Nowadays, the common sense can hardly believe in the tangible fact that NATO is endangering the safety of the two nuclear powers, Russia and China. Judging by the antirussian campaign in the Western media, as well as the deployment of NATO troops in Eastern Europe and the Far East, it is as if the war has already started.
The territories on which NATO entered a series of attacks against sovereign States, launched by bombing Republika Srpska and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, remained in ruins and in chronic ethnic conflicts. The Balkans are now one of the world’s crisis hot spots, along with Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria. Our Balkan concerns are, however, a trifle compared to what is threatening the entire humanity.
What could stop this course of events? The observers who allude to the theory of realism in international relationships, argue that NATO can no longer be stopped. They say that it is not reason, nor kindness, who take decisions in the relationships between the countries, but power and might. Benjamin Disraeli, one of the founders of this ideology, but also of the modern British imperialism, argued that “power can be stopped only by power”, regarding the conflict between Britain and Russia in the Balkans.
The second-best option for humanity would, however, change the foreign policy of the leading NATO member countries. The awareness has grown in Western societies about the fact that small, privileged business, clerical, military and academic circles, located mainly in the US and the UK, led their own countries and the world to the brink of downfall. This idea maturation cannot be seen in the big Western media, but at the elections, the voice of the people is each time louder. Citizens of the United States, Britain, France and Germany are, in fact, frightened and horrified. They are dying in terrorist attacks on their own streets and workplaces, in their homes. Thanks to the mass immigration of refugees from countries that are being destroyed by NATO, the identity of Western countries is changing at a tremendous speed. Along with xenophobia, the ongoing Americanization is gradually shutting down a centuries-old European tradition of unity, solidarity and concern for fellow human beings.
This popular revolt can nowhere be seen so well as in the Anglo-Saxon world, the epicenter of the most important global trends. From the beginning, however, it was clear that Boris Johnson and Donald Trump are not the true alternatives. According to their social relationships and beliefs, they belong to the privileged, neoliberal, belligerent elite. This is confirmed by a series of russophobic statements of Boris Johnson when he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, including those about Russia’s responsibility for causing trouble in Montenegro and in the Balkans. The most powerful man in the world, the US President Donald Trump, under the pressure of the “deep state”, accused of conspiring with the Russians, retreating and staggering, has dragged Montenegro into NATO and escalated the war in Syria.
Should we expect changes from the Left? Bernie Sanders called his astonished followers to vote for the candidate of the military-industrial complex, Hillary Clinton. In the UK elections that will take place on June 9th, the Labour party will however, as the most powerful opposition party, be led by Jeremy Corbyn. Judging by the polls, although less and less reliable, the Tories will win, because they took the monopoly on the key issues of immigration, identity and the European Union thanks to Brexit. Therefore, is Serbia, the country of poverty, unemployment, corruption, a failed health and education system, bombed and occupied by NATO troops, so indifferent to what is happening in the British left?
Source: stopwar.org.uk
The fact that Jeremy Corbyn is asking for the containment of privatization, the renovation of education, health and social care and that he is warning about the differences between the ever-poorer majority and the ever-richer minority, is not the most important thing for the topic of this article. He was, in fact, along with Tony Ben, Harold Pinter, Tariq Ali, George Galloway and others, one of the founders of the “Stop the War Coalition,” which, on the eve of the invasion of Iraq in February 2003, gathered in the London protests, according to some reports, over a million people. Corbyn was very strongly opposed to the invasion of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria. Moreover, he said that the crisis in Ukraine was triggered by NATO while encircling Russia and entering the territories that are vital for the Russian security.
Lastly, Jeremy Corbyn was with Tony Ben, the only parliamentary deputy who took part in the protests against the bombing of the FR Yugoslavia in 1999. Together with other 15 deputies, in March 1999, he signed a protest and condemnation of NATO attacks on Yugoslavia. He argued in the Parliament that no sovereign State would ever sign the agreement offered in Rambouillet. He condemned NATO for killing civilians, bombing the Radio Television building (RTS), the use of depleted uranium. With 18 MPs, he demanded in December 1999 to stop the persecution of Serbs and Roma in Orahovac (Kosovo). In December 2004, he was one of 25 MPs who welcomed the article by John Pilger which counter-proved the war propaganda about genocide against the Albanians in Kosovo.
Because of this attitude, Corbyn has not been accused or insulted just once. His social program has further contributed to the fact that, along with Putin and Trump, he is the most attacked public figure in the British media.
Does all this mean that the left has finally become more alive? Does the cake in the face of Bernard Henri Lévy mean that the Serbian leftists are coming out from a macabre embrace of the NATO rhetoric, scholarships and stiftung foundations? With a little patience, we will find out that as well.
Translated from Serbian by Svetlana Maksovic
Milos Kovic is a Serbian historian, Doctor of Historical Sciences and Assistant professor at the Department of History, Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, Serbia.
The areas of his research are international relations (late 18th – early 20th century), history of political ideas (late 18th – early 20th century).
He was at the Oxford University for professional development in 2004-2005. He participated in international conferences in London, Florence, Jena, Sofia, Belgrade.
Source: Belgrade daily newspaper POLITIKA May 22nd 2017
