Archive
Sweden Pulled Deeper Into NATO’s Global Network
The Local/Agence France-Presse
October 31, 2012
Sweden agrees to help monitor Nato airspace
Pentagon’s New Global Military Partner: Sweden
Afghan War: NATO Trains Finland, Sweden For Conflict With Russia
End of Scandinavian Neutrality: NATO’s Militarization Of Europe
====
[Finland] is the only non-Nato European state bordering Russia, and its non-alignment with the military bloc is seen as an important tool for maintaining good relations with its mighty neighbour. [Belarus and Ukraine border Russia. Finland is the only European Union member not a full member of NATO that borders Russia.]
In June, Russian armed forces chief Nikolai Makarov issued a warning to Helsinki over its close cooperation with Nato.
====
Swedish Gripen fighter jets of the sort used in NATO’s Operation Unified Protector against Libya last year
Swedish troops under NATO command in firefight in northern Afghanistan
Sweden said Wednesday that it and Finland, two countries outside any military alliances, would help monitor the airspace of Nato member Iceland for a few months in early 2014 in what is seen as a sensitive step.
Iceland has no armed forces of its own. The United States guaranteed the North Atlantic island’s defence with a permanent military presence from 1951 until 2006 under an agreement between the two countries.
But the US closed its Naval Air Station at Keflavik in 2006, and since then Nato member Norway has helped Reykjavik monitor its airspace.
“In connection with the Nordic Council of Ministers session in Helsinki today, Sweden and Finland have expressed their willingness to take part in monitoring Iceland’s airspace together with Norway for the first four months of 2014,” Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said in a statement.
Bildt later told the Swedish news agency TT the decision was “about solidarity with Nordic neighbours and nothing to do with Nato. And keep in mind that Nato has sought assurances that we will not be carrying out Nato missions, that is for Nato countries.”
Both Nato and the parliaments in Finland and Sweden have to give the green light for the operation, though no dates have yet been set for those decisions.
While Finland and Sweden are not members of the North Atlantic alliance, the two countries cooperate closely with it and regularly take part in exercises and peacekeeping operations through NATO’s Partnership for Peace programme.
While increasing Nato cooperation is sensitive in both countries, it is particularly so in Finland.
It is the only non-Nato European state bordering Russia, and its non-alignment with the military bloc is seen as an important tool for maintaining good relations with its mighty neighbour.
In June, Russian armed forces chief Nikolai Makarov issued a warning to Helsinki over its close cooperation with Nato.
“Finland’s participation in Nato exercises proves that Finland is gradually joining Nato activities. Under certain circumstances this can create a dangerous situation regarding Russia’s military security,” Makarov said in a speech in Helsinki.
Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen has said his government will not discuss the issue of possible Nato membership during the current cabinet term, which ends in 2015.
Nicaragua: Latin America, World Need Multi-Polarity, Complementarity
RT
October 31, 2012
‘Latin America needs independence to prosper’ – President of Nicaragua
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega believes Latin America requires freedom from external influence to flourish. For Nicaragua, this means building a canal for self-sustainability. He told RT that all this is possible as hegemony is in decline.
====
I believe this is an election where the American people should vote for their government to commit itself to a peaceful foreign policy agenda. That is what I see as most important. The best thing the United States could do for the world is pursue peace, not war. A policy of peace would enable the US to be more successful in addressing its domestic as well as global economic challenges – provided that they choose to seek an alternative to the neoliberal policies that were predominant among capitalist economies in recent years, and have proved to be such a failure.
We hope that those in power in the world’s most advanced economies will finally realize that the path they had been following, thinking it to be a path toward peace, stability, growth and development, has eventually brought them to the verge of disaster, and they are the ones heading toward a cliff.
====
Ortega argues that the world needs multi-polarity. Moreover, it is already heading in that direction.
The only option for hegemonic nations “is to change themselves, and to that end, they need to evolve, and to promote a world order that would be in line with international law, UN principles and the laws of international trade in a multi-polar world.”
He also believes that capitalism has failed to resolve problems such as “unemployment and poverty.”
He says that US “aid” equals “debt” and for Latin American nations to achieve prosperity they need independence.
“Political independence is impossible without social and economic independence,” argues Ortega. “Today, a new reality is gradually emerging in Latin American and Caribbean nations. They have more freedom today to determine their future.”
For Ortega’s country, this means first of all building a canal, which would “complement” the Panama Canal and would make Nicaragua self-sufficient by connecting the Caribbean to the Pacific.
