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September
27, 2001
War
Without End
Far
from the eyes of the American public, still intently focused
on a scorched patch of mountains in central Asia, the first
battle of "Operation Enduring Freedom" ("Supreme
Irony" having been too obvious) has already been fought.
No shots were fired. No lives were lost, not yet. But the
battle – and with it, perhaps the entire war – was lost.
Throughout
the Balkans, the first test of the Empire’s asserted readiness
to combat "terrorism" crumpled as Washington chose
to continue supporting local terrorists by fortifying
their conquest of the peninsula.
BAFFLED
IN BOSNIA
In
Bosnia, where foreign mujahideen made their first
appearance in the Balkans, things seemed to go well. Afraid
it would be called to account over alleged links of its wartime
Muslim regime with militant Islamic movements, including al-Qaeda,
Bosnia’s government hurried
to deny any knowledge of bin Laden’s operations on its
soil. It is, however, reviewing the citizenship status awarded
during the 1992-95 war to some eleven thousand people.
Haris Silajdzic, wartime Foreign Minister of the Sarajevo
regime and a major player in the current ruling coalition,
abruptly and without explanation retired from political life
last week.
Just
this Monday, all of Bosnia’s rulers (three governments, five
Presidents and three Parliaments, by the last count) agreed
to join America’s war on terrorism. It was a truly magnificent
sight: a U.S./NATO protectorate, strapped for funds and stripped
of meaning, making terrorists tremble at the news that "The
Bosnians are coming!" If only Bosnia’s governments
could agree what "Bosnian" means…
WHAT
ALBANIAN CONNECTION?
In
the immediate aftermath of Black Tuesday, media in the Balkans
were buzzing with stories of bin Laden’s connections
in the region, and of massive infiltration of Iranian
and Saudi Wahhabi influence in Albania and Kosovo. These facts
have been well-known but largely ignored over the past five
years.
Reports
from the Interpol, as well as German, British and even American
media have claimed that militant Islamic groups have operated
in and out of Albania at least since that country’s descent
into anarchy in 1997. The Interpol even said that bin Laden
himself passed through Albania in 1999, amidst the US war
on behalf of the KLA. Albania, of course, flatly denies this.
So does the KLA leadership, while pledging
undying loyalty to the US.
Given
that Albania has been a major base for US troops in the past
decade, and that the Empire’s Balkans policy rests on support
for Albanian causes, it is not surprising that Albanian denials
are echoed
by the US government. Those very same FBI
and CIA that claim to have known nothing about Black Tuesday
until it happened, now state with certainty that bin Laden
never had anything to do with the Albanians. And the KLA was
a peaceful, democratic caucus of freedom-loving patriots,
fighting
for American values.
Right.
DEFEAT
IN MACEDONIA
Earlier
this year, the US-supported Albanian militants sought to eviscerate
the Macedonian nation through acts of terror – bombing, ethnic
cleansing and murder. First pledging "total support"
while "urging restraint," US and EU envoys eventually
embargoed weapons shipments to Macedonia and forced its government
to give in to Albanian demands by signing the Treaty of Ohrid.
In exchange for special privileges and virtual apartheid,
disguised as "greater civil rights," Albanian terrorists
were supposed to turn some 3000 of their weapons over to NATO
troops and thus officially
"disarm." That they did so enthusiastically,
while treating
NATO troops as allies and "liberators," ought
to have testified about the impartiality of this alliance
– the same one that brought the terrorist KLA to power after
occupying Serbia’s Kosovo province over two years ago.
Having
experienced the horrors of terrorism and American death from
above, Serbs and Macedonians dared to hope that America’s
post-September 11 proclamation to fight terrorism would be
honest and consistent. Imperial Legate James Pardew, one of
the authors of the Ohrid Treaty, immediately dispelled
that illusion. In no way are terrorists who attack America
and terrorists who attack Macedonia comparable, Pardew said.
The former attacked Americans…
Adding
insult to injury was NATO’s GenSec George Robertson, who cheerfully
announced a continued
military presence in Macedonia and brought a "message
of hope and reassurance that NATO will
not leave this country alone."
Of
course not. Leaving countries alone is absolutely beyond the
pale in this brave new world, where the definition of terrorism
depends on people who waffle on the meaning of "is,"
and the fate of nations is decided by "democratic"
imposition of apartheid from abroad. Blow up Macedonians
and occupy their country, and you’re a paragon of human rights.
Blow up Americans, and you are the vilest threat to civilization
that has walked the face of the Earth, meriting nuclear
holocaust. Is Richard Nixon’s "Madman
Theory" alive and well, acting as the Empire’s guiding
light in these times of descending darkness?
WANTING
IS BELIEVING
Of
course, when one represents civilization itself and has absolute
power to wage war throughout the world, nothing so pesky as
facts can be allowed to stand in the way. That which does
not suit the official position is either denied or ignored.
This deranged behavior goes as far as to impart selective
credibility to sources, based entirely on the acceptability
of what they say.
One
obvious example is Serbia’s Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic.
Earlier this year he claimed
to have discovered bodies of hundreds of allegedly massacred
Kosovo Albanians, thus "proving" NATO’s allegations
of president Milosevic’s crimes in Kosovo. Shortly thereafter,
Serbia’s servile government delivered Milosevic to the Hague
Inquisition, in exchange for empty promises of foreign money.
Washington watched from the sidelines and applauded, while
British and American papers took Mihajlovic’s words – and
those of his mouthpiece, Dragan Karleusa – as holy writ.
Now, however, when Mihajlovic claims he has evidence of Albanian
connections with bin Laden, such claims are ignored, denied
or even ridiculed by those very same reporters. All of a sudden,
Mihajlovic is no longer a reliable source.
OPERATION
ENDURING EMPIRE
One
cannot fight terrorism "everywhere" and then look
the other way – or even support it – in the Balkans, or
anywhere else in the world. With that in mind, His Determined
Majesty’s crusade
seems to be less of an honest commitment to fight terrorism
and more of an open-ended excuse to attack
anyone opposed to unfettered exercise of America’s absolute
power, especially since Black Tuesday so tragically showed
that America's power is nowhere
near as absolute as it was widely believed.
Bush
has called for countries around the world to stand "with"
or "against" America. Apparently, in the world of
freedom and democracy, minding one’s own business is punishable
by US invasion. In that light, proclamations of absolute loyalty
and never-ending friendship from US vassals and colonies are
not a testimony to the righteousness of America’s cause –
whatever that may be – but merely proof of some people’s
endless capacity for sycophancy, motivated by survival instinct.
Fail to grovel, and risk becoming a "terrorist."
How convenient.
The
cold-blooded murder of over 7,000 people in New York and Washington
sixteen days ago should have awoken America to the perils
of playing with terrorism as a means of creating and securing
an Empire few of its citizens wanted anyway. This week’s events
in the Balkans clearly show that the war on terrorism is anything
but, and that the only benefactor of Black Tuesday will be
the apocalyptic vision of American Empire, now finally able
to assert itself in a war without end.
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