Re: [A-List] Eurocorps To Take NATO's Afghan War Into The Provinces

[Rick Rozoff <r_rozoff@xxxxxxxxx>]

A consummation devoutly to be wished. And not beyond
the realm of possibilities, though I fear there
remains the sequential program of: US eggs on and
leads the wars; NATO participates either severally or
collectively (as it's done in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan,
Central and South Asia, Iraq, Kuwait, the Horn of
Africa, the entire rim of the Mediterranean Sea from
the Suez Canal to the Straits of Gibraltar, even the
US Atlantic Seaboard after 9/11/2001, etc.) ; NATO,
then the UN, steps in to 'peacekeep,' which is to say
to set up an occupation regime and pretend to clean up
the mess, thereby freeing up US and UK assault troops
for the next act of aggression. (Look at Bosnia almost
a decade later.)
Berlin and Paris may well use the Eurocorps in
Afghanistan - Schroeder has recently called for just
that - as they are at the moment in Macedonia and
Congo, but both the Eurocorps and the projected
European Rapid Response/Reaction Force (the latter one
has to assume linked to the former), as long as it
continues to be subsumed under the Berlin Plus
arrangement, which is to say subordinated to NATO
headquarters in Brussels through common command
structures, weapon 'interoperabilty,' alleged
divisions of labor and so forth, may only add more
arrows to NATO's and the US Defense Department's
quiver.
That's the true tension on the continent now, I
suspect. And if France, Belgium and Luxemburg -
Germany less so - genuinely want an independent,
though no less neo-colonialist, foreign polity, then
let them prove their bona fides by doing what even
Charles de Gaulle did in 1966 and tell NATO to get the
hell out of their countries. Root and branch.
Respectfully,
Rick



--- Chris Burford <cburford@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I note, rather surprisingly to me, that this weekend
> Germany has made
> a new proposal for peace in the Middle East.
>
> All imperialism of course, but these may mark slight
> shifts in the
> balance of imperialist power and influence. If the
> European wing of
> NATO is taking the lead in Afghanistan as well as
> the Balkans now, and
> Bush is wanting to get out of Iraq fast ....
>
> is there going to be a slightly new approach to the
> main issue behind
> the Iraq war, whether Bush's way or Europe's way
> with Israel will
> prevail?
>
> Germany's initiative may get no where at the moment
> and I do not know
> the details, but what surprised me was that it has
> even made one.
>
> A sign of Bush's declining authority as well as the
> declining value of
> the dollar?
>
> Chris Burford
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Rick Rozoff" <r_rozoff@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: <a-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2004 2:04 AM
> Subject: [A-List] Eurocorps To Take NATO's Afghan
> War Into The
> Provinces
>
>
> >
>
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040204.wafgh0204/BNStory/International/
> >
> > Associated Press
> > February 4, 2004
> >
> > Europe set to lead NATO's Afghan force
> >
> >
> > -NATO is currently seeking to muster more troops
> for
> > the force to enable it to expand beyond the Afghan
> > capital into provincial cities.
> > -The Eurocorps was recognized in 2002 as a NATO
> > high-readiness force and has already carried out
> > peacekeeping duties in Kosovo and Bosnia.
> >
> >
> >
> > Brussels - A five-country European army corps is
> > expected to take the lead in NATO's Afghan
> > peacekeeping mission later this year, alliance
> > officials said Wednesday.
> >
> > Under plans due to be confirmed in the coming
> days,
> > the force would replace Canada running the
> > headquarters of the Kabul-based force. The
> changeover
> > is likely to take place some time in the summer.
> >
> > The 60,000-strong Eurocorps, was founded in 1992
> and
> > is made up of troops from Germany, France, Spain,
> > Belgium and Luxembourg.
>
>


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