Serbs to send troops to Afghanistan...

[MKSheppard]

Serbs to deploy to Afghanistan

Serbs to fight beside US troops in Afghanistan
By David Rennie
(Filed: 06/10/2003)

Serbian troops are set to join American forces in
Afghanistan in a deployment certain to spark fury across the Muslim world.

The prospect of 1,000 veterans of ferocious combat against Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo fighting in a Muslim country came after American military commanders were reported yesterday to have accepted an unexpected offer from Belgrade to assist in combat missions against al-Qa'eda and the Taliban.

Disputes have already emerged over reports that a powerful Serbian police chief, Gen Goran Radosavljevic, insists that he should lead the Afghan deployment.

Although he has never been indicted of a war crime, human rights groups say units under his command committed atrocities against Albanian civilians during the Kosovo war.

His leadership is likely to be viewed unfavourably by the Pentagon, but defence officials are desperate to ease the burden on overstretched American forces.

Serbian officials described the mission, which would see up to 1,000 battle hardened Serbian and Montenegrin troops and paramilitary gendarmes deployed near Kandahar, as a done deal.

But America would confirm only that Serbian and Montenegrin officials visited Washington and Central Command headquarters in Florida last week to discuss the mechanics of a deployment.

Military chiefs at Central Command swiftly approved the offer of Serbian troops when it was made "out of the blue", US officials told The New York Times.

Any political doubts were outweighed by the urgent need for more combat forces and the likelihood that Serbian troops would be on their "best behaviour".

[MKSheppard]

same story in the Wall Street Journal

WSJ need to register, evil!

There were several reasons why the toppling of Slobodan Milosevic was a good thing, and now we have one more: Serbia and Montenegro are to send soldiers to Afghanistan, to help American troops there keep the peace and send off the remnants of the Taliban.

In July, Zoran Zivkovic, the Serbian Prime Minister, was in Washington where, at a meeting with Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, he startled his hosts by offering the U.S. an a la carte menu: 1,000 soldiers by March next year, to serve in Liberia, Iraq, or Afghanistan, wherever Washington wanted them most.

"Their jaws dropped," a State Department official told us. "It was as if Powell and Rice had seen a unicorn walk into the room." They accepted -- and eventually chose Afghanistan, the Kandahar region to be specific, where the Serbs will be under American command. Washington made clear there would be no quid pro quo on Kosovo, and Belgrade has been wise not to ask for one.

The offer is remarkable coming a mere four years after the fall of Milosevic and after U.S.-led NATO forces bombed Serbia for 78 straight days. Yet Mr. Zivkovic's offer is in audacious sync with present relations between the U.S. and Serbia-Montenegro, described by an American Embassy official in Belgrade as "the best certainly since 1991, maybe even since WW II." Sanctions on Belgrade have been lifted and the U.S. is now the single largest foreign investor in Serbia- Montenegro.

The Serbian offer has set in motion a faintly bizarre train. Yesterday President Ibrahim Rugova of Kosovo told us that he'd been in touch with the State Department too: "I don't have soldiers," he said ruefully, "but we're happy to offer a police force for Iraq and Afghanistan."

There is need to guard against euphoria. Mr. Zivkovic, on his return to Belgrade, was accused of making the troop offer as an act of free-lance politics. The idea had not been "staffed out" before his departure, and even Serbia-Montenegro's Defense Minister hadn't been consulted. There were fears that if news of the offer leaked beforehand, and the U.S. turned its nose up at Serbian troops, the government would suffer a major loss of face.

Although it is dwindling fast, anti-Americanism persists in Serbia. But the popular clamor for a return to normal-country status means that public opinion is unlikely to force a withdrawal of the troop offer. The deal needs parliamentary approval later this year but such is the pace at which negotiations are proceeding -- rules of engagement are already being drawn up for the Serbian troops -- that legislators are likely to be faced with a fait accompli.

The U.S. needs to be picky about the troops that Belgrade sends. There can be no place for units with a history of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, nor for commanders who led such damnable operations. But the Serbians, weary of being everyone's pariah, are unlikely to balk at demands that their troops be "clean," and to switch off their first positive international spotlight in over a decade. Who'd have thought that the Serbs would turn out to be better friends of America than the French?

