NATO
Turning Into Global Policeman: American Imperialistic
Schemes
1 March 2010By Nana Devdariani
Recently declassified Soviet files have revealed that
in 1952 Joseph offered the US a deal: he would reunite
Germany by abandoning East Germany provided this
united Germany refused to join NATO. Washington
rejected this overture, although it has always been
held that the US did everything it could to reunite
Germany until the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.
The released documents came as a surprise to many
experts. After the death of Joseph Stalin Lavrenti
Beria called on the Western countries to reunite
Germany as a neutral statye. James Warburg believes
that such a possibility existed but they still opted
to include West Germany in NATO, and its acceded to
membership in 1955.
The case of Germany has important implications for
‘divided’ Georgia. Choosing to join NATO will put off
the resolution of Georgia’s territorial disputes for
decades. It is very unlikely that the US is more
concerned about Georgia’s territorial integrity that
it was about Germany’s. There are no signs of that.
Moreover, as in the case of Germany Georgia’s
territorial integrity is considered less important
than its NATO membership.
In 1955 the Socialist countries (led of course by the
USSR) set up the Warsaw Pact. NATO always rejected the
proposals to sign non-agression pacts with it or
dissolve both alliances. We talk about NATO a lot in
Georgia but the discussion has rarely come down to
specifics. Almost no one talks about what exactly
Georgia can expect from NATO membership. What
advantages does it give us? Or should we join NATO
just for Russia’s ‘sake’, to take revenge on it?
Joining NATO does not only affect to the territorial
integrity of Georgia, which is certainly of vital
importance, but all aspects of the Georgian state.
Let us address the military aspect first. The outlook
here does not seem attractive. In an interview in 2007
former Defence Minister Davit Tevzadze noted: NATO has
an armed forces quota and a plan for how to use all
the troops of its member states. Bulgaria, Romania and
the Czech Republic have been disarmed since joining
the alliance. Once they were told what their function
was in NATO these countries had to dramatically cut
their armed forces. If the situation changes tomorrow
these countries will become vulnerable due to their
lack of domestic forces. If we join NATO we will
become the first target for Russian attack. Even if we
become a member nobody will be able to help us with
their troops in practice. The only means of assistance
NATO has is Turkey, which is capable of making a rapid
reaction, but rapid reaction means that Georgia will
turn into a theatre of war. A grim outlook, indeed.
The Georgian public demonstrate stunningly little
knowledge of NATO. The common opinion is merely that
what was bad under Soviet ideology became
automatically good after the demise of the USSR. Had
NATO really been an alliance against the Soviet threat
it would have died after the Warsaw bloc dissolved.
But quite the contrary is happening: NATO is expanding
into former Socialist countries and some of the former
Soviet republics.
In his 2004 book The Choice: Global Dominance or
Global Leadership Zbigniew Brzezinski draws
interesting parallels: “NATO acquired a new role in
the 90s of the twentieth century when it established
stability in the violent and turbulent Balkans. At the
start of the next decade it became clear that we
cannot avoid a kind of stability pact for the Caucasus
– something similar to the stability pact of South
Eastern Europe.”
The recognition of Kosovo in the Balkan example has
demonstrated what this stability actually looks like.
Giving up territorial integrity in this way is not
attractive for Georgia. Brzezhinski believes that
NATO’s further penetration into the former Soviet
Union is inevitable as Russia has recognised the
superiority of the Atlantic community in the global
security structure. The last four years have
demonstrated that Russia’s, and not only Russia’s,
attitude towards NATO has radically changed.
In the last few months more politicians have started
advocating Georgia’s neutrality. Peoples’ attitutes
towards NATO have also started changing. Georgian
society is no longer homogenous and positive about
Georgia joining NATO. This is no wonder, as NATO is
looking more and more like a global policeman. The
only thing which might push Georgia to embrace this
policing is the restoration of our territorial
integrity, but this is an issue NATO would not
intervene in.
