Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

10 June 2004

NATO

Media center on President Bush’s statement Wednesday that he wanted to see a wider role for the Alliance in Iraq following a unanimous vote by the UN Security Council backing Iraqi sovereignty and giving the new Iraqi leaders clout over a U.S.-led force.

President Bush, eager to reduce U.S. responsibilities in Iraq, said Wednesday he hopes NATO will take a more active role there. He was not specific about how NATO might be more involved but acknowledged the Alliance probably would not send troops, writes USA Today. The newspaper adds that administration officials, insisting on anonymity, said they hoped NATO will help train the new Iraqi army. “NATO is stretched thin. It did not send troops to fight the Iraq war but provided air cover to protect Turkey from Iraqi retaliation. Sixteen NATO countries sent their own troops. NATO provides logistics and communication assistance to Polish troops in Iraq,” the daily notes.

Noting that Bush had unexpectedly raised the question of a NATO role on the sidelines of the G8 summit, the Washington Post stresses that NATO officials have privately said there is little chance for a significantly expanded role anytime soon. “NATO has taken over the multilateral force in Afghanistan with great difficulty—efforts to send six Dutch Apache helicopters to Kabul were stymied until Luxembourg came up with the money, for instance—and NATO officials said the Alliance cannot play a major role in Iraq until it completes its mission in Afghanistan,” the daily adds.

On NATO and Iraq, writes the Wall Street Journal, “French President Chirac did leave an opening for the Alliance to get involved…. He said he would support intervention by NATO only ‘if the sovereign Iraq government clearly expressed its desire to do that.’ Likewise, NATO Secretary General de Hoop Scheffer said at a conference Tuesday, ‘If the Iraqi people call for help, NATO cannot turn a blind eye.’” The article observes, however, that the interim Iraq government does not take power from the U.S.-led coalition authority until June 30, two days after the Istanbul summit. So, it continues, U.S. and European officials do not expect any agreement on a formal NATO role to be part of the gathering. A senior NATO official is quoted saying the most that could happen during the upcoming summit is a joint declaration of NATO partners to keep the door open to future involvement, without committing the Alliance to any specific course of action. Another possibility could be a tentative agreement on having NATO help train the Iraqi military and police, something that both France and Germany would be prepared to accept, the official reportedly said. “NATO is engaged in Afghanistan and its bitter experience there adds to its caution over committing to an Iraqi mission. After agreeing to take over peacekeeping in Kabul and promising to expand beyond the Afghan capital ahead of elections this fall, the Alliance found itself scrambling to find military resources to match its political rhetoric. Now the Iraq issue prompted a senior Alliance official to ask, ‘Can NATO ride two big horses at once?’” adds the newspaper.

AP observes meanwhile that NATO has never been eager to play a role in Iraq and that hesitancy may not change just because the UN has given its blessing to the transfer of power to an interim government at the end of June. “In recent months, Alliance officials have been weighing options for Iraq. Each time, however, they ended up hedging on whether to assume a peacekeeping role in a country with a dreadful security situation and an uncertain political future,” says the dispatch.

AFGHANISTAN

• Electronic media report that at least 11 Chinese aid workers have been killed in the northern Afghanistan area of Kunduz in what Chinese officials called a “terrorist attack.” Another six Chinese were reported wounded, one critically. Reuters remarks that guerrillas have been most active in their old strongholds in the south and east, but an attack in the northwest last week that killed personnel from the Medecins Sans Frontieres aid group, and now the Kunduz raid, have raised concern that the insurgency is spreading. The dispatch quotes unnamed officials saying the wounded would be taken to a German hospital in Kunduz, where a PRT is operating. The dead bodies were reportedly also with the PRT. “Kunduz is where ISAF has 200 German peacekeepers stationed on construction duties,” said a related Deutsche Welle broadcast, while BBC News stressed that Northern Afghanistan is seen as one of the most stable areas of the country with about 200 German peacekeepers based there.