CRISIS IN THE CARIBBEAN : Military Is Still Uneasy Over Its Mission in Haiti : Pentagon: A truce between Clinton and officers in the armed forces has developed. But it could unravel.

The officer leaned on a railing overlooking a verdant Pentagon courtyard and reflected on his commander in chief’s latest order to muster the troops for a possible invasion of Haiti.

The problem with President Clinton’s Haiti policy, the officer complained, was the mixed signals, the flip-flops, the on-again, off-again threats.

The problem with Clinton’s Haiti policy, added a fellow Army officer, is that troops alone cannot rebuild a country in which political terror and grinding poverty have long prevailed.

The problem with Clinton’s Haiti policy, chimed in one brush-cut Marine, is that it will strain shrinking U.S. forces with yet another commitment at a time when money is short and demands are everywhere.

Notably gone from the officers’ banter, however, was any talk of a young Clinton’s draft-dodging or pot-smoking. Gone was the stinging resentment of the days when Clinton appeared intent on opening the military to out-of-the-closet homosexuals. Gone were the jokes about the commander in chief’s weak salute or his letters to the draft board.

Military officers, seemingly marching toward an invasion of Haiti at Clinton’s order, are grappling with disquieting doubts about the mission they may be asked to conduct in that impoverished island nation. But the deep disquiet they felt toward Clinton almost two years ago has given way to a more businesslike relationship.

Today, few continue to question the intentions, the integrity or the military prerogatives of a commander in chief who never served in the U.S. armed forces.

“I think we’ve gotten over that immature thing,” one Army officer said. “This is not a personal military thing against the President. He’s the commander in chief, and most of the military has just sort of internalized that. We’ve got our bats and balls and we’re ready to play. People have basically made their peace with Bill Clinton.”

But it may be an uneasy peace. While the raw feelings of Clinton’s early days in office have eased, the professional misgivings of many military officers about the Haiti operation have not. And if an invasion of Haiti draws U.S. troops into a protracted commitment or, worse, military disaster, officers warned that their newly cordial relations with Clinton could sour.

That, in turn, could have dramatic political consequences for a commander in chief whose foreign and defense policies have failed to win the enthusiastic support of either the military or the American people.

On Saturday, ready for a battle that could be defused by a last-minute diplomatic maneuver, military officers were willing to fill the void with talk about the impending mission and the policies that led to it. Clinton, meanwhile, took pains to demonstrate a solid front with the Pentagon’s senior military officers, traveling to the Pentagon for a final briefing on the military’s invasion plan.

Striding out of the Pentagon with Gen. John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the four chiefs of the nation’s service branches in tow, Clinton appeared both commanding and attentive to the military officials--a delicate balance for a leader as he prepares to send troops into harm’s way.

Many experts, pointing to Clinton’s lack of military service and his controversial first steps in overhauling military policy, predicted that any use of force would unleash a torrent of barely concealed complaints from military officers. And so far, many retired officers, including Persian Gulf War commander Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, have been openly critical of Clinton and his invasion plans. By contrast, however, the misgivings of the military’s active-duty leaders have been largely muted.

Fortunately for Clinton, one of the military’s most authoritative figures--retired Gen. Colin L. Powell, a former Joint Chiefs chairman--so far has voiced little public complaint about an invasion that has drawn weak support from the American public and vigorous opposition from Capitol Hill.

At Clinton’s request, Powell joined former President Jimmy Carter and Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) on a mission Saturday to the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince to try to defuse the crisis.

But one senior officer, noting that many officers at the Pentagon harbor profound concerns about an invasion of Haiti, warned that the military’s stance could change.

If the Haiti invasion turns sour, he said, military officers will be blunt in their “I-told-him-so’s.”

“The chickens coming home to roost will not just be from the military but from the public at large,” the senior officer said. “President Clinton will really be held accountable if this thing goes south.”

Officers will not need to hold press conferences to air their grievances, either. Lawmakers, many of them bitterly opposed both to the invasion and to Clinton, will call admirals and generals into open hearings to dissect the operation. In those sessions, as well as in future hearings on budgets and military missions, the officer said, “direct questions will be met with very candid and direct responses.”

Principally, officers cited concerns that they could be drawn into a protracted engagement in which foes are indistinguishable from friends and where the definition of success--or of completion--is not sharp.

“These are issues about which reasonable men and women will disagree, and that’s the way this debate is being conducted,” said one recently retired colonel who maintains close ties to former colleagues. “But because the military’s means are so limited now, all those apprehensions have been magnified.”

Still other officers complained about the constant stream of demands for military solutions at a time when their ranks, and their budgets, have thinned.

At this point, the relative quiescence of military officers reflects one crucial fact: Once a President’s order has been given, the military’s role is to determine how best to accomplish an operation’s declared objectives, not to question whether they ought to be pursued.

“Do I think it’s worth any American lives to intervene in Haiti right now? No. There’s not a catastrophe down there--you can’t justify it,” one Marine officer said. “But we’re leaning forward right now. People joined the military to do stuff like this.”

Moreover, the proposed Haiti invasion comes at a time when the military services are jockeying furiously for roles and resources in an environment of shrinking budgets and force consolidations.

Last week, Army and Air Force leaders were called before a congressionally established commission to plead their case, and in the coming week, the Navy and Marine Corps will be called in.

If it goes forward, the Haiti invasion will give each service ammunition in the scramble for resources. “There is a sense among many that, hey, it may be a lousy war, but it’s the only one we’ve got at a time when everyone’s being called upon to justify themselves,” the Marine officer said.