NATO: A bunch of warmongers
March 20, 2014 <http://www.herald.co.zw/author/silence/> silence muchemwa
<http://www.herald.co.zw/category/articles/opinion-a-analysis/> Opinion &
Analysis
Brian Cloughley
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (nato) has deployed reconnaissance
aircraft to Poland and Romania to monitor the Ukrainian crisis in order to
intensify our ongoing assessment of the implications of this crisis for
Alliance security. But there is no threat whatsoever to any member of nato.
There is no crisis affecting that redundant military grouping. The current
dispute between Russia and Ukraine has nothing to do with any nato country.
But their bilateral problem has resulted in deployment of squadrons of US
F-15 attack aircraft to Lithuania and F-16s to Poland. And the Pentagon has
sent a guided missile frigate to the Black Sea for engagements with
Bulgarian and Romanian navies. (Not that this seems much of a threat
because the last US frigate in the Black Sea ran aground and is still being
towed back to its Mediterranean home port.)
Nobody (except Russia) knows what other jiggery-pokery the US and its nato
puppets are up to in the way of sending ships, spooks and planes to threaten
Russia, although it is obvious that tension is being deliberately ramped up.
But is anyone going to order nato to go to war because the people of Crimea
had a democratic referendum and voted to join Russia? Thats what the people
of Crimea want. And what right has nato or anyone else to dictate to them
otherwise? What is all this fuss about?
Quite simply, it is about trying to stop Russia from prospering and
spreading its interests, which has been Americas objective for a very long
time. The Cold War between the US-dominated nato and the Soviet Union and
its allies of the Warsaw Pact is said to have lasted from 1947 to 1991.
But it never ended at least not for the US and nato.
nato was formed in 1949 with the objectives of deterring Soviet
expansionism, forbidding the revival of nationalist militarism in Europe
through a strong North American presence on the continent, and encouraging
European political integration.
When West Germany was encouraged to re-arm and become a member of nato in
1955 the Soviet Union created the Warsaw Pact. (It was Germany that invaded
Russia in WW2 and killed 20 million people, not the other way round. A mere
ten years after the war, Moscow wasnt keen on German rearmament.)
The years went by and the two sides squared up to each other from time to
time but the confrontation ended when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
The standoff was over. There was no Soviet expansionism to deter; there
was no prospect of revival of nationalist militarism; and European
integration was well under way, with the creation of the European Union in
1993. But there were problems.
There was genocidal chaos in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and nato took the side
of anti-Serbian separatists in its military campaign against a country that
had not in any way threatened any member of nato. But nato thought it had
found a reason for its existence.
In one particularly bizarre episode, the nato commander, US General Wesley
Clark (nato is always commanded by a US general), ordered confrontation with
Russian troops. As the BBC reported, the Russians, who played a crucial
role in persuading Yugoslav President Milosevic to end the war, had expected
to police their own sector of Kosovo, independent of nato. When they did not
get it, they felt double-crossed. As natos peacekeepers prepared to enter
the province they discovered the Russians had got there first. Clark
ordered nato troops to confront them.
Britains General Jackson considered that this course of action seemed to
me probably not the right way to start off a relationship with Russians who
were going to become part of my command. Of course he was right, and in a
heated exchange with Clark, Jackson told him that Im not going to start
the Third World War for you.
natos vast air forces blitzed Yugoslavia into submission. When the Balkan
war was over, leaving the region in fragments, nato congratulated itself and
looked for another reason to remain in being. Europe was at peace and there
were no indications that there could ever be a conflict. There could have
been a new era for Russia. But it wasnt allowed to see the dawn of
reconciliation because nato desperately wanted to expand its numbers and
surround and threaten the new Russia that was so anxious to join the comity
of nations.
nato asked Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic to join in 1999. Then in
2004 came Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and
Slovenia. To increase the net-drawing round Russias borders, Albania and
Croatia were added in 2009. At the Chicago nato summit in May 2012 it was
declared that: At the 2008 Bucharest Summit we agreed that Georgia will
become a member of nato and we reaffirm all elements of that decision, as
well as subsequent decisions. Counterpunch.
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"
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