Kunduz, Turkey. Jens Stoltenberg's Double Standard

(B2) As much as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was verbose and incisive, earlier in his press briefing, on the Russian incursion into Turkish airspace — “ a serious breach", a fact " unacceptable ", etc. — as much as he was much more elliptical on the bombardment of an MSF hospital. " I am terribly saddened by the events. A full investigation has been carried out he blurted out. And that's all.

In the same way, Jens Stoltenberg, is not stingy with some details on what happened on the Turkish border. " It doesn't look like an accident." explains the Secretary General of NATO, giving many details. “There were two violations during the weekend (NB: by a Sukhoi 30 and a Sukhoi 24). And this violation lasted a long time compared to airspace violations in other parts of Europe. Lhe information we have received leads me (therefore) to say that this is not an accident. »

On Afghanistan, he remains much more cautious, even very cautious. Here there is no first-hand information, vagueness reigns. We wait. " It takes a full investigation to establish the facts, a thorough and complete investigation, then we will draw the conclusions points out Stoltenberg.

An error in the chain of command?

However, the public information available mentions a bombardment, lasting several minutes, on several occasions, by American planes members of the Alliance. We seem quite far from a simple collateral damage: we are either faced with a huge "technical" blunder by the American Air Force which would impose immediate corrective measures; or in the presence of a deliberately targeted objective (the hospital sheltering the Taliban). In any case, there is a need to restore order in the NATO and US chain of command.

The double standard!

The double standard reigns. When a NATO allied plane carries out a strike which, normally, should be considered a war crime – the bombing of a hospital, normally neutral, kills caregivers and patients – we are only (a little) sad. But that's all. When Russia knowingly oversteps its line and makes an incursion into Alliance territory but without any other collateral effect than what could be called a show of strength, it's the commotion, the red alert, the flood of qualifiers... In terms of honesty of information, it's not very wise. And that hardly lends itself to optimism as to the honesty of the various forces involved.

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)