[CTRL] Stumbling Towards Empire

[Don Allen]

-Caveat Lector-
ref - http://www.rightmagazine.com/strange_disposed_times.htm

Stumbling Towards Empire
by Michael R. Allen
March 29, 1999

For the first time in its fifty-year history, the North Atlantic Treaty
Alliance initiated an attack on a sovereign nation. Thundering over the
skies of Serbia and Montenegro, NATO jets hit targets in Belgrade ,
Pristina, and other areas. Eleven people were reported dead after the first
attack in what could be the first week of a major international war.

Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic has vowed not to surrender his nation to
its aggressors. Unlike the relentless attack on Iraq, this bombing campaign
could unleash a massive retaliation. Russia is considering aid to the
Serbian military, and Belarus and the Ukraine have expressed their support
for whatever Russian President Boris Yeltsin decides to do.

Anticipating a long war, President Bill Clinton is working on plans to send
American ground forces into the midst of the Serbian-Kosovar civil war. As
if enough damage had not been done in that region, sending ground troops
into Serbia will surely make the situation worsen. The perpetual conflict in
the Yugoslavian area is centuries old and has never been solved - and it
surely will not be helped by a barrage of missiles and soldiers meeting up
with Russian-backed forces.

NATO stands ruined, though not explicitly. Its function as a defensive
collective has been effectively ended as it now assumes the role of
international police force. The alliance has broken free of its purpose and
it cannot revert to its original role after it has attacked a nation that
has not aggressed against another. With NATO changed in function, it joins
the United Nations as a threat to the liberty of every person on the planet.

The destruction of NATO began with the United States State Department and
its policies. Yes, policy is supposed to be made by representatives of the
people, but no longer is that so. The State Department has powers that are
scary to ponder and inconsistencies equally upsetting. Its growth parallels
the abdication by Congress of its duties in foreign policy - an abdication
that increased as domestic functions began to expand.

In many ways it is more vital for Congress to control foreign policy than
domestic, since domestic spending is not going to decrease rapidly anytime
soon. The power to make war is one that the President should not have,
regardless of whether the proposed intervention is termed 'war' or not.
Military operations are usually to the depredation of domestic liberty;
conscription, taxation, inflation, and suppression of free speech are prices
exacted for foreign intervention. If these prices are to be paid, trusting a
single man and his State Department appointees with the decision is not
respective of the Constitution or public will.

The only governmental body where the interests of every citizen are - at
least marginally - represented is Congress. There the people's delegates can
make the decision of endorsing declarations of war. There public will about
war can be felt since every state is represented. There representatives can
be voted out of office for misappropriating the resources of government. In
short, Congress has a much more legitimate roll in foreign policy than
either the appointed foreign policy advisors or the special-interests
beholden President.

Unfortunately, foreign policy has been ceded to the executive branch for
years. Arguments for this sort of arrangement are usually critical of
Congress for its diverse views or supportive of centralized decision-making
on issues of war and international politics. Either way, the intellectual
justification for this strong presidency is ignorant of the rule of law.
Without devices like a legislature, civil government becomes empire.

In the case of America, empire has arrived but the emperor has no clothes.
Clinton is rather brazen about his foreign policy being free from legal
reproach, even as a few once-sleepy Republicans wake up to challenge
imperialism. Congress has desperately tried to secure funding for missile
defenses, but to no avail. It might approve resolutions asserting its
prerogatives, but it is now irrelevant. The President has already escaped
impeachment and committed US troops to Bosnia, Haiti, and Iraq without
Congressional approval. For all he cares, he does not need to even inform
the nation of his plans. He is only continuing what others started.

Republicans cannot expect to successfully challenge the Clinton White House
after they allowed the adventures in Vietnam, Panama, Grenada, and Iraq to
go unchecked. Democrats still against war find that their ranks are thin.
There are brave anti-imperialists in Congress, but without power within the
leadership of each House there will be no serious reclamation of foreign
policy.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government has ties to an aircraft manufacturer only
50 miles from Washington, DC. The Sino-Swearingen SJ-30 plant in
Martinsburg, West Virginia stands dangerously close to the capital. Yet
Congress cannot do a thing and the imperialists have given the Chinese top
foreign policy secrets. As the US is directing NATO to bomb Serbia with a
manly swagger, it is being robbed by the Chinese like a coward.

Such an inconsistent foreign policy is all the more reason to tear down the
foreign policy establishment and hand the power back to the people and their
representatives. Empires without a rule of law are surprisingly easy to
defeat. It would be better for American citizens to claim victory in this
defeat than another nation

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