>The Kosovo crisis has offered the United States such advantages for
>making their presence felt as to prove irresistible. With the further
>dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Washington can, with one blow: strengthen
>Germany's privileged partner, anti-fundamentalist Islamic Turkey; humiliate
>the Russians; seal the loyalty of the new NATO members Poland, Hungary and
>the Czech Republic through a baptism of fire; and finally, teach a lesson
>to the Eurocrats.
This is mainly speculation, but this war, combined with yesterday's FT story about Rubin trying to reduce Europe's role in the IMF, makes me think the U.S. is seriously worried about keeping the Old World in place after EMU. The euro is the first credible rival to the dollar since the U.S. took over the world 50 years ago, and for all the public pronouncements of support, I think Washington really wants to show Brussels? Frankfurt? Berlin? Paris? who's boss.
Speaking of lying public pronouncements, I just watched the video of the documentary Waco: Rules of Engagement <http://www.waco93.com> last night. Such extreme official violence surrounded by extreme official lies! It's nearly impossible to find the video in rental stores - I bought a copy from Amazon. But it's damn fine stuff, esp in the context of this war, another instance of extreme official violence surrounded by extreme official lies.
Doug