The Following text is Section 5 of
The 70 Years of NATO: From War to War,
by the Italian Committee No War No NATO
*
Documentation presented at the International Conference on the 70th Anniversary of NATO, Florence, April 7, 2019
In the course of the next two weeks, Global Research will publish the 16 sections of this important document, which will also be available as an E-book.
*
Contents
1. NATO is born from the Bomb
2. In the post-Cold War, NATO is renewed
3. NATO demolishes the Yugoslav state
4. NATO expands eastward to Russia
5. US and NATO attack Afghanistan and Iraq
6. NATO demolishes the Libyan state
7. The US/NATO war to demolish Syria
8. Israel and the Emirates in NATO
9. The US/NATO orchestration of the coup in Ukraine
10. US/NATO escalation in Europe
11. Italy, the aircraft carrier on the war front
12. US and NATO reject the UN treaty and deploy new nuclear weapons in Europe
13. US and NATO sink the INF Treaty
14. The Western American Empire plays the war card
15. The US/NATO planetary war system
16. Exiting the war system of NATO
***
1. The United States attacked and invaded Afghanistan in 2001 with the official motivation being to hunt down Osama bin Laden, who was targeted as the instigator of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. (The official version of what took place on 9/11 does not stand up to the technical-scientific investigations carried out by independent experts.) Osama bin Laden was a well-known figure in Washington. He belonged to a wealthy Saudi family and actively collaborated with the CIA from 1979 to 1989 when it trained and armed through the ISI (the Pakistani secret service) over 100,000 mujahidin for the war against the Soviet Union. The Soviet troops fell into the “Afghan trap” (as Zbigniew Brzezinski later defined it, stating that the training and arming of the mujahidin began in July 1979, five months before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan).
2. This opened a new phase in the international situation. The President of the United States was authorized to conduct a “Global War on Terrorism”, in which there were no geographical borders, conducted against an enemy who could be identified from time to time not only in as a terrorist or a presumed terrorist, but in anyone who opposed US policy and interests. President Bush described the perfect image of an enemy, interchangeable and lasting. as “an obscure enemy, hiding in the dark corners of the Earth”.
3. The real purpose of US military intervention in Afghanistan was the occupation of this area of primary strategic importance. Afghanistan is at the crossroads of the Middle East, Central Asia, South and East. In this area (in the Gulf and in the Caspian), there are large oil reserves. There are three major powers – China, Russia and India – whose strength is growing and influencing global assets. As the Pentagon had warned in the report of 30 September 2001, “there is the possibility that a military rival with a formidable resource base will emerge in Asia”.
4. In the period before 11 September 2001, there were strong signs of a rapprochement between China and Russia in Asia. Washington viewed this as a challenge to US interests at the critical moment when the United States sought to fill the void that the disintegration of the USSR had left in Central Asia. Afghanistan is in a key geostrategic position for the control of this area.
5. The war began in October 2001 with the bombing carried out by the US and British air forces. At this point, the UN Security Council authorized the establishment of the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force), whose command was entrusted in succession to Great Britain, Turkey, Germany and the Netherlands. But suddenly, in August 2003, NATO announced that it had “assumed the role of ISAF leadership force with a UN mandate”. It was a real coup. No resolution passed by the Security Council authorizes NATO to assume the leadership or command of the ISAF. Only in Resolution 1659 of February 2006 did the Security Council state that it “recognizes NATO’s continued engagement in directing the ISAF”. The ISAF mission was thus inserted into the Pentagon chain of command. The Italian military assigned to the ISAF was included in the same chain of command.
6. After Afghanistan, Iraq is the country that has been subjected to a strict embargo since 1991, which caused a million and a half deaths in ten years, of which about half a million were children. In 2002, President Bush listed Iraq in first place among the countries that belong to the “axis of evil”. Secretary of State Colin Powell presented to the UN Security Council “evidence” gathered by the CIA, which subsequently turned out to be false, on the alleged existence of a large arsenal of chemical and biological weapons in possession of Iraq, and on its alleged ability to build nuclear weapons in a short time. Because the Security Council refused to authorize the war, the Bush administration simply bypassed it.
7. The war began in March 2003 with the aerial bombing of Baghdad and other centers by the US and British air forces and with a land attack carried out by the Marines entering Iraq from Kuwait. In April, US troops occupied Baghdad. The operation, called “Iraqi Freedom”, was presented as “a preventive war” and “an export of democracy”. The US and allied occupation forces – including the Italian forces involved in the “Ancient Babylon” operation – encountered resistance they did not expect to find. In order to cut it off, Iraq was put on fire by over a million and a half soldiers that the Pentagon supplemented with hundreds of thousands of military contractors, using every means from phosphorus bombs to the people of Fallujah to torture in Abu Ghraib prison.
8. NATO actually participated in the war with its own structures and forces. In 2004, the “NATO Training Mission” was established in order to “help Iraq to create efficient armed forces”. In 2000, special courses were held in Alliance countries and thousands of Iraqi soldiers and policemen were trained. At the same time, NATO sent instructors and advisers, including Italians, to “help Iraq to create its own democratic and durable security sector” and “establish a long-term NATO partnership with Iraq”.
*
Sections 6-16 of the 70 Years of NATO, From War to War, forthcoming on Global Research
This text was translated from the Italian document which was distributed to participants at the April 7 Conference. It does not include sources and references.
Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.
