25 May 2010 By Rick Rozoff In the post-Cold War
era and especially since 2001 the Pentagon has been
steadily shifting emphasis, and moving troops and
equipment, from bases in Germany and Italy to Eastern
Europe in its drive to the east and the south. That process was preceded and augmented by the
absorption of former Eastern Bloc nations into the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization beginning in 1999.
In one of the first nations in that category, Poland,
the initial contingent of what will be over 100 U.S.
troops arrived in the town of Morag this week, as near
as 35 miles from Russian territory, as part of a
Status of Forces Agreement between Washington and the
host country ratified this February. Also in February, the governments of the Black Sea
nations of Romania and Bulgaria confirmed plans for
the U.S. to deploy a land-based version of Standard
Missile-3 anti-ballistic interceptors on their
territory. The U.S. Sixth Fleet, headquartered in Italy, has
deployed warships to the Black Sea with an increased
frequency over the past few years, visiting and
conducting joint drills with the navies of Bulgaria,
Romania and Georgia. Last autumn it was revealed that the Pentagon
planned to spend $110 million dollars to upgrade and
modernize a base in Bulgaria and another in Romania,
two of seven such newly-acquired installations in the
two nations. The air, naval and infantry bases in Bulgaria and
Romania have been employed for the wars in Afghanistan
and Iraq and, although not publicly acknowledged,
doubtlessly for arming Georgia before, during and
since its five-day war with Russia in August of 2008. The Pentagon’s Joint Task Force-East has all but
officially been assigned to the Mihail Kogalniceanu
Airfield in Romania and also makes regular use of the
Romanian Army’s Babadag Training Area and the Novo
Selo Training Range in Bulgaria, the latter near the
strategic Bezmer Air Base and the Black Sea port city
of Burgas (Bourgas). Last year Joint Task Force-East conducted a series
of military trainings with Bulgarian and Romanian
counterparts from August 7 to October 24. The
immediate purpose of the combat drills was for
“downrange” operations in Afghanistan, but the lengthy
and extensive nature of the maneuvers demonstrated the
longer-term and longer-range intentions of the U.S.
and its NATO allies. The latter also have free use of
the Bulgarian and Romanian military bases. Two squadrons from the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment
were among the 2,000 American troops who participated
in last year’s war games in the two nations. American Admiral James Stavridis, commander of U.S.
European Command and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander
Europe, visited Romania on April 27 and 28, meeting
with the country’s president and defense minister. The
main topics of discussion were NATO’s new Strategic
Concept and its war in Afghanistan, but the issue of
stationing U.S. interceptor missiles was surely
touched upon as well. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen was in
Romania on May 6 and 7 to meet with the president,
defense minister, foreign minister and top military
commander. The U.S.-NATO missile shield project and
the war in Afghanistan were major subjects on the
agenda. Five days after Rasmussen left the capital the
Romanian Foreign Ministry announced that “A round of
technical US-Romanian talks on Romania’s inclusion in
the Phased Adaptive Approach of the European missile
defense system took place in Bucharest” a day earlier,
May 11. [1] The NATO chief arrived in neighboring Bulgaria on
May 20 for similar discussions. The local press
announced in advance that “The construction of a
common missile defense system and Bulgaria’s accession
into it, along with reforms in the Bulgarian army and
NATO’s new strategic concept – these will be some of
the issues that NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh
Rasmussen is going to discuss with his Bulgarian
partners during his two-day visit to Sofia beginning
on Thursday, May 20.” [2] In fact, while in the Bulgarian capital Rasmussen
met with the nation’s prime minister, president and
defense minister and, according to a Bulgarian news
source, the top issue discussed was “the planned
installation of an anti-missile defence system in the
region, as Brussels plans to deploy anti-missile units
in Bulgaria and negotiations are set to be launched
following the Portugal Nato summit” in November. [3] Rasmussen reiterated the demand that all Balkans
nations be incorporated into NATO, which would dictate
the inclusion of Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro
and Kosovo. (As NATO recognizes the last-named as an
independent state.) The host nation’s foreign minister, Nikolay
Mladenov, spoke after the meeting with NATO’s
secretary general and linked the North Atlantic bloc’s
collective military assistance article with U.S.-led
missile deployments and anti-Russian energy transit
projects. He specifically highlighted “setting up the
anti-missile defence shield as a part of Article 5
against new threats” and “the inclusion of energy
