UN troops praise creation of command center

[tocqueville]

By JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 37 minutes ago

NAQOURA, Lebanon - U.N. peacekeepers recall all too well when, faced with a hostile enemy, they had to answer to civilians to get approval to defend themselves or the local population — at times with deadly results.

But troops deploying to expand a long-ineffective U.N. force in Lebanon are touting the creation of the world body's first military command center — modeled partly on Centcom in the United States.

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"With military-to-military communication, there is generally a greater degree of fidelity than with military-civilian communication," said a top U.N. peacekeeping department official by phone from New York, speaking on condition of anonymity because the command center is still in development.

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"We are moving away from this culture of observation, and are transforming from peacekeeping to peace-making, or peace-enforcing," said Lt. Col Eric Carrey, a spokesman for the French forces in Lebanon. "We are in a lessons-learned logic."

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060915/ap_on_re_mi_ea/mideast_peacekeepers