SMASH NATO !
thevoiceofjustice | 09.03.2003 18:15
Alliance faces historic crisis
By Barnaby Mason
BBC diplomatic correspondent
The big power confrontation and the split in the western alliance over Iraq goes on intensifying.
France, Russia and Germany say they will block a new US-UK Security Council resolution opening the way to war on Iraq. President Bush says he will call the vote anyway and has challenged people to put their cards on the table.
You have to go back a long way to find even partial precedents.
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has said that Russia could veto a US-UK backed resolution
In the 1956 Suez Crisis, the United States forced the United Kingdom and France to withdraw their troops from Egypt despite both countries using their vetoes in the Security Council.
This time it is not certain vetoes will be used, but the US and UK have made clear they will not be deterred from military action in any case.
There were of course many confrontations in the Council during the Cold War, but they were predictable and mostly routine.
Now it is a bitter argument within the western alliance - inside the family - which was hardly possible when they faced an overwhelming threat from the Soviet Union.
New European fault lines
In the European Union, wrangling is a way of life, but there is something new about the way the Iraq crisis has lined up all the big member states on opposing sides - France and Germany taking up joint positions which are immediately countered by Britain, Italy and Spain.
Also striking is the way that all the incoming EU members from eastern Europe have taken Washington's side, feeding the fears of the French that they are losing their dominant position in the organisation.
Nato too saw something unprecedented when France, Germany and Belgium delayed the granting of military aid to their ally Turkey to make a point about Iraq.
The Nato split has faded from view only because it is not directly involved: the Iraq war could not be a Nato operation even if the US wanted it to be.
This Iraq crisis is coloured by widespread resentment among western Europeans at the overbearing Bush administration, as they see it.
Anti-Washington demonstrations have approached the levels of the Vietnam War, but then the protest movement was led by Americans.
In the 1980s, Germany saw widespread protests against the deployment of American nuclear missiles - but this time the German Government is on the side of the demonstrators.
Two European leaders in particular are playing for high stakes.
Jacques Chirac seems prepared to push his opposition to Washington to the limit and beyond. And Tony Blair has put his own job and the unity of his party on the line.
By Barnaby Mason
BBC diplomatic correspondent
The big power confrontation and the split in the western alliance over Iraq goes on intensifying.
France, Russia and Germany say they will block a new US-UK Security Council resolution opening the way to war on Iraq. President Bush says he will call the vote anyway and has challenged people to put their cards on the table.
You have to go back a long way to find even partial precedents.
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has said that Russia could veto a US-UK backed resolution
In the 1956 Suez Crisis, the United States forced the United Kingdom and France to withdraw their troops from Egypt despite both countries using their vetoes in the Security Council.
This time it is not certain vetoes will be used, but the US and UK have made clear they will not be deterred from military action in any case.
There were of course many confrontations in the Council during the Cold War, but they were predictable and mostly routine.
Now it is a bitter argument within the western alliance - inside the family - which was hardly possible when they faced an overwhelming threat from the Soviet Union.
New European fault lines
In the European Union, wrangling is a way of life, but there is something new about the way the Iraq crisis has lined up all the big member states on opposing sides - France and Germany taking up joint positions which are immediately countered by Britain, Italy and Spain.
Also striking is the way that all the incoming EU members from eastern Europe have taken Washington's side, feeding the fears of the French that they are losing their dominant position in the organisation.
Nato too saw something unprecedented when France, Germany and Belgium delayed the granting of military aid to their ally Turkey to make a point about Iraq.
The Nato split has faded from view only because it is not directly involved: the Iraq war could not be a Nato operation even if the US wanted it to be.
This Iraq crisis is coloured by widespread resentment among western Europeans at the overbearing Bush administration, as they see it.
Anti-Washington demonstrations have approached the levels of the Vietnam War, but then the protest movement was led by Americans.
In the 1980s, Germany saw widespread protests against the deployment of American nuclear missiles - but this time the German Government is on the side of the demonstrators.
Two European leaders in particular are playing for high stakes.
Jacques Chirac seems prepared to push his opposition to Washington to the limit and beyond. And Tony Blair has put his own job and the unity of his party on the line.
thevoiceofjustice