#9
Parlamentskaya Gazeta
No. 52 2002
BY NATO LOGIC, SUBVERSIVES ARE BEST PEACEKEEPERS
The Strong Resolve 2002 NATO war games held close to Russia's borders over
By Valery GROMAK
The Strong Resolve 2002 war games of NATO, the largest in the past decade,
were held on the northwestern borders of Russia for two weeks in March. They
involved over 26,000 troops from 15 NATO countries, up to 50 warships and
auxiliary vessels, and over 70 aircraft. The area of the exercise included a
part of Norway and Poland (it was for the first time that NATO exercises were
held in Poland), as well as the Norwegian, Northern and Baltic seas. The main
goal of the games was to check the plans and possibilities of the multinational
group of forces in simultaneous settlement of two crisis situations in different
parts of the world.
The scenario of the war games stipulated two crisis regions:
the Northern (Norway) and the Southern (Poland, Germany, the Czech republic,
Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine and the Kaliningrad Region of Russia). In the
northern area NATO troops trained in repelling an aggression launched by a
conventional adversary against a member country. In the southern area an
international peacekeeping operation was held on the territory of conventional
states, where the situation included a basic package of crisis problems.
Here is the essence of the scenario. A crisis develops on the ruins of a
formerly integral state, leading to a sanguinary conflict between subjects of
democratic changes. One of the sides (in this case the proponent of
"correct" democracy), suffering defeat in an armed conflict, seeks the
assistance of the UN. The UN Secretary General asks NATO to launch an operation
to settle the crisis there. And NATO resorts to the Yugoslav experience of
"appeasing" the warring sides and punishing the guilty parties, using
the tried and tested standards and procedures.
The Russian General Staff believes that Russia and Belarus were given the
role of "aggressors" in these war games. The position of Minsk is even
harsher, as the Polish part of the war games envisaged the operation of NATO
troops directly on the territory of Belarus, where according to NATO generals
the people revolted against the regime. The Belarussian military acquired
information according to which the first day of the NATO war games provided for
NATO peacekeeping actions directly in Minsk.
A careful analysis of the composition of the troops involved in the games
shows that it consisted mostly of rapid deployment forces (commandos, frogmen,
reconnaissance and subversive groups), units that were to covertly deliver these
forces to the site of operation and give them fire support from the sea and the
air. Even a layman will see that such special task groups are designed above all
for offensive operations. "It is shocking that these NATO war games, the
largest in the past decade staged on the border of Russia, were held to train in
exclusively offensive operations," says Admiral Vladimir Valuyev, commander
of the Baltic Fleet.
The Baltic part of the NATO exercise stipulated a series of tasks which the
joint group of NATO forces may have to fulfil in an armed conflict with a
country that has powerful armed forces.
These tasks included naval control of navigation, a mine war, tactical
aviation strikes at naval targets, the use of missile strike boats, a
comprehensive combat training of minesweepers, and broad use of special
operations and psychological warfare units. By NATO logic, subversives are the
best peacekeepers.
The US generals may try to camouflage the genuine goal of their exercises as
a peacekeeping operation, but even a cursory analysis of the games shows that in
the Baltic and Poland NATO, and above all the USA, trained in military
interference in interstate and internal political problems of sovereign European
countries under the pretext of peacekeeping operations.
The Strong Resolve 2002 war games are over. Both the NATO headquarters and
the Russian General Staff will evaluate their results. But it is clear that this
NATO exercise was yet another example of US policy of maintaining US domination
in Europe and reviving the Cold War.
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