NATO Beyond Collective Defense Part IV: NATO's Hypocritical Kings By Steve Farrell Edmund Burke, said of the justness of the American Revolution, that it sought not to overthrow the wisdom of the ages, but rather to build a more glorious structure upon its foundation. Our Constitution's rejection of Kings, and what John Locke described as the King's "divine prerogative," to wage war, are two of the finer improvements the founders gave us to secure liberty. Yet today, we are confronted with the reality that we now have a President and his comrades at NATO who stand accused of exercising this "dearest prerogative of kings," on a sovereign nation which has fired no shot across the bow at them - for two very unjust reasons. First, from the perspective of our would-be-king, an attempt to distract attention, once again, from another embarrassing investigation - this one exploring what has been described as "treasonous" aid to China; and second, from the perspective of NATO's would-be-kings, an effort to launch NATO into the 21st century as a key player in the emerging international order. The latter, Clinton and Blair have said, is the "top reason NATO must win in Kosovo." Who can doubt that these are the real reasons we are at war? Take Bill Clinton, for instance. Does any one really believe he lies sleepless at night worrying about ethnic cleansing and the raping of Kosovo's women, as a recent article in Time magazine suggested? It is he, after all, who justified human rights violations in China by comparing them with our own deficiencies.. It is he who stands accused of receiving campaign donations (bribes) from Red China in exchange for Top Secret information and technology, which has, in turn, put US citizens at risk from nuclear and biological war. It is he who deemed it moral to "reserve judgement," after Russia literally leveled an entire village in Chechnya, since, said Clinton, "I wasn't there," It is he who then secured a multibillion dollar loan for these "ex-Soviets," now Russians, to finish the job. It is he who has consistently stood behind the terrorist Palestinian Liberation Army in its quest to surround and finally conquer Israel. It is he who brazenly categorized the BATF assault on a church, which murdered men, women, and children at WACO, as justifiable. It is he who successfully promoted as a constitutional right the slaughter of the innocent through partial birth abortions. And it is he who still stands accused of numerous accounts of sexual harassment and rape. Are these the makings of one who lies sleepless at night worrying about people's liberties and moral sanctity? And what about British Prime Minister Tony Blair? Isn't it he, who during his watch as Prime Minister, stood gleefully by as Hong Kong slipped out of British hands into the clutch of Red China? Isn't it he, who didn't raise so much as an eyebrow in protest, as China, for up to a year prior to the transfer, aggressively reneged on its promises to secure democracy and free enterprise for 50 years in Hong Kong? Isn't it he, who looked the other way as Red China assigned Beijing "advisors" to newspapers and private companies in Hong Kong, who looked the other way as Red China confiscated Hong Kong businessmen's holdings in China because they dared to object to some of the changes? Isn't it he, who looked the other way as China forbade outside investment in Hong Kong's telecommunications market, and who looked the other way, even as China disbanded the legislature and then stripped the voting franchise to a very small fraction of the people? And isn't it Tony Blair who has continued the English "ethnic cleansing" of the Catholic Irish Republican Army? One wonders if NATO should be bombing London also? The hypocrisy shows, and so who can believe we are in Kosovo to bring an end to moral cleansing and to usher in an era of democracy in Yugoslavia? Common sense bares witness that the mixture of Clinton's scandal cover-up and Clinton and Blair's new world imperialism are the real reasons we have waged an unprovoked war on a sovereign nation. It is dumbfounding then, that Congress has not yet brought our President,
Prime Minister Blair, and NATO back down to earth. Acting like Kings,
NATO's rulers speak in terms of "how dare they," of those who
would question the morality of their bombing civilians in Kosovo. But
since they have gone to war without our consent and have trashed the rules
of sovereignty in favor of some utopian vision of a new world order, perhaps,
"How dare you," is what we should say to NATO. Steve Farrell is a Senior Associate Editor with Right Magazine. Please email your comments to Mr. Farrell at sfarrell@rightmagazine.com |
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