Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

24 February 2003

NATO

• AP reports a NATO mission to help defend Turkey against a potential Iraqi attack with AWACS surveillance planes got underway Monday with the departure of a planeload of equipment and support units from their base in Geilenkirchen, Germany. The dispatch notes that Gen. Jones ordered the deployment last week after NATO ended weeks of stalemate over whether to start military planning to boost Turkey’s defenses against the threat of an Iraqi air attack. A related AFP dispatch quotes NATO officials saying in Geilenkirchen that NATO troops who will operate AWACS radar surveillance aircraft left for Turkey on Monday as part of a mission to protect the country in the event of a war with Iraq. The dispatch remarks that Maj. Gen. Dora, commander of the NATO AWACS fleet, told reporters the mission in Turkish airspace would be purely defensive. “We will not allow ourselves to get involved in an offensive operation,” he reportedly stressed. “Gen.. Jones has given the order for the deployment of AWACS to Turkey,” says Rhein Zeitung, observing that the deployment is NATO’s first concrete step in response to Turkey’s request for support . Die Welt, Feb. 22, stressed the rapidly with which Gen. Jones was able to give the order for the AWACS deployment was due to the fact that the fleet is placed under the direct command of SHAPE headquarters. Other measures require the military planners to establish from Turkey what its needs are, and to enquire as to member-states’ capabilities, before having the deployment authorized by the NATO Council, the newspaper explained.

IRAQ

• The Times, reportedly the first British newspaper to gain access to the headquarters of the Free Iraqi Forces (FIF), whom the U.S. Army is training in Taszar, Hungary, to administer a post-Saddam Iraq, explains that Hungary has given permission for up to 3,000 trainees to pass through “Camp Freedom.” The mainly anecdotic article says the first batch of several dozen have almost completed their four-week course. The first stage covers the military skills necessary to survive on the battlefield: self-defense, pistol marksmanship, navigation and teamwork development. The second focuses on civilian-military operations. Classes are taught in English, and simultaneously translated into Arabic, stresses the article.

BALKANS

• Reports that Britain and France are to unveil proposals for the EU to take over the peacekeeping mission in Bosnia are generating interest. “The new EU crisis response force is to take over from NATO the role as protecting power to support the peace process in Bosnia at the beginning of next year. This demand was made by France and Britain in a letter to their 13 partners,” writes Sueddeutsche Zeitung. The newspaper notes that the initiative is regarded as a sign that London and Paris want to strengthen ESDP. “The objective to ‘Europeanize’ the SFOR mission from 2004 had already been formulated at the EU summit in Copenhagen. The planned deployment in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is regarded as a test case. Adm. Feist is to assume command of the mission,” says the newspaper. A related report in Brussels’ EU Observer says France and Britain are leading the drive for European troops to take over the Bosnia peacekeeping mission from NATO in 2004. The initiative could help healing the foreign policy rift which has developed between the two countries since the escalation of the crisis with Iraq, the report suggests. It notes that the Franco-British paper says “EU troops must be militarily robust” but the operation will not be completely without the backing of the Alliance. “Certain elements” of NATO must remain present in the region, the paper reportedly says.

ISAF

• According to Reuters, a German spokesman for ISAF stressed Sunday that Germany has no plans to pull out of Afghanistan if there is a war in Iraq. The spokesman reportedly denied reports that Defense Minister Struck had expressed such intention. “He never said that Germany would retreat or leave Afghanistan in such a case. This is a misunderstanding,” the spokesman told reporters in Kabul, adding: “There are rumors. The German commitment to Afghanistan remains very strong and this will not change.”