A 'HATE CRIME'?
In other words, what we have here is an Anglophobic
hate crime that must be punished forthwith. Tony Blair called
the President of Macedonia to demand that the perpetrators
– thought to be a group of kids aged 15 to 17 – "be brought
to justice." No word yet on whether the Brits plan on reviving
capital punishment. For Huggler, however, the real culprits
are not the teenage "mob" but the politicians and the Macedonian
media who supposedly "incited" them:
"Leading Macedonian newspapers close to the government
have published reports that NATO armed the Albanian rebels
of the National Liberation Army (NLA), and even that NATO
helicopters landed behind rebel lines during government offensives
to replenish the rebels' ammunition. The media consistently
claims that Macedonian forces could have defeated the rebels
on the battlefield if NATO had not forced restraint on them.
In fact, Western military analysts say the rebels were winning
on the battlefield."
HOOLIGANS OR
IDEOLOGUES?
The terrorists
were winning because the West had put pressure on Russia and
the Ukrainians to cut off their supply of weapons – and
the NLA had no shortage of weapons and money to buy them.
There is, strangely enough, almost an air of gloating in Huggler's
evaluation of the military balance of power: clearly he seems
not to be rooting for the Macedonians. But does anybody but
Huggler really believe that Macedonian teenagers have abandoned
video games for busily poring over long ideological tracts
in the Macedonian media, and, thus, inspired, going out and
stoning NATO vehicles?
BLACK HELICOPTERS
Huggler
sniffs at the idea that NATO has been supplying the "National
Liberation Army" that has been terrorizing Macedonia for months,
treating it like a black helicopter sighting in Idaho. But
is it really so incredible to assume that NATO's past relationship
with Albanians in the region has continued right up to the
present moment? Everybody knows that NATO armed and trained
the NLA's progenitor, the Kosovo "Liberation" Army, and that
a great many of the NLA's commanders and core fighters are
veterans of the Kosovo war, where they fought side-by-side
with NATO against the Yugoslav Army. Not for nothing did the
NLA's top commander display the NATO flag alongside the Albanian
double-headed eagle at a recent press conference. One rebel
spokesman called on NATO to stay "for 100 years" instead of
withdrawing in a month's time. As for NATO helicopters landing
behind Albanian lines and delivering ammunition, the story we
posted here by Scott Taylor, reporting from Macedonia,
confirms this out of the rebels' own mouth:
"Two
weeks ago, there was a flurry of diplomatic protests filed
by the Macedonian government when two US helicopters were
observed delivering supplies to an Albanian village in the
mountains above Tetovo. Officially, the US claimed their aircraft
were only transporting vital 'humanitarian aid.' However,
the local UCK commander – 'Commandant Mouse' – contradicted
this statement and confirmed that the Americans had in fact
delivered 'heavy mortars and ammunition' to the UCK. As proof
of 'Mouse's' claim, Thursday, 16 August, the UCK began bombarding
Tetovo with 120mm and 82mm mortars. Judging from the duration
and intensity of the bombardment, which I witnessed, ammunition
supply is not a problem for the UCK fighters."
To Justin
Huggler, we say: take it up with "Commandant Mouse."
A FATHER'S
EULOGY
Kevin Collins, father of the deceased British
soldier, described
the death as a "terrible waste." In statements to several
newspapers, Mr. Collins said: "I don't think our soldiers
should be there. This is a civil conflict with two factions
fighting amongst themselves." That is exactly it: why,
an increasing number of Brits are asking themselves, are we
intervening on behalf of one faction against another? Some
in the Tory party are raising similar, though far less
pointed questions, but the Americans are backing Blair against
their British cousins, with US State Department spokesmen
doggedly defending the NATO deployment in
daily briefings.
THE AMERICAN
ROLE: LOGISTICS
We are told that Americans are not to be directly
involved in the disarming process, and that their only role
– there are already 500-plus GIs stationed in Macedonia –
will be "logistical." Any more questions on the nature of
these "logistics" should be directed at "Commandant Mouse"
and his merry men, who are no doubt on the receiving end of
it.
TOO MUCH TESTOSTERONE?
The [UK] Times reiterates the charge
that the Macedonian teens were ideologically-motivated hate
criminals: "The youths appear to have been motivated by some
politicians' denunciations of NATO's role in planning to disarm
the ethnic Albanian rebels of 'only' 3,300 weapons." No proof
is offered of this, yet it is stated as fact. Could the youths
have just as easily been motivated by some other factor, such
as "turf," the need for a thrill, and/or too much testosterone?
The War Party has seized on this incident as proof of Macedonian
villainy, and spear-carriers for the NATO-crats in the media
are echoing this same line, so that it frames every rendition
of the Ian Collins story. In this sense, NATO's journalistic
operation may prove more well-coordinated, thought-out, and
successful than its military operations on the ground.
NO MYSTERY
In any case, stone-throwing youths all over
the world are something of a problem for occupying armies,
and the reason isn't all that mysterious. Perhaps some in
that "mob" were among the 100,000-plus refugees from towns
ethnically
cleansed by the Albanian "liberators." Perhaps they have
had their houses
burned, their kin kidnapped,
their lives
turned topsy-turvy by thugs and the Western politicians
who armed and unleashed them.