security to key security issues.” [4] On May 14 Chairman of the NATO Military Committee
Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola was in Romania to meet with
Defense Minister Gabriel Oprea, and the “current stage
of NATO-led military actions in Afghanistan and
Romania’s participation in Alliance missions were the
main subjects” of deliberation. Romania’s defense
minister said, “Romania’s prompt response to the
proposal to install missile shield elements on its
soil is a confirmation of the responsibility whereby
Romania approaches national, South-East European and
Alliance security issues.” [5] The nation, which lost another soldier to fighting
in Afghanistan this week, has recently confirmed plans
to deploy 600 more troops for the South Asian war,
bringing the aggregate number to 1,800. On May 17 the U.S.’s Black Sea Rotational Force
2010 three-month series of military exercises was
launched at Romania’s Mihail Kogalniceanu Airfield. Several days before “more than 100 Marines from
across the United States put boots on the ground in
Romania and stepped into history as the first Security
Cooperation Marine Air-Ground Task Force in the Black
Sea region. “The Marines were deployed to build partnerships
with nations in the Black Sea, Balkan and Caucasus
regions….” [6] The Black Sea Rotational Force 2010 drills are
being conducted in eastern Romania in Constanta on the
Black Sea and Tulcea, also on the Black Sea and close
to the border with Moldova, and include over 300
troops from the U.S., the host country, Ukraine and
Macedonia. The U.S. Marine Corps deployment is “the first of
its kind for United States Marines to the Black Sea
region.” [7] The commander of the Black Sea Rotational Force
Security Cooperation Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF),
Lieutenant Colonel Tom Gordon, spoke at the opening
ceremony at the Mihail Kogalniceanu Airfield. His
comments included the following: “Our mission over the
next three months will be to conduct multilateral
security cooperation activities with partner nations
in the Black Sea, Balkan, and Caucasus regions in
order to enhance our collective professional military
capacity, promote regional stability, and build
enduring relationships with our partner nations. As a
MAGTF we will simultaneously engage with Romanian
Land, Naval, Air, and Special Forces throughout our
deployment.” A Romanian officer present said, “This is a great
opportunity for us to know the Marines. I expect my
men to show they are prepared to fight with America in
Afghanistan.” [8] In advance of the maneuvers, the U.S. Marine Corps
moved military vehicles from a base in Norway, part of
Marine Corps Prepositioning Program Norway. “The Marine Corps and Norway have developed a
unique relationship for the storage and care of
prepositioned equipment and supplies. The method of
storage to support the prepositioned assets for a
MAGTF is a series of six caves in the Trondheim region
of central Norway.” To illustrate both the range of military networks
stretching from old to new NATO states and where their
ultimate downrange destinations are located, a Marine
website supplied additional details: “Norway relies on the Marine’s prepositioning
program as a major cornerstone of the nation’s
internal defense plan. With deep-water ports in close
proximity to the storage caves, equipment can quickly
be loaded aboard available shipping for operations in
threatened parts of Europe, Africa or the Middle East.
This capability was demonstrated by the supplying of
equipment and ammunition in support of Operation Iraqi
Freedom.” [9] U.S. Marines will be occupied “working in the Black
Sea, Balkan and Caucasus regions” to “build enduring
partnerships and build the capacity of partner
nation’s military forces” until the end of July, by
which time NATO’s largest military offensive of the
nearly nine-year-old Afghan war – the assault on
Kandahar province – will be underway. Shortly before the above-described war games began,
U.S. Air Force personnel were deployed from the
Ramstein Air Base in Germany to Romania for Operation
Carpathian Summer 2010, an air force medical
evacuation exercise. “Held at Otopeni Airfield, near
Bucharest, Operation Carpathian Summer 2010 was
designed to strengthen the partnership between the
U.S. and Romanian air forces, while elevating their
capability to work together. “Though this is not the first time American airmen
have worked with the Romanian air force, the 86th AES
[Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron] has never before
joined in the training with their Romanian
colleagues.” [10] At the same time Romanian troops joined colleagues
from the U.S., Britain, Belgium, Croatia, France,
Germany, Hungary, Norway, Poland and Slovakia at the
Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels,
Germany to engage in joint military training with
soldiers from the Afghan National Army. On May 19 the Stars and Stripes armed forces
publication reported that “Rapid expansion of the
Army’s unmanned aircraft fleet has prompted the
service to begin offering initial training in Europe,
instead of sending troops to the U.S. to learn….”
