|
April
18, 2002
Shadows
of the Past
Dreadful
Fallout of Empire's Balkans Policies
For
over a decade, the Empire and its
vassals have gradually imposed themselves into the lives and
lands of people in the Balkans, almost always to those peoples'
detriment. In the process, they have torn down many pillars
of civilization, law and common decency, all in the name of
help, human rights and humanitarianism. Whether they did so
as actual masters of malice, or mere
fools who thought they could use the power of Tolkien's metaphorical
Ring for good,
now hardly seems to matter. For all power exacts a price,
and absolute power most
of all.
Resignations
The
Dutch government collapsed
this Tuesday, following the publication of a report that analyzed
the role of Dutch troops in one of the most controversial
episodes of the Bosnian War. A government-established commission
concluded, after a five-year investigation, that the tragedy
of Srebrenica was not so cut-and-dry as is still widely
believed in the West. The resulting outrage compelled
the government to resign, and on Wednesday, the Army
Chief of Staff resigned as well.
There
are many interesting things about the 7000-page report. Apparently,
it says that there has been no evidence of
Slobodan Milosevic's involvement with Srebrenica, corroborating
what Milosevic has said to the Hague Inquisition. Nor does
it blame Radovan Karadzic, wartime leader of the Bosnian Serb
Republic. Another largely under-reported point was the activity
of Bosnian Muslim troops in the supposedly demilitarized enclave.
Judging by the outrage of defenders of Official Truth, the
report could even be casting some unwelcome light on the accepted
assertion that some 8000 Muslim civilians were killed in cold
blood, which the Hague Inquisition has already declared a
genocide.
It
so happens that the Dutch have been one of Empire's most eager
vassals in the Balkans interventions, especially the NATO
attack on Serbia. As General Michael Short told the US Congress
in October 1999, they were "small
dogs [who wanted to] have a seat at the table." Unfortunately,
the bitter experience of Bosnia is unlikely to urge Empire's
lapdogs to re-think the policy of blind obedience.
The
Bosnia Blowback
Dutch
actions (or lack thereof) in Srebrenica are just the tip of
the Bosnia iceberg, though. For years, the Serbs clamored
about the substantial presence of Muslim radicals in Bosnia.
Since they were considered demons, though, hardly anyone was
inclined to listen – even when the said radicals tried to
blow up the Pope (see
April 11-12) in 1997. Now, however, Bosnia's NATO occupiers
are "finding" Islamic terrorists everywhere.
Three former Muslim intelligence officials were even indicted by the new government
over their involvement with Iranian terrorist operations in
Bosnia during 1995/96.
Now
even the most popular US military newspaper
writes about Osama Bin Laden's ties with the Bosnian mujahedin,
and the threat which this represents to the US military. The
same article says the US turned a blind eye (and nothing more?)
when Iran sent weapons, money and men to Bosnian Muslims and
Croats during the war, while possible violations of the arms
embargo to the region were discussed by none other than the
infamous General Wesley K. Clark, the "hero" of Kosovo.
To
think the Imperial air force bombed Serbian TV
for saying much less!
Law
of Submission
Nor
is Bosnia the only Imperial intervention causing major tremors
in the fabric of world sanity. Claiming to be under
heavy US pressure, Serbia's ruling hydra approved
a bill last week regulating the extradition of Serbian
and Yugoslav (while it still exists)
citizens to the Hague Inquisition,
based on its indictments for "war crimes" in Kosovo. The full
text of the bill was published in Belgrade daily Glas Javnosti
(in
Serbian), just before it was voted into law.
There
are many problems with the ICTY Cooperation Act. It is unconstitutional,
it gives undeserved legitimacy to the Hague Inquisition, and
it is just plain atrocious as to the degree of power it gives
to the Inquisitors inside Serbia. Such powers most closely
resemble those demanded
by Austria-Hungary in 1914, in one of the classical examples
of Imperial blowback*. Yet according to this
Empire's eager servants, even
that is not submissive enough.
