------- Forwarded message follows ------- From: "Paul Phillips" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date sent: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 22:44:09 -0500 Subject: (Fwd) Fwd: No Subject Priority: norma >Bush should pull troops from Balkans > >By Marjorie Cohn > >Despite President George W, Bush’Äôs rhetoric about withdrawing our forces >from >the Balkans, we can expect a strong U.S presence there. > Why? It’Äôs all about the transportation of massive oil resources from >the >Caspian Sea through the Balkans, maintaining U.S. hegemony in the region. > Although NATO ostensibly bombed Yugoslavia to stop ethnic cleansing, the >bombing was actually part of a strategic containment, to keep the region safe >for the Trans-Balkan oil pipeline that will transport Caspian Sea oil through >Macedonia and Albania. The pipeline is slated to carry 750,000 barrels a day, >worth about $600 million at the current prices. > Cooperation of the Albanians with the pipeline project was likely >contingent on the U.S. helping them wrest control of Kosovo from the Serbs. >The U.S. seeks to contain Macedonia as well supporting both sides in the >conflagration there. > Military Professional Resources International, a mercenary company on >contract to the Pentagon, has trained both the Kosovo Liberation Army and the >Macedonian army. MPRI also supplied and trained the Croatian army in 1994 and >1995 before the Croatians cleansed more than 100,000 Serbs from Krajina >region. > The bombing was not aimed at ethnic cleansing. It was part of U.S-run >NATO’Äôs eastward expansion as a counterweight to Russia, which wants the >Caspian oil pipeline to run through its territory. NATO, created during the >Cold War to protect Western Europe from the Soviets, should have disbanded >after the breakup of the USSR. > But a 1992 draft of the Pentagon’Äôs Defense Planning Guidance continued >U.S. leadership in NATO by ’Äúdiscouraging the advanced industrialized >nations >from challenging our leadership or even aspiring to a larger regional or >global role.’Äù > Secretary of State Colin Powell recently said, if we decide to expand >NATO, ’Äú we should not fear that Russia will object; we will do it >because it >is in our national interest’Äù. > Bush is walking a delicate tightrope. He calls for Europe to do the >grunt work in the Balkans, but also wants to prevent European Union to become >more powerful than the U.S.-led NATO. A U.S. Army officer stationed in >Bosnia, speaking anonymously to The Los Angeles Times, observed dryly, ’Äú >The >only thing the Europeans need us Americans is the leadership’Äù. > The United States has invested too much into the region to pull out. >After the NATO bombing campaign, The United States spent $36.6 million to >build Camp Bondsteel in southern Kosovo. > The largest military base constructed since the Vietnam, Bondsteel was >built by the Brown & Root Division of Halliburton, the world biggest oil >service corporation, which was run by Richard Cheney before he was tapped for >vice president. > NATO’Äôs bombs, never sanctioned by the United Nations, were not >’Äúhumanitarian’Äù intervention. The alleged mass graves were never found >by the >FBI, and the 10,000 to 11,000 bodies NATO touted turned out to number about >2,000 to 3,000 mostly ion KLA strongholds. > Even the Marine Corps Gazette concluded after the bombing >That the ’Äúresulting deaths of thousands of Serbian soldiers, civilians and >Kosovar Albanians can hardly be viewed as humanitarianism.’Äù > > It is the purview of the United Nations, not the United States, to >authorize humanitarian intervention. If the United States really wanted to >provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Yugoslavia, it would >encourage the International Monetary Fund to forgive $14 billion in loans >from prior regimes, finance reparations to rebuild the infrastructure >destroyed by its bombs, and remove U.S. troops from the region. > > >Marjorie Cohn is the associate professor at the Thomas Jefferson School of >Law in San Diego. > _________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Jovan Jovanovich, Professor of Physics (retired and adjunct) Office: Physics Department, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Man., Canada R3T 2N2 Phone: (204) 474-6201 Fax: (204) 474-7622 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Home: 66 Fordham Bay, Winnipeg, Man., Canada R3T 3B7 Phone/Fax: (204) 269-2255 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________________________________ ------- End of forwarded message ------- ------- End of forwarded message -------