Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

20 March 2003

IRAQ

Following the start of combat operations in Iraq, major news agency echo a message by NATO Secretary General Robertson that military measures in support of Turkey are purely defensive but if there is an attack on that country, NATO will fulfill its obligations under the Washington Treaty.
In a statement issued after the NAC met for U.S. and British briefings on the start of the war, NATO Secretary General Robertson said the allies “expressed their determination to continue to fulfill their treaty obligations to a member nation under threat,” reports Reuters. Lord Robertson stressed that NATO’s deployments in Turkey were purely defensive and would remain strictly separate form other military operations in the region. He said the Alliance was also discussing humanitarian and post-conflict issues, notes the dispatch.
The NATO allies pledged Thursday to defend Turkey if it is attacked by Iraq during the war that began hours earlier with U.S. air strikes on Baghdad, says a related AP dispatch. NATO Secretary General Robertson said the allies “expressed their determination to continue to fulfill their treaty obligations to a member nation under threat.” But he insisted that NATO’s current deployment of specialist units in Turkey represented “purely defensive measures that remain strictly separated from other military operations in the region,” adds the dispatch. Lord Robertson is further quoted saying NATO had strengthened the rules of engagement of units in Turkey “to ensure our forces can effectively carry out their mission, whatever the circumstances.” AFP carries a similar report. Earlier, AP reported that ahead of the expected U.S. strikes, NATO had sent a fourth AWACS plane to Turkey to boost the country’s defenses. Alliance officials were quoted saying the fourth plane would permit non-stop patrols to monitor the skies for any possible air attack on the only NATO ally to border Iraq. The dispatch added that two U.S. Patriot units were on their way to southeastern Turkey to join four Dutch batteries armed with interceptors to shoot down incoming missiles.

The start of hostilities in Iraq prompted Belgium’s RTBF television to view the security situation at SHAPE headquarters.
From SHAPE, a short report in the 1 p.m. news stressed that it was business as usual for military and civilian personnel at the headquarters, even though the alert status had been increased by one level. The program carried Colonel Twrsnick, Chief of Public Information Office, saying: “NATO is not at war…. We continue to do our work, which is the security of the Alliance’s members.”

Among developments related to “Operation Iraqi Freedom”:

• AP reports Iraq responded to a U.S. cruise missile attack Thursday by firing missiles toward American troops positioned just across its border with Kuwait. The dispatch quoted U.S. officers saying none of the Iraqi missiles caused injuries or damage, and one was intercepted by a Patriot missile. The dispatch adds that American and British soldiers in the region briefly donned gas masks or protective suits, but officers later said the missiles apparently were not armed with chemical or biological weapons. The dispatch also quotes U.S. officials saying that inside southern Iraq, a helicopter carrying U.S. special forces crashed hours before the U.S. missile strikes. There were no casualties in the incident, said the officials.
  
  
• The Washington Post quotes an unidentified Pentagon official saying Iraqi dissenters inside the country have begun speaking to U.S. intelligence personnel over open telephone lines about troops movements and possible locations of biological or chemical weapons caches.

Amid signs that focus at the UN is shifting to Iraq’s recovery, the Washington Post writes that countries on the UN Security Council that battled over the wisdom of a war against Iraq pledged Wednesday to pull together to rebuild the country and help Iraqis harmed by military conflict. France and Germany reportedly emphasized the importance of a prominent role for the UN in post-war Iraq on the eve of an emergency effort by the world body to raise more than $1 billion in relief aid. The article considers that the position of the Security Council’s members is likely to strengthen the Bush administration’s plan for the UN to tap billions in Iraqi oil revenue for humanitarian supplies. “Diplomatic maneuvering has begun over a UN resolution needed for the world body to spend billions in Iraqi oil proceeds collected under UN sanctions, and speed delivery of more than $2.5 billion in food and equipment. UN Secretary General Annan said he hopes a collective effort to rescue Iraq could help rehabilitate the battered council,” notes the article. It adds that U.S. and British officials have been working for several weeks on a resolution designed to prevent a power vacuum in Baghdad from further slowing relief efforts. The article claims that Security Council members broadly support the British-American plan.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, March 19, speculated that reconstruction of Iraq could turn into a U.S.-Europe unifying factor. Based on its conviction that Washington does not depend on its allies to conduct and win a war but needs them for political and economic reconstruction, the newspaper expressed the hope that the United States and Europe in this manner will find a way out of their “cold war” and that the UN will again become the center of decision-making.

The Daily Telegraph calls on the UN to come to terms with the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive self-defense. If the UN, NATO and the EU cannot adapt to the new circumstances, as America already has, then these institutions will continue to be weak and divided, stresses the newspaper. It notes that the fall of Saddam should demonstrate that America and its allies will not wait to be attacked by their enemies, but reserve the right to pre-empt those who menace them with the weapons of the modern states and the methods of the terrorist.
The Wall Street Journal considers that the United States has resumed its natural role as a naval power, moving its forces and focus to places where its interests are directly at stake, and away form Europe. Noting, however, that modern Europe, a remarkable achievement, is hard to imagine without American engagement, the article continues: “The United States and NATO are needed to manage relations with a still uncertain Russia and Ukraine on its eastern flank. A Europe built with American help cannot very well suddenly define itself against America. A common European foreign policy only makes sense when the western world, formerly known as Europe and America, stand united…. After the fiasco of the last few weeks, the opportunity to build a new partnership many not come up again for a long time. America might be able to live without it. Europe can’t.”

OTHER NEWS

• In an interview with Le Soir, Foreign Minister Michel says he wants to amend Belgium’s universal competence law in a bid to avoid politically motivated complaints. The newspaper notes that the strongest criticism of the draft law came from the United States. “Secretary of State Powell even envisions to question Belgium’s position on the international stage as the host country for NATO and SHAPE headquarters,” stresses the newspaper.
  
  
• All Belgian media report that a U.S. A-10 from the Spangdahlem air base accidentally dropped bombs in a field in the village of Helchteren during a training flight Wednesday. Four shells reportedly missed their target on a military bombing range located near the village.