The commander of Jordan's special forces, Brigadier Ali Jaradat, confirmed that "1,500 servicemen, including anti-terror forces, from Afghanistan
and Iraq have received training at the $200 million King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Centre, which was inaugurated in May last year."
He added that "The Americans and Europeans took part....Most of the troops serving in Afghanistan received training at the centre before they went there." [31]
The Pentagon has recently provided 581 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAPS) armored combat vehicles to nations serving under NATO command in Afghanistan, including Jordan, Georgia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania, and the U.S. Defense Department disclosed that hundreds more are being sought by troop contributing nations for the counterinsurgency war there. [32]
Last year the U.S. deployed a unit of Stryker armored combat vehicles, first used in Iraq from 2003 onward, to Afghanistan. The Stryker is the U.S. Army's first new armored vehicle developed since the Bradley Fighting Vehicle entered service in 1981.
The German-based 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment (SCR) trained in Bulgaria and Romania last year "as part of...preparations for an upcoming deployment to Afghanistan....
"U.S. soldiers offloaded 30 Stryker combat vehicles in early August at the Mihail Kogalniceanu Airfield in eastern Romania and have since been conducting combined training with their host-nation counterparts. Soldiers of the 4th Squadron, 2nd SCR are participating in Joint Task Force-East's third annual training exercise in Romania while soldiers of the 2nd Squadron, 2nd SCR conduct similar training in Bulgaria." [33]
Joint Task Force-East is a European Command initiative whose purpose is the integration of Eastern European armed forces with those of the U.S. and NATO. It is in effect based at the Mihail Kogalniceanu air base and regularly deploys to and conducts exercises in Romanian and Bulgarian military bases acquired by the U.S. over the past five years. The word East has a double connotation as its also applies to employing bases in new NATO countries to train for and deploy to the Afghan war theater.
Afghanistan has, whether by convenience, design or some combination of the two, been transformed into a vast training ground for the consolidation of a fifty-nation military structure that has already been extended into Central Asia, the Caucasus, Eastern Europe, the Horn of Africa, the Indian Ocean and the Middle East.
It is also a testing range for new 21st century weapons and combat systems intended for future use around the world.
If U.S. and NATO forces were to withdraw en masse from the country tomorrow, the above results would not be lost to war planners in Washington and Brussels.
1) Reuters, May 12, 2010
2) North Atlantic Treaty Organization, May 7, 2010
3) Radio Netherlands, May 8, 2010
4) North Atlantic Treaty Organization, May 4, 2010
5) The Times, May 3, 2010
6) Associated Press, March 13, 2006
7) Ibid
8) Reuters, July 21, 2006
9) Associated Press, July 30, 2006
10) Toronto Star, August 26, 2006
11) Associated Press, July 30, 2006
12) Trend News Agency, May 4, 2010
13) Associated Press, May 4, 2010
14) Deutsche Presse-Agentur, April 23, 2010
15) Makfax, May 10, 2010
16) United States European Command, May 1, 2010
17) North Atlantic Treaty Organization
International Security Assistance Force
May 5, 2010
18) Australia Network News, May 1, 2010
19) North Atlantic Treaty Organization, May 11, 2010
20) Mongolia: Pentagon Trojan Horse Wedged Between China And Russia
Stop NATO, March 31, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/03/31/mongolia-pentagon-trojan-horse-wedged-between-china-and-russia
21) Kazakhstan: U.S., NATO Seek Military Outpost Between Russia And China
Stop NATO, April 14, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/kazakhstan-u-s-nato-seek-military-outpost-between-russia-and-china
22) Xinhua News Agency, May 7, 2010
23) Pakistan Daily Mail, May 3, 2010
24) Reuters, May 6, 2010
25) Army Times, May 1, 2010
26) Decade Of The Drone: America's Aerial Assassins
Stop NATO, March 9, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/decade-of-the-drone-americas-aerial-assassins
27) Camp Atterbury Public Affairs, May 8, 2010
28) U.S. Department of Defense, May 7, 2010
29) Defense News, May 4, 2010
30) Xinhua News Agency, May 11, 2010
31) USA TODAY, May 10, 2010
32) USA TODAY, May 10, 2010
33) Joint Task Force-East, October 22, 2009
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