Belgium Says to Block NATO Turkey Protection Plans

Reuters ^ | 02-09-03

[MamaLucci]

Belgium Says to Block NATO Turkey Protection Plans

Sun February 9, 2003 05:39 AM ET

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgium will block NATO planning for the protection of Turkey in the event of a war in Iraq, Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel said on Sunday.

Asked if Belgium would break a "silence procedure" called by NATO Secretary-General George Robertson under which each of the 19 allies has until 0900 GMT (4 a.m. EST) on Monday to raise objections, Michel told Belgium's VRT Dutch-language television:

"Yes, of course. We are now busy with France and I think also with Germany to write this letter to again fully use this veto. We are going to block it between now and Monday -- it is settled."

France, Germany and Belgium, which argue against a rush to war, have argued for three weeks that preparations to defend Turkey could undermine diplomatic efforts to avert a conflict.

Diplomats said Belgium's confirmation that it will stall the proposals at NATO were a strong indication that France -- which it has shadowed on this issue -- would follow suit.

[MamaLucci]

RIP, NATO, UN, SH

[AntiGuv]

What does the abbreviation 'SH' stand for? Just curious.

[Arkie2]

Well, not only are the Europeans burying the UN they're wrecking NATO. What's left?

[Chi-townChief]

Let's hope that Belgium is as effective at blocking this plan as they were at blocking German troop movements in 1914 and 1940.

[The Wizard]

that they would not allow a NATO member to have DEFENSES tells me that the NATO organization should receive much less help and money and EVERYTHING from us.

[AntiGuv]

Actually, this Belgium would be a little more comparable to the puppet government under German control. Ergo, the Battle of the Ardennes would present a better analogy. We won that one, anyhow, but it did trip us up for a month or two.. ;)

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

And what will be the answer if Turkey suffers damage, heaven forefend, from Iraq? We will owe Turkey big time. As to Europe . . .

[MamaLucci]

The "Butcher of Baghdad", of course.
Dog Gone, FYI

[ZULU]

BOTH NATO and the UN should lose ALL US support.

Imagine this pipsqueek sized parcel of political flotsam, the creation of major powers in Europe to protect British continental interests, saved not once, but twice, by American blood from extermination by German occupiers, behaving in such a vindictive and vicious fashion??

Talk about the mouse that roared. This is the scarab beetle which roared.

The U.S. should NEVER forget the actions of these ingrates and their ilk, and who was really on our side when the dust clears.

"By Flanders Fields the Ingrates Grow, ignoring the crosses row on row."

[elhombrelibre]

There's little time left for these people to save Saddam. Time is running out, but their loyalty to him and his dictatorship remains strong.

[aristeides]

Why do you think Belgium is doing this, if it's true that Germany has now changed its mind on sending aid to Turkey?

[MamaLucci]

BOTH NATO and the UN should lose ALL US support.

May they go over the cliff together.

[dasboot]

Belgium, 1914

The entrance of the German army into Brussels has lost the human quality. It was lost as soon as the three soldiers who led the army bicycled into the Boulevard du Regent, and asked the way to Gare du Nord. When they passed, the human note passed with them.

What came after them, and twenty-four hours later is still coming, is not men marching, but a force of nature like a tidal wave, an avalanche, or a river flooding its banks. At this minute it is rolling through Brussells as the swollen waters of the Conemaugh Valley swept through Johnstown.

Like a river of steel it flowed, grey and ghostlike. Then, as iron boots continued to tramp forward, they struck tiny sparks from the stones, but the horses and men who beat out the sparks were invisible.

For two hours on Thursday I was in what for six-hundred years had been the city of Louvain. The Germans were burnu\ing it, and to hide their workkept us locked in the railroad carriages. But the story was written against the sky, was told to us by German soldiers incoherent with excesses; and we could read it in the faces of the woman and children being led to the concentration camps and of the citizens on their way to be shot.

The Germans sentenced Louvain on Wednesday to become a wilderness, and with the German system of love of thoroughness, left Louvain an empty, blackened shell. News reports.

[AmericaUnited]

So they can pretend to be "the bad guy", and give Germany a chance to sucker us into not cutting some economic ties.

[AndyJackson]

Time to move SHAPE and CINCEUR to a more friendly territory: Prague, Budhapest or some other country whose citizens prize freedom.

[steveegg]

Say, isn't the Fourth Rei...er, EU political leadership in Belgium?

[Dog Gone]

Why do you think Belgium is doing this, if it's true that Germany has now changed its mind on sending aid to Turkey?

Interesting question. It appears that Germany has softened its stance and is sending Patriot missiles (although it remains to be seen whether they will send an AWACS crew). But Belgium and France are holding firm.

Unless something happens shortly to reverse this seemingly firm position, NATO will die. It cannot survive a denial of a request from a NATO country for protection.

My guess is that France doesn't care, and wants NATO to die. They could simply withdraw from NATO, but no, they are intent on destroying it at a very crucial time. Words really can't describe how perfidious this is.

[aristeides]

German Atrocities, 1914: A History of Denial. Seems the Belgians have forgotten that part of their history.