
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 30, 1993                   TAG: 9304300248
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: DAVID REED ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LEXINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

CHENEY BACKS LIMITED ROLE FOR WOMEN

Former Defense Secretary Richard Cheney said Thursday that the American people may be unprepared for the consequences of sending women into combat.

Cheney, at Virginia Military Institute, also said President Clinton would be mistaken if he sends troops into Bosnia and courting disaster if he orders bombs to be dropped on the ethnically diverse country.

"We looked at it just a few months ago and it doesn't make any sense," Cheney said.

Defense Secretary Les Aspin ordered the service chiefs Wednesday to drop restrictions on women flying combat missions and serving aboard most Navy warships.

Cheney said he supports a partial lifting of the ban on women flying combat missions, as long as the standards for the officers are not reduced to accommodate them and there are no quotas set for promoting women to those positions.

"They have to compete on a level playing field," Cheney said, "and there should be nothing like affirmative action."

There is no place for women in ground combat, Cheney said.

There are going to be problems with women serving in combat that society may not be prepared to deal with, he said.

"They are going to be shot down, captured and tortured," Cheney said. "I am concerned that some of the same advocates for the change will be the first to complain when that happens and want the military to quickly do something about it."

But he said military objectives and strategies cannot be changed because soldiers have been captured - male or female. "You can't have that kind of thing affect your policy."

In 1991, Congress approved legislation that lifted the ban on females being assigned to combat aircraft. But a presidential commission narrowly voted to continue the ban, leaving the issue for the Clinton administration to decide.

Clinton is nearing a decision on Bosnia that could include limited air strikes and a lifting of an international arms embargo.

Bombing military targets in Bosnia would be difficult, Cheney said, because civilians are intermingled with soldiers and opposing military forces are interwoven "almost neighborhood by neighborhood."

"It's not clear how to tell from the air where the good guys are and where the bad guys are," Cheney said.

by CNB