by * » Thu Sep 22, 2005 6:14 pm
<br> why, what a creepy coincidence.........<br><br><br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em><br> <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong> NATO members help U.S. in its Iraq effort</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br>By Warren Hoge The New York Times<br><br>WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2005<br>UNITED NATIONS, New York European countries have overcome their past differences with the United States over Iraq and all 26 NATO members are now providing training and equipment to Baghdad, according to the alliance's secretary general.<br> <br>The official, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, a former Dutch foreign minister who backed the Bush administration's war while many Europeans opposed it, said Tuesday that he was about to raise the NATO flag over a huge complex in Baghdad that had prepared 1,000 Iraqi officers inside the country and 500 more outside.<br> <br>He said that NATO had also arranged for Iraqi troops to be trained in Germany, Italy and Norway.<br> <br>In addition, he said that shipments of equipment were being flown from East European countries that use Russian-built weapons that were compatible with the Iraqis' Soviet-era matériel.<br> <br>As an example, he said that Hungary had just donated 70 large T-72 Soviet tanks.<br> <br>He complained that most European countries still invested too little in defense and said that he was devoting himself to "pubic diplomacy" to try to persuade allies of the importance to European security of actions taken by NATO far afield from Europe.<br> <br>"If I had to defend defense spending - be it in a national government or as NATO secretary general - people must realize that they are living in a different world where the challenges we are facing are ones we have to go far away to confront them at the source," he said.<br> <br>"An operation which costs a lot of money in Afghanistan plays its role in the fight against terrorism," he added, "because if that country were to slide back into the black hole again that it was under the Taliban, the problems arising from not engaging it would end up on our doorstep."<br> <br>NATO has 12,400 troops in Afghanistan, and it is about to take over an American command in the south next spring to be operated by British, Canadians and Dutch forces.<br> <br>The United States has urged NATO to consider taking on counterinsurgency missions in Afghanistan in addition to its peacekeeping and reconstruction duties, but Britain, France, Germany and others objected to the idea at a meeting of defense ministers in Berlin last week.<br> <br>De Hoop Scheffer said that he had devised a command structure since the meeting that would permit European special forces already in Afghanistan to participate in counterterrorism missions without mixing them in with peacekeeping ones.<br> <br>"We can guarantee that where it is necessary the Taliban can be hunted, combat operations will continue and NATO can at the same time play its part," he said.<br> <br>He said that in his meetings at the United Nations he was stressing the need to stay alert to the continuing needs of Afghanistan.<br> <br>"The international community should not conclude that now that we have a president elected last year, we have a government, we have a Parliament, that the thing is done," he said.<br> <br>He said that such things as addressing the narcotics problem, building a judicial system and shaping the police could not be left to NATO and should be addressed by the United Nations, the Group of 8 industrialized nations, the European Union, nongovernmental organizations and major donor countries.<br> <br> <br>"NATO is there to organize and project stability and security," he said, "but if NATO had to do that in a void because other international organizations turned their faces to other areas, we would not be in an ideal situation."<br> <br> </em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/09/21/news/nato.php">link</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br><br> PNAC was born the same year Zbigniew Brzezinski published <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->. What better way to distract us from those with REAL power than to float the PNAC boat?<br><br><br> Enquiring minds want to know!<br><br> <p></p><i></i>