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With the holiday season in the rear-view mirror, you may still have a Christmas tree in your living room that you're wondering what you should do with.
The new majority in the 104th Congress was elected on a platform of smaller government, less spending, and a strong national defense. These ideals were embodied in the Contract With America, which explicitly calls for the creation of a bipartisan National Security Revitalization Commission to examine the combat readiness of the armed forces. Because of defense budget cuts, the readiness of the American military has been on the decline. Despite the evidence, the Clinton Administration has not recognized the growing readiness prob- lem. Notwithstanding his admission last November that one-third of America's combat divisions are at less than full wartime readiness, Secretary of Defense William J. Perry recently told a congres- sional committee that to label U.S. forces "hollow"-ill-trained, under-equipped, and demoralized -was "not only wrong, but dangerous. 991 But if the commission is approved and examines the readiness issue, it is likely to draw a very dif- ferent