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| Europe |
| Rumsfeld in Germany to Meet With Allies |
| 2004-02-06 |
| edited big time for brevity Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld arrived here on Thursday, looking to mend fences with European allies, strengthen NATO’s role in rebuilding Afghanistan and explore a broader mission for the alliance in stabilizing Iraq. In a speech to an annual international security conference on Saturday, Mr. Rumsfeld is expected to build on Vice President Dick Cheney’s call to allies last month in Switzerland to move beyond differences over the Iraq war and redouble common efforts to combat terrorism and the spread of illicit weapons. Embarking on a three-nation European trip, Mr. Rumsfeld dismissed the views of some senior European officials that the trans-Atlantic alliance needed major repairs, and chalked up any nagging problems to the normal vagaries of diplomatic relations. "Since the Eisenhower administration the NATO relationship has gone from little difficulties to things better" Mr. Rumsfeld, a former United States ambassador to NATO, told reporters traveling with him. "I would say the relationships right now are fairly normal." Mr. Rumsfeld will meet informally on Friday with fellow NATO defense ministers, who are certain to question him about the prewar intelligence the Bush administration used to justify the invasion of Iraq. Testifying before Congress on Wednesday, Mr. Rumsfeld defended the intelligence on Iraq’s illegal weapons programs and said it was still possible that inspectors would find hidden arms. The defense ministers will focus on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The administration and some NATO members have been pressing for the alliance to take charge of the international force patrolling south-central Iraq, which is now under Polish command and receiving logistical support from NATO. Mr. Rumsfeld expressed hope that the alliance would "take a still larger role." Until recently France and Germany, two important NATO members that opposed the war, refused to consider sending troops to Iraq. But with the American-led occupation expected to turn over sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government on June 30, the two allies have signaled a possible change of heart that could open the door to a NATO deployment. Eventual NATO involvement in incremental steps is wise imho Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who is to visit Washington this month, has said that Germany will seriously consider the United States request to reduce what Iraq owes it and that his country will not block any NATO decision to send peacekeeping forces to Iraq. Stabilizing Iraq may be a long-term issue for the alliance, but Mr. Rumsfeld said NATO must first address more immediate problems in Afghanistan. "NATO’s role, its first task really, is to do well the Afghan task," he said. "It’s a significant thing they’ve undertaken." Last month NATO’s top military commander, Gen. James L. Jones of the United States Marine Corps, complained that alliance members were not providing enough troops to fulfill NATO’s plan to expand its reconstruction efforts beyond the capital, Kabul, and the northern area of Kunduz. NATO assumed command of a 5,500-member security force in Kabul in August and later won United Nations authorization to expand its mission beyond the capital. NATO forces under German command took on security duties in Kunduz last month in the first part of a project to field up to five new provincial reconstruction teams. |
| Posted by:Jarhead |
| #14 TGA, good luck on the conference.I seldom post comments, though am a regular reader.Thanks for being our true ally.Sometimes I wish you're an american. |
| Posted by: Sonnie 2004-2-6 11:30:31 PM |
| #13 Rummy has a major problem on his hands. NATO is a military alliance. More and more, the European nations have no real military power. An "alliance" where only one of the partners has any ability to contribute isn't much of an alliance. Canada's armed forces are pathetic. The armed forces of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and a half-dozen other NATO members couldn't contribute two full-size, fully-equipped regiments. Spain, Portugal, and Italy have the manpower, but lack really modern equipment. The same goes for the new member-nations of the former Warsaw Pact. Germany has a reasonable military, but is so hobbled by its constitution as to make it virtually unusable except in Central Europe. The less said about the French, the better. NATO isn't dead, but it's not the liveliest "alliance" around, either. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2004-2-6 11:01:11 PM |
| #12 Good luck on your meeting with Rummy, TGA. The hopes of all Rantburgers are pinned upon our number 1 lobbyist, TGA! Also, see if you can get a direct feed established from DOD to Fred's server. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-2-6 8:25:54 PM |
| #11 That was rather undiplmatic of Rumsfeld - making our allies travel all the way to Germany, rather than meeting them in their own countries. |
| Posted by: A Jackson 2004-2-6 6:42:31 PM |
| #10 I'll bet TGA is gonna be quite an asset in my next 6 degrees of association game. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-2-6 2:41:50 PM |
| #9 Dar, I wasn't aware that Germany had loaned the Fuchs-Panzers to the Marines. That's good. I do know they had a least six German Fuchs teams in Kuwait during the drive Baghdad. They inspected the Iraqi missles that landed in Kuwait for signs of ABC. And I can't find it on the web, but I remember reading somewhere, probably a German magazine, that a Fuchs team actually went into Iraq to inspect suspicious chemical stores. |
| Posted by: GK 2004-2-6 2:04:51 PM |
| #8 mhw--There are Germans deployed to Afghanistan. Have been for some time. It's just Iraq that they have problems supporting, but they did loan our Marines some Fuchs NBC recon vehicles in the beginning of the conflict. |
| Posted by: Dar 2004-2-6 1:25:03 PM |
| #7 If I get the chance I will mention Rantburg to him... but I guess at least his aides are reading it already! |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2004-2-6 11:34:16 AM |
| #6 I'd like to see Rummy say something like, "gee if you guys don't feel UN supported enough to get us troops to help in Iraq, the least you could do is help us in Afghanistan" |
| Posted by: mhw 2004-2-6 11:24:35 AM |
| #5 Say hello to Rummy for us, TGA! |
| Posted by: Mike 2004-2-6 11:22:55 AM |
| #4 TGA - Cool! At least you won't have to eat rubber chicken, heh. Rummy would do well to enlist some wise experienced folks, such as yourself, to translate between the press and realities. Your press is as agenda-driven as ours - and apparently just as blindered by their liberal background. Such advice would pay off in the reduction of wasted motion. Have fun! |
| Posted by: .com 2004-2-6 11:17:50 AM |
| #3 I will attend the conference :) Won't be lunch I guess but a handshake :) |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2004-2-6 10:53:17 AM |
| #2 I kept expecting to see "Rumsfeld met with a blogger named 'True German Ally' for lunch before leaving for Poland..." |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2004-2-6 10:32:35 AM |
| #1 Any unexplained stranglings in the area? |
| Posted by: mojo 2004-2-6 10:30:03 AM |