By Mary McGrory - The Washington Post, December 12, 1996

So much time and emotion was spent on President Clinton's Cabinet selections in the national security field that not everyone noticed that leadership is coming from unexpected sources these days. Several foreign policy matters have been taken over by people who were not appointed by the president or confirmed by the Senate.

When, for instance, a mouse is instructing an eagle on how to handle a dragon, you can see the trend. The reference is to Hollywood's comparative hardiness in confronting Beijing on a matter of free speech. The Chinese told Disney producer Michael Ovitz that if he expected to do business in the Heavenly Kingdom, he would have to scrap a movie about the Dalai Lama. The Chinese hate the Dalai Lama because he is a charismatic figure who has resisted the seizure and rape of Tibet. The Mouse just said no.

Disney's response suggested that this is a free country, a point that is seldom made by this "trade uber alles" administration. It was a refreshing contrast to the 19-gun salute accorded to China's defense minister here this week.

In Bosnia, which has resisted the best efforts of our most aggressive diplomats, the presence of U.S. troops and endless European hand-wringing, ordinary people have shouldered past the professionals and taken to the streets to tell their tyrant Slobodan Milosevic who is boss. They pour out daily, shouting, shaking their fists, carrying around an effigy of him in prison stripes.

These people have withstood four years of a war in which Milosevic has been the chief barbarian. Rape and pillage were official Serbian policy. Decent people were herded into concentration camps, tortured and in many cases shot.

Their homes were burned or otherwise destroyed in the name of ethnic cleansing. Milosevic has not been indicted for war crimes, except on the streets of Belgrade.

The people put up with it all until Milosevic went too far. He vetoed election returns which went against him, and something snapped. The long-repressed impulses of democracy flowered forth.

The crowds have withstood the blackout of television coverage and the jolt of an adverse Supreme Court decision upholding the nullification. Repression generates more protest. Washington Post correspondent John Pomfret talked to a mink-clad marcher who said she was in the square because of the arrest and beating of a student demonstrator.

Madeleine Albright should take note.

Two weeks ago in Washington, a drastic suggestion came from two retired generals who talked in visions and dreams. "I could see for the first time the prospect of restoring a world free of the apocalyptic threat of nuclear weapons," said Gen. George Lee Butler, who not so long ago was the commander of the Strategic Air Command. With him at the National Press Club was Gen. Andrew Goodpaster, right hand of Dwight Eisenhower in war and peace. The day after they spoke, the pair produced a list of 70 like-minded generals who want to phase out nuclear weapons.

President Clinton does not like to confront the military. Vietnam veteran activist Bobby Muller rounded up 15 retired generals to persuade their commander in chief to ban land mines, but Clinton declined. Could he phase out nukes? Former senator Alan Cranston, an ardent arms controller, thinks Clinton may be tempted. "Takes care of the legacy problem," says Cranston.

"You are the experts," said Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) to the three servicemen who sat before him. As chairman of a subcommittee he held a long, emotional hearing on the subject of the mysterious illnesses that afflict Gulf War veterans.

The most pitiful figure was Marine Maj. Randy Lee Hebert, whose face is gaunt and drawn and who speaks like a retarded child. He has Lou Gehrig's disease, which he thinks he got from exposure to chemicals in combat on the Kuwaiti-Saudi Arabian border. His father read his statement; his wife interpreted his answers to committee questions. The Pentagon took five years to admit that troops were exposed. Marine Gunnery Sgt. George J. Grass and Army Maj. Michael F. Johnson said it was plain from the first that the chemicals were there. Everyone dismissed their findings, recorded in detection vehicles, as "false alarms," and nobody did anything for the afflicted vets.

William S. Cohen, designated secretary of defense, should call in the troops and tell them while five years was better than the 20 it took them to come to on Agent Orange, it isn't good enough. Not much leadership is coming out of the White House these days. Clinton and his new team just need to look out the window and see the good ideas all around them.