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http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=10617 Stars And Stripes Sunday, September 22, 2002 Rumsfeld to urge NATO to create quick reaction combat force By Sandra Jontz, Stars and Stripes -[H]e’ll urge them to create a quick reaction combat force to respond to worldwide conflicts.... -The official said Rumsfeld also plans to discuss how other NATO nations might take over the U.S. security force in Kabul, Afghanistan while lengthening the time in the country from six months to possibly 12 to 18 months. ARLINGTON, Va. — When Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld travels Monday to Poland for the NATO defense minister’s conference, he’ll urge them to create a quick reaction combat force to respond to worldwide conflicts, a senior defense official said Friday. The Pentagon envisions the force to be a light, at least brigade-sized force, capable of deploying in as little as a week, said the official on condition of anonymity. Rumsfeld will spend 2˝ days in Warsaw. He plans to brief his counterparts about the plan on Tuesday, in addition to presenting an intelligence briefing on Iraq, the official said. Details of the rapid-response force have yet to be refined, and more importantly, NATO allies have yet to accept the idea. If they approve, it will be addressed again during the NATO summit in Prague in November. On the surface, the United States is proposing the force be flexible enough to take on a variety of missions — from a small noncombat evacuation mission to serving as the initial entry force into a conflict area, the official said. But such a concept would not be ready for at least two years, and would not be a factor if the United States decides to launch a strike on Iraq in the near future, the official said. The notion is not new to the 19 nations that make up the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the official said. “We don’t see this in any way as a competitor to the [already established] rapid reaction force, but rather complimentary,” the official said of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps. ARRC was set up primarily for peacekeeping missions, and to move within 90 days with heavy-armor units. But one of the United States’ chief concern is that NATO has already fallen behind on warfighting equipment and technology. They don’t spend enough of their nation’s resources on defense and they won’t be adequately equipped with state-of-the-art capabilities to uphold such an agreement, the official said. “They will have to build their capabilities to make this happen,” he said. Rumsfeld also plans to talk about increasing the number of NATO members and streamlining NATO’s command structure, which means moving away from the Cold War era and reducing staffers. The official said Rumsfeld also plans to discuss how other NATO nations might take over the U.S. security force in Kabul, Afghanistan while lengthening the time in the country from six months to possibly 12 to 18 months. At the moment, Turkey is the only nation committed to take over, the official said. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance - Get real-time stock quotes http://finance.yahoo.com --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bacIlu Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
