.
Some of the alternative programs
such as Gnutella and Free Net, which
make it impossible to identify users,
are expected to benefit if Napster is
shut down.
Napster lawyers said Monday that
they will appeal the panel ruling to
the full 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Ap
peals. “We look forward to getting
more facts into the record,” said the
company, contending that the court
ruled with "an incomplete record be
fore it."
The legal jockeying means Napster
could continue to operate for weeks,
if not months.