"NATO is more needed and wanted than ever, from Afghanistan to Kosovo, from the coast of Somalia to Libya. We are busier than ever before."
In Spain he addressed the nation's upper house of parliament in a speech titled "NATO and the Mediterranean: the changes ahead" and, according to the bloc's website, emphasized "NATO's changing role in the Mediterranean, particularly focusing on Operation Unified Protector and NATO's future role in the region." He also pledged that "we can help the Arab Spring well and truly blossom." Libya and Syria, tomorrow Algeria and Lebanon, come to mind as the objects of NATO's false solicitude, and Egypt and Tunisia too, as Rasmussen has already mentioned, in regard to NATO training their militaries and rebuilding their command structures in accordance with Alliance standards, as is being done in Iraq.
The war against Libya, NATO's first armed conflict in the Mediterranean and on the African continent, is solidifying control of the Mediterranean already established by the ongoing Operation Active Endeavor surveillance and interdiction mission launched in 2001 under NATO's Article 5 collective military assistance provision.
While Rasmussen was in Britain, Russian ambassador to NATO Dmitri Rogozin said that the Atlantic Alliance "is being drawn into a ground operation," and asserted "The war in Libya means...the beginning of its expansion south."
Two days before, the U.S. and NATO completed Baltic Operations (BALTOPS) 2011, which included 20 ships from eleven European nations and the flagship of the Mediterranean-based U.S. Sixth Fleet, USS Mount Whitney, other American warships and Commander, Carrier Strike Group 8.
Concurrently in the Baltic Sea, the 11-day Amber Hope 2011 exercise was launched in Lithuania on June 13 with the participation of 2,000 military personnel from NATO members the U.S., Canada, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Poland and Partnership for Peace members Georgia and Finland. Former Soviet republics and Partnership for Peace affiliates Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Ukraine are attending as observers.
The second phase of the exercise will begin on June 19 and, according to the Lithuanian Defense Ministry, "troops will follow an established scenario based on lessons learnt by Lithuanian and foreign states in Afghanistan, Iraq and off the Somali coast," in the last case an allusion to NATO's ongoing Operation Ocean Shield. The bloc has also airlifted thousands of Ugandan and Burundian troops into Somalia for fighting in the capital of Mogadishu.
Earlier this week NATO also held a conference with the defense chiefs of 60 member and partner states in Belgrade, Serbia, which was bombed repeatedly by NATO warplanes 12 years ago, also focusing on the bloc's current three-month-long war in Libya.
The Strategic Military Partner Conference was addressed by, inter alia, French General Stephane Abrial, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander for Transformation based in Norfolk, Virginia, who said, "I'm convinced that the operation in Libya will be successful," though conceding that the hostilities may be prolonged well into the future in his opening statement.
The Black Sea Rotational Force, a Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force, followed military training exercises in Romania with a two-week exercise in Bulgaria on June 13 with troops from the host nation and, for the first time, Serbia on one of the four air and infantry bases in the country the Pentagon has moved into since 2006. The earlier training in Romania was at one of another four bases acquired in that nation.
The local press reported that most of the U.S. Marines involved arrived at the Novo Selo Range "straight from Afghanistan" on Hercules-C-130 transport aircraft.
Lieutenant Colonel Nelson Cardella of the U.S. Marine Corps said of the drills, "Our troops will be trained to improve the interoperability of our staffs" for the Afghan and future wars.
Bulgaria's Standart News announced that "next year the Black Sea Rotational Force exercise will take place in Serbia."
The mission of the Black Sea Rotational Force, formed last year, is to integrate the armed forces of twelve nations in the Balkans, Black Sea region and Caucasus - Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine - through NATO for deployment to Afghanistan and other war zones and post-conflict situations.
Each of the wars the U.S. and its NATO allies have waged since 1999 has gained the Pentagon and the Alliance new military bases and expeditionary contingents in subjugated and adjoining nations in Southeastern Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean and Persian Gulf, and South and Central Asia.
Just as the Yugoslav, Afghan and Iraqi wars contributed to developing a U.S.-led NATO international military intervention capability for use against Libya today, so the Libyan experience is being employed for future conflicts.
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