NATO at the crossroads
Photo: realclearworld
Recently Dhaka declaration of the Asia-Pacific Peace Conference expresses its full support and solidarity with the people of Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan and Libya in their struggle for peace, democracy and progress. Believing that people's dignity includes their rights to resist oppression but also do not let other to decide their own fate, this Conference express its vehement condemnations to the imperialist military aggression against the Libyan people carried out by the USA, France, Great Britain and the entire NATO along with several willing allies from the Arab World and demands the immediate and unconditional halt of the war operations and the withdrawal of all foreign troops and navies from the area. The Conference rejects all forms of interventions which infringe the right of the peoples to determine their own fortunes and internal matters. The Conference also rejects the imperialist plan for a "Greater Middle East", which was initiated by the USA in 2003, later endorsed by the G8 and by NATO and demands the complete withdrawal of all occupation forces from Iraq and Afghanistan. Founded in 1949, NATO was aimed to counter soviet expansion. While the threat is long gone, now the NATO is facing an identity crisis. Members of NATO grapple with just how much its long and often-unpopular mission in Iraq, Afghanistan and its new air attack in Libya size up as a national interest -- or not when many countries' budgets are under strain. In Brussels, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gales said that US share of NATO defense spending is now more than 75 percent and just four other members-Britain, France, Greece and Albania-spend more than the agreed 2 percent of economic output on defense. NATO's future appeared dim if not dismal because of Europe's alleged penny-pitching and aversion to combat. Europe's defense spending fell 15 percent since 2001. But US military expeditious rose notably under President George W. Bush -- its share of NATO defense spending swelled, the strains are of Washington's own making: by devoting to much money to defense -- or roughly 45 percent of the total $ 1.7 trillion spent worldwide each year. Just a few months ago when NATO held its summit in Lisbon adopting its "new strategic concept" it constitutes further expansion of NATO's actions under new pretexts and "threats", with the abolition of even the last respect to the International law and the founding charter of the UN, serving clearly and offensively the interests of the Multinational corporations and big International capital. NATO is the "world sheriff," which is becoming a force of execution of the arbitrary decisions of the UN and the case of Libya is one more example for the manipulation of the UN and its abuse. The imperialists of the EU and NATO are speaking about International Law and the protection of the lives of civilians. Apart from hypocritical and dubious it is also of double moral. Where is the International law in the case of the Palestinian people who are suffering from a slowly genocide and are deprived of their right for an independent State, not to mention the dozens of resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly of the UN? Why the International Law is not applied in the case of the occupation of Western Sahara or the partial occupation of Cyprus till today? In the course of preparations for the military aggression and occupation of Iraq in 2003, the main argument was that the regime in Baghdad was in possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Later, when this flagrant lie was revealed nobody amongst the governments of the EU or NATO raised the question of withdrawal of the foreign troops from Iraq, the killings of civilians and destruction went on and is still going on. Meanwhile the oil of the country is flowing under the US control and a puppet regime has been installed. In the case of Afghanistan the US and its allies called for a "war on terror", against the Taliban, which were trained, financed and guided for decades long by the CIA. The invasion and occupation of Afghanistan resulted again in a puppet regime in Kabul and in new records of the opium production and its export for use of the International drugs trafficking. But also in the murderous 78 days long bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 by NATO, many lies have been revealed especially afterwards. The goal of USA, the EU and NATO to divide the former Yugoslavia in parts and create EU and NATO protectorates like the ones of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo was serving the goals of Imperialism in the broader region, their plans for the "Missile Defense Shield", their interests in Central Asia and the "New Middle East Plan". The strategy of imperialism is very clear all these years, despite the contradictions or rivalries that appear from time to time. It is at least naive and dangerous if somebody believes that the various imperialist forces are different from each other or the one better than the other. Interestingly, Richard Clarks, a NATO watcher and Director of the Royal United Services Institute in Britain, said "the US still need NATO as political conduit to Europe-but admitted the alliance is struggling militarily. There is no doubt that militarily, NATO is approaching something of a cross-roads -- it's been approaching this cross-roads for some time."
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