Word: nato
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...NATO leaders have asked for more troops to counter the rising threat of the Afghan insurgency, but to little effect. The war in Iraq has taken the lion's share of American resources, and other Western nations are reluctant to invest more troops. "Afghanistan is half again bigger than Iraq, and it has a population estimated to be 3 to 5 million more than Iraq," says General Dan McNeil, a former ISAF commander. McNeil points out that there are only 65,000 international troops in Afghanistan, compared with nearly double that number in Iraq. The effort in Afghanistan, he says...
...episode of Gallic exceptionalism branded into the French national consciousness: in 1966, then-President Charles De Gaulle Charles De Gaulle flounced out of NATO's military command, declaring that Paris would never submit to outside influence on its defense policy...
...however, France appears ready to return to the NATO fold. On Tuesday, President Nicolas Sarkozy unveiled a 15-year military plan that aims to deepen France's involvement with its NATO and European allies in the fight against post-9/11 threats. And critically, he indicated that France will soon rejoin NATO's military command, even if its nuclear forces would remain under strictly national control. "We can renew our relations with NATO without fearing for our independence and without the risk of being unwillingly dragged into a war," Sarkozy said...
...While France is a member of the 26-member NATO alliance, and takes part in all political decision-making bodies, it is not part of the integrated command structure. A return to NATO command would involve the appointment of French generals to NATO military headquarters and to the alliance's defense planning committee...
...France has been creeping back toward NATO for more than a decade. Under President Jacques Chirac, Paris rejoined NATO's military committee of chiefs of staff in 1996, but the rapprochement was cut short after the U.S. refused to share more power with European countries in the integrated military structure...