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SHAPE
News Summary & Analysis
3
July 2003
DSACEUR
- Tallinn’s
Estonian Television, July 2, reported that during
a visit to Estonia Wednesday, DSACEUR, Adm. Feist, said the
plan for the development of the Estonian Defense Forces coincided
with NATO plans. “Adm. Feist believes that
Estonia will find its place in the Alliance and, despite the
country’s small size, its accession to NATO will enhance
the organization’s capability,” said the program,
adding: “Adm. Feist said that at the moment NATO was
busy drafting a new structure which, to a degree, resembles
the development plan for the Estonian Defense Forces up to
the year 2010. He said that Estonia as well as all NATO member
states would face personnel reductions in the future.”
The program carried DSACEUR saying: “It means
that we need perhaps less personnel, but we need to have better
capabilities. If you look at NATO today, the European NATO
nations, they have about 3 million military personnel. We
don’t need 3 million military personnel, but we need
modern capabilities, technology.” Claiming
that “Adm. Feist thinks Estonia will have to pay attention
to developing its logistics and communications units as well
as special units, in the light of NATO’s future prospects,”
the broadcast quoted Vice Adm. Tarmo Kouts, commander of the
Estonian Defense Forces, saying: “The key aims that
we have been highlighting—the furthering of our capabilities
and planning of our forces—has met with NATO’s
approval.” Concluding, the broadcast reported that Adm.
Feist, who is also the operational commander of the EU armed
forces, discussed with Adm. Kouts Estonia’s participation
in the EU military operation in the Former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia.
UNITED STATES-MILITARY
TRANSFORMATION
- In
a contribution to the Washington Post, Michael O’Hanlon,
a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution views what he
considers as an over-deployment and over-use of the U.S. military.
“Hordes of active-duty troops and reservists
may soon leave the service rather than subject themselves
to a life continually on the road. Much more than transforming
the armed forces or relocating overseas bases, Defense
Secretary Rumsfeld must solve this problem before the Bush
administration breaks the American military,”
O’Hanlon charges. Among other things, he writes: “As
Rumsfeld and Gen. James Jones of European Command draft their
plans for relocating many American forces from Germany, they
need to bear the over-deployment problem in mind. Rather than
creating new facilities where troops are sent primarily on
temporary assignments, they should try to establish new bases
in Eastern Europe that permit troops to bring their families.
It would be the supreme irony, and a national tragedy, if
after winning two wars in two years, the U.S. Army were broken
and defeated while trying to keep the peace. Unfortunately,
the risk that this will happen is all too real.”
AFGHANISTAN
- Inside
The Pentagon claims it has learned that the Bush administration’s
national security team is crafting what officials describe
as a major new aide initiative to bolster Afghanistan’s
central government. According
to the report, the Bush plan—likely to be unveiled publicly
in the next three to five weeks—will include beefed
up security assistance for President Karzai’s fledging
national army, as well as increased investment in Afghan reconstruction.
Zalmay Khalilzad, Bush’s special envoy for Afghanistan,
will reportedly relocate from his White House office to Kabul
for six months or more to oversee implementation of the new
initiative. The article adds that also folded in the
new package is a plan to boost the quantity of Provincial
Reconstruction Teams (PRTs). Officials are quoted
saying the role of the PRTs may slightly expand. Defense
sources reportedly indicated that U.S. personnel helping
train the new Afghan police force might be stationed with
the PRTs. The article claims that the Bush
administration’s new initiative will not include any
additional commitment of forces beyond Kabul.
IRAQ
- The
U.S. says 24 countries have promised to send troops to Iraq,
but diplomats and analysts believe Washington is struggling
to put together sufficient numbers to tackle a military and
political undertaking that was severely underestimated, writes
the Financial Times. How to “internationalize”
the U.S.-UK occupation is becoming a hot political issue in
Washington as U.S. media carry daily reports of war-wearing
soldiers asking what they are doing in Iraq, and opinion polls
reflect growing public unhappiness, the newspaper
adds. But, it notes, “NATO members are already
overstretched in the Balkans, Afghanistan and west Africa.”
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