*EPF314 06/30/2004
NATO Affords Gains for U.S. Foreign, Security Policy
(Afghanistan, Iraq, counterterrorism decisions boost U.S. aims) (510)

By David Anthony Denny
Washington File Staff Writer

Istanbul, Turkey --- President Bush and his team of diplomatic and military officials left the NATO Summit in this former capital of the Roman and Ottoman Empires with several achievements for U.S. foreign and security policy.

At the top of the list were NATO's commitments to train Iraqi security forces, and to augment its International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan as part of the decision to expand from the capital into the northern half of that country.

In addition, NATO's Istanbul Declaration echoed Bush's vision of its 21st-century responsibilities -- fighting terrorism and promoting democratic values --- and also complemented his Middle East policies with the Istanbul Initiative, which offers activities to regional governments interested in a closer ties to NATO.

On the commitment to respond affirmatively to Iraqi President Ayad Allawi's request for training Iraqi security forces, details were few. The assembled state leaders necessarily left many questions unanswered --- which countries will provide what types of training and where and when --- until they consult with their respective legislative bodies.

As for expanding ISAF, NATO decided to boost the troop level to 10,000, and to place them beyond Kabul into northern Afghanistan as Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs). Afghan President Hamid Karzai, addressing the summit members June 29, said NATO's decision was welcome, but that Afghanistan needed the forces right away. Karzai is concerned that former Taliban regime and al-Qa'ida terrorists are killing newly registered voters to intimidate Afghans before September's national elections.

Bush, along with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, were the chief proponents at the summit for NATO's decision, stated in its Istanbul Communiqué, to train, equip and focus highly mobile, highly lethal high-tech forces to combat the twin menaces of fanatical terrorist groups and the "outlaw regimes" that produce, harbor and abet them.

Blair said that after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, democracies "know now that it is important not simply to go in and get after the Taliban in Afghanistan, but also to say, ����no, we're ... also going to give that country democracy and freedom,' because that is actually part of the battle against terrorism."

This decision allowed the president a platform from which to describe his vision of a peaceful, democratic broader Middle East, in which formerly despotic or authoritarian governments would eventually give way to governments responsive to their citizens. Such societies, Bush said in a speech at Istanbul's Galatasaray University, do not live in endless stagnation, seethe in resentment, lash out in envy, rage, violence, and "cling to every grievance of the past."

Another U.S. aim accomplished at the summit was the approval of the year-old Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), by which participating governments share intelligence and cooperate in bringing civil authority and, if necessary, military strength to interdict illicit trafficking of weapons of mass destruction, their means of delivery, and their component parts, using existing national laws and international covenants.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

Return to Public File Main Page

Return to Public Table of Contents