NATO takes command of security

KABUL, Afghanistan — Stepping outside Europe for the first time in its 54-year history, NATO took command yesterday of the 5,000-strong peacekeeping force in Afghanistan — the clearest sign yet that the world’s most powerful military alliance is adopting new strategies in the global war on terror.

The hand-over ceremony took place at a heavily guarded high school auditorium in the Afghan capital, Kabul. NATO Deputy Secretary General Alessandro Minuto Rizzo called the new mission “a reflection of NATO’s ongoing transformation and resolve to meet the security challenges of the 21st century.”

NATO will lead the multinational force “as long as necessary,” Mr. Rizzo said.

Germany and the Netherlands have jointly led the International Security Assistance Force, known as ISAF, since Feb. 10. At Monday’s ceremony, the outgoing commander, German Lt. Gen. Norbert van Heyst, passed a green ISAF flag to his successor, German Lt. Gen. Gotz Gliemeroth from NATO. Gen. Gliemeroth’s deputy will be Canadian Maj. Gen. Andrew Leslie.

The 30-nation peacekeeping force was established in December 2001 in the wake of the U.S.-led war that toppled the Taliban, which had granted haven to Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network.

NATO is taking over in large part to end the arduous task of searching for a new “lead nation” every six months to run it. The switch will also allow mission commanders to increase institutional memory. In the past, most commanders rotated out of the country after six months.

“ISAF’s name and mission will not change. NATO will operate under the ISAF banner and under an unchanged ISAF mandate” in Kabul, Gen. Gliemeroth said after taking up his new post.

Streets around Kabul’s Amani High School were blocked off with coils of barbed wire, hundreds of armed peacekeepers and dozens of armored cars mounted with machine guns. Bomb-sniffing dogs were on hand to search for any explosives.

President Hamid Karzai, German Defense Minister Peter Struck, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Gen. James L. Jones and a host of diplomats and U.N. officials were present.

Mr. Struck said the hand over showed the world’s commitment to rebuilding the war-shattered nation.

“Afghanistan must not lapse back into anarchy and chaos and must not again become the home of global terror, as was the case under the rule of the Taliban,” Mr. Struck said. “The support of NATO for ISAF … is a visible expression of the fact that the people of Afghanistan will not be let down.”

Gen. Jones said yesterday’s hand over marked an evolution from the Cold War era when NATO’s primary goal was to prevent the former Soviet Union from invading Western Europe.

“It’s certainly a point in time where we’re making a clear statement of transition, which is from the 20th century, defensive, bipolar world to the multipolar, flexible need for rapid response across a myriad of threats that face us,” Gen. Jones said.

NATO spokesman Mark Laity said NATO would remain a “defensive alliance.”

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