European, Central commands ready
to coordinate military operations
By David Josar,
Stuttgart bureau
STUTTGART, Germany — The U.S. European and Central commands have a history of
working together and are prepared to coordinate any military attacks throughout the Middle
East, Asia and Africa.
EUCOM, based in Stuttgart, is responsible for 91 countries in Europe, the Middle East
and Africa, including Israel and Syria, a country that has repeatedly made the State
Department’s list of countries suspected of fostering terrorism.
CENTCOM, activated in 1983 with its headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa,
Fla., has an area of responsibility of 25 countries that stretches from the Horn of Africa
through the Arabian Gulf region and into Central Asia.
Those countries include Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
EUCOM spokesman Navy Capt. Brian Cullin said the commands share a tradition of working
together.
Cullin cited operation Bright Star, an annual CENTCOM exercise featuring about 50,000
soldiers from the United States, Egypt, the United Kingdom, France and the United Arab
emirates.
Bright Star tests the interoperability between those forces.
The two commands also patrol the no-fly zones over Iraq, although they are responsible
for different regions: EUCOM oversees the Operation Northern Watch and CENTCOM commands
Operation Southern Watch.
"We always have a coordination of operations," he said. "We have a
connection. We share intelligence. You can’t just put up a wall and say that’s
yours and that’s mine."
Calls to contact a CENTCOM representative were not returned.
CENTCOM has between 10,000 and 22,000 U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines under
its command. The numbers fluctuate due to the frequent presence of a Navy aircraft battle
group, a Navy amphibious ready group or both operating in the area. CENTCOM was in charge
during Gulf War.
EUCOM has about 116,000 servicemembers in Europe, Africa and Asia. That includes 70,000
in the Army, 31,000 in the Air Force, 12,300 in the Navy and 3,300 in the Marines.
Last week, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld hinted at the broad approach the U.S.
military would take in retaliation for the attacks last week.
"I think that it will require a sustained and broadly based effort," he said.
"It’s not restrained to a single entity, state or non-state entity."
With evidence pointing toward people linked to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network,
military planners are working to match current intelligence with target lists and
contingency plans at the Tampa headquarters of Central Command, according to the
Department of Defense.
Retaliatory action in the coming weeks and months, and perhaps even years, also would
likely involve the European Command because of its resource and fighter bases near the
Middle East, experts said.
"Crisis action teams" were established the day after the bombings as those
commands began to help analyze the different units operational status and mission
capabilities.
"I can assure you, they are running every contingency plan known to man,"
said Anthony H. Cordesman, a former defense official and senior fellow at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.
Cordesman, who worked as the national security point-man for U.S. Sen. John McCain,
said the United States cannot simply fire cruise missiles, like those used during the
Clinton administration in 1998 to hit bin Laden’s training camps after the bombings
of U.S. embassies in Africa.
A similar attack would not likely disrupt or significantly damage the
organization’s nearly invisible infrastructure, which is believed to be on several
continents, Cordesman said.
EUCOM and CENTCOM will likely work together in any U.S. retaliation because the
terrorists operate across large geographic areas that aren’t isolated to one or two
countries, he said. "It will take a joint effort," he said.
But before any plan is adopted, he said, U.S. officials must determine who is
responsible for Tuesday’s attacks.
"We cannot simply lash out at another country like Afghanistan. We have to strike
precisely," he said. "This means we have to rethink retaliation in our military
operations and do so calmly and objectively."
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