National Guard Units that are deploying to Egypt are part of the Multinational Force and Observers, or MFO and are playing a critical role in the support of the peace-keeping operations taking place during this critical moment in Egypt. The MFO is a partnership between the US, Egypt, Israel and the Army National Guard. Given the Army National Guard’s outstanding performance with respect to the changing dynamic of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, who better to fulfill the role of stability operations in Egypt than the National Guard?
The Soldiers and leaders throughout our ranks have assets ranging from maturity, life experience and our civilian acquired skills and bring those skills to our military missions abroad. To many MFO leaders, the National Guard has the particular set of skills and essentially, “make the MFO possible in the Sinai”. In 2002, the MFO began the transition between active component units with National Guard Units into Egypt.
To understand the kinetic unrest occurring in Egypt, you must take a look at its history. In 1979, a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel was signed…most of us know this as the Camp David Accords. The United States took the lead in 1982 and has been sharing the costs of implementation of this treaty ever since. Basically put, units deployed to Egypt have the role of monitoring, verifying and reporting the compliance of Egypt and Israel with the treaty terms. Additionally, our role is to help sustain and build confidence, trust and security between these highly important US allies in the Middle East.
Despite the Arab Spring revolutions and transfer of power from long-time leader Hosni Mubarak, the US forces on the ground have ensured the terms stay consistent. However, the mission has become more crucial as protests echo through the streets, leaders who support extremist Islam come into power and other pivotal events begin to take shape. One thing is for sure, that the National Guard’s involvement in the Sinai and Egypt is only expected to increase as the situation there evolves…
FINAL THOUGHTS: Has anyone of our followers deployed in part of the Sinai mission? If so, what are your thoughts? How has the region changed since you left? What are your thoughts concerning the outlook for the future in Egypt?
Chuck Holmes
Former Army Major (resigned)
Publisher, Part-Time-Commander.com
Email: mrchuckholmes@gmail.com
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It seems to me that the National Guard’s deployment to Egypt as part of the MFO is a pretty visionary mission. Everyone knows the Guard has the skills needed to perform well in combat; that’s obvious from their many successful deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Egypt deployment, however, I is – I think – the first peace-keeping mission of its kind for Guard members. It serves as the initial move of a strategic change in the primary mission of the National Guard, shifting from a combat focus to a peacetime one. I think it’s great because it not only gives National Guard service members a chance to deploy, but it serves as a lesson in the value of diplomacy as a viable global tool.