RT: Recently, Hugo Chavez won the presidential election in Venezuela and stayed in office. A year ago, the people of Nicaragua re-elected you for another term. Does this mean that socialism has proved its viability and is now established in Latin America?
DO: The neoliberal model has failed. In other words, capitalism reached the highest stage, where it was expected to resolve all the economic and social problems overnight, resolve the problems of unemployment and poverty. But this model failed. It failed not only in Latin America; it is also failing in developed economies. Today we see it failing in the US and Europe. This is why people in our part of the world gladly embraced the idea of a radical change.
Our countries need sovereignty and independence in every area. Political independence is impossible without social and economic independence. Today, a new reality is gradually emerging in Latin American and Caribbean nations. They have more freedom today to determine their future. President Hugo Chavez’s recent victory will definitely help Latin America and the Caribbean to continue on the path of change.
RT: But this election has been the closest that Venezuela’s opposition has ever come to victory. Some say the people of Venezuela are tired of the present government. What do you make of it?
DO: The truth is, a one-point advantage already counts as victory, in politics as well as in sports.There is no such thing as “a greater victory”. No matter if you are one point or a hundred points ahead, victory is victory. I think what we have seen in Venezuela was this: there had been considerable efforts invested to prevent Hugo Chavez from winning the election, but all in vain. I see it as a fiasco of the entire rightwing trend, which had been supported by the United States and Europe.
RT: Following the toppling of President Fernando Lugo in Paraguay, there was speculation that we are into a new era of coups d’état. How likely do you consider such a scenario today?
DO: In fact, we in Latin America have never managed to make coups a thing of the past, and I’m afraid this might never happen. I believe there will be an implicit threat of a coup as long as the conservative forces in the United States take interest in disrupting any development aimed at upsetting the current global hierarchy. These forces engage local groups in our countries in covert activities, and we have seen it happen across Latin America and the Caribbean.
RT: So you think there is a connection between the events in Paraguay, the attempted coup in Ecuador and the military coups in Honduras?
DO: Yes, that is a fact. Take the attempt at overthrowing President Chavez in Venezuela in April 2002, for example.
Next came a coup in Honduras, aimed at hampering the development of a unified Latin America. Then there was an explicit and very forceful attempt at a coup in Bolivia, aimed against President Evo Morales.
Then there was an attempted coup against President Raphael Correa in Ecuador. And most recently, the plot to force the Paraguayan president out of power.
I think this will remain an implicit threat, but it will gradually lose in ability over time, due to the rising drive for change that we see gaining momentum in Latin America. This movement is based on respect for the will of the people, and this is what will make coups increasingly harder to pull off, time after time. Yet we shouldn’t rule out such a possibility altogether, not as long as we remain at odds with the forces that strive for global domination and believe that the world is supposed to bend the knee to them. They still don’t realize that we no longer live in an era of hegemony. So there will remain a hidden, latent menace for the time being.
RT: In July 2012, the National Assembly of Nicaragua adopted a law to build a canal that would connect the Caribbean to the Pacific. This would not merely give a boost to the Nicaraguan economy, but actually promote your country to one of the region’s richest economies. When is the canal scheduled for completion?
DO: Indeed, a vision of such a canal goes back as long as the history of Nicaragua.
RТ: Five centuries?
DO: Ever since the Spanish conquest. Later on, Great Britain rivaled Spain for control of Nicaragua, thinking there was a natural waterway here. It sort of existed, by way of the San Juan River that springs from Lake Nicaragua. But one section was missing – a canal across the narrow isthmus of Rivas. Because of that, our country ended up in the middle of geopolitical disputes and became a target for US expansionist policies.
Nicaragua lost all independence after the US invasion. But what’s important here is that this project has always been on the books. Over a century ago, the Americans themselves looked into building a canal in Nicaragua, but then they decided to invest in the Panama Canal. Once we became independent, we revisited this vision, and now we are working to make it real. We feel that the project is getting on track now. As a matter of fact, the region does need one more transit route.
The Panama Canal cannot satisfy the current demand for international transportation, especially freight traffic. Even with a view to expanding the Panama Canal, which is currently underway, it will still leave a lot to be desired in terms of traffic speed and waiting time.
Our canal would not serve to substitute the Panama Canal, but rather to complement it.
