Wednesday, May 21, 2003
Germany Calls for Stronger Europe Defense
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages Updates
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Germany Calls for Stronger Europe Defense
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By TONY CZUCZKA
Associated Press Writer
May 21, 2003, 3:01 PM EDT
BERLIN -- Germany unveiled its first new military strategy in 11 years Wednesday, calling for stronger European defense capabilities while saying that the United States remains "indispensable" for Europe's security.
Defense Minister Peter Struck said Germany would shut nine bases and disband dozens of units over the next few years as the military shifts from a heavily armored bulwark at ground zero of the Cold War to a mobile, modern force for international peacekeeping missions and combating terrorism.
The strategy overhaul reflects events like the Balkan wars of the 1990s and the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, which led Germany to send peacekeepers to Afghanistan, contribute troops for the U.S.-led war on terrorism and even saw German pilots help patrol U.S. skies.
"The result is that international conflict prevention and crisis management, including the fight against international terrorism, have moved up to No. 1 of our task spectrum," Struck said in a statement after Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Cabinet approved the new guidelines.
The new guidelines try to steer a middle course between recognition of U.S. power and Europe's quest for more military muscle of its own, which Struck said would allow European nations to intervene in trouble spots where the NATO alliance doesn't want to get involved.
But the document emphasized allegiance to Washington, strained in recent months by the German government's fierce anti-war stand on Iraq.
"Also in future, there can be no security in and for Europe without the United States," the paper said. "Germany will continue to make a substantial contribution to the trans-Atlantic partnership."
Despite a shrinking defense budget, the guidelines foresee Germany keeping a conscript army -- something opposed by the Greens party, the junior coalition partner of Schroeder's Social Democrats.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
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This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-germany-military,0,6827741.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
|
Military Care Packages Updates
--------------------
Germany Calls for Stronger Europe Defense
--------------------
By TONY CZUCZKA
Associated Press Writer
May 21, 2003, 3:01 PM EDT
BERLIN -- Germany unveiled its first new military strategy in 11 years Wednesday, calling for stronger European defense capabilities while saying that the United States remains "indispensable" for Europe's security.
Defense Minister Peter Struck said Germany would shut nine bases and disband dozens of units over the next few years as the military shifts from a heavily armored bulwark at ground zero of the Cold War to a mobile, modern force for international peacekeeping missions and combating terrorism.
The strategy overhaul reflects events like the Balkan wars of the 1990s and the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, which led Germany to send peacekeepers to Afghanistan, contribute troops for the U.S.-led war on terrorism and even saw German pilots help patrol U.S. skies.
"The result is that international conflict prevention and crisis management, including the fight against international terrorism, have moved up to No. 1 of our task spectrum," Struck said in a statement after Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Cabinet approved the new guidelines.
The new guidelines try to steer a middle course between recognition of U.S. power and Europe's quest for more military muscle of its own, which Struck said would allow European nations to intervene in trouble spots where the NATO alliance doesn't want to get involved.
But the document emphasized allegiance to Washington, strained in recent months by the German government's fierce anti-war stand on Iraq.
"Also in future, there can be no security in and for Europe without the United States," the paper said. "Germany will continue to make a substantial contribution to the trans-Atlantic partnership."
Despite a shrinking defense budget, the guidelines foresee Germany keeping a conscript army -- something opposed by the Greens party, the junior coalition partner of Schroeder's Social Democrats.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-germany-military,0,6827741.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
