Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

6 January 2004

AFGHANISTAN

• According to The Guardian, British Maj. Gen. McColl may become the UN’s top administrator in Afghanistan. “I am being considered and I have been interviewed in New York. The UN secretary general is expected to announce shortly who has got the job…. Appointing an army officer as a UN special representative would be unusual. It’s not the norm. I would of course function as a civilian,” the article quotes Gen. McColl saying. The newspaper, which stresses that Gen. McColl won the respect of Afghans and western governments when Britain was in charge of the international peacekeeping force in Kabul during the first six months after the defeat of the Taliban, observes: “Afghanistan has the anomaly of two sets of foreign troops, 5,000 in (ISAF) based in Kabul, and 11,000, mainly American, warring troops who are trying to combat the resurgent Taliban and hunt for Osama Bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders. Diplomats have frequently criticized the lack of coordination between the two groups. Gen. McColl’s appointment would offer a chance to improve the link.”

Media continue to focus on Afghanistan’s approval of a new constitution. In two leading dailies, officials link the agreement to ISAF’s presence.
In a contribution to the Financial Times, Anatol Lieven, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, writes: “The constitution would not have been ratified without arm-twisting by the U.S., the UN and the international community. Without ISAF to prevent factions bringing tanks to the debates, the assembly could never even have met. Indeed, without such protection, the Afghan parliament will be unable to meet safely for years to come…. Real security and military support (for the Karzai presidency), even in Kabul, is provided by the U.S. and NATO. The NATO presence in Kabul, backed by the U.S., is absolutely vital to prevent Afghanistan from slipping back into civil war. We should recognize therefore that if Afghanistan is to have a chance of developing into a stable, modern state the West must remain closely involved militarily, financially and administratively for a generation at least.”
In the Washington Post, Zalmay Khalilzad, special presidential envoy and ambassador to Afghanistan, notes that the constitutional loya jirga that concluded in Kabul Sunday was a milestone on the Afghan people’s path to democracy. “The toppling of the Taliban and the stabilizing presence of the coalition and NATO International Security Assistance Force troops have enabled the seeds of political progress to sprout,” he writes.

IRAQ

• According to the Washington Times, senior U.S. officials are actively discussing reorganizing the U.S. military command in Iraq by appointing a four-star officer to oversee the Pentagon’s role in moving the country to self-rule. Two senior military officials reportedly said that under a new command structure, a four-star officer, most likely an Army or a Marine Corps general, would be put in charge of Iraq. They indicated that a new four-star would bring added clout and focus to the strategic goals of integrating the emerging 220,000-person Iraq security force with the new local government scheduled to take power July 1. The commander would also coordinate military relations with whatever succeeds the current Coalition Provisional Authority. This would leave the three-star, or corps commander, to focus on winning the war against the insurgency.

Polish President Kwasniewski’s call for greater NATO involvement in Iraq was noted by international media.
Under the title, “NATO nations consider bigger Iraq role,” the Financial Times writes: “NATO countries have started talks on increasing the Alliance’s role in Iraq…. The Alliance could take command of the Polish-led multinational force working in central Iraq under the overall control of the U.S. authorities there. President Kwasnieski said Monday that this year’s NATO summit, to be held in Turkey in June, would be a good opportunity for making decisions relating to Iraq.” The newspaper notes that at a news conference in Brussels Monday, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the new NATO secretary-general, expressed caution, saying NATO must first deal with its commitment to Afghanistan. It quotes diplomats saying, however, that if further political progress were made in Afghanistan in the period up to the planned June elections, NATO could be in a position to consider assuming new responsibilities in Iraq. “Secretary of State Powell raised the possibility of a bigger NATO role in Iraq at the NATO ministerial meeting last month. France and Germany have expressed reluctance but diplomats said Paris and Berlin might be persuaded to support the plan,” adds the daily.
Polish radio, Jan. 5, carried President Kwasnieski saying, as he bid farewell to Polish troops leaving for Iraq: “Talks are in progress, and I think that the NATO summit which is to take place at the end of June in Turkey could be a good moment for certain agreements…. I rather expect a positive decision, which will support NATO’s involvement in the stabilization mission in Iraq. We are very interested in including NATO in stabilization tasks. We have already been given part of the technical support. We want this involvement to be greater.” The program also carried Defense Minister Szmajdzinski saying: “Eighteen NATO states are already present in Iraq. Eighteen armies have their representatives; therefore, NATO’s participation plays a decisive role in the success of the operation. Our aim is to create such political conditions so that NATO can make a decision about taking over the responsibility for operations in Iraq in a similar way as it did with regard to Afghanistan.”