Rumsfeld: Transformation Moving NATO Into 21st Century
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service
POIANA BRASOV, Romania, Oct. 13, 2004 –- Initiatives designed to expand NATO's
capabilities are helping the alliance to better confront 21st-century challenges
such as global terrorism, the U.S. military's top civilian said here today.
For example, NATO's recently established rapid response force, Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld noted to reporters during a roundtable discussion
at a local hotel, "will help the entire alliance move into the 21st century."
After meeting earlier today with senior Romanian government officials in
Bucharest, Rumsfeld traveled to this Transylvanian resort town to attend Oct.
13 and 14 NATO informal defense ministerial meetings.
Now with 26 member nations, Rumsfeld noted that NATO has also expanded its
chemical-biological warfare capabilities. And, with NATO deployments to the
Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq in recent years, Rumsfeld pointed out, the
alliance has moved outside of its traditional sphere of operations.
These developments, in concert with current NATO initiatives to streamline
headquarters staffs and modernize capabilities, "gives the alliance a chance of
really being relevant" to confront new threats to peace and stability, Rumsfeld
pointed out.
If NATO cannot quickly respond to modern challenges such as those presented by
transnational terrorism, Rumsfeld reasoned, then "you don't have a military
alliance for this century."
Rumsfeld envisions that modern military practices that form the organizational
backbone of NATO's quick reaction force will spread across the alliance.
"As countries commit to that response force and as it is used," Rumsfeld
explained, "it will then back into the member countries the kind of
transformation that's necessary for those countries to reform the rest of their
military capabilities."
The secretary praised former Pentagon NATO specialist J.D. Crouch, now the U.S.
ambassador to Romania, for the work he did on changing the NATO command
structure.
Under Crouch's watch, Rumsfeld noted, NATO had reduced its headquarters
elements from 20 to 11. The alliance, the secretary added, continues to
streamline staff operations to obtain more warfighters for duty on the front
lines, thereby improving its "tooth-to-tail ratio."
Ongoing NATO missions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo will likely be discussed
during the ministerial meetings, said U.S. Ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns,
who accompanied Rumsfeld to the roundtable.
"And, there'll be a lot of talk on transformation -- the issues the secretary
referred to," Burns observed, in the context of meeting 21st-century threats.
"How do you change the doctrine and capabilities of the alliance so that we can
be successful meeting these new threats?" Burns asked. In confronting global
terrorism, he added, NATO has "to go beyond Europe to defend Europe." And that,
Burns pointed out, "is the strategic shift that has occurred in NATO."
Burns said NATO representatives at the ministerial meetings here would likely
discuss expanding the alliance's presence into western Afghanistan to bring
about more stability with parliamentary elections slated for the spring.
In Iraq, NATO will accelerate training of Iraqi security forces at the request
of the interim government, Burns noted. As part of fulfilling that mission, he
said, 300 to 400 NATO-member officers will be assigned to instruct senior Iraqi
leaders at a military academy to be opened in eastern Baghdad.
The Iraqis, Burns continued, also have asked NATO for more equipment for its
expanding security forces. Trained and equipped Iraqi security forces now
number about 100,000, DoD officials recently noted, with 40,000 to50,000 more
expected to be added by January. The current goal, according to DoD, is to
train and equip 200,000 to 250,000 Iraqi security forces.
Several NATO members, Burns pointed out, had once belonged to the Warsaw Pact
and have old Soviet equipment in their warehouses. And much of that equipment,
he noted, "fuels and runs" the Iraqi armed forces.
Therefore, a solution to the equipment issue, Burns suggested, could involve
some eastern European NATO members donating or selling their surplus Soviet
gear to the Iraqis.
Burns said another alliance issue involves the still-unstable situation in
Kosovo, where about 20,000 NATO troops are deployed to keep the peace. Violence
in Kosovo erupted again in March, he said. NATO defense ministers will
therefore likely "reconfirm the need" to maintain current alliance troop levels
there, he added. And, the NATO mission in Bosnia, Burns reported, will be
handed over to the European Union in December.
NATO made the right decision to deploy its forces to Afghanistan and Iraq,
Burns asserted. Now it's the time, he added, for the alliance "to get on the
ground and make a difference" in Afghanistan and Iraq, and "do it in a very
strong way."
Biographies:
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld
U.S. Ambassador to
NATO Nicholas Burns
U.S. Ambassador to
Romania J.D. Crouch
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