At present the most serious obstacle to NATO strategies is the global economic crisis which has forced European governments to reduce their military spending. Germany plans to reduce spending by a quarter over the next four years and Britain’s military budget will be reduced by 7.5 percent until 2015. The budgets of smaller European nations have seen even larger declines.
Military spending in Europe has declined by 20 percent in the last two decades (Greece being a lone exemption) and NATOs war against Libya demonstrated the effects of these reductions. While the European members of NATO contributed more to the campaign than they did in the Yugoslav war in the 90s, many missions needed significant US assistance. Without US cruise missiles, drones, attack helicopters, and electronic warfare aircrafts the Libya intervention could not have succeeded. The USA provided 75 percent of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance data as well as 75 percent of the refueling planes used in the bombing campaign.
As a result of spending constrains NATO has to keep costs in future wars as low as possible and the alliance will therefore prioritize unconventional warfare (a strategy outlined in the US Special Forces Training Circular TC 18-01). In other words, NATO will strongly emphasize the cooperation with terrorist groups and mercenary forces, as seen in Libya (Abdelhakim Belhaj’s LIFG) and in the ongoing subversion in Syria.
NATO has ample opportunity to connect with participants in (or protagonist of) unconventional warfare during major military exercise in Jordan which started just now. 12,000 NATO soldiers from 19 nations are gathering in several areas and also near the Syrian boarder in one of the largest military exercises the region has ever experienced. The operation, called “Eager Lion,“ will see US Marines train their amphibious landing and warfare skills and also will include a number of elite US Special Operations troops, training with Jordanian units in counterterrorism and assault operations.
A major portion of the exercise will be devoted on dealing with refugee flows. There are several camps with Syrian refugees on the northern boarder in Mafraq, Ramtha,, Erbed, and Zarqaa. Already in December US special forces were moved from Iraq to the Jordanian Air Force base (base-Hussein) near Mafraq, located at a distance of only 10 kilometers from Syria.
There are several reports that some of the refugee camps are in fact training centers for the FSA (Free Syrian Army), that between 10,000 and 20,000 islamic mercenaries (mainly from Libya) are being trained in these closed-off camps, and that a constant stream of these fighters is infiltrating into Syria.
A fact finding mission of Conflict Watch managed to enter one of these refugee camps and was confronted with a scene of men in combat gear, various weapons and military vehicles. The two members of the fact-finding mission were instantly evicted from the camp by Jordanian officers after being forced to delete all photographs.
NATO is also present inside Syria. Not only via military instructors aiding the FSA and covert special operations, but also via the UN observer mission.
Since the UN bureaucracy and NATO secretly signed a cooperation agreement in 2008 (without even consulting most UN member states) and since the adoption of UN Resolution 63/308 (Responsibility to Protect), NATO provides most military services for the UN and the two organizations are closely interconnected at all levels.
Major General Robert Mood from Norway, the head of the UN observer mission in Syria, holds a master's degree in Military Studies from the US Marine Corps University and also attended NATOs Defense College in Rome.
After a slow start the number of UN observers has now reached 263, with 71 civilian staff, bringing the total number of UN personnel to 307. The observers are deployed in Homs, Hama, Idlib, Deraa, Aleppo, Deir el Zour, Rif Dimashq, and several other places.
The military observers and the civilian staff come from 53 countries, most of them are probably not sympathetic to islamic terrorists, which may explain, why despite the closeness between UN and NATO the observers were already attacked several times.
The attacks started when a UN convoy was being pelted with stones while heading to the suburb of Dumair, northeast of Damascus. One of the UN vehicles was slightly damaged with smashed window.
A few days later a roadside bomb hit a UN convoy in the southern city of Dera'a, injuring eight accompanying Syrian soldiers. Another convoy of UN observes came under fire while touring the al-Qusair area near Homs.
The latest incident happened in Khan Sheikhoun near Hama, where a convoy of four UN cars was attacked by a grenade thrown under the first car.
A video on YouTube shows that the grenade was seemingly wounding or killing some civilians standing in front of the first car. When the observers speed away to save themselves they seem to drive over some of those wounded or dead.
The UN reported, that the group of observers was meeting with FSA members and their convoy of four vehicles was struck by an IED (improvised explosive device) which damaged three cars but did non injure the observers.
The Western media outlets had their own take on this incident and reported, that the Syrian army opened fire on a funeral procession and killed 20 people in front of the UN observers. The headlines were inventive as always:
Syrian forces strike UN observer mission's cars
Rebels protect UN monitors
Syrian regime fires on funeral in presence of UN observers
The author of this blog normally tries to refrain from emotional expressions but facing such unashamed and outrageous lying there is only one concluding comment possible:
The deviousness and crookedness of mainstream media is nearly as appalling and sickening as the deviousness and crookedness of their imperial masters from the USA and NATO!
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