igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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 Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 12:00 pm Post subject: Why is NATO "War Gaming" in Africa? |
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War Games Raise Questions About NATO's Role in Africa
Friday, June 23, 2006 Posted: 1632 GMT (0032 HKT)
A Spanish soldier takes aim during military exercises in Cape Verde on Thursday.
MINDELO, Cape Verde (AP) -- NATO's first war games in Africa have thousands of allied troops pounding pretend terrorist bases, grappling with rioters and separating factions in a mock war over oil -- maneuvers that have many speculating on the alliance's potential role on the African mainland.
More than 7,000 troops from Europe and North America have flooded into in the dusty hills of Sao Vicente island, creating a vast boot-camp on the edge of Mindelo, a port city of 70,000 renowned for its musical traditions and pastel-painted Portuguese colonial architecture.
Exercise "Steadfast Jaguar" is billed as a crucial test for the new NATO Response Force -- a spearhead unit designed for rapid deployment around the world for missions ranging from humanitarian relief to lightning combat strikes.
Although NATO pulls out of Cape Verde on June 28, the two-week maneuvers have highlighted questions about a possible wider role for the alliance in West Africa.
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/06/23/nato.verde.ap/index.html |
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