NATO in trouble by Claudia Sonea

On Thursday, NATO Defense Minister at the talks in the Dutch coastal resort of Noordwijk agreed to diminish the outraging demand of creating a 25,000-strong rapid reaction force on standby, ready to intervene in crises around the world. That means an army always of mercenaries always prepared to leave their homes in order to go and do the dirty actions of politicians playing God. After the Cold War the bitter taste of the alliance made the brainchild of former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the NATO Response Force (NRF) to step in and come with the idea of creating a pool of 25000 trained soldiers who will fill in the necessary the army might need. They will be always in standby, but ready for getting in action at the most in five days. The project did not stand a chance in face of the NATO members’ pressure to hold a strong army of 40000 people in Afghanistan. However, at the press conference hold after the talks NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer stated that the military forces on standby will decrease in time. As it is, the future of NRF is quite unstable, especially because allies, including US, gave up on requesting troops or equipment with the motivation that there is a bigger need in Afghanistan and Kosovo. NATO military chiefs are evaluating a more reduced NRF with the possibility of adding when it’s needed, keeping in mind that there are still seven missions to be fulfilled, from evacuations to counter-terrorism. Provided that this move could affect the efficiency of intervening in case of crisis, Scheffer is not sure about such a move. Furthermore, the NRF was declared fully operational at NATO summit last year, but they were used until now only to fly in and distribute relief to victims of the October 2005 earthquake in Pakistan. The main debate now is whether to use NRF in order to plug some shortfalls in the Afghanistan peace force. Many allies oppose, but it is likely to be done. Don’t go away…more to come.

related story: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20071025/tpl-uk-nato-force-43a8d4f_1.htm

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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