Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

17 March 2003

GERMANY-U.S. TROOP BASING-GEN. JONES

• AFP reports that after talks with Gen. Jones in Berlin Monday, Defense Minister Struck said he did not expect the United States to significantly reduce the number of its soldiers based in Germany in the near future. “There will be no massive reduction in the American military presence. We think they will be staying for a while yet,” Struck reportedly told a news conference. The dispatch recalls that Gen. Jones said on March 3 that he was in intensive talks with NATO member countries about overhauling the U.S. military base strategy, including shifting resources to new members in Eastern Europe. Gen. Jones is quoted saying Monday: “The Alliance has signaled its intention to expand by seven members and military support to the Alliance must also adjust to reflect the new capability of NATO nations … be it regional or be it global.” The dispatch notes that Gen. Jones has said he would visit by the end of July all 19 NATO members and the seven Eastern European states on the road to full membership and planned to have a vision for transforming the base system in place by March 2004.

NATO

• Italy’s RAI-1, March 14, devoted a two-minute feature in its prime news to NATO’s AWACS mission in Turkey. The factual report highlighted that the mission, which has been underway for two weeks, falls under the scope of Article 4 of the NATO Treaty. Under Article 4, the network explained, NATO is providing support to a member country if it feels threatened. The report, which showed footage of AWACS crews ready to take off for a mission, focused on the participation of Italian military in the operation.
  
  
• Fears of another terrorist attack by Al Qaeda have prompted NATO to begin escorting allied civilian ships through the Strait of Gibraltar at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea, reported the BBC. The program added that Spanish, Portuguese and U.S. warships are involved in the operation and before the end of the month, a British frigate will take command. All the evidence is that the potential threat to shipping is on the increase, said the program. The network observed that NATO has had “plenty of bad publicity” recently, with bitter splits emerging between member countries on what to do about Iraq. So, it continued, the Alliance is keen to demonstrate that it has a real role to play in the campaign against international terrorism, and the Strait of Gibraltar has been clearly identified as a place of potential threat. The program emphasized that “NATO will be patrolling the Strait every day it is needed.”
  
  
• According to the Wall Street Journal, Sen. John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has asked President Bush to add NATO peacekeepers to the administration’s “road map” to guide the search for permanent peace between Israel and the Palestinians. He reportedly proposed sending NATO forces to the Middle East to support a ceasefire, if one is reached by the two sides. In a letter to Bush dated Friday, he stressed that a NATO peacekeeping force would be acceptable to the two sides. “It would be important to show that NATO can work together to make a positive contribution to solving one of the most challenging security issues of our day,” Warner wrote. He reportedly said the used of NATO peacekeepers should be offered to Israel and the Palestinian authority, not imposed on them.
  

IRAQ

• Electronic media report France called for an emergency UN ministerial meeting Tuesday to set a timetable for Iraq’s peaceful disarmament, ignoring a Monday deadline set by the United States and three allies for the UN to authorize war to eliminate Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.

Media generally expect that a U.S.-led war against Iraq will now take place without a UN resolution. Against this background, Belgian media centered on remarks by Defense Minister Flahaut, in a televised interview Sunday, suggesting that Belgium would deny the United States use of its territory for military transports as well as overflight rights for planes on their way to Iraq if Washington launches a war without UN backing.
Warning that the issue could create problems for the government, Gazet van Antwerpen reports that a diplomatic storm is developing in the wake of Flahaut’s remarks. The daily notes that Flahaut is going further than France and President Chirac. It recalls that in a televised interview March 10, Chirac stressed that while France does not agree on the need for an immediate war, it does not mean that France and the United States are not allies. “If the Americans find it necessary to use our airspace, it is clear that they can do that. This is normal between allies,” the newspaper quotes Chirac saying. It stresses that Flahaut’s remarks have caused “great commotion.” Belgium is currently the only NATO country which has closed its airspace to America and Britain, the daily notes. Le Soir makes a similar observation, stressing: “France differs from Belgium’s position. A few days ago, President Chirac stressed that overflight of French airspace by British and U.S. aircraft would be authorized in the case of war.”

• The Federal government wants to contribute servicemen for the rebuilding of Iraq after the war, reports Financial Times Deutschland. The daily notes that on Saturday, the weekly Der Spiegel reported that, despite public denials, an assistance program of the Credit institute for Reconstruction and a possible deployment of 1,000 Bundeswehr servicemen for a UN peace force were being discussed internally. But, adds the newspaper, in an interview with Welt am Sonntag, Defense Minister Struck said that with Germany spending almost 2 billion Euros for operations abroad annually, the defense budget did not provide any leeway for further, additional operations abroad. The newspaper remarks that so far, the Federal Government has rejected U.S. requests for NATO to participate in the reconstruction and contribute servicemen to a peace force. Berliner Zeitung reports meanwhile that according to ruling SPD security policy spokesman Reinhold Robbe, Germany could be involved in reconstruction and peacekeeping in Iraq in the aftermath of a war. The Chairman of the Bundestag’s Defense Committee regards active assistance in reconstruction as better than high levels of German expenditure, as happened in the first Gulf War, adds the newspaper, quoting Robbe stressing his view that reconstruction will not work without military safeguarding, and adding: “The question is how it is to be organized: whether there is a UN mandate, whether NATO is engaged, and who takes on the leadership role…. We have a changed Bundeswehr … and we have outstanding humanitarian organizations for technical assistance projects. These might be available for reconstruction aid.”