New light on NATO motives?

Enrique Diaz-Alvarez enrique at anise.ee.cornell.edu
Fri Apr 30 07:25:53 PDT 1999


Max Sawicky wrote:
>
> > > I don't find an Article B. Do you mean item #8, in Appendix B to
> > > Chapter 7 regarding the free movement of NATO personnel
> > > throughout the FRY?
> >
> > The very one. Any comments?
>
> Sure. I don't think this clause means a damn thing. Suppose we agreed that
> Nato wanted to "conquer" Yugoslavia because it saw the country as an
> annoying residual of socialism and desired to expand the EU Empire (sic).

I don't think this is the case. The most likely explanation is that NATO/US wanted to make an example out of the Serbs, who have repeatedly given it the finger. You think they would have learned their lesson, after NATO/US allies killed thousands and cleared hundreds of thousands of them out of Croatia. So, the R. agreement was made purposefully impossible to accept, and the "negotiations" were a charade to give NATO political cover.

The paragraph (and a few others in the appendix on the same subject) is extremely explicit. I don't see how it could have "slipped" there by mistake or through incompetence.


> It lets Nato
> troops rampage through the country "legally," but a takeover would still be
> way beyond the bounds of the agreement.

What's the difference between "allowing NATO troops to rampage through the country" and "taking it over"?


>


>
> Maybe all that Nato wanted was easy access to Kosova from outside. Maybe
> they wanted to be able to pursue Serbian paramilitary who committed
> terrorist acts in Kosova. Maybe the language was unduly provocative to the
> Serbs, maybe on purpose, maybe out of stupidity. What does it matter now?
> Nato sucks. We know that.

Well, it matters because we are not discussing military intervention in the abstract here. We are arguing whether to support a very specific attack by a very specific organization with very specific aims. If it turns out that that said organization

a) doesn't give a rat's ass about the Kosovars, except as useful propaganda cover while it breaks somebody's legs to show the world who's boss

b) never seriously tried to reach a peaceful settlement

this would have some bearing on such discussion, don't you think?


>
> As a practical matter, if Nato wanted an agreement that permitted them to
> safeguard Kosova, it would need something like the clause. More important,
> since Nato is pretty much the only hope for Kosova, the clause would be
> necessary. If any settlement was likely, which seems increasingly doubtful.
>

What!? You are saying that the world's hegemon and its allies, with enormous armies that are at least 30 years ahead of the Yugoslav armed forces cannot control Kosovo, with the presumed support of 90% of its population without occupying Yugoslavia?

-- Enrique Diaz-Alvarez Office # (607) 255 5034 Electrical Engineering Home # (607) 272 4808 112 Phillips Hall Fax # (607) 255 4565 Cornell University mailto:enrique at ee.cornell.edu Ithaca, NY 14853 http://peta.ee.cornell.edu/~enrique



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