EN -- Manlio Dinucci -- The Art of War -- A call to arms, NATO mobilised on two fronts

« THE ART OF WAR »

 A call to arms, NATO mobilised on two fronts 

by Manlio Dinucci

CASTELLANO ENGLISH FRANÇAIS  ITALIANO  PORTUGUÊS ROMÎNA  TÜRKÇE

NATOME – this is how President Trump, who brags about his talent for creating acronyms, has already baptised the NATO deployment in the Middle East, which he demanded by telephone from Stoltenberg, the Secretary General of the Alliance. Stoltenberg immediately agreed that NATO must play a « more important role in the Middle East, particularly in training missions ». He also participated in the meeting of the EU Ministers for Foreign Affairs, declaring that the EU must stay connected to the United States and NATO because  « even though we have made enormous progress, Daesh might still rise again ». In this way, the United States are seeking to implicate the European allies in the chaotic situation provoked by the assassination, authorised by Trump himself, of Iranian General Soleimani as soon as he arrived in Baghdad.

After the Iraqi parliament had considered the expulsion of more than 5,000 US soldiers present in the country, plus thousands of Pentagon mercenaries, Prime Minister Abdul-Mahdi asked the State Department to send a delegation to establish the protocol for their withdrawal. The USA – answered the Departement – will send a delegation « not to discuss the troop's retreat, but an adequate protocol for the armed forces in the Middle East », adding that Washington is busy drawing up an agreement on the « strengthening of the role of NATO in Iraq, corresponding to the desires of the President, that the Allies should share the charge in all efforts for our collective defence ».

The plan is clear - to replace, either completely or in part, the US troops in Iraq with the troops of its  European allies, who will therefore find themselves in the most dangerous situations, as demonstrated by the fact that NATO itself postponed training missions in Iraq after the assassination of Soleimani.

Apart from the Southern front, NATO is also mobilised on the Eastern front. In order to « defend  Europe against the Russian menace », it is in the process of preparing the exercise Defender Europe 20, which will see in April and May the greatest deployment of US forces in Europe for the last 25 years. 20,000 soldiers, including several thousand  from the National Guard of 12 US States, will be arriving from the United States to join up with the 9,000 already present in Europe, for a total of approximately 30,000. With them, 7,000 soldiers from 13 European NATO member countries, including Italy, and two partners, Georgia and Finland. As well as armements which will be arriving from the other side of the Atlantic, US troops will be using 13,000 tanks, self-propelled cannons, armoured vehicles, and other military vehicles from US « pre-positioned depots » in Europe. Military convoys with armoured vehicles will travel 4,000 kilometres via 12 main roads, in connection with aircraft, helicopters, drones and naval units. US paratroops of the 173rd Brigade and Italians from the Brigade Folgore will be jumping together into Latvia.

The exercise Defender Europe 20 will be taking high ground later on, according to the US and NATO strategy following the aggravation of the crisis in the Middle East. The Pentagon, which only last year sent 14,000 more soldiers to the Middle East, is currently sending into this same area  certain forces which are preparing for the war exercise in Europe – 4,000 parachutists from the 82nd Airborne Division (including several hundred from Vicenza) and 4,500 Marines, including those from the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan. Other forces, either before or after the exercise in Europe, may be sent to the Middle East. The planning of Defender Europe 20, emphasises the Pentagon, nonetheless remains unchanged. In other words, 30,000 US soldiers will be training to defend Europe from a Russian aggression. A scenario which could not occur in reality, particularly because in any confrontation, it would not be tanks that would be used, but nuclear missiles – but it is a scenario which is useful for the increasing of tension and spreads the idea of an enemy presence.

il manifesto, 9 January 2020

Translator: Pete Kimberley

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Manlio Dinucci

Geographer and geopolitical scientist. His latest books are Laboratorio di geografia, Zanichelli 2014 ; Diario di viaggio, Zanichelli 2017 ; L’arte della guerra / Annali della strategia Usa/Nato 1990-2016, Zambon 2016, Guerra Nucleare. Il Giorno Prima 2017; Diario di guerra Asterios Editores 2018, Premio internazionale per l'analisi geostrategica assegnato il 7 giugno 2019 dal Club dei giornalisti del Messico, A.C.