BLOWBACK
It is the
same story, from Macedonia to Palestine, and in both cases
the stone-throwers are not only very young but also very brave,
boldly going up against well-armed opponents who have the
power to crush them with overwhelming force. What's next in
Macedonia – suicide bombings? Is that what it will take to
convince the West that it cannot rule the lives of subject
peoples without suffering a little "blowback"?
HARVEST OF
HATE
Ordinary
Macedonians are – not unreasonably – convinced that NATO
and the rebels are in cahoots, and their resentment is growing.
The effect of the NATO deployment will be not to limit but
to inflame the conflict, polarizing Macedonian public opinion.
Western pressure on the government to cave in to virtually
all of the Albanians' demands – including a precedent-setting
law that will give the minority veto power over decisions
of the democratically-elected Parliament – has created a
reaction that can only ensure Ian Collins won't be the last
NATO casualty in this operation. In undertaking "Operation
Essential Harvest," the Europeans are sowing the seeds of
a much wider conflict – and we will all reap the whirlwind.
INTO THE QUAGMIRE
For no one
can doubt that the US will come in, once again, to bail the
Europeans out of a mess of their own making. Bush has solemnly
pledged to do so, in violation of his campaign promise to
get us out of the Balkans, and, as a good "Atlanticist,"
the President would no doubt follow through – and not
all that reluctantly, either. Bush would probably welcome
the opportunity to show those European snot-noses how much
they need us, in spite of their much-vaunted "independent"
posture. At a time when the EU is aspiring to superpower status
– albeit only rhetorically, at least so far – the
US can be expected to eagerly insert itself into the Macedonian
quagmire.
THE WORLD IS
HIS BACK YARD
The only
potential problem, for Bush, is political: while Macedonia
doesn't register as even the subtlest blip on the public's
radar screen, congressional Republicans are bound to greet
any new military mission with deep skepticism. When push comes
to shove, opponents of intervention will be answered with
an American version of British foreign secretary Jack Straw's
rationale for the deployment:
"The
lesson of the last 10 years is that the longer a conflict
is left in the Balkans, the more difficult and bloody it becomes.
We cannot close our eyes, wash our hand of what goes in the
Balkans. Because if we do, not only do we wash our hands of
the most terrifying, bloody conflict and abuse of human rights
but also there are knock-on effects, as we have seen in the
last decade, right across western Europe if we fail to take
effective action. What we need to understand is that the
Balkans is Europe's and Britain's
back yard."
TAKE A LESSON
Gee, that's
funny, but I could've sworn that the whole British
cabinet had their eyes shut tight as the Kosovar Albanians
ethnically cleansed their "liberated" land of virtually all
Serbs, Gypsies, and other non-Albanian
minorities. As for the lesson of the last 10 years, surely
it is nearly the same as Mary Shelley's classic novel, Frankenstein
– create a monster, and it could very well turn on you.
NO HONOR AMONG
THIEVES
All that
is assuming, of course, that we can take the façade of official
neutrality on the part of NATO seriously, and honor its role
as an honest broker. But there is no honor among thieves,
and what this heist is all about is lightly hinted at in Straw's
remarks, the part about the "knock-on effects" that will supposedly
follow a failure to take "effective action."
THE AMBO CONNECTION
Europe is
facing an acute fuel shortage, and the socialist governments
of the EU have been shaken by fuel tax protests that threatened
to bring down Jospin in France and posed far more of a challenge
to Blair than the Tories. Plans are afoot to build a trans-Balkan
oil pipeline
that will ship the precious resource to fuel-starved Europa.
The financial and political web that binds the US as well
as the Europeans – and particularly the Brits –
to the success of the Albanian-Macedonian-Bulgarian Oil corporation
(AMBO) is too complex to go into at length here. In detailing
the story, the names of companies associated with prominent
US officials, such
as Brown & Root, come up with disturbing regularity,
and, on the British side, too, the connection to the oil industry
is evident in this biography of the chief executive of AMBO,
a Mr. Edward L. Ferguson:
"Ferguson has 30 years of experience with `British
Petroleum PLC'. He has held senior positions responsible for oil pipeline and production
activities worldwide in places as diverse as Libya, Italy,
Alaska, the Shetland Islands, Rotterdam and Norway. Ferguson
earned the honour of Member of the British Empire (MBE) in
January 1982 as a result of his outstanding work in the Shetland
IsIands. At the time of his retirement from `British Petroleum',
Ferguson was the Works General Manager of BP's largest petrochemical
complex worldwide with over 2 000 employees and an annual
budget in excess of 150 million dollars."
DELIVER US
FROM EVIL
What is
NATO doing in Macedonia? We are supposed to believe that they
are serving the cause of "human rights," and standing against
the forces of darkness: but, as many Macedonians are beginning
to understand, they are the forces of darkness. This
isn't about "human rights." All the usual reasons for conquering
a nation are operative here: money, power, and the human capacity
for sheer evil. It is an evil born of the idea that mere men
can be like gods and determine the fate of whole communities,
arrogating to themselves some divine right of judgment in
disputes that go back to the Middle Ages. It is, in short,
a ruthless evil born of hubris, a dark force that killed Ian
Collins and promises to take yet more: we can only hope and
pray that, in time, God will deliver Macedonia – and
the West – from its power.
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