NYTimes.com Article: France and Germany Tie Troops for Iraq to a U.N. Ma

This article from NYTimes.com 
has been sent to you by threehegemons@aol.com.


Well, obviously, I was mistaken.  Ukraine has agreed to send 1800 troops.  So 
the US should be fine...

Steven Sherman

threehegemons@aol.com

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France and Germany Tie Troops for Iraq to a U.N. Mandate

July 10, 2003
 By BRIAN KNOWLTON, 
International Herald Tribune 




 

WASHINGTON, July 10 - Despite Congressional pressure for
the United States to broaden its Iraq coalition, and
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's assurances that he
would welcome troops from France and Germany, those two
countries said today that they had not been asked for help
and were unsure that they would give it if they were asked.


France said it would require a "precise mandate" from the
United Nations to send troops. Germany, which has already
turned down a Polish request to join Iraq peacekeeping unit
in Iraq, took a similar position to France's. 

The issue of broader international military assistance in
pacifying and rebuilding Iraq, particularly involving
countries that vigorously opposed the war, like France and
Germany, is an awkward one for the Bush administration. 

But members of Congress have shown a growing willingness to
raise it as the human and financial costs in Iraq steadily
rise. Two more American troops died in Iraq today in the
latest of an unremitting series of attacks since the regime
of Saddam Hussein was ousted and President Bush declared an
end to major combat operations on May 1. 

Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, said on Wednesday
that the United States's deployment of nearly 150,000
troops would be "difficult to sustain" without greater
foreign help. Although foreign allies have promised
Washington that they will send 20,000 or more troops by the
end of September, 12,000 will in fact be replacements. 

In Berlin, a Defense Ministry spokesman echoed France's
position that any German troop deployment would have to
come under a United Nations mandate, Agence France-Presse
reported today. But since no American request for troops
has yet been made, the spokesman added, Berlin is not
actively studying the matter. Earlier, Germany turned down
a request to take part in a Polish-led stabilization force
of 9,000 troops for Iraq. 

France said today that it would consider a troop request -
if the Bush administration made one. But in remarks to the
French daily Le Figaro, Foreign Minister Dominique de
Villepin pointedly noted that a "precise mandate" from the
United Nations would be required, though he did not rule
out the possibility that such a mandate might be found in
an existing Security Council resolution. 

Mr. Villepin emphasized that any American request to France
could "only be eventually considered in the framework of a
United Nations peace force, founded on a precise Security
Council mandate and benefiting, by this fact, from the
support of the entire international community." 

But he also broached the idea that such a mandate might be
found in Security Council Resolution 1483, which ended
United Nations sanctions on Iraq and which called for the
world organization to "play a vital role in humanitarian
relief, the reconstruction of Iraq, and the restoration and
establishment of national and local institutions for
representative governance." 

Still, that resolution does not call for a United Nations
peacekeeping force, Mr. Villepin noted. Further, he said,
"there would be some incoherence for France to participate
in a coalition force when it did not support this war." 

Mr. Villepin said that France wanted the emphasis not on
military operations in Iraq but on the fastest possible
return to normal civilian governance. "What seems essential
to me," he said, "is the restoration of full Iraqi
sovereignty." 

That, he continued, would require "accelerating the
political process by setting precise and accelerated
deadlines" to establish an interim Iraqi administration and
hold general elections leading to a "legitimate
government." 

In his interview in Le Figaro, Mr. Villepin drew a
distinction between his government's analysis of the prewar
and postwar situations. 

"The war happened," he said. "We rejoiced in the fall of
the regime of Saddam Hussein. We have always been very
conscious of the fact that to win the war was one thing"
while "to win the peace was going to be much more
difficult. Day by day, we are seeing just how difficult the
situation is." 

Secretary Rumsfeld drew pointed questioning on Wednesday in
a Senate appearance when he would not clearly state whether
specific entreaties had been made to France and Germany,
whose leaders had angered Bush administration officials by
their outspoken opposition to an Iraq war. 

"Our goal is to get a large number of international forces
from a lot of countries, including those two," Mr. Rumsfeld
told the Armed Services Committee. "We have made requests
to something like 70, 80 or 90 countries." 

The United States Central Command, which has responsibility
for military operations in Iraq, does not provide
breakdowns of the contributions of coalition members,
leaving each country to do so itself, a spokesman at its
headquarters in Tampa said today. 

Mr. Rumsfeld said on Wednesday that "we've got 19 countries
on the ground, we've got commitment from another 19" and
others are in discussion. 

But most countries taking part have offered relatively
small contingents, compared with those of the leading
coalition members - the United States and Britain, followed
by Poland, Australia and Italy. 

Ukraine has promised to send a mechanized unit of 1,800
soldiers. Macedonian and Albanian troops are in Iraq in
small numbers, and Sri Lanka has said it will consider
requests. Slovakia has said it will take part. Some
countries are sending as few as two dozen soldiers. 

The Polish-led stabilization force will include troops from
Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Lithuania, Spain, Ukraine, the
Dominican Republic, Honduras and El Salvador. 

Britain will lead another international division and
Pentagon officials have suggested that a third might be led
by India. 

Denmark will station 367 soldiers near Basra in the south,
with 43 Lithuanians falling under their command. The Czech
military is sending 306 people, mainly doctors and nurses,
to operate a Basra-area field hospital. 

The Netherlands announced that it had sent 300 soldiers to
the region today as part of an eventual deployment of
1,100, The Associated Press reported from The Hague. The
contingent will serve in a relatively peaceful area of
southern Iraq under British command. 

But big powers with important military forces, including
France, Germany and Russia - Moscow also opposed the war
and says it has no intention of joining a postwar force -
have shown little interest in sending troops, as opposed to
making humanitarian contributions. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/10/international/worldspecial/10CND-ALLI.html?ex=1058864333&ei=1&en=b293daab4170966a


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