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WSWS : News & Analysis : Europe : The Balkan Crisis
Strategic crisis for British imperialism
What's behind Blair's calls for ground war in the Balkans?
By Chris Marsden
19 May 1999
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's ongoing Balkan tour has been an
occasion for increasingly strident demands for NATO and the US to
consider launching a ground war against Serbia. He has shamelessly
appealed to the bellicose sentiments expressed by sections of
official Washington, in both the Democratic and Republican parties,
in order to place maximum pressure on the Clinton administration,
which is fearful of political reaction amongst the American people to
the casualties such a war would inevitably entail.
Blair draws strength from such incidents as Newsweek 's publication
of a letter to US Defense Secretary William Cohen from the Joint
Chiefs of Staff supporting ground war, the television interview with
retired General Colin Powell calling for the US to "go all out", and
other expressions of war-readiness within the Pentagon and the
American armed forces.
The constant denials of any differences between Britain and the US over military
strategy in Kosovo have, in the process, become evermore threadbare. Britain's Foreign
Secretary Robin Cook tried to elaborate a compromise
formula. He said that ground troops would be used, but only after the NATO air
bombardment had debilitated Serbian defences so this could be done with relative
safety. He claimed that NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana
was in the process of determining a date when this could be effected and would advise
on how long the Yugoslav army could continue resistance.
This was rejected by the Clinton administration. When asked whether the US would
approve a "peacemaking" thrust into Kosovo when Serb forces were sufficiently eroded,
as suggested by Britain, US Defense Department spokesm
an Kenneth Bacon replied, "Our opinion is that we are prepared to participate in an
international peacekeeping force with NATO at its core" (emphasis added).
Blair's posturing is increasingly frenzied�his "whatever it takes" rhetoric�because he
has pinned his entire foreign policy strategy on the so-called "special relationship"
he enjoys with Clinton. He has tied his own poli
tical future to a successful conclusion to the war against Serbia.
Blair faces severe criticism over his handling of the war. Last week, the
Conservatives and Liberal Democrats united behind calls for a ground war to be
launched within the next fortnight. This has left Blair in the invid
ious position of trying to placate his domestic opponents by portraying himself as the
staunch advocate of all-out war, without seeming to criticise the hesitancy of his
main international political ally. For this reason,
a candid comment by an unnamed British minister to the Guardian newspaper said more
than all of Blair's repeated denials about the state of relations between the two
governments: "We've tried to give some leadership but
in the end we depend on the Americans," he complained.
Balancing between US and Europe
More is at stake here than Blair's personal fate. The leitmotif of British foreign
policy throughout the post-war period has been to act as America's closest ally in
Europe, as a means of strengthening Britain's hand agai
nst Germany and France. This policy has now come unstuck in the skies over Serbia.
A measure of this can be gleaned from the recent media discussion on
the need to develop a more aggressive European response in the
Balkans. This has brought together the pro-Blair Guardian and
Independent with the Conservative Daily Telegraph.
The Guardian 's May 18 editorial states, "President Clinton's refusal
to commit the United States to preparations for a ground war has had
a disorienting effect on the alliance.... In retrospect, the mistake
may have been to overestimate the importance of the special
relationship.... It is the Americans who must be persuaded, in the
first instance by a display of European unity and by a readiness on
the part of Europeans to contribute the absolute maximum to a ground
force organised for offensive action if necessary."
The Independent ran an article by Air Marshal Sir Timothy Garden, who
writes, "The [next] two months could be spent in continuing efforts
to persuade the United States to change its mind, or, more
productively, in getting on with forming an ad hoc coalition from
European nations and any others that wanted to contribute.... If we
fail, and Kosovo ends in inadequate diplomatic fudge that leaves
Milosevic the winner, then neither NATO nor a European security and
defence identity has any future. The transatlantic relationship will
be in jeopardy and isolationism on both sides of the Atlantic will be
the way of nations."
The Daily Telegraph is equally apocalyptic about the dangers to the
Atlantic Alliance, warning in its editorial of the same day, "What
began as a bloody little Balkan war now threatens to destroy NATO's
credibility.... Only total victory can rescue the West's reputation
... it is time to ask whether America's hesitancy is, of itself, an
insuperable obstacle to sending ground troops. Or, to put it another
way, could the European allies muster among themselves a sufficient
force to drive Milosevic back?"
Divisions within Europe
Speculation on the possibility of a co-ordinated European response
around the ground war option raises more questions than it answers.
