A New Mission
NATO will soon send 300 military instructors to Iraq. This is the bottom line of a recent informal meeting of alliance defense ministers in Romania. This decision must have come the hard way, given the opposition from the countries of the old Europe — France and Germany — against any involvement of the alliance in Iraq.
Other NATO partners, primarily the US, have apparently managed to contain — somewhat — the foreign policy ambitions of Paris and Berlin. There were no formal obstacles for the French and German opposition to continue their resistance. Initially, these countries viewed even minimal involvement of NATO forces in resolving the crisis in Iraq as legitimization of the US’s military intervention. Meanwhile, several months ago France and Germany insisted that they would only support the deployment of military instructors to Iraq and only if Baghdad requests it. The Iraqi leadership did not wait long to send the necessary request to NATO. In addition, last month the alliance headquarters hosted interim Iraqi President Ghazi Ajil al-Yawir, who appealed to NATO for urgent help. This was preceded by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari’s visit to Brussels, which was the first visit by an Iraqi official in NATO’s history. This past June, government leaders and presidents of NATO member states approved a decision to assist Iraq with the training of its security forces. On July 30 a NATO Training Implementation Mission was created in Iraq for this purpose.
The meeting of alliance defense ministers in Romania merely channeled all the previous declarations into a practical vein. The urgent need for instructors is due to the fact that this January Iraq will have its first general elections. Given the fact that postwar Iraq is still suffering from constant outbreaks of violence, additional assistance is needed as never before. France and Germany had no choice but to overlook their earlier resentment, but still expressed some reservations. Above all, they are afraid that the instructor mission may become embroiled in hostilities in Iraq. American representatives have ruled out such a possibility, pointing out that close to forty NATO instructors are already assisting the Iraqi military and none of them have been involved in any skirmishes.
The first group of NATO military instructors from the US, UK, Denmark, and Norway is expected to arrive in Iraq this November. This timeframe seems unrealistic to many, but the alliance command is guided by other motives. “Speed is playing a key role. The Iraqis themselves want it,” NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said, summing up the results of the meeting in Romania. Overall, close to 3,000 alliance troops will be deployed to Iraq to provide instruction. The Pentagon currently estimates the number of Iraqi troops who have been trained and equipped at 100,000 and believes that by the time the general elections are held, i.e., by January, this number should be increased to 150,000. Therefore, the meeting approved a decision to create a military academy outside Baghdad. NATO defense ministers have also approved steps to assist the Iraqi government in equipping the new army and security forces. US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has appealed to both alliance member states and other countries to help Iraq resolve this problem (of course, on a volunteer and unpaid basis).
Apparently, several hundred instructors will have a hard time achieving the goals set within two or three months. Yet NATO points to the long-term nature of this mission. At a time when internal reforms are underway in NATO, it is important for the alliance to prove to itself and the world that its twenty-six member states are ready to face new challenges. It is an open secret that the US is the key lobbyist for NATO involvement in Iraq. The latest decision by NATO will enable the White House to disarm its opponents in the US Democratic Party, who allege that George W. Bush’s foreign policy has won no support from allies.
