[excerpted] http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0211/S00093.htm
Controlling NATO: The Real Agenda At Prague By Selwyn Manning – Scoop Deputy Editor Between November 21-23 NATO member countries will descend on the Czech Republic’s capital city Prague. There, heads of state, presidents and prime ministers will discuss issues such as the “NATO response force proposal” – a policy central to the United State’s “National Security Strategy”. NATO plans to draw into its fold Eastern European states vying for entry to the European Union. It is a consolidation of a New European Pact, a forging of a new military and economic order. During the Cold War years the USA dominated NATO strategy. Post Cold-War NATO shaped into a more isolated friend of US foreign policy. But the Bush Administration is positioning to again dominate NATO. A necessity largely due to Germany, France, Russia respectively refusing to become lapdogs to Bush diplomacy as British Prime Minister Tony Blair has become. For Bush, NATO is the vehicle that will accommodate a military coalition that will “Partner” the USA in its imminent war against Iraq, Libya and a host of other “Axis” countries. European diplomacy has clearly often been the nucleus of destruction. Is it now the only buffer left between peace-comparative and Manifest Destiny – the dream of Fortress USA to express its institutions around the world? The USA’s new foreign policy strategy embraces what diplomats call “pre-emptive defence” – ie; striking opponents before they can strike you. But will European leaders risk subscribing to the USA’s global dominance framework? See also: Imperial PAX Americana This question is what marks the Prague summit. The short to medium term future of millions of people will ride on the outcome. Should European rhetoric be laced with appeasement, accommodating the Bush Administration’s grand-plan, innocent people, worldwide, will choke from ashes in their mouths. NATO in Transformation Officially the Prague Summit is all about NATO gathering European states into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization incognito with the EU’s push to consolidate and become one. The European Union has been paving the way to allow entry for relatively new former eastern block economies into the Union. But the EU's another story. Clearly NATO’s push is more to do with the United States massing an army of awesome proportions. The purpose: to counter a perceived Islamic-Arab Global threat, and to rustle up the means to enforce western alliance control of Eurasian oil and mineral wealth, and to advance United States military dominion over more than half the globe’s surface. The United States has long coveted control over the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. As Gore Vidal wrote recently: Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikstan and Kyrgyzstan are all 'of importance from the standpoint of security and historical ambitions to at least three of their most immediate and most powerful neighbours - Russia, Turkey and Iran”. For more see… The Enemy Within . This is just one factor in a mass of complex diplomatic considerations and networks that will be partially tied down in Prague. Let’s consider a series of transitional points NATO is transforming from a counter-balance to post WWII Warsaw Pact ideology, to a military wing progressor of capitalist-western globalisation. Intelligence reports from European states reveal a co-ordinated positioning of economic sectors, European states, detailing perceived threats to reforms driving economic and social progress. Intelligence agencies are being co-ordinated from the hub of an integrated alliance – centrally organised by the CIA. Feeding into the intelligence mix are the old practitioners: including the MI5, KGB, Mossad, Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire [French DST]. This western intelligence alliance is seen active daily, in foreign affairs reports, warnings to citizens to defer travelling to various parts of the world. Secret reports to intelligence services of friendly nations on operatives and individuals who may be residing within their regions. The USA is central to the distribution of the information. This was seen post-the Bali bombing and the subsequent fallout of who was told what, when and if. Backed by this mix of intel, NATO would play the dominating role in global enforcement. ----------------------- The NATO member countries are: Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, The united States of America. Candidate nations are: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia. ------------------------ So does NATO conjure up security and reassurance for Europe? Recent operations have their critics: European writer Alexander Zaitchik eloquently writes: NATO means North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the body that has kept a fairly low profile since bombing Serbia in 1999: “That was a long hot NATO summer, featuring very angry Russian prime ministers (Primakov was en route to Washington for talks when the bombing started), downed U.S. B-2 Stealth bombers (for which the Serbs used the Czech-made Tamara radar), and a daring "accidental" U.S. direct hit on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade (the CIA swore there was a spaghetti stain on the map). You might also remember NATO from the absurd U.S.-Russian race for the Pristina airport after the Kosovo cease-fire. An overzealous U.S. General named Wesley Clark wanted to take back the airbase by force after Russian peacekeepers beat his troops to it by an hour. His plans were thwarted only when the gruff British commander Sir Mike "Vader" Jackson pulled rank and ordered Clark to back off. Thus did Jackson prevent a U.S.-Russian fire-fight and emerge as the sole hero in NATO's war with Serbia.” For others, NATO was the balancing factor in a Europe threatened by Soviet totalitarianism. NATO needs to transform to become effective once again. A NATO statement summarises: “The establishment of the NATO-Russia Council at the Rome Summit on 28 May 2002 opened a new chapter in NATO-Russia relations. The Council brings together the 19 NATO Allies and Russia to identify and pursue opportunities for joint action at 20 as equal partners. Diplomats see this as real progress toward a united and peaceful Europe.” continued...