How might NATO have changed Georgia conflict? - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

How might NATO have changed Georgia conflict?

Administration officials agree that Georgia’s leaders knew provoking Russia into a military strike would have disastrous consequences and that Russia overreacted when it sent its forces well beyond the two breakaway regions of its former territory — a potential NATO member and staunch U.S. ally in the Iraq war.

But if Georgia had already been admitted to NATO, a move for which member nations stated their support in an April declaration recently seconded by Vice President Dick Cheney, the Russian invasion would have drawn NATO — and U.S. troops — into the fight.

Article 5 of the NATO treaty declares that “an armed attack against one or more of them ... shall be considered an attack against them all” and trigger a response by all.

As the Pentagon has made clear during its efforts to attract more NATO combat forces to the war against al-Qaida and Taliban extremists in Afghanistan, many NATO members restrict where and how their forces may be used. As a result, some nations’ troops are precluded from combat action, or fighting at night, for instance.

The possibility that NATO could add yet another member of the former Soviet bloc and, if it were threatened, see some members impose caveats on its defense, raised concerns from Virginia’s senators, who hail from each side of the aisle: Republican John Warner and Democrat James Webb.

“I do not want to see the American G.I. begin to take on another conflict where there are no restrictions whatsoever on the use of our forces,” but they are joined by NATO allies who assert such caveats and fail to perform risky operations, Warner said at a Sept. 9 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the Georgia situation’s implications for U.S. policy.

Webb expressed concern over both the willingness of some NATO allies to fight as well as the innate ability of new members to contribute militarily to the alliance.

“We have been bringing in a series of protectorates ... rather than allies — if you would define an ally as a nation that actually bolsters your security by joining,” Webb said.

The administration is opposed to caveats, said Eric Edelman, undersecretary of defense for policy, who acknowledged that such restrictions could not have been tolerated when NATO was face-to-face with the former Soviet Union on a daily basis.

“It would have been impossible for the alliance during the years of the Cold War to have operated with caveats, and to have defended Europe,” he said.

But if Georgia had been a NATO member, he said, “I think it’s arguable ... [that] perhaps Russia would have acted differently in light of the Article 5 guarantee. That’s a hypothetical. We don’t know.”

Despite widespread concerns about a resurgent, imperialist-minded Russia, there’s a lot of bark to go along with its bite, said Daniel Fried, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs.

“I don’t think Russia is 10 feet tall,” Fried said. “And although their bank accounts are full of money earned by exporting oil and natural gas, Russia has substantial weaknesses.”

Economically and demographically, he said, “Russia is ill-placed to have a hostile relationship with the world. ... Over time, I think cooler heads may prevail.”

Meanwhile, even as Russian troops remain on Georgian soil, the U.S. is sending $1 billion in additional economic support to Georgia on top of the more than 1,145 tons of humanitarian aid already delivered by sea and air. It also has pledged to help rebuild Georgia’s military, which Russia decimated.

A military assessment team from U.S. European Command is now on the ground in Georgia — essentially a continuation of the humanitarian assistance and disaster relief team that entered the country in mid-August to coordinate delivery of aid, said Marine Corps Lt. Gen. John Paxton, director of operations for the Joint Staff.

Some members of the U.S. team that was training Georgian forces for duty in Iraq also remain, although that training has been suspended, Paxton said.

Paxton also said afterward that he had no update on the status of several captured Marine Corps Humvees that belonged to the U.S. training and assistance team and are presumed to be in Russian hands, “other than that all the classified gear and their crypto gear was stripped off.

“It’s still property that we want to get back,” he said.

Another Pentagon official also confirmed that some instances of cyber warfare were detected in the Russian attack on Georgia, but provided little detail.

“We know there were some [cyber attacks] conducted,” said Army Brig. Gen. Michael Flynn, the Joint Staff’s director for intelligence. “What is unclear is if they were state-sponsored.”