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News
April 15, 2004 Robertson Visualises Iraq Role for NATO Tom Baldwin Former chief takes stock of 'a very dangerous time for the world' and tells Tom Baldwin how he sees the way ahead No man is an island, but George Robertson is about as close as a politician can get to being just that. His parents gave him the middle name of Islay, the Scottish island where he admits his heart will always remain. His title, Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, is taken from the village on the island in which he was born and grew up. On Islay itself he is known simply as George. After spending much of the past seven years immersed in military or diplomatic battles over the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq, first as Defence Secretary then as Nato Secretary General, Lord Robertson clearly wishes the rest of the world more closely resembled the gentle peacefulness of his birthplace. He talks about Islay's qualities, the openness and lack of suspicion of its people, and how -he was the son of the island policeman -there is virtually no crime. "I have friends here who don't lock their doors at night and some who don't lock their doors when going on holiday," he says, before acknowledging that this is probably not a policy he could recommend in Baghdad or Kabul at present. After leaving Nato in December, Lord Robertson, 58, was spending Easter with his family on Islay, where he keeps a holiday home. Many politicians talk the language of community and boast about their roots, but few mean it more than he. He does not plan to retire there just yet because he is fully engaged in the private sector, where he has picked up directorships reportedly worth �’500,000 a year. He gets a bit cross when this figure is mentioned: "Newspapers just make these things up -you can work out how much I earn when the accounts come out." Suggestions that he might return to full-time politics, perhaps as Britain's new commissioner in Brussels later this year, gets similar treatment. "Why would I want to go from No 1 at Nato headquarters in Brussels to being number something else at the Commission?" he asks. Well, perhaps because Tony Blair might ask this well-respected Labour politician to do just one more big job. There have also been suggestions from the Tories that he might go to Iraq as Britain's special envoy. "Look," he says, "I'm not going back to Brussels or Iraq or anywhere else. I've got serious jobs to do in the private sector and I think it is better to move on." Shortly after his interview with The Times, Lord Robertson gives a short presentation to old friends from Islay gathered together at the Bowmore Distillery, which produces some of the island's famous single malt Scotch whisky. He has been persuaded to show them the collection of medals he's picked up from his time at Nato, but does not want anyone to think he is showing off. It is a warm occasion involving landowners, distillery workers, teachers, gamekeepers and even a holidaying government minister. "We all just knock along with each other here; it's natural," he says. The trouble is that his other community, that of global leaders, has not been "knocking along" with each other so much as knocking each other. In spite of his reluctance to return to Brussels, Lord Robertson has strong views about the future direction of Nato, and the EU as well as for Britain and America during what he says is a "very dangerous time for the world". During his four years at Nato, he clocked up an extraordinary 708,000 airmiles in shuttle diplomacy and he strived to prevent the organisation being pulled apart by America's desire to go it alone, Europe's attempt to build its own defence capability and successive crisis after the September 11 attacks on the US. He succeeded in deploying Nato troops outside Europe for the third time when he sent peacekeeping forces to Afghanistan and enlarged the organisation to include former communist countries. These were momentous decisions, but for much of his period in charge Lord Robertson was trying to show that Nato can still be relevant in a post-Cold War world where the threat now comes from terrorism. He says that the Bush Administration came into office with a very critical attitude to Nato after the Kosovo conflict, which rightwingers in Washington derided as "waging war by committee". There was talk of the US considering military objectives on its own. In Afghanistan, Lord Robertson says, "this brassed off some countries which offered military support". However, he adds: "The Bush Administration soon found out they needed to build wider coalitions, both for military and diplomatic missions. You need overflying rights to get anything done for instance. A country which stops you flying troops in can wreck an entire war plan. You need permanent allies rather than an ad hoc coalition of the willing." Lord Robertson believes the route out of America's current difficulties in Iraq could be the multilateral organisation of Nato, which was so recently being written off as defunct. Although he refuses to criticise the way that US forces are conducting operations, he suggests there might be better ways of doing things. He cites the relative success of operations in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Bosnia and Macedonia, where Nato has led peacekeeping and rebuilding operations, usually under a United Nations mandate. As yet, there is no UN resolution for such an operation in Iraq, although the subject is certain to be discussed when Tony Blair meets Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, today in New York, and President Bush tomorrow. But Lord Robertson points out that days before the scheduled June 30 handover of power to an Iraqi-led administration, Nato will be holding a summit in Istanbul. "I have no doubt that this will be on the table for that meeting. Nato has to do more in Iraq and if it is going to go in on a substantial basis, that will require considerable political will. "America must decide if it believes this is the right idea. It must look at it and I think they are looking at it. But the European allies must be able to deliver troops on the ground -that is a very big question." He is still angry that France, Germany and Belgium blocked attempts by Nato to offer Turkey extra protection before the Iraq war on the ground that such action would have acknowledged the threat posed by Saddam Hussein to neighbouring states and thereby justified invasion. "Some people got cold feet about dealing with Iraq. But if we had turned back, Saddam would have had a major victory and would have become a huge problem. Whatever your view about the start of the war and whether it was justified or not, we are now where we are and it requires an international coalition to sort Iraq out, otherwise everyone will pay the price." The signs are not good, with Spain planning to pull troops out of the increasingly threadbare coalition. "I'm sure it will not be too long before Socialist Spain feels the ripples of chaos in Iraq," Lord Robertson says. He suggests that many of the same EU countries who backed away from sending troops to prevent genocide in Rwanda ten years ago are among those who are today taking another "morally obnoxious stance" on Iraq. "There was a collective loss of nerve over Rwanda and we cannot let it happen again with Iraq." His biggest fear is that Europe's inability to deploy credible forces at this time encourages unilateral tendencies in America. The same people in Europe who decry that unilateralism are, in fact, fuelling it. He is dismissive of efforts to build an EU defence capability, saying that it lacks the infrastructure to be a significant player in global conflict without the assistance that Nato provides through the US. "Is the EU in a better position now to do what we all acknowledge it should have done in Rwanda? No. There is a serious ambition gap between what the EU wants to do -what it needs to do -and what it is able to do." Later in his speech to his Islay friends Lord Robertson is in a sunnier mood. He tells the story about receiving the US Medal of Freedom from Mr Bush, who was struggling to fix the clasp behind his neck. "I hope they do not think I am kissing you," whispered the President. "I replied that was fine just so long as he was not stabbing me in the back." The audience laughed at this little indiscretion. It is a happy place, Islay, but the world is very different. Europe and America are nowhere near kissing terms just now and perhaps all Lord Robertson hopes for is that neither will stab the other in the back.  Top
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