Soldier-Statesman

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker has the toughest job in the Pentagon, or so it seems to me, and it became clear during an Aug. 23 conversation at the National Press Club that he would not have taken it if he didn't think he could repair the problems he saw.

Schoomaker is seriously

concerned about the future viability of the institution he's served for 35 years. His remarks suggested resentment that the Army has taken a back seat to the Navy and the Air Force in budget decisions over the past 15 years. He is blunt in his insistence that only people working on the ground can offer the hope of creating more stable societies in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. Schoomaker makes it clear that he did not return to duty to acquiesce in the treatment of the Army as a "Cinderella service"-living in rags while others sport expensive finery. He is on the warpath against languid congressional budgeting schedules that have the Army living hand-to-mouth, "going through life like a pauper." He is critical of the incapacity of other U.S. agencies to assign people to work in Iraq on anything other than an opt-in/opt-out basis. And he takes a statesmanlike view of America's obligation to help destitute peoples of the world whose resentment of our wealth can only breed trouble.