Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

11 June 2003

NATO

A meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels Thursday is generating high interest. Electronic media convey the message that a radical revamp of NATO’s command structure, expected to be unveiled by the ministers, could still be stalled by haggling over military bases.

• Plans to slim down NATO’s command structure, considered essential to the military modernization of the Alliance, are threatened with delay because of a dispute over where to locate bases, writes AP. The streamlining of commands are part of a military transformation under debate within NATO as the Alliance seeks to shift its focus away from the static forces of the Cold War toward more agile units able to respond to sudden, unpredictable threats and project power around the world, the dispatch explains. A related Reuters dispatch quotes a senior NATO official saying he was “quite optimistic” agreement on the new structure would be reached at the Brussels meeting, but it was not guaranteed. “The politics remains to be sorted out,” the official reportedly added. The dispatch notes that along with a drive to improve military capabilities and build a rapid response force, the streamlining of NATO’s command structure is part of a program designed to make NATO relevant for new global challenges. “The Alliance has already made good on pledges to take on security threats beyond its own borders, agreeing to take command of peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan in August and to support a Polish-led stabilization force in Iraq. Some allies have even suggested a role for NATO in the Middle East conflict. Unlikely though that might seem, it is a measure of the trust returning to the Alliance after its bruising internal disputes ahead of the Iraq war,” comments the dispatch. Lisbon’s RDP Antena 1 radio, June 10, carried Defense Minister Paulo Portas saying, at a joint conference with Defense Secretary Rumsfeld Tuesday, that while a final decision would not be made until Thursday’s NATO meeting, the Alliance will maintain a strengthened regional command in Oeiras, near Lisbon. “I think we are in a good position to be able to tell the Portuguese that the Oeiras command will have an important role in the Alliance’s framework and will be one of the three regional commands of the new structure. We are grateful for the United States’ support,” Portas said. Belgium’s De Standaard stresses that an important part of NATO’s transformation will be the establishment of a NATO Response Force. The NRF will be no standing force. All member countries will contribute quality troops available for particular missions. As far as Belgium is concerned, the possibilities are limited: F16s, a paracommando brigade, a frigate or minesweepers and mine hunters, says the newspaper.
  

ISAF

• According to Reuters, Defense Minister Struck told German television Wednesday that Al Qaeda was behind a suicide car bomb attack that killed four German soldiers in Kabul on Saturday. “It appears that the attacker was a member of Al Qaeda,” Struck reportedly said, adding that members of the ousted Taliban regime and loyalists of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a renegade warlord and leader of the radical party of Hezb-I-Islami, were also responsible. “These are the three groups trying to force the international peacekeeping force out of Afghanistan,” he stressed.

The attack on the German troops appears to be fueling calls for a review of ISAF’s mandate.
“The suicide bomb attack on German troops was but the latest in a series of attacks. The danger is that the victory in Afghanistan will unravel in the face of attacks from Al Qaeda, Taliban remnants, and recalcitrant warlords,” writes the Christian Science Monitor. The newspaper concludes: “To prevent that, the rest of the world must act quickly to deploy a larger international security force outside Kabul and to increase reconstruction aid to the impoverished country…. When NATO takes over peacekeeping operations in August, the U.S., Europeans, and others must increase their forces and security coordination.” Sueddeutsche Zeitung, June 10, opined that “the mission in Afghanistan will remain a patch job as long as the international community is just doing the absolute minimum.” According to the daily, the only reaction to Saturday’s attack must be a strengthened commitment; otherwise terrorism might soon put an end to the whole mission. Earlier, Berlin’s DDP quoted Defense Minister Struck saying a Bundeswehr fact-finding mission left for Afghanistan Tuesday to examine within the next two weeks “whether and maybe where” German troops should be deployed outside Kabul. Struck was further quoted saying that should German troops move into other regions of Afghanistan, it would not take place before September. Toronto Canada. Com, June 10, quoted Defense Minister McCallum saying he was satisfied the 1,800 Canadian troops being sent to Afghanistan would have “robust” rules of engagement. Concerns about the safety of Canadian troops were renewed following Saturday’s attack on German peacekeepers, noted the report. A commentary in Toronto’s Globe and Mail, June 10, predicted that the Canadian Afghan mission would prove “extremely problematic.” The attack which claimed the lives of four German peacekeepers and wounded 31 others shows just how volatile post-war Afghanistan remains, and just how dangerous Canada’s military mission there will be, said the newspaper.