------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Feb. 20, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
U.S. RELIES ON PAWNS IN NEW NATO By Heather Cottin If the United Nations won't lend its legitimacy to Washington's plan to commit genocide against the people of Iraq, the Bush administration will try NATO. In 1999 NATO gave the cover for the U.S. bombing assault on Yugoslavia. For now, the French, German and Belgian governments see no gain from backing U.S. and British adventures. Washington is looking to the new U.S. client states in Eastern Europe, seeking these countries' youth for cannon fodder and their treasuries to pay for weapons bought from U.S. military industries. NATO expanded from 16 to 19 countries in 1999 with the entrance of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Other former socialist countries, now capitalist semi-colonies, are lining up to join. The U.S.- dominated military alliance stretches now from the Baltic to the Black Sea, and has begun to reach from Kosovo to Kazakhstan. To overcome the French, German and Belgian regimes' reluctance to follow the U.S. lead in invading Iraq, Washington has reached out to others whom War Secretary Donald Rumsfeld calls the "new Europe." The Portuguese government said it would allow the United States to use a military base in the Azores archipelago. Italy's media magnate and right-wing Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said, "We are standing behind the United States." He granted the Pentagon use of its airfields, troops and weapons in Italy for the war. Spain's Premier Jose Maria Aznar has also jumped in the U.S. camp with both feet. The regimes in Norway, Denmark and The Netherlands say they are ready to back the U.S.-led war. Along with the above rightist governments, Washington looks to the new pro-capitalist regimes in Eastern Europe to strengthen U.S. hegemony over its imperialist rivals within NATO. And one after another these Eastern governments have beefed up their military spending, squeezing their populations to buy munitions and adding to their already heavy debt. As each former socialist nation joins NATO, it must increase military spending. NATO Secretary General Lord George Robertson ordered the new NATO nations last year to increase their military spending to 2 percent of their shrinking gross domestic product. Poland just ordered $3.8 billion worth of Lockheed-Martin fighter planes, although its economy suffers 18 percent unemployment. Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski pledged full support for the U.S. assault on Iraq, even without a UN mandate. (Financial Times, Feb. 3) Lithuania is on board, too. Romania will do what America says in the event of a U.S.-led war on Iraq, pledged Romanian President Ion Iliescu. Every new or aspiring NATO member, and most of the old ones, have endorsed war against Iraq. Czech President Vaclav Havel is allowing hundreds of U.S. troops to be stationed in the Czech Republic and is making Czech airspace available. Hungary's government is allowing the Pentagon to train thousands of Iraqi exiles at a military base in the south of the country. Slovakia has pledged 75 troops for war in the Gulf. The governments of Slovenia and Georgia say they want to join in the attack on Iraq, while the Bulgarian government is preparing an air base on the Black Sea coast for U.S. use. The leaders of these new client states, anxious to shore up their unstable regimes, are eager to do U.S. bidding, including giving support for U.S. war plans But the people of Europe are another story. Recent polls show the majority of people in the Czech Republic and Hungary having deep opposition to taking part in a war, as do 57 percent of Slovaks. And the call for Feb. 15 anti-war protests has aroused responses in Budapest, Hungary; Warsaw, Wroclaw and Poznan, Poland; Prague, Czech Republic; Sofia, Bulgaria; Talinn, Estonia; and Vilnius, Lithuania. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
