In a new book, Anders Fogg acknowledges the mistakes made during the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, which he describes as necessary.
TV2, citing the Danish news agency Ritzau, published an article about the confessions of former Danish Prime Minister and former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, published in his new book At Turde (To Dare), in which he stated that more than twenty years ago, coalition forces entered Afghanistan, followed by the events in Iraq and Libya, leading to a state of extreme instability in those regions.
As Prime Minister and then Secretary General of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen played a major role in the decision-making process, and in his new book today he acknowledges that mistakes were made, and hopes that future generations will learn from them.
The article quoted Fogg as saying, “When you intervene, you have to remember that you can’t solve all problems militarily.” In an interview with Ritzau, he said, “There needs to be a political follow-up, and it needs to be much better prepared than we’ve seen in the past.”.
Fogg specifically points out that the lack of a plan to rebuild these countries was a sure failure and left them in ruins.
Fogg insists the war was legal
The responsibility for the two wars that began in 2001 and 2003 lies with the shifting alliances—including Denmark—and for the bombing of Libya in 2011, the responsibility lies with the United Nations, according to the article, in which Fogg adds: “With regard to political follow-up, all the countries present were, of course, jointly responsible for the inadequacy of political follow-up.“ Fogg, who describes this practice as ”amateurish,” says that we have unfortunately seen parallels in both Afghanistan and Libya.
Fogg asserts that the war in Iraq was legal, a point that remains debatable to this day, as there was no new mandate from the United Nations to go to war.
In his book, he writes in another context that intervention against dictatorial states is the right thing to do, and that it can be “justified without a mandate from the United Nations.”.
The problems stemmed from political overreach.
According to the article, Fogg believes that Iraq is generally a better place after the overthrow of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, despite the persistence of some problems. These include, for example, security, Iran's growing influence, and the rise of ISIS as a result of the power vacuum. However, he believes that living conditions are better: “Problems arose in the subsequent political follow-up to the military operation, so obvious mistakes were made. But I believe the military operation was justified. In Iraq, the Iraqi army was dissolved, and pro-government employees in the public sector were dismissed. This meant that the security situation was bad, and some of those who were thrown out onto the streets became part of the ISIS militant movement.”.
The lesson of admitting mistakes
The Danish government at the time received assessments from several sources, including the Danish Defence Intelligence Service, regarding Iraq, which predicted that the war could destabilize the region, dissolve the state, unleash terrorism, and require a long-term intervention.
But this information was never shared with Parliament, and it only came to light when an impartial inquiry was published in 2019. At the time, Fogg said that anyone could find out about it, according to the article.
Fogg believes that the consequences of doing nothing could be even greater, referring to the situation in Syria.
In all three wars, as in Syria, mistakes were made. If you ask him what he thinks about this today, he replies that this is what prompted him to write his book: “He says that future generations must learn from the mistakes that were made in order to avoid repeating those mistakes in the future, should it become necessary to intervene somewhere.”.
