Printed here with A.G.F. authorization. R.R.
A MODEST PROPOSAL : NATO invade
Belgium beginning with its own headquarters there! -
by A. Gunder Frank
(made in the tradition of Jonathan Swift who during the Irish Potato Famine modestly
proposed that the Irish eat their own children to kill two birds with one stone.)
The following message just appeared on the net:
" Sent: Monday, May 12, Subject: URGENT Support the case against General Franks. Send
signatures to support Court case against General Franks in Brussels. No impunity for war
crimes committed by U.S. troops in Iraq. " Moreover, the same appeal has already been
made and signed by far more than 100, 000 people to prosecute also in Belgium Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for War Crimes committed in Lebanon in 1982.
The precedent for both is the Spanish civil court's indictment of Chilean General Pinochet
for human rights crimes committed elsewhere and his arrest for about a year in the UK on
that charge following Spain's demand to the UK for extradition. Several other European
countries also indicted Pinochet, who was eventually returned to Chile on grounds of
excessive physical and mental ill health to stand trial. The British Home Secretary
supporting this indictment and extradition for a year was the same Jack Straw who after
being promoted to Foreign Secretary recently toured the world war mongering for the attack
on Iraq. Following that precedent set by himself, how about indicting Jack and his boss
Tony Blair in Belgium and elsewhere as well.
In face of all this imminent danger, NATO MUST INVADE BELGIUM. The US already warned that
it was ready to invade Holland if any of its citizens be indicted by any of the UN Courts
of Human Rights there.
Indeed NATO invasion of Belgium and of NATO headquarters there is an urgent necessity also
for yet another reason. On the same May 12, the INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE published an
op ed by Lord Robertson, now Head of NATO and during its War Against Yugoslavia, British
Secretary of 'Defense." In that op ed, Lord Roberston, now of course based also in
Belgium, specifically welcomed and even further promoted what used to be called Mission
"Creep", but which he signaled to have taken a huge jump at the last NATO
meeting, which converted into de Jure, what it had already done de Facto: Aggressive
Expansion into Non-European Areas [which happen to have oil].
An apparently only minor problem, so minor as to have escaped Lord Robertson's attention,
is that also first de facto and then also de jure, all this violates THREE separate
principles enshrined in the very first Preamble paragraph of the NATO Charter [for word by
word quotation see csf.colorado.edu/agfrank/ New World Order Section, NATO sub-section]:
NATO [1] shall NOT Act '' Out of Area," that is the Western Europe and North America
it was established to defend, 2] shall NOT wage Aggressive War as it did out of area in
Yugoslavia and as some of its members then did against Afghanistan and Iraq, in which NATO
only supplied logistic support, and 3] shall NOT act in any way that would be in violation
of the UN Charter, which was violated wholesale in each of these wars - including the 1991
war Against Iraq, which despite the UN Security Council resolution then that was not
forthcoming now, violated SEVEN separate Articles of the UN Charter, eg. 2, 27,
41,42,43,52]. So Lord Robertson could also be a candidate for trial in a Belgian court for
his waging of war in 1999 and more than that also in violation of several Geneva
Conventions, then as British Secretary of ''Defense" and now as Head of NATO,
actively supporting the triple violation of its own NATO Charter. Since no appeal
regarding Lord Roberston as well has yet appeared on the net, at least here, my MODEST
PROPOSAL is to go whole hog and NATO INVADE BELGIUM AND NATO HEADQUARTERS IN BRUSSELS
immediately, also in keeping with the Bush [son] Doctrine's waging of not only preventive
but pre-emptive war, lest things get even further out of hand. For evidently there has
been a major COUP d' ETAT at NATO Headquarters and perhaps also in Washington, which the
poor Belgian judicial system cannot realistically be expected to stand up to all alone.
Perhaps General Franks could offer his strategic talents also to the service of this WAR
AGAINST WAR, which his Commander in Chief never tires of defending, as in 1984 Big Brother
did in his assurances that WAR IS PEACE.
A Footnote on Democracy
Not a single NATO member country in 1999 submitted its participation in the NATO War
Against Yugoslavia to its national parliament. The Canadian Prime Minister went so far as
to declare publically that he could NOT afford to consult his parliament, because there
would be some voices and votes against going to[an illegal] war, and that would give aid
and comfort to the enemy.
NATO seems to be in serious danger, since it was completely left out of the last two wars
against Iraq and Afghanistan, for which there was after all exactly as much legitimacy and
legality as for the NATO war in 1999, that is NONE.
Now Europe's reputedly most NON democratic country, so much so that it is a supposed
barrier to its entry to the EU dedicated to democratic princples, Turkey saw its
parliament democratically vote AGAINST and thereby effectively PREVENT a US ground attack
of Iraq through Turkey. Wolfowitz of Arabia just went there to tell them that they should
now admit they had made a mistake. The Turkish government [against which the parliament
had voted!] answered that it would do NO such thing. I guess NATO has to expand its
invasion list also to another member country, Turkey. At least that is not out of area!
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