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 Repub lic 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 arous ed
responses in Buda pest, Hungary; Warsaw, Wroclaw and Poznan,
Poland; Prague, Czech Republic; Sofia, Bulgaria; Talinn,
Estonia; and Vilnius, Lithuania.
Reprinted from the Feb. 20, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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