[Vympel]

In other news, American peacekeepers were sent to Vietnam.

stupid. stupid. stupid.

[Companion Cube]

That gets the 3rd Impact Award for Stupid Decision of the Week.

[Iceberg]

Does this remind anybody of an Onion headline from the 2000 elections?

[Sea Skimmer]

Mongol's in Iraq... Serbs in Afghanistan...I give it two months before North Korea is supplying a regiment to enforce a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Wow, global clusterfuck, congrats to whomever is secretly organising this mess.

[Soontir C'boath]

Mongol's in Iraq...

Really? Can I get a link?

As for Serb's in Afganistan.....

Cyaround,
Jason

[LordShaithis]

Mongols in Iraq?

*envisions Genghis Khan & co. swarming over jihadis and hacking them to bits*

[Colonel Olrik]

Who'd have thought that the Serbs would turn out to be better friends of America than the French?

Buah ah ah. I guess France didn't assist with its military during the Afeganisthan campaign after all.

And this is even more stupid than sending the impartial turkish troops to Iraq.

[Sea Skimmer]

Really? Can I get a link?

You have to be a NY times member to see it so I'll just repost.

Mongolians Return to Baghdad, This Time as Peacekeepers
ULAN BATOR, Mongolia, Sept. 22 — In 1258, the Mongol general Hulegu, a grandson of Genghis Khan, sacked Baghdad, killing 800,000 people and ending its primacy as the largest city in the Arab world.

This month, the Mongolians returned to Iraq. Ferried into the country on American military transports, 180 Mongolian Army soldiers — all male, all volunteers — are guarding pipelines and working on construction projects under a Polish command.

"This is not like the 13th century," Col. B. Erkhenbayar, commander of Mongolia's Peacekeeping Operation Battalion, said here, smiling so widely his eyes disappeared. "Then, we went to invade. This time, we are going to build Iraq."

In the Bush administration's roster of 34 nations serving in Iraq in the American-led "coalition of the willing" about half are formerly Communist countries like Mongolia. Like many other normally overlooked nations that have sent soldiers to Iraq, Mongolia did so more out of geopolitics than concern for Iraq. Mongolia's offer of troops surprised the American government because it had not asked Mongolia for help, said Steven R. Saunders, president of a private, Washington-based group promoting business ties with Mongolia.

Around this dusty city with its Cyrillic character signs left over from the Soviet era, Mongolians talk of supporting democracy in Iraq, of bolstering geopolitical ties with the United States and of returning their nation's long-eclipsed name to the world stage.

Mongolia is the only nation in Northeast Asia where there is widespread support for sending troops to Iraq: Russia glowers, China appears neutral and Japan has approved the sending of troops but begs for more time. South Korea has 650 military medics and engineers in Iraq, sent despite violent public protests. Now, in the face of American demands for combat-trained troops, South Korea is sending a study group.

Slightly more than a decade after the departure of the last Soviet troops here, democracy is not an abstraction for Mongolia. Last summer, Tibetan Buddhist priests working at a monastery here disinterred the remains of about 600 lamas, or high priests, each buried with his hands tied behind his back and a bullet hole in the skull. They were killed in 1937 by Mongolian Communists in an effort by Stalin to stamp out Mongolia's historic religion.

"Words are not enough to fight with terrorism," Prime Minister Nambaryn Enkhbayar of Mongolia said in an interview last week, fresh from welcoming delegates from 118 countries classified as new or restored democracies.

Mongolia is rapidly embracing the United States in an effort to develop a balance to its historically dangerous neighbors, China and Russia. Twice the size of Texas, but with only 2.4 million people, this land of nomadic herders has a deep, if rarely voiced, fear of becoming another Tibet. After centuries of Chinese rule, Mongolia won independence only in 1921 with Soviet support.

Gen. T. Togoo, chief of staff of the Mongolian armed forces, noted that, historically, Mongolia won breathing space by pitting neighbors against each other. As he spoke, rap music from the Voice of America radio filtered through his Soviet-built headquarters.

