NATO recognizes the presence of men on the ground in its allies

(BRUSSELS2) During a press briefing held in Brussels on Tuesday (August 30), Colonel Roland Lavoie, spokesman for the operation Unified Protector insisted on denying the presence of troops ashore under NATO command. But he still recognized that troops ashore in his allies were present. And that the allies had exchanges on these questions. For the Colonel: Our NATO mission has no troops on the ground. And as a spokesperson for NATO this is what I could talk about. So I tell you concretely we have no ground troops on the ground. We do have exchange of information with Allies, presence of Allied nations on the ground, but as part of Operation Unified Protector we have no such presence ».

It is indeed an open secret. As in any inter or multinational operation, some of the countries involved carry out special missions, sometimes in close liaison with the operation conducted internationally, but not under its command. This allows both autonomy of command, speed of action and not to harm international action. One being useful to the other (and vice versa).

NB: We will also specify that all this debate around men engaged in the field is quite unrealistic because the UN resolution prohibits " occupying forces not the forces ashore. There is a singular difference here which is not only semantic.