Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

29 October 2003

NATO

• NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson is paying President Bush a visit on November 12 to discuss Iraq, Afghanistan and peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Kosovo. President Bush and Lord Robertson also were to plan for the 2004 NATO summit, being held in Istanbul, Turkey. (AP 281848 Oct 03)
  
  
• NATO is willing to do more to aid coalition forces in Iraq but its priority remains to bolster its operations in Afghanistan, a spokesman for the transatlantic alliance said on Tuesday. “Are we prepared to do more in Iraq? Yes, if we’re asked,” spokesman Jamie Shea told a meeting in Madrid, saying the alliance had offered to provide logistical support to Turkish troops should they enter Iraq. “But the challenge for NATO is not Iraq, the challenge for NATO is making a success of Afghanistan,” he added. He said NATO was likely to take a decision in November about how much to expand its 5,500-strong International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. Jamie Shea said NATO hoped to increase the number of Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) in Afghanistan to between eight and 10, from the current four. Of the four PRTs operating in Afghanistan right now, two are led by the United States with one each led by Britain and New Zealand. (Reuters 281806 GMT Oct 03)

IRAQ

• A top U.S. military commander sought on Tuesday to rally troops doing long tours of duty in Iraq and dismissed a survey suggesting major morale problems among the 130,000-strong U.S. force in the country. “If the bar of morale is set as ‘do you want to be here or at home?’ what are the troops going to say? I’m much more interested in how focused they are,” General James Jones told reporters during a visit to Iraq’s northern town of Kirkuk. Gen. Jones, NATO’s supreme commander, is in charge of 118,000 U.S. troops based in Europe and Africa, of which at least 30,000 are deployed in Iraq. Half of more than 1,900 troops who responded to a recent survey by the Stars and Stripes newspaper, which receives funding from the Pentagon, said morale in their unit was low or very low and that they did not plan to re-enlist. A third said their mission lacked clear definition and characterised the war in Iraq as of little or no value. Gen. Jones said the troops he met were upbeat - they were halfway through a one-year tour and there was a programme for them to get rest and recreation breaks in Gulf states and back at their base in Italy. From Kirkuk he flew to Baghdad. (Reuters 282146 GMT Oct 03)
  
  
• Arabs on Tuesday saw the latest bombings in Baghdad as an unholy bloodbath. But a few said they were part of a just fight against U.S. occupation and most agreed Washington only had itself to blame for the chaos. They said the United States had failed to provide Iraqis with enough security to prevent the devastating suicide attacks in the capital. The daily al-Khaleej, published in the United Arab Emirates wrote: “The bombing which targeted a humanitarian organisation... serves the occupation and extends it instead of ending it.” Adding: “Iraq, on the first day of Ramadan, was the scene of a bloodbath and occupation forces are directly responsible for this because of the instability they created in Iraq.” Lebanon’s as-Safir daily wrote: “What happened yesterday in Baghdad is a crime by all measures, but it is more disgraceful than a crime: it is a deadly political mistake.” (Reuters 281754 GMT Oct 03)