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http://www.afghandaily.com/p/e9/0d3268535427.html?id=f112ea Afghan Daily Worldnews.com U.S. Wants to Reshape NATO Missions The Associated Press, Sun 22 Sep 2002 -The Bush administration is looking for NATO agreement to reshape the alliance's military operations to allow rapid deployment to far-flung locations. -A U.S. proposal to set up such a force, to project alliance power outside NATO's borders on as little as a week's notice, will be a major order of business for Rumsfeld at a NATO defense ministers' meeting starting Tuesday in Warsaw, Poland. -Jerzy Szmajdzinski, Poland's defense minister, said the U.S. proposal would include ground troops, AWACS radar planes and shared allied intelligence. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it also could include naval forces and chemical-biological defenses. The official said the force would have a core of 20,000 U.S., Canadian and European combat and support troops, coming from all 19 alliance members for six-month tours of duty. WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration is looking for NATO agreement to reshape the alliance's military operations to allow rapid deployment to far-flung locations. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who first raised the idea at a NATO gathering in June, said Saturday that the resulting streamlined military organization will be along lines the administration has worked to create with the U.S. forces. A U.S. proposal to set up such a force, to project alliance power outside NATO's borders on as little as a week's notice, will be a major order of business for Rumsfeld at a NATO defense ministers' meeting starting Tuesday in Warsaw, Poland. The administration brought up the idea of such a force in June at a ministers' meeting in Brussels, Belgium. Rumsfeld at the time recommended a review of NATO's command structure to give its forces the speed and agility necessary for an offensive force. That would represent a shift from the anti-Soviet defensive bulwark underpinning the alliance's creation early in the Cold War. National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack said Saturday that Rumsfeld is laying groundwork for President Bush to discuss go to the heads of government for disposition. ``Strengthening NATO's military capability to handle 21st century threats is a major piece of President Bush's agenda for the November summit in Prague,'' McCormack said. ``We are working with our allies on a number of proposals aimed at achieving this objective, and Secretary Rumsfeld will discuss these proposals when he meets next week in Warsaw with his counterparts.'' Rumsfeld told CNN that the proposal ``is really no different than the kind of thing we've been doing here in the United States.'' He spoke of developing ``a quick-reaction force that would be able to respond to a problem in a matter of days, rather than weeks or months,'' thus offering ``the kind of agility to deal with the types of problems that exist today.'' Jerzy Szmajdzinski, Poland's defense minister, said the U.S. proposal would include ground troops, AWACS radar planes and shared allied intelligence. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it also could include naval forces and chemical-biological defenses. The official said the force would have a core of 20,000 U.S., Canadian and European combat and support troops, coming from all 19 alliance members for six-month tours of duty. It would be separate from a European-only force of 60,000, which is to become operational next year and will be used mainly for peacekeeping operations. Previous post-Cold War missions outside NATO's borders, such as those in the former Yugoslavia, have entailed airstrikes but little ground combat, focusing largely on peacekeeping. Also coming up at the Warsaw meeting will be the question of who will replace Turkey as leader of the international peacekeeping force in Kabul, Afghanistan, when the Turks' commitment expires in December. Rumsfeld wants another European country, probably Germany. A German government spokesman said last week that German and Dutch experts have been considering leadership arrangements for the 19-nation, 5,000-soldier force. Germany previously has resisted appeals by the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai to take over the force, on the ground that its forces already are stretched thin by peacekeeping in the Balkans. __________________________________________________ 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 ==^================================================================