In
response, the former minister of Internal Affairs shocked
the nation by committing public
suicide in front of the Parliament. Former Army Chief
of Staff, however, said surrender was his "duty"
and "legal obligation." The Djindjic regime wholeheartedly
agreed, and promised to extradite all those currently wanted
by the Inquisition before May 1.
Such
groveling of a nominally sovereign country before an emphatically
illegal and illegitimate institution
set up by the Empire should be deplorable at any time. However,
too many took comfort in the fact that the Inquisition was
mostly after Serbs, and that its scope was limited to the
territory of former Yugoslavia. This past week, all of that
changed…
Inquisition
Goes Global
On
April 10, the International
Criminal Court came into being – a global version of the
Hague Inquisition set to demolish sovereignty and nationhood
on behalf of prosecuting war crimes, genocide, war and other
"human rights" violations. Though the Empire has not ratified
the Rome Treaty that established the court, and there is no
way the ICC can force the Empire to submit as its Hague progenitor
(with NATO's and Empire's help) did to the Serbs, the ICC
nonetheless claims the right to put anyone, anywhere, on an
Inquisition-style
trial.
While
the Hague "tribunal" has been a tool firmly under Empire's
control, its heir claims to
be more independent-minded, and that is seen as alarming.
Yet few have actually grasped the connection between the ICC
and the ICTY. If the ICC is a world conspiracy against a naïve US
government, what about its model? The only "axis of evil"
involved in its creation was between Madeleine Albright and
Bill Clinton, and his successor George II isn't exactly keen
to abolish this abomination.
More
likely, the Empire will seek to co-opt the ICC and use it
for further conquests, smearing enemies with "indictments"
for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity while
passing its own as "collateral damage". The ICC needs to get
money from somewhere, and it's well-known who has most of
it. And whoever has the gold, makes the rules.
Slouching
Towards Bethlehem
Some
well-intentioned people will no doubt applaud the establishment
of the ICC, hoping perhaps to see Imperial leaders in the
dock at some time in the future. Among them would probably
be those who still believe that the ICTY could become a fair
court by indicting leaders of other Balkan statelets, or even
NATO. None of them really understand that neither of those
options is possible, not in today's world. ICC's mandate sounds
much like the mission of Sauron's Ring (with apologies to
Tolkien): one court to rule them all, one court to find them,
one court to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.
For
the ICC runs completely counter to the basic principle of
international affairs, one that has been around for over 350 years:
sovereignty of nation-states. Though hardly perfect, it is
the only system around, with no clear-cut alternatives save
worldwide libertarian anarchy. What the Empire did to that
system in the Balkans through NATO and the ICTY, the ICC is
poised to do on the world scale. In the ensuing vacuum, the
only alternatives would be Imperial hegemony. Perhaps that
is why Washington has said very little about the ICC over
the past week.
What
began as a weapon of political warfare in the Balkans has
morphed into a worldwide leviathan with unprecedented power
to destroy: the proverbial "rough beast" of Yeats'
poem, "its hour come at last."
The
Final Twist
Right
now, only one man stands fighting against the Inquisition
and all that it represents. He may have very personal and
selfish reasons for doing so, or he may not. It hardly matters.
Though faced with prosecution "witnesses" who regularly commit
perjury, have no idea what they are talking about, and even
ridicule the very existence
of Empire as nonsensical, Slobodan Milosevic is still
refusing
to surrender to the Inquisition. In doing so, whether
he wants it or not, he is actually defending liberty – a declared
American value that the American Empire has done its best
to obliterate.
Ironic?
Oh yes. Then again, irony seems to be what the Balkans is
all about.
*
NOTE: Austria-Hungary thought to use the assassination
of Archduke Franz Ferdinand at the hands of a disgruntled
Bosnian Serb as a pretext for invading Serbia. The invasion,
however, prompted a chain of events that led to World War
One and the eventual destruction of the Austro-Hungarian empire.
It also ended Europe's golden age, ruined the German and Russian
Empires, caused the rise of the American Empire, brought to
power Communism in Russia, and spawned Nazism and Fascism.
|