There is similar logic here as in urban planning: the more roads you have in your city, the better the traffic. We are looking at providing our region with two major waterway routes instead of one. This would enhance the region’s transit capabilities, bring down transit costs and thus benefit global trade in general, serving not just our own interests as an economy, but those of the entire international community.
For Nicaragua, it would also mean independence, giving us access to resources and the kind of revenues that would enable us to become entirely self-sufficient. As of now, we are a dependent economy. There is nothing wrong with interdependence and complementariness, but one-way dependency is bad for anyone.
RТ: So when will Nicaragua finally get its chance?
DO: Very soon, I hope. There is a lot of work being done. Chinese companies are in charge of the project, and we expect it to be accomplished rather quickly.
RТ:It was initially expected to take ten years, if I’m not mistaken.
DO: We think it is possible to get it done within a shorter period. The exact timeline will be determined by the companies involved in the project, once they assess its profitability and get down to construction. After that, we will have a better idea about the timeframe.
RT: This year the United States has terminated its annual aid commitments to Nicaragua. How has that affected your country?
DO: Nicaragua is highly vulnerable as an economy. Throughout our history, our economy has suffered at the hands of the US and its policies. The city of Granada, for example, was burnt to the ground, falling prey to America’s expansionist policies. All those wars and military invasions the US has sponsored or provoked. There has even been a ruling by the International Court of Justice, binding the United States to compensate Nicaragua for all our losses, but the US has ignored this verdict.
Of course, the fact that the US has terminated what they call “aid” to Nicaragua has had negative consequences for our people and our country. But in reality, that was no aid. What the Americans call “aid” was really tiny installments in payment of the enormous debt the US owes to Nicaragua.
That was no aid and no cooperation. That was merely an allowance they paid us, passing it for “aid” and “cooperation”.
And it came with tight conditions attached, too. So we cannot talk of Nicaragua as a sovereign and independent nation as long as we remain critically dependent upon the United States and its current political trends, its prevalent frame of mind and the amount of influence radical groups enjoy there at any given moment of time. Because those are the groups that largely determine US foreign policies. They are the ones who contest in court all US cooperation programs with Nicaragua, and even call for using force against Latin American nations that dare stand up for our independence.
That is why terminating any format of cooperation is bound to have a negative impact on Nicaragua. But that is exactly what makes it so important for us to ensure that our nation should no longer be dependent upon this sort of conditional cooperation with either the United States or the European Union.
The US has essentially pursued a policy of a racket vis-à-vis Nicaragua and its people. This is unfair and undemocratic. They are not supporting liberty, they are promoting servitude.
This is what prompts us to get the canal done as soon as possible. It would relieve us of our present dependency upon the US and Europe and their hegemonic policies.
RT: The United States is all set for a presidential election. What are Nicaragua’s expectations in this regard?
DO: I believe this is an election where the American people should vote for their government to commit itself to a peaceful foreign policy agenda. That is what I see as most important. The best thing the United States could do for the world is pursue peace, not war. A policy of peace would enable the US to be more successful in addressing its domestic as well as global economic challenges – provided that they choose to seek an alternative to the neoliberal policies that were predominant among capitalist economies in recent years, and have proved to be such a failure.
RT: What is your idea of a perfect world? And what role would you see in it for Latin America, the United States or Russia?
DO: I am sure we are already heading that way, despite efforts from certain forces to prevent this kind of a change. I mean the American far-right, who won’t even tolerate a president such as Barack Obama: they denounce him merely because of his African origins and the color of his skin.
Yet these forces grow ever weaker with time. The same is happening in Europe.
Reality itself sends a signal to the nations that used to feel like they ruled the world until recently, telling them the world can no longer go on with hegemonic attitudes.
It was reality that has shaped what we know today as a multi-polar world. And regardless of whether hegemonic powers choose to move along with the rest of the world, the world favors multi-polarity, and we are moving in that direction.
We hope that those in power in the world’s most advanced economies will finally realize that the path they had been following, thinking it to be a path toward peace, stability, growth and development, has eventually brought them to the verge of disaster, and they are the ones heading toward a cliff.
In the past, they used to drive us toward self-destruction, but this time, they are themselves set on a path to collapse. Their only option is to change themselves, and to that end, they need to evolve, and to promote a world order that would be in line with international law, UN principles and the laws of international trade in a multi-polar world.
RT: So you believe this is reality rather than wishful thinking?
DO: It is reality, I am sure of that. We already see it happening.
