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Article: `Coast Guard Melodrama'
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- July 18, 1988
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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There truly is a "Coast Guard Melodrama" being played out in
Washington this year. However, the outstanding young men and women
who fight the war on drugs, perform search-and-rescue missions and
patrol our shores are the victims, not the villains, in the drama.
Recent cuts in routine enforcement patrols and closings of marine
safety-and-search and rescue units were not, as The Post's July 6
editorial stated, a classic Washington Monument elevator ploy. We
did not, in the words of the editorial, cut the services that would
most rapidly get voters squawking at Congress.
We were left with few options. These actions were mandated by
the timing, severity and the prospective permanent nature ...