Reykjavík Grapevine - 02.06.2006, Síða 10

“What had until then (the departure of Ameri-
can military forces from Iceland) been regarded
as Iceland’s ‘trump card,’ the military defence
agreement, has now been rendered worthless.”
A recently published article by Valur Ingimun-
darson, professor of history at the University of
Iceland, suggests that the imminent closure of
the US naval air base in Keflavík had already
been postponed for years due to the personal
relationship between Iceland’s former Prime
Minister, Davíð Oddsson, and US President
George W. Bush, despite urgent recommenda-
tions from US military analysts that the base
had long outlived its usefulness.
The Keflavík naval air station was installed
as a part of a bilateral defence agreement be-
tween the nations in 1951, according to which,
US military forces would take over the defence
of Iceland. The base served as home to the Air
Force’s 85th Group, responsible for “deterring
aggression in the North Atlantic”. During the
height of the Cold War, the 85th, known as
the Guardians of the North, deployed up to
15 F-15 fighter jets to Keflavík. The base also
occupied a squadron or so of submarine hunt-
ers and played a central role in patrolling the
North Atlantic due to its location.
Since 1967, US military authorities had re-
peatedly requested that the level of air defence
in Keflavík be reduced and the fighter jets
relocated, despite forceful objections from Ice-
landic government officials, who claimed this
would be a breach of the bilateral agreement.
The location of the Keflavík naval air base
proved too valuable for US strategic purposes
and Icelandic officials had their way, for the
time being.
The fall of the Soviet Union all but ren-
dered the base obsolete 15 years ago. Yet, it re-
mained as an inconveniently positioned part of
the vanguard in the ‘War on Terror’. Upon the
advice of strategic and defence specialists, the
Bush administration decreed the base to have
no strategic value in 2002 and wheels were set
in motion to relocate the fighter jets and dra-
matically downsize US operations in Iceland.
Although the subject had been brought up
repeatedly in recent years, the base had until
then remained due to the firm insistence of the
Icelandic government.
Oddsson Steps Up
As earlier, the response from the Icelandic
government, and former Prime Minister Davíð
Oddsson in particular, was that such an action
would be a breach of the bilateral agree-
ment, rendering it invalid, and that Iceland
would then have ‘no choice’ but to completely
desert their military alliance with the US. The
problem with this argument was that Iceland
was, after the end of the Cold War, steadily
becoming less and less strategically useful for
the US military.
United States and Icelandic government
officials met to discuss the matter on several
occasions during this time. The US position
did not change, however. That is, not until
Oddsson met privately with George W. Bush
and brought the matter up with him person-
ally. Quoting several unnamed sources from
various branches of the Icelandic and US gov-
ernments, Ingimundarson claims that George
W. Bush ordered Condoleezza Rice to ‘fix it’,
and that Bush was not willing to do anything
to undermine Oddsson, to whom Bush felt he
owed a debt of gratitude and considered to be
an important ally.
Ingimundarson doubts that Davíð Odds-
son and Halldór Ásgrímsson supported the
US invasion of Iraq to further their chances of
keeping a US military presence in Iceland. He
does however mention Oddsson’s support for
Bush’s controversial missile defence system,
proposed in 2001.
The article also suggests that Icelandic of-
ficials were fully aware of US plans to close the
base as early as 2001 but had kept the decision
under wraps past the 2002 parliamentary elec-
tions in order to avoid making it an election
issue. When the Bush administration finally
got its way and shut it down and reassigned all
personnel to bases closer to the Middle East,
Prime Minister Halldór Ásgrímsson was not
pleased, and indeed appeared rather surprised
by the withdrawal, when what he should
perhaps have been surprised by is that the base
had remained for so long.
What is most overtly controversial about
Ingimundarson’s article is how heavily he
stresses Davíð Oddsson as the sole reason for
the continued existence of the US military
base even though its usefulness had long since
expired. He goes on to state, “after [Oddsson’s]
disappearance from politics in October of
2005, the United States no longer felt any
obligation to Icelandic interests.”
Prime Minister Halldór Ásgrímsson has
flat-out denied Ingimundarson’s claims, saying
they are simply “wrong,” and that if they were
true, they would be a serious indictment on
the way the US government functions. The
fact remains that the withdrawal of US forces
very nearly coincides with Davíð Oddsson’s
withdrawal from politics.
Friends in High Places
Hannes Hólmsteinn Gissurarson, professor of
political science at the University of Iceland, a
well-known Independence Party policy advisor
and a personal friend of former PM Oddsson
told the Grapevine that although he had not
yet had the opportunity to read Ingimundar-
son’s article, he considered his claims likely.
“I was present for a part of that meeting
between Davíð Oddsson and George Bush
in the Oval Office, June 6, 2004, and I could
clearly sense on how friendly terms the two
of them were. It was obvious that Bush held
Oddsson in high regard and that Oddsson
was greatly respected among US officials.
Therefore I fully believe that Bush halted
Department of Defence plans to withdraw US
military presence in Iceland out of his friend-
ship with Davíð Oddsson,” Gissurarson said.
Reading between the lines, it seems obvi-
ous that Ingimundarson believes that Icelandic
officials were well aware of the base’s strategic
downfall, and that the four F-15 fighter jets
remaining in Iceland for much of the nineties
and the last few years had little or no value in
terms of defence for the country. Ingimundar-
son repeatedly hints that the ulterior motives
for Iceland’s insistence on keeping the fighter
jets in Keflavík were not strategic, but eco-
nomic.
Gissurarson agrees this played a role. “Em-
ployment in Keflavík Airport certainly did play
a role, but it did not play a leading role,” he
said. “The real reason was that many respon-
sible men do not wish to see Iceland become
an experimental project for being an unarmed
country. In a dangerous world, you need de-
fence, or has mankind suddenly changed, can
the lambs now suddenly play with the lions?”
Ultimately, Ingimundarson’s article raises
many questions. Whatever the truth may be,
the article still rings true in its portrayal of
Iceland as a militarily unimportant nation, and
perhaps this is an augury of a future where
Iceland does not have to heap all its support
upon one other nation, but participate in world
affairs in a manner befitting an independent
nation.
Davíð’s Deal
by sindri eldon and sveinn birkir björnsson photo by gúndi
“I fully believe that Bush halted Department of Defence
plans to withdraw US military presence in Iceland out
of his friendship with Davíð Oddsson.” Hannes Hólm-
steinn Gissurarson
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