Colin Powell calls for more European troops

[Anhaga]

TimesOnline

IF COLIN POWELL is looking for a new job, and the rumours abound, he should consider the merits of going into private practice as a crisis consultant.
The soothing voice, the benevolent smile, and the gentle gesticulation somehow combine to make a bitter dispute seem an insignificant tiff, while the most unseemly power grab is merely consensus misunderstood.

Colin?s Clinic could be open to the world?s political psychotics, depressed dictators and stressed-out extremists, who would be given a gentle talking to and prescribed a course of the political equivalent of Prozac. The US Secretary of State already does the foreign policy equivalent of outreach work, hugging wayward allies and attempting to reassure much of the Middle East with his inflexion-perfect pronunciations of Arab names.

The pronunciation of his own name is a separate, more vexed issue. He recalls a ?great debate? in the pages of The Times over whether he knew how to say ?Colin? correctly: ?A great fight broke out in London about this ignorant American who didn?t know how to pronounce his name: he kept calling himself Coh-lin when his name was Colin. There is an Irish variant Coh-lin.?

It is clear that the presumption that most Americans are ignorant grates on General Powell. He was in Berlin to attend a conference on anti-Semitism, but any visit to Europe becomes an opportunity for him to deal with what he obviously regards as a myriad of myths and misunderstandings about US intentions. And yesterday he was particularly keen to put in a good word for a beleaguered Tony Blair.

?I think Prime Minister Blair has shown enormous courage and he has demonstrated an enormous commitment to doing the right thing in Iraq,? he said. ?He did not shrink from the challenge. He did not weigh the politics of it all and say this would be too hard politically . . . people should not forget what was accomplished. When people start talking about quagmires ? one thing that is not a quagmire is Saddam Hussein. He?s gone. Horrible man. Horrible regime.?

Powell obviously believes that many Europeans are prone to misinterpret American actions. He admits that the encirclement of Fallujah has made the city a potential symbol of resistance to the might of the US military, but insists that the tactics will not create a lasting image problem for Washington. ?It has that image, but it will go away quickly as soon as it?s resolved and it can?t go on indefinitely,? he said. ?If you see what we have done in the last three weeks ? we have been moving with caution. Even though on television you see action, you see firefights take place, for the most part, these firefights have been on the edges of the city and the suburbs.?

While US casualties have mounted around Fallujah in recent weeks, Powell is confident that the US public is far more understanding of the costs of war than is generally believed or conceded in Europe. Americans, he implies, are passing the ?Dover test?.

?No one likes casualties and no one likes body bags; no one likes to see coffins at Dover (air force base). But I think the American people have demonstrated over the years that they will accept casualties in the service of a proper cause, a noble cause. So far, I think the American people ? even though the numbers go up and down ? believe in what we are doing. Now, when the scenes are not so good for a few days, then the polls will reflect that.

?I get this question a great deal from European audiences. ?Well, you know, the Americans ? can you really take casualties?? And I just have to remind you ? count the number of casualties we took to free Europe twice over the past century and you?ll see whether Americans can take casualties or whether we are up to it. Visit our cemeteries in Europe ? Americans are up to the task.?

There remain questions about the relationship between the troops and the interim authority that will replace the Coalition Provisional Authority currently headed by Paul Bremer. Put bluntly, who will order about whom? ?As a practical matter, I am not sure you will see a great deal of difference, except that the multinational force will be working very closely with the sovereign interim government . . . returning sovereignty is going to help because it puts an Iraqi face on the situation and the people can see not Americans and not Brits, but Iraqis increasingly in charge of the country and in charge of their destiny.

?The thugs, they will go after the Iraqi interim government just as they are going after coalition representatives now. An interim government will improve the environment but I regret that it probably isn?t the complete solution.?

In a week in which British diplomats turned undiplomatic, and were motivated, in part, by what they saw as London?s lack of influence on US policymaking, he insists that outside voices are being heard in Washington. Interestingly, he describes Sir Jeremy Greenstock, who gave discreet advice to the 52 diplomatic dissenters and was the Prime Minister?s personal envoy to Baghdad, as ?no shrinking violet?. And he speaks to Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, ?very, very regularly?.

?We co-ordinate closely with our friends and allies . . . I can assure you that Ambassador Greenstock in Baghdad has been no shrinking violet in representing the views of Her Majesty?s Government. We have tried to be open to all ideas that came from Italy and Spain. José María Aznar was no shrinking violet either.?

Ever the fence-mender, Powell, talking to journalists from Europe?s leading newspapers, reaches out to Paris in the hope that the French Government will not block an imminent UN resolution that will be an attempt to bless the changed status of Iraq and raises the possibility of France providing security officers to accompany UN officials.

?I?m not expecting any French troops, but there might be other things that France would be able to do. We will have a need for the protection of UN personnel in the country, in order to have that vital presence that we?ve all talked about and everybody has encouraged. We will need security for the UN electoral officials who will be going through the country to register people and get ready for the elections at the beginning of next year.?

There also remains doubt over the contribution Nato will make, but he clearly wants, at the very least, a formal Nato resolution supporting Iraq?s transition when the member countries gather for a summit in Turkey in June.

?I think there is a potential role for Nato. And no Nato member has said there is not . . . some nations are more anxious and willing than other nations, but so it is in an alliance of now 26 nations. What might that role be? It might be the provision of a headquarters; it might be the provision of additional troops; more Nato nations participating in the provision of troops.

?I think it would be an important signal if Nato were to show that as an alliance and not just as individual members of the alliance, it is involved and committed to the future of a democratic Iraq. How that manifests itself . . . discussions are under way now and perhaps something will be ready at the time of the Istanbul Nato summit.?

Apart from the haggling over Iraq, much of Europe and the US are deeply divided over policy on Israel and Palestine, particularly after the visit of Ariel Sharon to Washington earlier this month. Powell insists that the agreement between the Israeli Prime Minister and President Bush remains part of broader negotiations and that final status talks will be held to resolve remaining territorial disputes.

?For three years I have worked to get the peace process started. First with the Mitchell plan, the Tenet plan, the Zinni plan, and we never could get the Palestinians to focus on the simple problem of terrorism . . . Mr (Yassir) Arafat would never do that. So Mr Sharon finally said a few weeks ago that Mr Arafat is not a partner for peace. ?We have no partner on the Palestinian side,? Mr Sharon said, and ?therefore, I have to do something unilaterally. I can ?t wait forever.? For all these years people said ?Get out of the settlements.? That is what he?s doing.?

Shortly after, Colin?s Clinic was closed for the morning, and he ventures forth, with the zeal of the missionary doctor, into the still-to-be-converted European badlands, laying on his hands whenever he encounters diplomatic dementia.- Robert Thompson

[Anhaga]

Ah bugger- screwed the quote thing up.

[Vympel]

Fixed it. Ah wtf now there's all question marks and shit there. Or where they already there?

Bloody Opera.