Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

27 February 2003

UNITED STATES-TROOP BASING

• Experts and members of Congress lobbed opinions during a Wednesday hearing of the House Armed Services committee on the impact reducing troops in Germany and western Europe might have on international relations, the budget and combat-readiness of U.S. forces, reports The Stars and Stripes. According to the article, ret. Gen. Montgomery Meigs, former commanding general of U.S. Army Europe, said the call for change is not the result of recent political developments. He broached the topic several years ago, he insisted. Even before the political battle, Gen. Jones had spoken with lawmakers about his thoughts on possibly re-aligning troop numbers and developing a more expeditionary force—one that is lighter and more agile, with “hubs” overseas to stage equipment. “The USAREUR position … over the last few years is that we could reorganize, we could become lighter and we could move to the east,” said Gen. Meigs. However, he reportedly also drew attention to several drawbacks, noting that some of the available military facilities in the eastern nations are “extremely bare boned” and would require “hundreds of millions” of dollars to bring the infrastructure up to standard—money that already has been spent to do the same thing in Germany, for example.

In contribution to the International Herald Tribune, Hans Binnendijk, director of the Washington-based Center for Technology and National Security Policy at the National Defense University, stresses that Washington needs to make clear, by offering a strategic rationale, that plans for a force restructuring are not punitive, but part of a worldwide effort to deal with global threats that affect all of NATO.
“The issue is not new. The U.S. Quadrennial Defense Review of 2001 called for U.S. forces to ‘deter forward,’ a concept that envisions redistributing forward operating bases and enhancing expeditionary capabilities…. Creation of the NATO Response Force at the November Prague summit meeting indicated that NATO would develop new capabilities consistent with this deter forward concept. Both the defense review and the Prague Summit set the stage for a restructured U.S. force posture in Europe,” Binnendijk writes and stresses: “The man in charge of this realignment could not be better suited for the task. The new Supreme Allied Commander, General James Jones of the Marine Corps, knows Europe and understands expeditionary operations. By restructuring U.S. forces in Europe, he can strengthen U.S. public support for these deployments and reassure Europe that NATO has a future.”

NATO- ACCESSION

• According to AFP, NATO Secretary General Robertson said in Vilnius Thursday that seven candidate countries will sign up to join NATO on March 26, after which they will take part in Alliance work. The signature “will signify that those (countries) have done the work that entitles them to become full members and join one of the world’s most important top tables,” Lord Robertson reportedly stressed. After the signature, he added, the ambassadors of members-to-be would take part in ambassador-level meetings of the decision-making NAC and other committees.

ISAF

• According to Die Welt, President Putin informed Chancellor Schroeder, during a visit to Moscow Thursday, of Russia’s decision to let German—and hence NATO—troops through Russian territory by land to reach Afghanistan. Russian airspace would reportedly also be open for supplying the German ISAF contingent.