Posted on 07/02/2003 12:59:24 PM PDT by Momaw Nadon
WROCLAW (Reuters) - The advance guard of the 9,200-strong multinational stabilization force Poland will command in central and southern Iraq left Wednesday on the country's biggest military mission in nearly 60 years.
The 250 Polish troops, including the zone's future commander General Andrzej Tyszkiewicz, will pave the way for the force that will control a stretch of territory running from the Iranian to the Saudi border.
"The Polish forces are beginning their biggest military operation since the end of World War II," Prime Minister Leszek Miller told the troops and their families at an airport in the southwestern city of Wroclaw.
"This is the most important mission of the world of the early 21st century," added Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski as the troops began to file aboard two U.S. transport aircraft.
The United States asked Poland, which backed the U.S.-led war to oust Saddam Hussein, to run the central-southern zone between Britain's southern zone and the U.S.-controlled north.
"We are well on track to take control on Sept. 1," Szmajdzinski told a news conference earlier in the day.
Any casualties during peacekeeping operations, like the deaths of 23 U.S. and six British soldiers since President Bush called an end to the war on May 1, would test Poland's resolve to follow through on the support it pledged.
Asked about possible casualties, Szmajdzinski said: "We are analyzing each death of U.S. and British troops and preparing our soldiers as best we can."
Opinion surveys show Poles are no more keen on supporting military efforts in Iraq than western Europeans, even though mainstream politicians staunchly backed the U.S.-led war.
U.S., NATO SUPPORT
Poland, an ex-communist state which joined the NATO military alliance in 1999, had trouble organizing the force until it received financial support, transport and equipment from the United States and logistical help from NATO.
Poland will send 2,300 troops to Iraq to work side by side with 1,300 Spanish troops, who will take over control in the zone at some point, officials said.
The force will be completed by soldiers from Ukraine, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, the Baltic states and possibly from the Philippines, Thailand, Mongolia and Fiji. Officers from west European NATO states will also take part.
"In the first days of operations our main task will be to contact local and ethnic leaders to clarify that Poland will lead this stabilization force, that we want to help keep peace, fight crime and aid humanitarian efforts," Tyszkiewicz said.
Poland hopes its extensive business ties with Iraq in the 1970s and 1980s, when Polish engineers and workers built roads and factories there, will help troops gain the trust of Iraqis.
Running the zone will be a major test for the Polish army, which has modernized considerably since communism collapsed in 1989 but is still run mainly by generals educated in Soviet military academies.
Polish Troops Leave to Head Force in Iraq Zone
It looks like the German NATO 'Legions' are again moving to 'Empire'.
(This cannot be dangerous for all involved.)
/sarcasm
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