22 November 2004
State Department Report, November 19: NATO's Iraq Training Plans
Alliance decides size of Iraq mission, deployment date
NATO's decision to send military trainers to Iraq reflects the first collective, consensus decision the alliance has made on Iraq in two years, according to the State Department.
Briefing journalists at the State Department November 19 on the condition that his name not be used, a State Department official said NATO's November 17 unanimous decision will substantially increase the number of military trainers in the country from about 65 to as many as 400. Approval of the plan is quite significant politically -- for NATO and for the United States, the official said.
The official said that Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi had told the alliance that the most important task it could undertake is to train a generation of Iraqi leaders for the future. "That's the NATO role," the official said. "It's not a combat role."
An additional 1,000 to 1,200 personnel will be needed to support the trainers by providing force protection, logistics, and communications, the official said. He estimated the entire mission will number between 1,500 and 1,700 people. They will be drawn from among the 16 NATO allies that already have ground troops in Iraq, including the United States, he explained. The U.S. military personnel contributions to this mission will come from outside Iraq.
The official said that most of the new military personnel will be in place within five-to-six weeks.
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
This page printed from: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2004&m=November&x=20041122170043ladynned0.6062891&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html
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