Who cares. It'll be like granny's car, twenty years old with 500 miles on the odometer. Probably have a frog hood ornament too.
Posted on 11/22/2004 12:41:20 AM PST by cfhBAMA
Battlegroups are first step towards a Euro army By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels
European Union defence ministers will today sign off plans for battlegroups of troops poised for instant action, in a significant move towards a European army.
The British and the French, the driving forces behind the scheme, will provide the first 1,500-strong battlegroup, or "expeditionary force", starting in January.
The unit is to be ready for action anywhere within 15 days of a decision by EU ministers. "These are combat troops in their barracks with their boots on ready to go," a British diplomat said.
The move comes as the EU takes on its first big military mission on Dec 2, replacing Nato in charge of the 7,000-man Bosnia task force.
Most of the troops will remain the same, merely switching from Nato to EU insignia, but the politics could change abruptly.
The EU has already deployed troops in Macedonia and Congo. The Bosnia operation is viewed as much riskier. One British diplomat called it a crucial test of Europe's military ambitions, fearing that hardliners could cause trouble after US Nato forces have left.
"We need to respond very quickly and robustly to incidents because they can spiral out of control," he said.
The Bosnia force will be commanded by a British general but report through Nato's command at Mons. The battlegroup plan was floated last year by Britain and France with German support. Italy will take over in the second half of 2005, then Germany.
By early 2007, the EU will have two battlegroups on call, giving Brussels a strike force of 3,000.
It is unclear whether Nato or the EU will have day-to-day battlefield command. Each country can choose whether to join an expedition, contributing what it can. Britain is offering its existing "Spearhead Battalion" for missions. The first tasks are likely to be in Africa, possibly in the Sudan.
"Neutral" states such as Austria, Ireland and Malta do not intend to prevent the others going ahead under an EU flag.
The battlegroups are more nimble than the EU's 60,000-man Rapid Reaction Force, which takes two months to assemble. Launched this year, it has a military staff of generals and colonels in Brussels, but little else. It needs American support to transport kit and carry out most operations.
Geoffrey Van Orden, MEP, the Tory defence spokesman, called the battlegroups a diversionary sham. "No new troops or resources are being produced, it just switches control to the EU. Does this do anything to help in Afghanistan and Iraq where more troops are really needed? The answer is no," he said.
He accused the Government of sacrificing Britain's forces to curry favour in Brussels and burnish Tony Blair's European credentials.
Britain and France launched the EU's military project at St Malo in 1998, each for different reasons.
By taking the lead, the British hope to keep European defence firmly rooted in the Atlantic alliance. But the French elite talks of escaping Nato tutelage, turning Europe into a military power that can stand up to the United States.
Yawn. What the Euro Army has been in transition since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Too many egos spoil the plan.
The unit is to be ready for action anywhere within 15 days of a decision by EU ministers.
As if they could ever reach a decision!!
And as if 1500 troops would be of any value when half of them are surrender monkeys.
another day in Euroland
The Europeans couldn't even clean up the mess in their own backyard in the Balkans. And the French are bogged down in Ivory Coast. Euroarmy? Its a pipe dream in a continent that spends more on welfare than on its own defense.
The French elite? Isn't that an oxymoron?
They may be monetarily elite, but their common sense and moral standings leave them at the bottom of the gene pool.
"But the French elite talks of escaping Nato tutelage, turning Europe into a military power that can stand up to the United States."
Stand up to the U.S.? The day the French turn a rifle on us, they better be prepared to be stuffed into the maginoet line like sardines.
The very idea!
Standing up to America for France is easy. It's all their hot air and our laughing at them. If that's what they want to do the citizens of Europe logically ask, why raise a real army? Why spend our dwindling taxes on that? But they are not the smartest taxpayers considering how much they give the PLO.
What is your problem with a unified European army? It will just make Europe a stronger ally in the WOT against TROP. Wasn't it the U.S. that was asking Germany to send troops to Iraq? But I can see the problem that there won't be any more easy-to-impress, poor Eastern-European countries that the U.S. can play sugardaddy to.
I say 1.500 men is a good start. In a few years when trust has grown there might be entire divisions/flotillas.
Unified European Army? Are you serious? This is window dressing.
We're not even talking a full regiment here, are we? It cannot deploy anywhere but locally, and it if it requires 15 days notice to even begin to think of doing so, it can only mean one thing: this force, if constituted, is for use within Europe. Particularly in the event that a member country should revolt against the EU poltical structure. It's not a credible force, but it is a credible threat in the right instances.
Should Denmark, let's say, decide that it no longer wants to pay Italian tax rates to support French-style retirement at 40, and wants to break away, this little force is almost enough to match the Danes man-for-man.
No, this is not the beginning of a European army, it's the beginning of a plot for Germany, France and Italy to keep the smaller members of the EU in line. The smaller members (Denmark, Luxembourg, and such) have always been the most reluctant to adhere to EU policies, believing (quite rightly) that integration is akin to being assimilated by the Borg.
This is an internal POLICE force at the disposal of France. Nothing more.
The Restored Carolingian Empire marches on, all that's missing is the goosestep.
The European army being an internal police force is nonsense. Never heard that before I read your posting.
The new Airbus A400M will give Europe strategic transport capabilities. European nations have ordered about 200 of this state-of-the-art planes. Germany alone has ordered around 80.
If I were a Brit, I would not partner with the bottom feeders in a pond with with green scum on top. Even Kermit would jump the lilly pad for dry ground. The Chales DeGaulle AC "commissioned" last year couldn't even get out of port. The flight deck is too short by 30 meters, it dropped a prop, and the windows on the brig are opaque. Maybe they could turn that POS excuse for a carrier into a used care lot for their crappy cars. Then we could tow it over to the Marinas Trench in the Pacific and sink it.
Oh good. Now that Europe has their dream army, they can get on to solving the ethnic cleansing in the Sudan, or even taking care of the Ivory Coast or even Liberia.
But lets face it, it is just another token army of unionized homosexuals.
"unionized homosexuals"
That's all? Are you series? Here on Freerepublic I would have expected at least "unionized, marxist, feminist faggots".
""unionized, marxist, feminist faggots"."
Why do you choose to denegrate this site with your assuptions?
assumptions.
Well, I've often read about Germans being "marxists" and "evil". You can read the other stuff in every second article about Europeans. So what's your problem with that?
France is trying to figure out how to be an effective military enemy of the United States.
1500 troops ready to go anywhere in 15 days? Wow that's only 13 and1/2 days more than it takes the 82nd's ready brigade to be on scene. The EU is getting there.
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