At the training ground for the peacekeeping unit, the rear window of a Soviet-made jeep carried two fresh stickers in red and gold: "Semper Fi" and "USMC," souvenirs from 50 United States marines who left last week after leading a training exercise.

"Even though our country is locked between China and Russia, the biggest countries in the world, we should not restrict our relations," Colonel Erkhenbayar said in his second- floor office, decorated with photos, patches, and medals from nearly a decade of contacts with American military forces. "America could be our first neighbor, the way it is for Poland."

The Mongolian efforts appear to be paying dividends. "They were one of the first nations to sign up to send peacekeepers to Iraq," Pamela J. H. Slutz, the American ambassador here, said in an interview. "That has created enormous good will in Washington. For us it was also a prime example of the utility and success of our military assistance program."

The United States has provided the Mongolian military with peacekeeping training, English lessons and, for the Chinese border area, patrol radios and engineering work.

According to foreign mining company employees who work in the Gobi Desert border areas, this "engineering work" seems to involve installing electronic surveillance equipment to monitor North Korea and the Lop Nor nuclear testing site in China, which is just across Mongolia's western border.

American Embassy officials here declined to comment on these reports.

In addition, the United States is advising Mongolia on how to reshape its military for the post-Soviet era. Over the last 20 years, Mongolia's military has shrunk by two-thirds, to about 15,000 today. Last year, a law took effect defining the military's primary missions as border patrol, disaster relief and participation in international peacekeeping missions.

By sending troops to Iraq, Mongolia hopes to win powerful friends for a small nation that is often confused with Inner Mongolia, the neighboring Chinese province.

"Now," said Col. Gurin Ragchaa, a military spokesman, "everyone will know where Mongolia is."

"We are squeezed between two superpowers, so having an army is not enough," Prime Minister Enkhbayar said in English honed at the London School of Economics and Americanized in trips to Washington. "We have to secure our sovereignty and independence through diplomatic measures, economic measures, international organizations."

Two weeks ago, as the last Mongolian soldiers arrived in Iraq, Mongolia, whose trade with the United States was only $180 million last year, formally proposed to Washington a free trade pact.

"Negotiations could be concluded in one weekend," Mr. Saunders said over a pineapple pizza lunch at the California Restaurant, one of the latest American cultural imitations here. "It would have not any economic impact on the U.S. In one year, the U.S. trades less with Mongolia than what it trades with Taiwan in 12 hours."

[Soontir C'boath]

*snip*

That is so great to hear. Former commie turn able ready republic heh.~Jason

[phongn]

EDIT: nm

[MKSheppard]

Does this remind anybody of an Onion headline from the 2000 elections?

Serbs Deploy Peacekeeping Forces

BELGRADE—Serbian president Vojislav Kostunica deployed more than 30,000 peacekeeping troops to the U.S. Monday, pledging full support to the troubled North American nation as it struggles to establish democracy.

"We must do all we can to support free elections in America and allow democracy to gain a foothold there," Kostunica said. "The U.S. is a major player in the Western Hemisphere and its continued stability is vital to Serbian interests in that region." Kostunica urged Al Gore, the U.S. opposition- party leader who is refusing to recognize the nation's Nov. 7 election results, to "let the democratic process take its course."

"Mr. Gore needs to acknowledge the will of the people and concede that he has lost this election," Kostunica said. "Until America's political figures learn to respect the institutions that have been put in place, the nation will never be a true democracy." Serbian forces have been stationed throughout the U.S., with an emphasis on certain trouble zones. Among them are Oregon, Florida, and eastern Tennessee, where Gore set up headquarters in Bush territory.

An additional 10,000 troops are expected to arrive in the capital city of Washington, D.C. by Friday. Though Kostunica has pledged to work with U.S. leaders, he did not rule out the possibility of economic sanctions if the crisis is not resolved soon. "For democracy to take root and flourish, it must be planted in the rich soil of liberty. And the cornerstone of liberty is elections free of tampering or corruption," Kostunica said.

"Should America prove itself incapable of learning this lesson on its own, the international community may be forced to take stronger measures."

[The Yosemite Bear]

In other news, Gengis Khan is turning over in his grave....