germany & europe

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by Diana Johnstone
All this helps explain why Chancellor Schroeder this week quite
categorically ruled out German participation in a ground war to conquer
Kosovo. But there are certainly other reasons. The U.S.-led war is
devastating the economies of southeastern Europe, an area largely within
the
German economic sphere of interest. It has blocked the Danube River, a
main
trade thoroughfare leading from Germany to the Black Sea. It is ruining
relations with Russia and even raising the chances of an eventual military
conflict with Russia -- an experience which the vast majority of Germans
have no desire to repeat. It is leading NATO into an unforeseeable series
of
wars, ostensibly for easily trumped up "humanitarian" reasons, that can be
expected to serve geostrategic interests defined in Washington.

Throughout Europe, but especially in Germany, Italy, and France, on both
the
left and the right, the conviction has been growing that the Kosovo war is
essentially an Anglo-American "war against Europe". Britain, which refused
to adopt the common European currency, is pursuing its traditional policy
of
keeping the continent divided as it urges the United States on in a war
for
which Europe risks paying a heavy price, not only economically but
politically and morally as well.



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                   ANDRE GUNDER FRANK
250 Kensington Ave - Apt 608     Tel: 1-514-933 2539    
Westmount/Montreal PQ/QC         Fax: 1-514-933 6445 
Canada H3Z 2G8              e-mail:agfrank@chass.utoronto.ca 

My Personal/Professional Home Page> http://www.whc.neu.edu/gunder.html
My NATO/Kosovo Page> http://csf.colorado.edu/archive/agfrank/nato_kosovo/       
My professional/personal conclusion is the same as Pogo's - 
            We have met the enemy, and it is US 
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