Rumsfeld Rides Again as Old, New Europe Tensions Shake Up NATO

James G. Neuger
Bloomberg
Monday, March 31, 2008

The spirit of Donald Rumsfeld is stalking NATO: From the war in Afghanistan to confronting the Kremlin, the U.S. once again has more support from ``new'' Europe than from ``old.''

Rumsfeld launched a broadside at France and Germany in 2003, when as U.S. defense secretary he dismissed them as problematic ``old Europe'' for resisting the Iraq War and said that ``the center of gravity'' was shifting east, where new allies like Poland had joined in the coalition against Saddam Hussein.

With North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders meeting in Bucharest this week, the pattern is reemerging on two fronts. The first is Afghanistan, where Western European governments are balking at putting troops in harm's way. The second is the future shape of NATO itself, with the same old allies frustrating U.S. goals of taking in countries such as Georgia and Ukraine from the former Soviet heartland.

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NATO is evolving into ``a two-tier organization: those that are willing to fight and die for democracy and those who are not,'' says Gary Rice, a retired Canadian colonel who is an Ottawa-based independent military analyst. NATO risks becoming ``just another alliance that's had its day,'' he says.

Its strategy was straightforward during the Cold War, when it faced a single enemy, the Soviet Union. Now the threats are farther away, in the rugged terrain of central Asia, and more diffuse, in the form of stateless terrorism.

`Flirting With Irrelevance'

``If NATO members fail to broaden the alliance's outlook beyond Western Europe, the alliance risks flirting with irrelevance in the 21st century,'' Rumsfeld, who resigned from the Pentagon in November 2006, said in response to questions for this article.

New allies like Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary -- the first three Warsaw Pact alumni to join NATO, in 1999 -- equate the alliance with freedom from tyranny.

``They endured five decades of Communist occupation,'' says Rumsfeld, 75. ``The people of Eastern Europe understand the threat posed by any totalitarian ideology, and they have been among the first to step forward to confront it.''

The Eastern Europeans are pushing hardest for further NATO expansion, calling for the April 2-4 summit to declare Ukraine and Georgia eligible for membership. Neither is a perfect candidate. Ukrainians are torn between ancient loyalties to Russia and the attractions of the West. Georgia faces Russian- backed secession movements in two regions that call its territorial integrity into question.

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