Cynthia McKinney: Tripoli - NATO's Feast of Blood

While Cynthia McKinney was serving on the House International Relations Committee from 1993 to 2003, it became clear to her that NATO was an anachronism. Founded in 1945 at the end of World War II, NATO was founded by the United States in response to the Soviet Union's survival as a Communist state. At the time, NATO was the US insurance policy that capitalist ownership and domination of European, Asian, and African economies would continue, and we would ensure the survival of their global countries. In essence, NATO is a collective security pact, where member states pledge that an attack upon one is an attack against all. Should the Soviet Union have attacked a member state, "the United States military shield" would be activated. The Soviet response was the Warsaw Pact, which maintained a "cordon sanitaire" around the Russian Heartland, should NATO ever attack. Thus, the world was divided into blocs, which gave rise to the "Cold War." Today's Cold Warriors still view the world in these terms, and unfortunately think of Communist China and an amputated Soviet Empire as "enemy states" of the US, whose moves anywhere on the planet are to be contested. The collapse of the Soviet Union provided an accelerated opportunity to exert US hegemony in an area of previous Russian influence. Africa and the Eurasian landmass containing former Soviet satellite states and Afghanistan and Pakistan along with the many other 'stans' of the region, have always factored prominently in the theories of "containment" or "rollback", guiding US policy up to today. With that background, last night's NATO rocket attack on Tripoli is inexplicable. A civilian metropolitan area with approximately 2 million people, Tripoli sustained 22 to 25 bombings that night, rattling and breaking windows and other glass, and shaking the foundation of Cynthia McKinney's hotel. On a personal note, I still remember watching the British and American bombing of Dresden from a nearby hill, singing Silent Night, Holy Night, while my mother and grandmother cried silently. According to David Irving's book: Apocalypse 1945, The Destruction of Dresden began at 10 PM on February 13, 1945. Though I served in Vietnam as Advisory Team Leader, I was very careful to avoid the killing of innocent civilians. As a matter of fact, when I saw our "enemy" spend their nights sleeping in 55 gallon drums fastened to the bank of that small river, I deliberately decided to avoid notifying the huge base camp of the 25th Infantry Division, all because I was still traumatized from my childhood memories of Dresden. Its time to end ALL Wars!