-Caveat Lector-
>From the below article:
"The influential Der Spiegel weekly, in advance copies released today,
reported that France and Germany were considering a plan to deploy
thousands of United Nations peacekeepers and hundreds more weapons
inspectors to prevent military conflict in Iraq.
Livid American officials denounced the fact that they first heard of the
possible plan from reporters."
Things could REALLY get interesting now! The question now is, just how
far is the U.S. willing to go in pursuing their war? Would they attack
even with thousands of non-Iraqi's in the targeted area? They would
sure have a tough time dragging them all out of the way first. This
plan could really throw a wrench in their works... :-)
February 9, 2003
Rumsfeld Rebukes U.N. and NATO on Approach to Baghdad
By THOM SHANKER
MUNICH, Feb. 8 — Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld issued
uncompromising challenges to both the United Nations and NATO over Iraq
today, warning that the global body risked ridicule and discredit and
cautioning three of America's European partners that delaying plans to
defend Turkey weakened the Atlantic alliance.
As Mr. Rumsfeld spoke, thousands of people joined a protest called by
church and labor leaders in the heart of Munich to protest any war in
Iraq. The senior United Nations weapons inspectors landed in Baghdad on
what could be their last visit, seeking significant moves by Iraq to
prove that it has really disarmed. [Page 14.]
Mr. Rumsfeld said the United Nations, by allowing Iraq to violate 17
Security Council resolutions over more than a decade, appeared to be
following the League of Nations in choosing bluff over action.
Allowing Iraq to become chairman of the United Nations Commission on
Disarmament and selecting Libya to lead its Commission on Human Rights
showed that the institution "seems not to be even struggling to regain
credibility," he said.
"That these acts of irresponsibility could happen now, at this moment in
history, is breathtaking," Mr. Rumsfeld said. "Those acts will be marked
in the history of the U.N. as either the low point of that institution
in retreat, or the turning point when the U.N. woke up, took hold of
itself, and moved away from a path of ridicule to a path of
responsibility."
Turning to America's NATO partners, Mr. Rumsfeld was critical of France,
Germany and Belgium for what he said were "inexcusable" actions to
postpone alliance planning to defend Turkey in the event of war with
Iraq. "Turkey will not be hurt," he said. "The United States and the
countries in NATO will go right ahead and do it. What will be hurt will
be NATO, not Turkey."
NTV, a Turkish-language news channel, reported that Turkey's leaders had
agreed to accept up to 38,000 American troops for an operation in Iraq,
and that they would allow American planes to use six Turkish air bases.
Senior Turkish leaders, who were meeting with American diplomats, were
not available for comment, and the report could not be confirmed. The
Turkish Parliament would have to approve any such agreement and is
scheduled to vote Feb. 18 on whether to allow American troops to use the
country for an attack on Iraq.
In an animated rebuttal to Mr. Rumsfeld, Joschka Fischer, the German
foreign minister, said his nation was not abandoning its obligations to
defend Turkey, but suggested that NATO planners await the next report of
the weapons inspectors on Feb. 14.
"We didn't want an extra buildup to be done, so to speak, before the
decisive Security Council meeting," Mr. Fischer said. Proposals for
NATO's defense of Turkey include deploying Patriot antimissile batteries
and surveillance aircraft.
Mr. Fischer said he had no argument with the American assessment that
Saddam Hussein has fired Scud missiles at his neighbors and has used
chemical weapons. "Why this priority now?" he said. "We have known this
for a long time."
Mr. Fischer recounted Germany's arguments for international inspectors
to continue their efforts in Iraq, especially given new intelligence
disclosed last week by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, and he
contrasted those arguments with the American case for military action.
"I am not convinced," Mr. Fischer said. "This is my problem."
Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, said today in a speech
at the College of William and Mary that the United States should not try
to break the Security Council's unity on Iraq and that it should take
time for "patient" negotiations before rushing into war.
The influential Der Spiegel weekly, in advance copies released today,
reported that France and Germany were considering a plan to deploy
thousands of United Nations peacekeepers and hundreds more weapons
inspectors to prevent military conflict in Iraq.
Livid American officials denounced the fact that they first heard of the
possible plan from reporters.
"That's not the way to have a winning hand with the United States," said
a senior American official. In fact, the official said, Mr. Rumsfeld
asked the German defense minister, Peter Struck, about the report, and
was told, "We're not ready to talk yet." The American official indicated
that the United States would not support the plan, citing the failure of
United Nations forces to prevent massacres in Bosnia.
A German government spokesman confirmed that the two nations were
working together to find a peaceful alternative to war, but he declined
to give any details.
The lively exchange occurred during an annual conference on
international security here, a gathering on defense issues, where former
directors of central intelligence mingle with Russian national security
czars, government ministers meet in formal bilateral sessions and in
elegant private dinners. Today, legislators from across Europe snacked
on smoked salmon as protesters gathered in a light snow on the nearby
Marienplatz.
The gap between American and European views of the global terrorist
threat was summed up by Edmund Stoiber, the premier of the German state
of Bavaria, who said, "The dangers are not perceived in this breadth and
width."
Despite Mr. Rumsfeld's lengthy public criticism of the United Nations,
he spoke with his Russian counterpart, Sergei B. Ivanov, of the
important role that one of its organs, the International Atomic Energy
Agency, must play in defusing the nuclear crisis in North Korea.
During a closed-door bilateral meeting, they agreed that North Korea
posed a threat to the entire world, and that it should be dealt with as
a "international problem," according to a senior Defense Department
official.
Even as he rallied support for a possible war with Iraq, Mr. Rumsfeld
tried humor to appease irritated allies. Mr. Rumsfeld made light of his
description of Germany and France as the "old Europe," whose opposition
to war with Iraq he contrasts with support for the United States from
Britain, Italy and a number of post-Communist nations new to NATO and
the European Union. "At my age," said the 70-year-old Mr. Rumsfeld, "I
consider `old' a term of endearment."
But Mr. Rumsfeld got in a subtle dig at Germany, the biggest and most
powerful nation, which in the 1990's saw itself as a unified nation at
the heart of Europe with influence increasing to the east.
"The center of Europe has indeed shifted eastward," Mr. Rumsfeld said,
noting that the United States was pleased with the new alignments within
the alliance. The post-Communist nations — or at least many of their
current leaders — see the United States as a power whose championing of
the cause of liberty proved decisive in the defeat of Communism.
Mr. Rumsfeld saluted the leaders of Britain, the Czech Republic,
Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain, who wrote a letter
pledging their commitment to disarming Iraq. He also praised a
subsequent declaration — this one from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Croatia and Macedonia —
offering to contribute to a coalition to enforce Security Council
resolutions on disarming Iraq.
Mr. Rumsfeld said the United States did not expect every ally to join
such a military effort.
But he warned those who say preparations for war must be delayed,
because, he argued, "that approach could well make war more likely, not
less, because delaying preparations sends a signal of uncertainty,
instead of a signal of unity and resolve."
No one wants war, Mr. Rumsfeld said. "War is never a first or an easy
choice," he added. "But the risks of war need to be balanced against the
risks of doing nothing while Iraq pursues the tools of mass
destruction."
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company |
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/09/international/middleeast/09RUMS.html?pagewanted=print&position=top
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