Among the drones that will be used for the training
are the Extended-Range Multi-Purpose MQ-1C Warrior,
“which can fly for more than 20 hours and launch
air-to-ground missiles,” and the RQ-11 Raven small
class unmanned aerial vehicle used by the U.S. and
NATO allies. The news source added that “a course next month at
Grafenwohr Training Area, will, for the first time,
offer initial operator training on the Raven UAS
[Unmanned Aircraft System] in Europe. “The Army is looking at flying the Raven in Romania
and possibly Bulgaria, and attempting to open a range
in Italy for the 173rd Airborne Brigade’s unmanned
aircraft.” [11] From April 12-16 a U.S. Air Force team at the
Aviano Air Base in Italy, “in an effort to improve an
already established military relationship,” provided
aircraft maintenance training to the Bulgarian and
Romanian air forces. [12] On May 18 200 U.S. airmen and ten F-15 multi-role
strike fighters spearheaded the launching of Operation
Sentry Gold at the Graf Ignatievo Air Base in
Bulgaria. “The exercise is designed to provide the
U.S. Air Force and Bulgarian air force the opportunity
to learn from each other and increase their respective
NATO interoperability.” The American commander involved in the maneuvers
emphasized that the Bulgarian air force still uses
Russian MiG-21s and MiG-29s, saying: “We simulate
fighting MiGs all the time. Being here allows us to
really see them in action.” A Bulgarian officer said of the drills, “Sentry
Gold increases the realism of our combat training. We
get to see how a unit with a tested and proven combat
history does things,” and added, “Training together
with [U.S. Air Forces in Europe] and the U.S. pilots
moves us closer to NATO standards.” [13] As noted earlier, NATO chief Rasmussen arrived in
the Bulgarian capital on May 20. Five days earlier the
nation’s defense minister, Anyu Angelov, affirmed that
“We will file a request to join the common European
missile shield during NATO Secretary-General Anders
Fogh Rasmussen’s visit to Sofia….” [14] The Bulgarian defense chief also said that his
ministry will allot funds to upgrade the nation’s air
defense system and that “Brussels has promised to
co-finance the initiative, while NATO will allocate US
$7.5 million to complete the construction of the Graf
Ignatievo airbase.” [15] On the eastern shore of the Black Sea, senior
Georgian military officials met with the permanent
representatives of all 28 NATO member states at a
sitting of the NATO-Georgia Commission (created the
month after Georgia’s war with Russia in 2008) on May
5. A week later NATO’s South Caucasus liaison officer
Zbigniew Ribatski announced that the military bloc
will open a representative’s office in Georgia this
summer. On May 14 the Georgian press reported the launching
of a U.S.-funded military training simulation facility
in the country: “The Simulation Training Center has
been formed through the framework of US-Georgia
cooperation. The United States, under the ongoing
collaboration, donated the Center with the
cutting-edge technical equipment and developed special
training programs for it.” [16] The inauguration was
attended by new U.S. ambassador John Bass and NATO
nations’ military attaches. Even Ukraine under its new president Viktor
Yanukovich remains within NATO’s Black Sea plans. The
prohibition against the presence of foreign military
forces for exercises in the nation, effected by the
former opposition against Yanukovich’s pro-U.S.
predecessor Viktor Yushchenko, has been reversed, and
U.S. and fellow NATO states’ troops may resume Sea
Breeze exercises on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast. The establishment of U.S. and NATO naval, air and
infantry bases and interceptor missile installations
in Black Sea nations is the prototype for expansive
and permanent military build-ups in Eastern Europe and
into former Soviet space, which is being replicated in
the Baltic Sea region. An imaginary Iranian threat is
the subterfuge employed to justify the presence of
U.S. and NATO warplanes, warships, troops, mechanized
and airborne units, missile batteries, training
centers and radar facilities in the Black Sea and
Baltic Sea regions. Iran does not border either of the two seas and has
neither the ability nor any reason to threaten nations
that do. Recent news reports from both sides of the Atlantic
speak of a warming of relations between Russia and the
United States, between Russia and NATO. If so, Russian
political leaders won’t have to extend their hands far
to clasp those of their alleged Western friends and
allies. They need merely reach across their
southwestern and northwestern borders on the Black and
Baltic Seas. 1) HotNews.ro, May 12, 2010 Comments 💬 التعليقات |