We Are Under No Obligation to Perform Military Service for Washington!

by Thomas Brandtner, Austria/Brussels

Why, one wonders, have even old friends of the US begun to find it so difficult in recent years to maintain their traditional world view?

The author of these lines was for many years a committed advocate of his country Austria becoming a member of Nato, but he now sees himself forced to reconsider what was fundamental to his stance – the assumption that Nato was a defensive pact of liberal democracies.

What is the reason for this? Is it the big power arrogance with which Clinton’s government ignored international law? Is it Washington’s argumentation resounding over the Atlantic as to why America apparently needs a system of ballistic atomic missiles for defence purposes that is vaguely reminiscent of past imperialist behaviour and which avails itself of so little credibility?

If it is not a case of legitimate self-defence against a real threat then what are aims of the space defence project that will cost billions of dollars? What is the connection between this project and America’s present nuclear armament campaign with offensive weapons like the B-2 Stealth bomber or the ordered development of new ‘clean’ atomic warheads for the destruction of heavily bunkered installations, which are quite clearly first strike systems? Which strategic aims are being pursued with the activities of American hunter-killer submarines in the seas close to Russia that then attracted international attention in connection with the Kursk catastrophe, in areas where the last operational Russian ballistic missile submarines attempt to maintain their second strike ability so that they have some sort of life insurance against the danger of a nuclear attack? What was the aim of the attempts by American hydrographic research vessels to locate and pursue the Chinese nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, Xia, on its patrol tours, which some weeks ago ended in a clash when a Chinese escort frigate switched on its radar fire control and then proceeded to direct its guns at an American ship?

How seriously should the well-known American strategist and former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski be taken who suggests in his book ‘The Grand Chessboard’ that Russia should be broken up into a number of parts (naturally, only because this would supposedly promote economic growth in this part of the world)? It is a fact that world wide there is increasing worry over America’s ‘hyper power’. And in the atmosphere of a new Cold War a much ridiculed relict from the past that had been declared dead has suddenly celebrated a surprising gain in importance: neutrality. No doubt one is right in thinking that mindful democrats in security policy terms, not only in Switzerland, consider all those lucky who are not under obligation to perform military service for the so very world-power conscious men in Washington.