WESTERN EUROPEAN NEWS DIGEST
Lyndon LaRouche Holds Meetings in Milan
American economist and Democratic Party Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon LaRouche held public meetings, and met with Italian legislators and businessmen, in Milan, Italy March 21-22. On March 21, he was guest speaker at a VIP dinner organized by Lombard regional legislator Luciano Valaguzza and attended by about 100 select representatives from political, business, and professional circles in the Lombardy region. March 22, he met with the presidency of the Lombardy regional parliament, and with a delegation of regional legislators, from the government and the opposition both.
That same evening, LaRouche held a public meeting sponsored by a private entrepreneurs' association, before a packed audience. Among the politically prominent guests at the March 21 dinner, were the president of the Regional Council and the vice-chairman of the European Popular Party.
In addition, LaRouche held private meetings with national and local politicians, as well as experts and public officials.
Britain's Military Leaders: War on Iraq Doomed To Fail
According to an article ("Army Fear Over Blair War Plans") in the March 17 issue of the London Observer, "Britain's military leaders issued a stark warning to Tony Blair last night that any war against Iraq is doomed to fail." According to the British paper, the military leaders insisted that such a war "would lead to the loss of lives for little political gain," and "The leaders urged 'extreme caution' over any moves towards war, saying servicemen faced being bogged down in a perilous open-ended commitment. The sources warned that Arab countries were likely to rebel over any Western attack on Iraq without a Middle East peace deal. Failing that, the sources said Saudi Arabia was unlikely to allow its bases to be used against Saddam Hussein. Defense sources said that, without Saudi cooperation, it would be difficult to launch a sustained attack by American and British forces."
In the coming days, "Senior armed forces figures will warn the Prime Minister that without a leader-in-waiting to take over from Saddam, there is little chance of any successful move to overthrow the Iraqi dictator. There is no potential successor to Saddam that the West and Iraq's Arab neighbors could accept," and any British military involvement in Afghanistan would be an extended one. The Observer asserted that increased military strikes are the only option being seriously considered by President George W. Bush, and reported that it had received leaks of British Ministry of Defence papers prepared for Chief of the General Staff Gen. Michael Walker, which show that the armed forces' budget is by no means enough for what is being demanded in terms of present and future deployments.
British Defence Secretary: We Would Use Our Nukes
In testimony March 20 before a defense committee of the British Parliament, British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon identified Iraq, Iran, Libya, and North Korea as "states of concern," and warned that rogue nations could be confident that if Britain is attacked with weapons of mass destruction, she will be willing to use her nuclear weapons in her own defense.
Speaking to a House of Commons that was already in an uproar over Hoon's announcement that Britain would be sending 1,700 additional British troops to Afghanistan for offensive military operations, Hoon openly mooted British use of nuclear weapons against Iraq, and possibly against other so-called "states of concern," such as Libya, North Korea, and Iran. He blurted that "dictators" like Saddam Hussein "can be absolutely confident that in the right conditions (sic), we would be willing to use our nuclear weapons."
Meanwhile, according to British press reports of March 18, British Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan-Smith (who is very close to the American Enterprise Institute/New Atlantic Initiative mafia in Washington) has demanded 100% British support for an American attack on Iraq. He charged that the European Union, by withholding such enthusiasm for that attack, is busy "gazing at its political navel."
Support for Duncan-Smith comes from the Tory leader's guru, the Iron Lady: former Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister Baroness Margaret Thatcher. In her new book, Statecraft, Thatcher describes the European Union as one of the biggest mistakes of the 20th century, and argues that Britain should leave it; this she motivates by asserting that the most of the problems the world has faced, including Marxism and Nazism, come from Europe. Instead of the EU, she suggests, Britain should join a North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (a new NAFTA, expanded from the North American Free Trade Agreement). Her writings are being serialized in Rupert Murdoch's Times of London.
Iron Lady Rusty, Retires From Public Life, Cites 'Health'
Baroness Margaret Thatcher, aged 76, has been told by her doctors to sit down and shut up. She has retired from public speaking and public life, reportedly after suffering a number of small strokes.
Thatcher's spokesman said that, "After thorough investigation involving a number of tests, her doctors have told her that these [small strokes] can neither be predicted nor prevented. They have therefore told her to cut back her program at once and in particular to avoid the undue strains that public speaking places her in."
Germany Won't Support Attack on Iraq Unless UN Backs It
When briefing the heads of the parliamentary groups on his government's position on Iraq March 18, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder did not state full support for an American attack on Baghdad; he said that Germany would not take part in any military operation "unless it were officially mandated by the UN Security Council." He saw no indication at present for such a mandate, Schroeder added.
