NATO chief urges end to "beauty contest" with EU

[maddezmom]

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer warned on Monday against rivalry between the U.S.-dominated alliance and the European Union on security issues, saying they should not engage in a "beauty contest."

De Hoop Scheffer said they increasingly competed with each other to win pledges of troops and equipment from stretched national armies, and bemoaned the lack of coordination between the two in operations from Afghanistan to Darfur.

"We need to break the deadlock in the relationship between NATO and the EU," de Hoop Scheffer told a conference staged by the Security and Defense Agenda think-tank in Brussels.

~snip~

De Hoop Scheffer cited an embarrassing weeks-long turf war last year over who should coordinate international air transport to the African Union in Sudan's Darfur region. Washington wanted NATO to manage the entire effort but France insisted its planes were part of a separate EU support package.

He said the two also needed to better coordinate their activities in Afghanistan, where NATO's 31,000 troops are battling a fierce Taliban insurgency, proposing that the EU could assist by stepping up training of the Afghan police force.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061106/wl_nm/nato_eu_dc

[bemildred]

1. NATO should be disbanded.

It has no function, it is trouble looking for a place to happen.

[Chulanowa]

2. Gotta love that...

Arguing over who should send aid to people who are targets of a genocide. Is it just my skewed perception, or do America and the EU kind of get off on watching Africa die?

[Nihil]

5. On the other hand ...

... I'd like to know what the Sudan has got to do with the
North Atlantic? Why are NATO even considering intervention
in an operation that should be run by the UN (preferably
including a significant African contingent rather than more
white faces from the ex-Colonial Master Association)?

[MrPrax]

3. NATO has no mandate...

It should be dismantled as the cold war relic it is. NATO was conceived of as bulwark against the Warsaw Pact...since there isn't one anymore, NATO has no real purpose in and of itself.

Security interests can be best dealt with by regional blocs that are reflective of the relative socio-economic strengths of the members. NATO today is merely the world's clearinghouse for the various national arms merchants and their military enablers...a type of P2 Lodge for the various Xtreme militarists who love the 'long view'

[enigma000]

4. Nato will not be around in 10 years

Its a worthless military "alliance" for countries that no longer in any accurate sense have militaries. Can you imagine the pacifist post-military nations of Europe having troops fighting alongside American forces, in whatever country they are fighting, in 10 years? Of course not.

[TheLastMohican]

6. You forgot Poland

and other fresh cannonfodder facilities like Ukraine, Georgia and other ex-soviet countries. No wonder neo-cons want those countries to enter NATO so much they are salivating all over the floor. Those poor countries will supply the raw meat of soldiers for the rich countries to continue pedaling their militaristic crap.