Bush Plan Worries Europeans

Removing U.S. Troops From Balkans Is Seen as Divisive

BRUSSELS, Oct. 23 –– A proposal by Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush to remove American troops from peacekeeping missions in the Balkans has provoked a wave of anxiety among the European allies, who fear such a move would split the NATO alliance and damage faith in U.S. leadership.

While reluctant to be drawn into the final stages of the U.S. election campaign, senior European diplomats and officials at NATO headquarters said the Bush campaign's call for a "new division of labor" within the Western alliance threatens to erode principles of shared risk and collective security that have sustained the Atlantic military partnership for more than a half-century.

"If the United States says it will not perform certain tasks, then the basic consensus of 'all for one and one for all' begins to unravel," said a European ambassador. "Once you allow NATO members to pick and choose their operations, then where does it all end? The integrated military command could soon fall apart and so would the alliance."

Other European officials recalled how efforts by the United States early in the Balkans wars to pick and choose what it would do caused a serious rupture in the alliance. At that time, the United States refused to send troops but agreed to provide air support while European peacekeepers were on the ground. The disparity in the perils and perspectives of alliance forces prompted fierce policy arguments that NATO leaders say must never be repeated.

"It's a false distinction to put American forces at one end of the spectrum and Europeans at the other," said Simon Lunn, secretary general of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, which brings together legislators from the 19 members. "It challenges the essence of collective security that lies at the heart of the alliance and all of its military operations."

The alarmist sentiments voiced by European diplomats and NATO officials were triggered by comments from Texas Gov. Bush's senior national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice. She told the New York Times that the United States should focus on fighting or deterring wars in the Persian Gulf and Asia while turning peacekeeping duties over to European countries.

"The governor is talking about a new division of labor," Rice was quoted as saying. "The United States is the only power that can handle a showdown in the gulf, mount the kind of force that is needed to protect Saudi Arabia and deter a crisis in the Taiwan Straits. And extended peacekeeping detracts from our readiness for these kinds of missions."

She went on to say Bush believed that performing such tasks in the Balkans has harmed the morale and combat readiness of U.S. troops: "Carrying out civil administration and police functions is simply going to degrade the American capability to do the things America has to do. We don't need to have the 82nd Airborne escorting kids to kindergarten."

In European capitals there was almost universal criticism of Bush's proposal and concern that it could inflict a mortal blow to the NATO alliance. Even the conservative Times newspaper in London warned that splitting military tasks within the alliance in ways that curtailed U.S. participation in conflict management and peace-building was reckless.

NATO military officers contended that future missions to promote stability in Europe will undoubtedly involve security tasks that depart from textbook warfare, as do the current operations by peacekeeping forces in the Balkans. They said it would defeat the purpose of NATO's integrated military command to reserve American soldiers for special kinds of combat.

"The lesson of the post-Cold War era is that armies must be highly versatile," said a European commander at NATO military headquarters near Mons in central Belgium. "In Bosnia and Kosovo, it's true we are doing a lot of things best handled by policemen or engineers. But those tasks still help promote peace."

European allies have lately grown exasperated by U.S. claims that they are not pulling their weight within the alliance. Several officials cited Bush's assertion, during a televised debate with his Democratic opponent, Vice President Gore, that "one of our priorities with our European friends should be to convince them to put troops on the ground" in the Balkans.

European troops now account for more than 80 percent of the 65,000 NATO troops in the Balkans.