Socialist Action /June 1999
DOGS OF WAR:
A View from the British Left
By TARIQ ALI
Outside NATOland, the situation about the war is extremely serious. The
Ukraine was the only country in the world to renounce nuclear weapons and
unilaterally disarm. A few weeks ago its parliament voted unanimously to
revert to its former nuclear status.
The deputies claimed that they had foolishly believed the United States
when it had promised a new norm-based and inclusive security system. NATO's
war on Yugoslavia had destroyed all their illusions.
If Kiev is angry, Moscow is incandescent. The military-industrial complex
is one of the best-preserved institutions in the country.
Its leaders have been arguing with the politicians for nearly two years,
pleading that they be allowed to upgrade Russia's nuclear armory. Until
March 24 this year they had not made too much headway.
On April 30, a meeting of the National Security Council in Moscow approved
the modernization of all strategic and tactical nuclear warheads. It gave
the green light to the development and manufacture of strategic low-yield
nuclear missiles capable of pin-point strikes anywhere in the world.
Simultaneously, the defense ministry authorized a change in nuclear doctrine.
First use is no longer excluded.
In the space of several weeks, Javier Solana and Robin Cook, former members
of European Nuclear Disarmament, have re-ignited the nuclear flame. In Beijing,
too, the bombing of the Chinese embassy has resulted in a shift away from
the no-first-strike principle.
The Chinese refuse to accept that the bombing of their embassy was an
accident. They believe that it was a Machiavellian ploy by the war party
in Washington to sabotage any peace plan by ensuring a hard-line Chinese
veto at the UN.
There are also indications that Moscow and Beijing are discussing new
security arrangements. The bombs on Belgrade may well come to be seen as
the first shots of a new cold war.
As a result of all this, a great deal of diplomacy is taking place behind
closed doors. Britain is not part of it because what it thinks does not
really matter. Its leaders are used to accepting decisions made elsewhere.
That is why there is something surreal about Cook's huffing and puffing
and why Blair's promises to the refugees have a hollow ring.
New Labour and its media-chorus, having unleashed mayhem on Kosovar and
Serb alike, should, at the very least, have the decency and moral courage
to admit their mistake and call for a halt to the bombing, which, in the
words of the Pope's Easter message this year, has become a "diabolical
act of retribution".
The real tragedy is that the Kosovo for which NATO supposedly went to
war in March no longer exists. Its cities and villages are being bombed
to smithereens by NATO. Its population is being pushed out by Milosevic.
Even if some of the refugees were to return, a significant proportion,
the very people whose talents would be needed to rebuild the region, will
probably never go back. Refugees rarely do. Only 10 percent returned to
Bosnia.
The scale of disaster is now clearly visible. Every day, as the bombs
fall, the situation gets worse. With the exception of Britain, EU countries
are pushing for a negotiated settlement, aware that it is the only viable
solution.
It could have been achieved some months ago if the U.S. had not insisted
on a NATO peacekeeping force.
The New York Times, writing as recently as April 8, 1999, on the failed
Rambouillet negotiations, said: "In a little-noted resolution of the
Serbian parliament just before the bombing, when that hardly independent
body rejected NATO troops in Kosovo, it also supported the idea of UN forces
to monitor a political settlement there."
In other words, this war has been fought not so much for the safety of
the Kosovars, but to assert NATO hegemony and it is now indisputable that
it turned out to be a grave miscalculation. NATOland is seriously divided.
The isolation of the war party led by Madeleine Albright and Sandy Berger
in Washington (and supported by Blair and Cook in London) is almost complete.
The German chancellor has ruled out his country's involvement in any
escalation of the war. The Italian prime minister has excluded the use of
Italian soldiers in any NATO operation on the ground unless expressly sanctioned
by the UN and backed by Russia and China.
The Greek foreign minister has made it clear in public that if Nato sent
in troops it would be impossible to use Salonika as a point of landing.
In private he has warned that a popular revolt could topple his government
if it were to acquiesce in any such plan.
The Hungarian, Czech, and Polish governments, blushing new brides at
NATO's altar, are now pale-faced and nervous, wondering whether they will
survive the war. They had married NATO because of the generous dowries that
might follow. The rude honeymoon has shocked them.
The French, too, are slowly moving in the German direction, and even
General Sir Michael Jackson, the British commander in Macedonia, has told
eight different interviewers on radio and television that "we will
not go in unless there is an agreement."
New Labour's hands are already stained with the blood of innocents. Time
to call off the dogs of war and seek the help of non-NATO powers to resolve
the conflict.
Reprinted from the May 26 issue of The Guardian (London).
Socialist Action /June 1999 |