Charles Brown
((((((((
(Excerpt)
The consequences of the Kosovo debacle will take time to work themselves out. But the chances of disgraced Nato being resurrected seem small, and the Atlantic dimension is therefore going to be transformed. US hegemony is under threat not just in Eastern Europe, Russia and the Balkans, but in the EU too. The intertwining of financial, corporate and military structures and process, and the reciprocity of effects among them, is a key feature of modern imperialism and a clue to the flexibility, dynamism and overwhelming political power enjoyed until now by the US. But leverage works both ways, and from being in a win-win situation the US now faces a lose-lose situation. Loss of military-political control over Europe is dangerous for US corporate and financial hegemony and directly imperils the supremacy of the dollar. Financial convulsions cannot be far behind and as Russia spins out of control, there seems little left to keep the Wall St bubble inflated. But that is not the worst of it. The 'disinterested humanitarians' of Downing St and the White House needed to win in the Balkans to be sure of securing Caspian and Persian Gulf energy supplies in the coming decades. Their failure is no encouragement to their client states in the Gulf or Georgia and Azerbaijan in the Caspian/Caucasus region. And what are the chances now of the US/Europe dominating Russian oil and squeezing China out of the energy-rich Kazakh, Uzbek and other Central Asian states? Nil.
The blindingly-obvious ultimate reason for Nato's military failure is the absolute lack of militarism among the 600m citizens of Nato countries. Arcade war is OK, war-war definitely not, especially when it takes place near Adriatic tourist centres. The mass psychological reconstruction of Nato populations is perhaps the most urgent necessity which the imperialist states, their war makers and ideologists, face. Unless popular pro-war feelings can be whipped up, it is clear that not just Nato is a white elephant: the Revolution in Military Affairs, which was supposed to guarantee push-button control of human affairs, is just a hollow farce.