The desire of Blair and the British ruling class to drag the US ever
deeper into a military quagmire in Kosovo is not shared by Europe's
other major powers. Joschka Fischer, the German foreign minister, has
said that Germany would not back moves to send NATO ground troops
into Kosovo without the consent of Belgrade. "This is opposed by all
parties,� he said. �The time is for a political solution.�
Hubert Vedrine, the French foreign minister, also distanced himself
from the call for a ground invasion, while senior French sources made
clear that the British line was "very dangerous" and divisive.
In Italy, Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema has proposed that NATO offer
to halt the bombing in Yugoslavia if Moscow and Beijing agree to turn
the G8 plan for a settlement in Kosovo into a UN Security Council
resolution. Walter Veltroni, the secretary of the ex-Stalinist Left
Democrats�the biggest party in the coalition government�has joined
the Greens, Communist Refoundation and the Christian Democrats in
calling for a truce.
For its part, Greece has called for a temporary halt to the bombing
to aid the search for a diplomatic solution. Many European countries,
moreover, face a more substantial and growing public opposition to
the war than Blair.
Calls for a European lead to encourage a stiffer line on the part of
the US ignore one central political fact: the conclusion drawn from
the Balkan events by the major European powers is that their relative
military weakness has facilitated continued US dominance over world
politics and interference in European affairs. Their intention is to
resolve this difficulty, not perpetuate the Continent's reliance on
its transatlantic competitor.
For several years, Britain has opposed repeated calls for the
creation of military structures in Europe independent of a US-
dominated NATO. Blair insists that European military capabilities,
organised through the Western European Union (WEU), should be
strengthened, but must remain under the NATO umbrella. However,
demands for greater independence are growing.
The first serious expression of this came when Romano Prodi, the next
president of the European Commission, said recently that the creation
of a "European army" was "a logical next step.... The alternative
[is] you will be marginalised in the new world history." Blair
reacted angrily; a Downing Street spokesman insisted, "NATO remains
the cornerstone of our defence capability. A European army is not
something we are in favour of."
Of greater concern for Britain is the stance of its major European
rival, Germany. Last weekend at the WEU's annual meeting, the German
Defence Minister and current President of the WEU, Rudolf Scharping,
said Europe needed to plug gaps in its forces, build up strategic air
transport, intelligence gathering and command of joint operations,
and co-ordinate arms manufacture. He made clear that this meant
independence from NATO. The WEU, he said, would not necessarily
disappear before the year 2000, but could act as a "bridge" for those
NATO states wanting to join the European Union (EU) and for the
"states of the EU which do not belong to NATO but would like to
collaborate with it".
This explicit challenge to the US and NATO was not agreed at the WEU
meeting. The talks only confirmed that Europe should have a bigger
role in ensuring its own security and in dealing with crises like
Bosnia or Kosovo. But Scharping's proposal indicates the speed at
which a build-up of European, and especially German militarism is
being contemplated.
Present military spending in Europe would need to be doubled in order
to match that of the US, and a huge increase in the size of Europe's
armed forces implemented. Under these circumstances, a negotiated
settlement with Milosevic and a bloody nose for NATO, so feared by
Blair, is not as unattractive for the other European powers. It could
provide both the time and the necessary rationale for the development
of an independent military capability.
Such a course would have to be paralleled by strenuous efforts to
ensure that the Balkan states came within the economic and political
orbit of Europe, rather than the US. This week, the EU took the first
step towards launching a "Balkan Stabilisation Pact" to regenerate
the region after the Kosovo war and draw all of south-east
Europe�including Serbia�into its orbit.
Initial plans are minimal, consisting of an aid package of 100
million euros (US$107 million) to Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro,
but the longer term plan is to establish an open trade area with
close links to the EU, built around country-by-country agreements
across south-east Europe.
Under these conditions, the precarious balancing act between the
United States and Europe, performed by Britain for the past half
century, is collapsing under the weight of its own internal
contradictions.
See Also:
Further doubt cast on US claims of genocide in Kosovo
[18 May 1999]
After Korisa bomb atrocity
The evolution of a NATO lie
[17 May 1999]
NATO cluster bombs kill 100 Albanians in Kosovo: Where is the
outrage?
[15 May 1999]
Chinese embassy bombing escalates political tensions in Britain
Conservatives tell Blair to mount ground war or prepare for defeat
[13 May 1999]
War in the Balkans
[WSWS Full Coverage]
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