-Caveat Lector-
Electronic Telegraph-Sunday 22 October 2000
Bush pledges to pull troops out of Balkans
By David Wastell in Washington
GEORGE W BUSH plans to pull the United States out of all
peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Kosovo if he gets to the
White House, a close aide said yesterday. His action would, to
the dismay of Britain and other European allies, force a
fundamental rethink of Nato.
With the Texas governor edging ahead in the final stages of the
presidential campaign, his senior national security aide,
Condoleezza Rice, said that Mr Bush wants peacekeeping in the
Balkans to become the sole responsibility of the Europeans as
part of a "new division of labour" within the Atlantic alliance.
It was time for the Europeans to "step up to their
responsibilities", Miss Rice said. "Unless we set this as a firm
goal we will never get it done."
Mr Bush has said repeatedly that he wants America's European
allies to shoulder more of the burden in the Balkans, despite the
fact that the 11,400 US troops on the ground make up less than
one-fifth of the 65,000-strong Nato force in the region. Miss
Rice's remarks are the first indication that he plans to go
further, restricting America's role to providing air and
logistics support and holding its 120,000-strong force in Europe
in reserve for wars elsewhere.
The move could lead to pressure within America to scale back the
number of troops in Europe, although Miss Rice insisted that it
was not a prelude to withdrawal. Miss Rice said in an interview
with the New York Times: "The United States is the only power
that can handle a showdown in the Gulf, mount the kind of force
that is needed to protect Saudi Arabia and deter a crisis in the
Taiwan Strait. Extended peacekeeping detracts from our readiness
and these kinds of global missions."
Mr Bush's thinking is in sharp contrast to Al Gore, the
Democratic candidate, who favours a wider role for American
troops in preventing conflicts. Most European members of Nato,
including Britain, want the US to continue to share the risks of
operations in the Balkans. Wesley Clark, the retired US Army
general, who commanded Nato in the Kosovo campaign, said: "If we
want to have any influence on Nato in the Balkans we are probably
at the bottom line . . . If we want to be part of this we can't
do much less."
Mr Bush scents electoral victory after weeks of uncertainty over
whether he or Mr Gore would break first for the finishing tape at
the end of their year-long marathon. With little more than two
weeks to go until the election, a grinning Mr Bush waggled his
eyebrows and gave a silent thumbs-up when asked if he liked the
latest poll numbers, the best of which put him 10 points ahead.
>From a man who doggedly insisted the previous evening that he
paid little attention to opinion polls, it was the nearest he
would come to declaring: "You bet!" The Bush campaign hopes that
his slight lead will open up as the Democrats' supporters lose
interest in Mr Gore, especially once they see him as the loser.
Mark McKinnon, Mr Bush's media strategist, said: "I've always
believed that if this thing is even going into the election we
are going to win, because our people are excited and theirs are
not."
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Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
*Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
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