Pentagon's No. 2: Let others take up peacekeeping By Andrea Stone, USA TODAY WASHINGTON � U.S. military forces should focus on fighting wars and leave peacekeeping duties to Norway, Canada and other nations with a "long tradition" of carrying out humanitarian missions, the Pentagon's No. 2 official says. "We want to get the military out of non-military functions," Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said in an interview. U.S. troops have played "an indispensable role in peacekeeping" in the Balkans, but "let's figure out how we can play our part within reason," he said. Though U.S. military participation in peacekeeping missions had strong backing from President Clinton, President Bush has vowed to reduce the military's overseas commitments. However, during his trip to Europe last week, Bush reassured allies that he would not unilaterally withdraw 9,800 U.S. troops stationed in the Balkans. "We came in together, we will leave together," he said. Wolfowitz said the United States is the only nation that brings significant military capabilities" in a crisis, and "if we are also picking up (peacekeeping) tasks that other people can do, I think we've got it wrong." He said a U.N. peacekeeping mission in East Timor in 1999 is a model for the U.S. role: The Pentagon provided logistical support but let Australian troops restore order in the former Indonesian province. The trouble with peacekeeping commitments is that they never seem to end, Wolfowitz said. He cited the United States' longest-running peacekeeping mission, a nearly two-decade presence in the Sinai. A multinational force of 1,900 peacekeepers, including 865 U.S. troops, has rarely reported a border violation between Israel and Egypt since the mission began in 1982. The Pentagon wants to withdraw half its troops and replace them with surveillance satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles. But Israel and Egypt, which can veto a pullout, are unlikely to agree in light of increased violence in the region. Ivo Daalder, an analyst at The Brookings Institution, calls Wolfowitz's view "shortsighted." U.S. peacekeepers provide "political reassurance, not military reassurance," he says. "To argue that the military is only for war fighting is to lose sight of the military as a tool in our larger foreign policy. If things go wrong, we have the ability to set things right." http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/2001-06-19-peacekeeping.htm Miroslav Antic, http://www.antic.org/ Serbian News Network - SNN [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.antic.org/
