The U.S. Navy, in clumsy fashion, this week announced massive cutbacks at the Cutler Naval Station in Washington County, then quickly reversed itself after being blistered by Sen. George Mitchell and meeting with Sen. William Cohen.

The Navy’s furious backpedaling on the Culter announcement offers only a reprieve for the Machias area, which still should prepare itself for the worst, and it illustrates the failure of both the administration and the Congress to plan responsibly for conversion of the U.S. defense economy to a post-Cold War world.

The state’s congressional delegation was miffed because it wasn’t warned that an announcement was imminent, but it shouldn’t be surprised by either the crude manner in which the news was released or by the fact that the service treated the people affected as so much small political change.

This state already witnessed at Loring the ragged side of the facility-closure process, when a federal panel, backed to the wall to make a decision after months of hearings on complex technical data, created an economic black hole in Aroostook County on a “quality of life” standard that it contrived as a convenience.

It does not astound anyone up here, then, that the Navy abruptly released plans to pull the plug on 120 military positions and 75 civilian jobs in a Maine coastal community that has become dependent on a $3-million annual defense payroll.

The federal government, president, Congress and both sides of the political aisle still are in the denial phase of accepting necessary reductions in the military budget, including foreign deployments, weapons systems and domestic bases.

What the country needs from these leaders is courage to accept the economic consequences of tomorrow’s smaller defense industry and a military conversion policy to ease the transition into that future.