GLOBALISM'S FIRST VICTIM
NATIONAL POST, Wednesday, June 23, 1999
by David Orchard
In March, the most powerful military force in history attacked tiny
Yugoslavia (one fifth the size of Saskatchewan) and after seventy-nine
days of flagrantly illegal bombing forced an occupation of Kosovo.
Admitting its intention was to break Yugoslavia's spirit, NATO targeted
civilian structures, dropping over 23,000 bombs (500 Canadian) and
cruise missiles in a campaign of terror bombing, described recently by
Alexander Solzhenitsyn as follows: "I don't see any difference in the
behaviour of NATO and of Hitler. NATO wants to erect its own order in
the world and it needs Yugoslavia simply as an example: We'll punish
Yugoslavia and the whole rest of the planet will tremble."
The idea that NATO attacked Yugoslavia to solve a humanitarian crisis is
about as credible as Germany's claim in 1939 that it was invading Poland
to prevent "Polish atrocities." The United Nations Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) reported the first registered refugees out of Kosovo on
March 27th - three days after the bombing began. Civilian casualties
after twenty-one days of bombing exceeded all casualties on both sides
in Kosovo in the three months before the war.
In an all out effort to convince public opinion that Yugoslavia deserved
the onslaught, Western politicians and media are churning out endless
accusations of Serb atrocities, while the proven and infinitely greater
atrocities of NATO - launching an aggressive war, using internationally
outlawed cluster bombs and firing depleted uranium ammunition into
Yugoslavia - are buried.
Why did NATO attack Yugoslavia and why are Serbs - Canada's staunch
allies in both World Wars, with 1.5 million dead resisting Hitler's
Nazis and Italian Fascism - being demonized?
Most 19th century wars were over trade. When the U.S. invaded Canada in
1812, Andrew Jackson declared, "We are going to... vindicate our right
to a free trade, and open markets... and to carry the Republican
standard to the Heights of Abraham." In 1839, Britain demanded China
accept its opium and attacked when China said no. When Thailand refused
British trading demands in 1849, Britain "found its presumption
unbounded" and decided "a better disposed King [be] placed on the
throne... and through him, we might, beyond doubt, gain all we desire."
In 1999, NATO said it was attacking Yugoslavia to force it to sign the
Rambouillet "peace agreement" (even though the Vienna Convention states
that any treaty obtained by force or the threat of force is void).
Significantly, Rambouillet stipulated: "The economy of Kosovo shall
function in accordance with free market principles" and "There shall be
no impediments to the free movement of persons, goods, services and
capital to and from Kosovo."
During the war, Bill Clinton elaborated: "If we're going to have a
strong economic relationship that includes our ability to sell around
the world Europe has got to be the key; that's what this Kosovo thing is
all about... It's globalism versus tribalism."
"Tribalism" was the word used by 19th century free trade liberals to
describe nationalism. And this war was all about threatening any nation
which might have ideas of independence.
Yugoslavia had a domestically controlled economy, a strong publicly
owned sector, a good (and free) health care system and its own defence
industry. It had many employee owned factories - its population was
resisting wholesale privatization. It produced its own pharmaceuticals,
aircraft and Yugo automobile. It refused to allow U.S. military bases on
its soil. According to the speaker of the Russian Duma: "Yugoslavia
annoys NATO because it conducts an independent policy, does not want to
join NATO and has an attractive geographic position."
Ottawa, cutting medicare, agricultural research, social housing and
shelters for battered women, spent tens of millions to bomb Yugoslavia
and is spending millions more occupying Kosovo, while abandoning its own
sovereignty to U.S. demands, from magazines to fish, wheat and lumber.
It is expropriating part of British Columbia for the U.S. military and
considering the U.S. dollar as North America's currency. Now, the
Liberals have thrown our reputation as a peace keeper into the trash
can, along with the rule of international law, by smashing a small
country to pieces at the behest of Washington.
In a March 28 New York Times article, Thomas Friedman wrote: "For
globalization to work, America can't be afraid to act like the almighty
superpower that it is... The hidden hand of the market will never work
without a hidden fist - McDonald's cannot flourish without McDonnell
Douglas, the designer of the F-15. And the hidden fist that keeps the
world safe for Silicon Valley's technologies is called the United States
Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps."
As NATO troops entered Kosovo, the same newspaper announced Kosovo's new
currency will be the U.S. dollar or German mark, currencies of the two
countries most responsible for Yugoslavia's break-up. And after months
of being told that Slobodan Milosevic was the problem, we heard
Washington Balkans expert, Daniel Serwer, explain: "It's not a single
person that's at issue, there's a regime in place in Belgrade that is
incompatible with the kind of economy that the World Bank... has to
insist on..."
The Canadian government professes great interest in human rights.
Globalization undermines both democracy and national sovereignty, the
only guarantors of human rights. Unfortunately for Messrs. Clinton,
Chretien et al, that message was not lost on millions around the world
watching NATO bombs pulverize Yugoslavia. THE END
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DAVID ORCHARD is the author of a newly expanded bestseller, The Fight
for Canada: Four Centuries of Resistance to American Expansionism. He
farms at Borden, Saskatchewan and was runner-up in last year's
Progressive Conservative Party leadership contest.
He is the chair of Citizens Concerned About Free Trade and convened the
Ad-Hoc Committee to Stop Canada's Participation in the War on
Yugoslavia.
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AD HOC COMMITTEE TO STOP CANADA'S PARTICIPATION
IN THE WAR AGAINST YUGOSLAVIA
Citizens Concerned About Free Trade/Campaign for Canada
#202-9 Bloor Street East, Toronto, ON., M4W 1A9
Toronto: (416)922-7867 Fax: (416)922-7883
Saskatoon: (306)244-5757 Fax: (306)244-3790
Vancouver: (604)683-3733 Fax: (604)683-3749
e-mail: ccafttor@sympatico.ca
website: http://web.idirect.com/~ccaft
http://www.davidorchard.com
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