From: Miroslav Antic <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: U.S. Allies Chafe at `Cleanup' Role HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/generic.cgi?template=articleprint.tmplh&Artic leId=40012 Copyright C 2001 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com NEWS ANALYSIS U.S. Allies Chafe at `Cleanup' Role Joseph Fitchett International Herald Tribune Monday, November 26, 2001 Europe Irritated by Lack of Consultation on Military Campaign PARIS The war in Afghanistan has relegated European governments to peacekeeping and humanitarian missions while the United States takes care of military operations - a glaring division of labor that could damage pros- pects for Western military coalitions in future crises, according to military officials on both sides of the Atlantic. With the Taliban's demise in view, allied troops may yet have a combat role, notably with British and possibly French and German special forces supplementing U.S. efforts to comb the Afghan mountains, track down Osama bin Laden and destroy fortified terrorist hideouts. But the military campaign as a whole is driven by sophisticated U.S. firepower that in practice excludes effective cooperation with European forces, which are not equipped to fight so far from their home bases. Partly as a consequence of this shrinkage in Europe's military contribution, allied governments, including that of Britain, have apparently been left largely in the dark about the Bush administration's planning for the war and its political aftermath. This has irritated European leaders. Behind their unflagging public political support for Washington are private complaints about the constant risk of being caught flat-footed by the U.S. refusal to limit its own options by revealing its plans. Accustomed to being consulted about or at least alerted to U.S. moves, these leaders are now embarrassed. In effect, a French policymaker said, the message from Washington is: "We'll do the cooking and prepare what people are going to eat, then you will wash the dirty dishes." His remark last week, in a private discussion among officials and reporters, was echoed in other terms by Europeans from several countries, including Britain. Looking for ways to demonstrate European involvement alongside the United States in the Afghan conflict, Britain, France, Germany and smaller countries have focused on the promotion a stable postwar Afghanistan. Having over the past decade supplied most of the funds for relief and reconstruction in the Balkans - and ground forces for peacekeeping there - the European Union sees itself as well suited to take on similar duties in Afghanistan. This is true especially among leftist parties that have been reluctant to support the U.S. bombing. "We're, alas, getting there after the battle is over," Francois Bayrou, a leading conservative French politician, said in an interview last week with the French newspaper Le Parisien. As Afghanistan demonstrates, he said, the allies have no prospect of playing a significant role alongside the United States in future crises unless EU members move to pool their military efforts in a European force. Mr. Bayrou put his finger publicly on the problem of a fraying military partnership between Washington and its traditional European allies. Francois Heisbourg, author of a new book, "Hyperterrorism," about the impact of the war on terrorism, said the Afghan conflict represented "a double division of labor, functional and geographical, in which the United States has a global, war-fighting role and Europe finds itself tending toward regional, peacekeeping responsibilities." The book argues that EU countries need to raise their strategic sights and sharply increase military investments to prepare for joint intervention with Washington in future crises in the oil-rich Gulf. Despite similar warnings that Europe needs to do more or risk seeing more U.S. unilateralism, the Sept. 11 attacks do not seem to have jolted European governments into a new political mind-set favoring bigger defense budgets. European Union governments have actually fallen behind their own schedule for buying new armaments that are now standard for U.S. forces, such as precision-guided weapons, aircraft to move troops and satellite-based electronic intelligence. EU governments acknowledged last week at a meeting in Brussels that they would have to stretch out the timing of their goals for a rapid- reaction force that, once achieved, would be capable of dealing with a Balkans crisis of the sort that started in 1992 in Bosnia, but nothing more. Obliged to settle on a humanitarian role in Afghanistan, European leaders have sought to retain public confidence by pushing for a fast start on relief efforts ahead of winter weather - only to encounter quiet U.S. objections that such involvement might be premature. "Nobody wants to see the war effort sidetracked because a bunch of European peacekeepers get taken hostage or caught in a firefight and have to be rescued by us," a Bush administration official said. Even Prime Minister Tony Blair has suffered political embarrassment over what appears to be ill-coordinated U.S. and British approaches to getting aid to displaced people after the final military push in northern Afghanistan. For a week, a hundred-strong advance unit of British commandos have been stuck at Bagram airport near Kabul, surrounded by several thousand Northern Alliance fighters whose leaders resent the presence of Western troops so close to the capital. "It's dangerous to leave our boys in a situation that could turn nasty in an instant," said Alexandra Ashbourne, a London-based defense consultant. But Washington has ignored appeals from London - reportedly including a telephone call to the White House from Mr. Blair himself - for U.S. intervention to help the British troops start preparing the airport and securing roads to deliver relief. Until the fighting has ended, the Bush administration is "discouraging any peacekeeping or other moves that might dangerously interfere with our freedom of action" on the battlefield, a presidential aide said this weekend in an interview. Any peacekeeping efforts that eventually get under way, he said, would certainly exclude U.S. troops because any Americans in Afghanistan - those patrolling roads, for example - would be attractive targets for guerrillas bent on revenge. Copyright C 2001 The International Herald Tribune _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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