News Analysis: What role can NATO play in Iraq after power transfer?

The summit meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) agreed here Monday to help train Iraqi security forces after the power transfer in the country, marking a major change of attitude to Iraq by the military alliance. Now the immediate question is what role NATO should and can play in Iraq.

The statement issued at the summit meeting said that NATO has decided to offer assistance to the Iraqi government by helping train its security forces and that NATO leaders asked the North Atlantic Council, NATO's decision-making body, to develop the modalities to implement the decision with the Iraqi Interim Government.

Although the decision has been made, analysts here believe that NATO's involvement in Iraq would be limited due to political, economic, military and other reasons.

Firstly, it is really hard for NATO to reach consensus on this point because of their deep rifts over the Iraq war. France, Germany and some other European members of the military alliance have repeatedly declared their unwillingness to send troops to Iraq without a formal request from the new democratically-elected Iraqi government and a UN resolution. It is now more difficult for the alliance, after its biggest-ever enlargement in March, to reach an unanimous agreement on the dispatch of troops to Iraq.

Secondly, NATO's European member states have limited resources for defense as compared with the United States. With the end of the Cold War, European countries' defense expenditure has dropped to a bottom low of 160 billion dollars, accounting for less than half of the United States' annual defense budget. What is worse, the bulk of the European defense expenditure is spent on salaries, benefits and maintenance of available military hardware.

Thirdly, deteriorating security situation in Iraq constitutes serious security concerns to NATO states. In post-war Iraq, there has been an increasing spat of organized attacks on alliance troops and terrorist attacks on civilians as well as aid workers.

Last week , more than 300 people were killed or seriously wounded in attacks in five Iraqi cities. Any European country, which is playing with the idea of sending troops to Iraq, has to be much concerned about the security background in the country.

However, NATO is a military alliance led by Washington. European countries will surely not ignore or rebuff a repeated request for help by the United States. The decision made by NATO leaders at the summit meeting to provide technical assistance to Iraq is something acceptable to all.

Another thing worthy of notice is that with the direct involvement of NATO in Iraqi affairs, there is possibility of more NATO involvement in the near future. But at present, NATO's involvement as a whole can hardly be more than that.