With a shrinking defense budget and a still uncertain economy, returning civilian-soldiers may find a pink slip waiting for them because of current downsizing and corporate cost-saving initiatives.

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Military officials have warned that those cuts, on top of steep budget reductions already in the pipeline over the next decade, would be devastating to its operations as well as the civilian economy that depends on defense-related jobs and spending.

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In his letter, Gaffney details the dual benefit to America and Americans of a tax reduction -- a necessary stimulus to the civilian economy and a concomitant boost for the Nation's defense.

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It has modernised the penal code, given new rights to Kurds, other minorities and women, brought the army under civilian control and presided over a stable, fast-growing economy a record unmatched by any of its secular predecessors.

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Such a conditioned approach to Western assistance to the Soviet Union and East bloc, like a step-by-step loan disbursement arrangements predicated on Moscow's performance toward publicly identified economic and political milestones, will not be unduly onerous if the Soviets are genuinely interested in promoting non-strategic commercial activity and similar developments within the civilian economy.

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Your program for across-the-board tax reductions offers not only a necessary stimulus to our civilian economy and morally imperative relief for our countrymen from excessive taxation.

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But the West has failed to protect civilian lives, to bring the development it promised, to wean the economy off its poppy-addiction and to ensure fair elections and failed even to agree about what it is trying to do in the country.

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Gaffney pointed out that the PRC's play for Unocal's energy and rare earth mineral assets is hardly a normal commercial transaction, but rather part of Beijing's long-term plan to dominate strategic energy resources, materials, minerals and technologies in order to provide a civilian economy that will serve China's military needs.

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