Shanghai Cooperation Organization Can Break U.S. Monopoly Of World Internet
Voice of Russia
October 31, 2012
US to give up Internet dominance
Shanghai Cooperation Organization heads of state summit in June of this year
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) can compete with the United States in controlling the Internet via a new global system, SCO Business Club’s Director Denis Tyurin said Wednesday.
“Russian and international experts have a lot of doubts about the existing system of Internet controls. By and large, it’s the US that has a hold over the world wide web,” he said, adding SCO member states could influence the Internet.
“Internet should be governed though international organizations,” Mr. Denisov said. He proposed to make SCO a prototype of such institution.
—————————————————————————-
Itar-Tass
October 31, 2012
SCO may create new global Internet management system
====
“The Internet should be managed through international structures. Possibly, the SCO as the organization serving as an example to other international structures can become a prototype of a global Internet management system.”
This issue was…high on the agenda of the SCO Youth Forum that opened in the Altai Territory on Wednesday and will last until November 2.
It brought together around 300 young business people from Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Iran, India and Pakistan.
====
BELOKURIKHA, Altai Territory: Member-states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization have real opportunities to create a new global Internet management system, the director of the SCO Business Club, Denis Tyurin, told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.
“The Russian and international expert community have many questions about the modern Internet management system. Generally speaking, we continue to observe a situation in which the United States keeps the cut-out tool from the global information network in its hands. Despite efforts of the international community to make this system more balanced, the Americans have no plans to hand over the levers of control,” Tyurin said.
He expressed confidence that SCO member-states will be able to influence these processes.
“Many countries that united within the framework of the SCO demonstrate similar approaches to this problem,” he said. “The Internet should be managed through international structures. Possibly, the SCO as the organization serving as an example to other international structures can become a prototype of a global Internet management system.”
“The system should be based on collective decision making,” he said, expressing the opinion that the creation of an SCO domain extension by analogy with domain extensions created by the European Union or the United Nations may significantly contribute to resolving this issue.
The idea of creating its domain extension appeared a year ago and is now being actively discussed by SCO member-states.
This issue was also high on the agenda of the SCO Youth Forum that opened in the Altai Territory on Wednesday and will last until November 2.
It brought together around 300 young business people from Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Iran, India and Pakistan.
According to organizers, the forum will create a platform for direct communication among young entrepreneurs and business leaders of the SCO member-states.
Middle East War Could Erupt Right After U.S. Presidential Election
Voice of Russia
October 30, 2012
Middle East in anticipation of war, reaching its peak after US elections
Vladimir Sazhin
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey in Israel ahead of the unprecedented Austere Challenge 12 interceptor missile war games
====
While Israel’s right-wing politicians consolidate, the military makes no effort to conceal its active preparations for combat. Military exercise follows military exercise. Some experts even concede that the al-Hartum factory strike, widely attributed in the press to Israel, could have been a rehearsal of sorts.
Iranians are not sleeping through the crisis either; in early October they initiated the launch into Israel’s airspace of the Iranian drone aircraft Hesballoy. On October 29 a large-scale military exercise began in the region along the Iraqi border.
====
Some political experts claim there will be a risk that a new “big wave” in the Middle East could reach its peak after the American presidential elections, and that the region might plummet into the abyss. They say that Israel is ready to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.
At the same time the Islamic Republic, whose economy is on the verge of collapse due to sanctions, is also prepared to stand up to Israel.
So far, uncertainty in the US presidential race has served as a containment factor. But what will happen after the elections?
Irina Fedorova, a specialist in Iranian-US relations, delivers a “partly cloudy” forecast for the near future; “Before the Inauguration on January 20 it is hardly possible to anticipate any sudden political moves from the US president, who will be elected on November 6. The main task of the new, or old, president with the US political elite will be the formation of a new government. That is why foreign policy issues will not take precedence in that period.
“The issue that will influence the US president’s opinion on the possibility of a military strike against Iran will be the crisis in Syria, including the problem of Bashar al-Assad. Until those problems are resolved, the US president’s attention will be focused on Syria.”
The Israeli factor cannot be ignored either: the current situation in Israel provides much food for thought. The Knesset is dissolved and elections are set for January 22, the day after the new president of the USA is inaugurated. There are two politicians who are ready for a war against Iran; Benjamin Netanyahu from Likud and Avigdor Lieberman of Israel is Our Home [Yisrael Beiteinu], and there is a very real possibility that one of them will win.
