From: Miroslav Antic <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> YET ANOTHER NATO VENTURE IN THE BALKANS With the signing today of a shaky peace deal between the Macedonian government and the ethnic Albanian minority, NATO is about to launch another Balkan venture that officials say is fraught with uncertainty and risk, according to The Washington Post. ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5394-2001Aug13.html ) A cease-fire and a peace agreement were the prerequisites for NATO to begin Operation Essential Harvest, in which 3,500 NATO troops would be deployed to Macedonia to collect weapons and ammunition from the National Liberation Army (NLA), an ethnic Albanian rebel force. Although the rebels were not a party to the peace agreement, their leaders have said they will honor it. In "Waist Deep in the Balkans and Sinking: Washington Confronts the Crisis in Macedonia," ( http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-397es.html ) Cato's Ted Galen Carpenter writes that the continued fighting in Macedonia shows the bankruptcy of Washington's Balkan policy. He recommends that the United States disengage and let the European countries grapple with the situation. The book "NATO's Empty Victory: A Postmortem of the Balkan War," edited by Carpenter, shows that NATO's ostensible goal of a tolerant, democratic, and multiethnic Kosovo is a fantasy and predicts an interminable and futile nation-building mission for the United States. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
