Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

19 August 2003

NRF

• According to Deutschlandfunk, Aug. 18, Defense Minister Struck confirmed Monday news reports that Germany would provide more than 5,000 troops to NATO’s planned Response Force (NRF). A related Deutsche Welle broadcast observed that the pledge of troops for the NATO force appears to be the latest step in the Bundeswehr’s restructuring plans, which include modernizing the army; trimming the number of civilian jobs, while at the same time increasing the number of soldiers; slashing military spending and training troops to gear up for new military challenges, including foreign deployments.

ISAF-GEN. JONES

• Describing NATO’s takeover of ISAF as “a groundbreaking step,” marking the first time NATO has mobilized a military force outside Europe, Toronto’s The Globe and Mail, Aug. 18, wrote: “Gen. Jones suggests NATO is being transformed into an organization with global scope. It must change, he says, to become a ‘proactive’ force capable of deploying rapidly anywhere, rather than just maintaining a defensive posture against attacks as it did during the Cold War. In an age when the threat to international security comes from rogue regimes and terrorism, Gen. Jones’ vision makes much sense.” The newspaper commented, however: “It is less clear to what degree NATO is to become a force for providing nation-building as well as security. One goes hand in hand with the other in a place such as Afghanistan…. NATO, though, has little experience in matters such as the training of police and judges. If that, too, is Gen. Jones’ vision, there is much still to consider—including whether such a role would impinge unnecessarily on responsibilities typically undertaken by the UN and other multilateral organizations.”

IRAQ

• According to AP, John P. “Jack” Murtha, a key member of the House of Representatives’ subcommittee on defense spending, who headed a U.S. congressional delegation returning from a visit to Iraq, said in Ankara Tuesday that the United States had underestimated the cost of rebuilding the country. Murtha was reportedly speaking at the start of talks with Turkish Defense Minister Gonul expected to center on a U.S. request for Turkish peacekeepers to help stabilize Iraq. The dispatch recalls that Turkey is considering the request and the Turkish military has submitted a set of questions on the Turkish deployment, including where the troops would be stationed. It quotes Murtha saying that Gen. Jones is in the process of sending an answer. “They should have Gen. Jones’ answer today,” he reportedly stated. Turkey’s Anatolia news agency carries similar information.

A Financial Times editorial opines that having won the war Iraq, the allies are now losing the peace and stresses that the United States should go to the UN for help.
“ The occupation of Iraq needs to be broadened urgently into a genuine peacekeeping and reconstruction operation that will draw in U.S. allies. The only way that will happen is with a new mandate from the UN Security Council and a more empowered Iraqi provisional government. America’s friends … stand ready to help. Washington should seek it before the situation in Iraq becomes irretrievable,” says the editorial.

NATO

• AP reports that in an interview published Sunday Defense Minister Trillo indicated that the Spanish government will seek a boost in defense spending in 2004 to increase soldiers’ pay and modernize weapons systems. Trillo reportedly said the 2004 budget would feature more money for new multipurpose warships, submarines and armored vehicles.

OTHER NEWS

• De Standaard, Aug. 16, reported that the Belgian Defense Ministry and Hesse-Noord Natie, the largest shipping agency in Antwerp, have confirmed that as of Aug. 20, the United States will resume its transports via the Port of Antwerp. Containers and trucks will again be brought ashore in Antwerp and be transported from there to Germany. It is not known whether these transports involve equipment that is being pulled out of Iraq or just “normal” supplies to U.S. troops in Germany, said the newspaper. It recalled that the United States suspended these transports on account of Belgium’s dissident stance during the Iraq crisis