If we look at the lukewarm positions of our ‘friendly’
countries towards Georgia’s territorial woes we gain
the impression that the West needs our membership
purely for its own interests. But Russia does not need
NATO at its southern border. NATO would not be a bad
counterweight in the dialogue with Russia to bring
remedies for our vital ills, but Kosovo has shown that
territorial integrity is not a red line the West
cannot cross. Therefore, we need neutrality on
condition that Georgia’s territorial integrity will be
restored through negotiations with Russia.
In general American politics is prone to building
myths (politics in general is fed by myths but the
scales here are impressive). Here are a few examples.
It was widely reported in 1998 that in Kosovo the
Serbian armed forces had indulged in ethnic cleansing,
forcing half of the Kosovo Albanians to flee. The
continual bloodshed forced the US administration and
its allies to conduct mass bombings to allow Albanian
refugees to return home. In short the NATO attack of
March 24 was portrayed as an act of mercy.
What happened in reality? According to American
analysts, about 2,000 people died, on both sides,
before the NATO bombings started. On March 27, on the
third day of the attack, NATO Chief Commander Wesley
Clark told journalists that the Serbian Government was
expected to react shamefully and this was grounds for
concern for the Western political leadership. In his
memoirs Clark writes that he told then-Secretary of
State Madeleine Allbright that if NATO continued
attacking Serbs the Serbian Government was most likely
to terrorise civilians and NATO would not be able to
protect them.
Boston University Professor Andew Bachevich believes
that these bombings should turn into a lesson for
every European state which has illusions that the
rules of the new system of post-Cold War international
relations – which Washington established - do not
apply to them. To the US hegemony in a united,
integrated and free Europe is important.
In February 2008 the US crowned its Kosovo campaign of
nine years with a brutal violation of territorial
integrity, sovereignty and international law by
promoting in every way the unilateral recognition of
Albanian Kosovo. Such shameless behaviour by the US
directly encouraged Russia to recognise Abkhazia and
South Ossetia. In fact, if such an act is acceptable
against Serbia why can it not be done to Georgia?
After the shameful February 17, 2008 UN Security
Council session anti-American sentiments swept Serbia.
It is amazing that such sentiments form in those very
countries which Americans want to help democratise.
The US has somehow managed to seed anti-American
sentiments in fomer Yugoslavia, which was the most
pro-Western country after the dissolution of the
Warsaw bloc in both economy and mentality.
During the last Presidential elections Davit
Gamkrelidze complained that due to Saakashvili’s
adventurism popular support for Georgia joining NATO
had fallen from 84 percent to 63 percent in two
months. This figure miraculously recovred in two weeks
to 77 percent (in short, it is bad to rig the votes in
the Presidential elections but OK to rig the results
of the referendum!). “I find it extremely difficult to
advocate for the US,” he said. It is up to him to
decide whether it is worth doing this but the attempt
by the Georgian opposition to show America that it is
more pro-American than the Government or pro-democracy
than the Government looks unconvincing and
unsupportable now.
Following the Rose Revolution the Georgian Parliament
rapidly ratified an agreement which allows American
servicemen to freely travel throughout Georgia and not
face justice here if they commit a crime. They will be
judged by American laws. Georgians cannot search,
detain or arrest American servicemen. Let me remind
you that in the previous 10 years the Russian soldiers
here did not have the right to move from one base to
another without the permission of the local Georgian
authorities and some arrests took place when rule was
infringed.
What else is joining NATO but a compromising of our
sovereignty? Against this background it is ridiculous
to even theorise about deploying NATO bases in Georgia
as current policy has already turned Georgia into a
military base for NATO, which Americans can freely
travel around and do whatever they feel like doing in.
Most Georgians believe that NATO is a military
organisation. Nobody mentions that France has left the
NATO military organisation but remained a member of
the North Atlantic alliance. It did this back in 1974,
citing its motive as being: “to restore France’s
sovereignty in its full form.”
Georgia, with its problems, is still as much of an
alien country to the West as it was 20 years ago.
Protection of our sovereignity remains the top
priority for Georgia.
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