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June 10, 2002, 8:45 a.m. Our New Ally Eritrea could play a vital role in an Iraq attack. By Joel Mowbray

n Donald Rumsfeld's current swing thru the Mideast, the Secretary of Defense has been attempting to line up allies in order to pave the way for a hopefully imminent attack of Iraq. One nation in the region that doesn't need its arm twisted is one that itself has been the victim of terrorism: Eritrea, the half-Muslim, half-Christian coastal country on the Red Sea that won its freedom from Ethiopia after a 30-year armed struggle.

Located just across the Red Sea from Saudi Arabia and Yemen, many in the Pentagon eye Eritrea as a valuable strategic ally in the Mideast, particularly for an eventual assault on Iraq. Still recovering from the ravages of war — a two-and-a-half year border dispute with Ethiopia ended nearly two years ago — Eritrea is likewise very interested in a tighter alliance.

Forging a closer relationship with Eritrea — U.S. Special Forces already train their soldiers and the Marines conduct cooperative exercises there — could increase our profile in the region, improving our standing with Arab nations. "An open partnership would heighten [United States] leverage with other Arab nations by showing that going after Saddam is not just wishful thinking," says a senior administration official.

Gen. Tommy Franks has made several recent trips to Eritrea, and various reports from Voice of America and the foreign press last month confirm he has discussed basing issues with the Eritrean government.

At least some of the necessary infrastructure for a military base is in place, with a new, fully functional, modern-day airport in the port city of Massawa, which the United States has been given the option of utilizing for a military base.

Establishing a significant military presence in Eritrea has historical precedent, as the United States had 2,500 soldiers stationed at a base and listening post in the capital city of Asmara, just over 50 miles inland from Massawa. The base was closed down in 1976, two years after Ethiopia's communist dictator Mengistu Haile Miriam aligned Ethiopia and Eritrea with the Soviet Union.

Aside from purely military considerations, the political climate in Eritrea offers good reason for setting up shop there. "Eritrea is a stable place. It's pro-American, it's strategically located, and they're willing to work with us," notes a former high-ranking staffer with the House International Relations Committee.

Since winning its freedom in 1991 and overwhelmingly approving independence in a 1993 referendum, Eritrea has struggled to carve out a unique niche in that region of the world: free-market democracy. Private-property rights are enforced in the hopes of luring capital to the mostly rural and still-poor nation, which hopes to exploit its vast natural resources, not to mention the potential tourist goldmine of its 700-mile coast along the Red Sea.

Eritrea is in the middle of local elections, having completed a round in southern regions in the past two weeks, and voting in the remaining areas in the north scheduled for this month. At the national level, the independent Electoral Commission is finalizing plans for a timeline on national Elections.

Stability in Eritrea has occurred in the face of formidable odds. Ever since it severed diplomatic ties with Sudan in 1994 — because of Sudan's affairs with none other than Osama bin Laden, Eritrea has withstood a string of hit-and-run terrorist attacks across its northern and western borders with Sudan.

The Eritrean Islamic Jihad and the Eritrean Salvation Islamic Army, now dominant players of the larger Eritrean Alliance Forces (EAF), have received funding and training from Khartoum to support their quest for converting the Religiously mixed, but secular, government into a radical Islamic state. Part of the terrorists' ire is aimed at the large role women play in Eritrean government, such as full voting rights and the constitution's affirmative action mandate for women to hold at least one-third of the seats in the legislature.

Eritrea's own war on terror became much more difficult in 1998, when Ethiopia formed an alliance with both the Sudan and the EAF as a move to bolster its border war against Eritrea. The EAF now has offices in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, and it has used that perch to launch attacks across Eritrea's 565-mile southern border with Ethiopia.

Guarding against terrorism originating in both Sudan and Ethiopia has not been easy. Although it is slightly larger in geographic area than Pennsylvania, Eritrea's borders with Sudan and Ethiopia are combined almost half the length of the United States-Mexico border.

Eritrea's own experience with terrorism likely explains why it is the only country in the region to openly, and defiantly, support Israel. That stance has inspired the wrath of the Arab League, which has badly wanted Eritrea to join as a member nation for years now.

Because of both Eritrea's resistance to ally with the despotic Arab League and its own burgeoning freedoms, the Washington adviser to the Iraqi National Congress, the umbrella group for anti-Saddam Hussein resistance organizations, Francis Brooks, believes that "they're great allies for a future, democratic Iraq, and they make great allies for America right now."

— Joel Mowbray is a Townhall.com columnist.