Schroeder also stated, however, that German Fox tanks now stationed in Kuwait will remain there, even if the U.S. goes ahead against Iraq unilaterally. (The tanks have the capability to detect use of atomic, biological, and chemical agents.) The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung quoted Schroeder as saying, "No one could take responsibility for German-American relations for the next 30-50 years, if the tanks were withdrawn and it then actually came to the deployment of ABC weapons"--in other words, if Germany withdrew its troops and tanks from Kuwait, and then the Iraqis in fact used ABC weapons against the American troops.
European Political Weakness Exposed at Barcelona Summit
The tone of the resolution on the Middle East which was passed by the European Union foreign ministers on March 15, on the eve of the EU's Barcelona summit, was unprecedented in its harshness, calling for a complete withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces from Palestinian territory and for an end to assassinations.
But the next day the same EU foreign ministers failed to decide on a joint EU proposal for peace in Mideast. The proposals, notably from Italy and France, for an economic development package for Israel and Palestine, were turned down, after an intervention by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and German Foreign Minister Oskar Fischer. Straw and Fischer argued that discussing a genuine EU proposal of this kind made no sense in the absence of a ceasefire, and that for the time being, EU support for the Mitchell and Tenet plans is sufficient.
Thus, Europe did not make use of a potentially decisive flank, to intervene productively in the Mideast crisis.
Also ambiguous was the European position on Iraq: British Prime Minister Tony Blair and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder reportedly signalled to the Americans that Europe might support a limited military strike on Iraq, should Iraq refuse to let a new UN weapons inspection team arrive and do its work. An Italian initiative for a strong European "no" to any military strike on Iraq was blocked at the heads-of-government meeting in Barcelona.
Assassinations in Italy, Spain; New Terror in Europe
Marco Biagi, a top consultant to the Italian Labor Ministry and to past Labor Ministry staffs, on March 19 was shot to death in front of his house; the bullet was said to be from a gun associated with a killing three years ago, attributed to the Red Brigades. The two killers escaped by motorcycle, according to witnesses. Biagi was close professionally and personally to Romano Prodi, the President of the European Commission and the former Prime Minister of Italy.
Just a few days before, on March 14, the Italian Security Services had warned that terrorism would reemerge soon in Italy, targetting particularly labor officials. (The last Red Brigades victim, killed in May 1999, was Sergio d'Antona, a key consultant to the CGIL trade union.)
A day earlier, on March 18, Belgian politician Alain van der Biest was murdered; and on March 21, Spain was hit with terror when a Socialist Party politician, Juan Priede Perez, was shot dead in the Basque province of Guipuzcoa, killed by two members of the Basque terrorist/separatist ETA. Perez was the third Socialist Party official murdered by ETA in the past month. In addition, two Socialist youth leaders have been injured by ETA letter bombs in recent weeks.
El Pais also reported that on March 21, a spectacular fire engulfed the office of the Spanish representative to the EU in Brussels; Spain is currently holding the EU Presidency, and has just been hosting the EU summit in Barcelona. The six-story building housing the Spanish representative in Brussels, was destroyed in the fire; one Belgian policemen died, and two were badly injured.
These incidents may point to the beginning of a "strategy of tension" campaign directed against Europe, whose aim may be to intimidate and paralyze European politics at a moment when Europe could be articulating a firm opposition, and clear alternative, to the Anglo-American war plans.
Italian Official Warns: Terror Resurgence in Balkans
Italian Defense Minister Antonio Martino stated March 19 that a new wave of terrorism could emerge in the Balkans, targetting the multinational military contingents deployed there. Martino noted that out of 10,000 Italian troops engaged in foreign missions, 8,400 are in the Balkans, in particular in Macedonia.
To Understand Huntington, Consider Hitler and Schmitt
The only way to understand Samuel Huntington is to read Adolf Hitler and Nazi legal theorist Carl Schmitt, said Dr. Arno Gruen in his remarks to a March 16-17 conference on the "Kampf um Kulturen" ("Clash over Cultures"), at the Evangelical Academy in Tutzing, Bavaria. Gruen, veteran psychiatrist in Zurich, stunned the audience when, raising Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations" writings, he affirmed that the only way to comprehend the Harvard professor, is by going back to the writings and speeches of Hitler and Schmitt.
Dr. Gruen stressed that the critical issue, was the "creation of an enemy." Whereas Hitler created enemies on the basis of "genetic" parameters, Huntington does so on the basis of "culture," he charged. In both cases, there is the belief that one cannot have an identity without having a "hate object," and there is the submerging of "individuality" in a mass that becomes this object of hate. The main difference between Hitler and Huntington, he argued, is that the latter is more "abstract."
Dr. Gruen added that more insight can be gained by looking at the ideas of "Nazi ideologue Carl Schmitt," who insisted that "knowing the enemy, is the first step toward self-consciousness." Although Gruen didn't elaborate this in his speech, it is well-documented that Schmitt came to this notion, in significant part, through his adaptation of the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche.
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