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| THE ROMANIAN MILITARY MISSION IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN (24.09.07) |
| (2007-09-24) |
| Last updated: 2007-09-25 13:56 EET |
Corporal Ioan Grosaru died and five of his comrades were wounded when their armoured vehicle hit an explosive device near Talil, in southern Iraq. English and Australian experts investigating the attack were surprised by the force of the blaze and the impact force. The projectile launched by the explosive device pierced through the vehicle carrying the Romanian troops. No armoured vehicle, irrespective of its solidity or novelty, would have protected them, specialists in Bucharest have conveniently and promptly stated, trying to appease speculations by the media, which have drawn attention to the fact that Romanian contingents in Iraq and Afghanistan are under-resourced.
Some of the military vehicles they use were built back in the 1980s, and purchasing new ones is one of the priorities of Liberal Defense Minister Teodor Melescanu, or so he claims. Because in Bucharest all matters are political, his party and government colleagues have turned the latest incident into a shower of accusations against president Traian Basescu. The conflict goes back to the summer of 2006, when the liberals rushed in to announce the withdrawal of the Romanian troops from Iraq, without informing either their internal partners, or their external allies. Opinion polls then showed that most Romanians would have voted for the troops pullout. A devoted pro-Atlantist, Traian Basescu firmly approached the matter in a meeting of Romania’s Higher Defence Council, an umbrella for the main ministries and the special services, which rejected the liberal proposal.
As a result, the troops remained deployed. Now that two more soldiers have died, Agriculture Minister Decebal Traian Remes claims that, had they got a genuine civil consciousness, Romanians would take to the streets, lit candles in hands, to show the president he is not what we need to rule the country. Transport Minister Ludovic Orban outbids and says the troops must be withdrawn, even without the president’s endorsement. There is one small detail though, no matter how unimportant it may seem for politicians: despite the hell they have to cope with day in day out in Iraq, Romanian soldiers do not want to come back before the scheduled end. The 500 military deployed in Iraq and 600 in Afghanistan are professionals and joined the forces voluntarily. Much better paid than their fellow soldiers at home, and constantly praised by the US allies for their efficiency, Romanian troops want to remain in Iraq until their mission is accomplished.
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