The likelihood of finding a solution to the Iranian problem between the US and Israeli elections cannot be ruled out completely, but during that period, anti-war pressure on the Cabinet will dwindle to almost zero. That is because, although Knesset deputies continue with their duties, they are essentially already “lame ducks” in the absence of a sitting parliament. The current Knesset cannot be expected to address the issue of a no-confidence vote before the elections and, in the event of a successful strike against Iran, as anticipated by its proponents, it would be seen as a vote winner in the election run-up.
While Israel’s right-wing politicians consolidate, the military makes no effort to conceal its active preparations for combat. Military exercise follows military exercise. Some experts even concede that the al-Hartum factory strike, widely attributed in the press to Israel, could have been a rehearsal of sorts.
Iranians are not sleeping through the crisis either; in early October they initiated the launch into Israel’s airspace of the Iranian drone aircraft Hesballoy. On October 29 a large-scale military exercise began in the region along the Iraqi border.
It is not however the growing military activity in Iran that worries Israel, but the Iranian nuclear programme. Recently, there was an announcement that Iran had finished the installation of a centrifuge at the Fordo underground military facility. Western experts believe that Iranian nuclear specialists can now produce uranium enriched not only to 60%, but the 90% purity required for weapons grade material. If true that can only serve to encourage Israel to strike first.
Irina Fedorova observed: “There can be unpredictable decisions in politics and it is possible that the situation could arise when the Israeli military, without Washington’s approval, would start an operation against Iran. In that case the USA would, without doubt, support Israel.”
And many experts believe that that is just what is likely to happen, right after the US presidential elections.
Fyodor Dostoevsky: Holy blood was shed, regular wars sprang up
====
Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
1862: Dostoevsky on the new world order
Vladimir Odoevsky: City without a name, system with one
=====
Fyodor Dostoevsky
From The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (1877)
Translated by Constance Garnett
I suddenly, quite without noticing how, found myself on this other earth, in the bright light of a sunny day, fair as paradise. I believe I was standing on one of the islands that make up on our globe the Greek archipelago, or on the coast of the mainland facing that archipelago. Oh, everything was exactly as it is with us, only everything seemed to have a festive radiance, the splendour of some great, holy triumph attained at last. The caressing sea, green as emerald, splashed softly upon the shore and kissed it with manifest, almost conscious love. The tall, lovely trees stood in all the glory of their blossom, and their innumerable leaves greeted me, I am certain, with their soft, caressing rustle and seemed to articulate words of love. The grass glowed with bright and fragrant flowers. Birds were flying in flocks in the air, and perched fearlessly on my shoulders and arms and joyfully struck me with their darling, fluttering wings. And at last I saw and knew the people of this happy land. They came to me of themselves, they surrounded me, kissed me. The children of the sun, the children of their sun – oh, how beautiful they were! Never had I seen on our own earth such beauty in mankind. Only perhaps in our children, in their earliest years, one might find some remote faint reflection of this beauty. The eyes of these happy people shone with a clear brightness. Their faces were radiant with the light of reason and fullness of a serenity that comes of perfect understanding, but those faces were gay; in their words and voices there was a note of childlike joy. Oh, from the first moment, from the first glance at them, I understood it all! It was the earth untarnished by the Fall; on it lived people who had not sinned. They lived just in such a paradise as that in which, according to all the legends of mankind, our first parents lived before they sinned; the only difference was that all this earth was the same paradise. These people, laughing joyfully, thronged round me and caressed me; they took me home with them, and each of them tried to reassure me. Oh, they asked me no questions, but they seemed, I fancied, to know everything without asking, and they wanted to make haste to smoothe away the signs of suffering from my face.
…
They desired nothing and were at peace; they did not aspire to knowledge of life as we aspire to understand it, because their lives were full. But their knowledge was higher and deeper than ours; for our science seeks to explain what life is, aspires to understand it in order to teach others how to love, while they without science knew how to live; and that I understood, but I could not understand their knowledge. They showed me their trees, and I could not understand the intense love with which they looked at them; it was as though they were talking with creatures like themselves. And perhaps I shall not be mistaken if I say that they conversed with them. Yes, they had found their language, and I am convinced that the trees understood them. They looked at all Nature like that – at the animals who lived in peace with them and did not attack them, but loved them, conquered by their love. They pointed to the stars and told me something about them which I could not understand, but I am convinced that they were somehow in touch with the stars, not only in thought, but by some living channel. Oh, these people did not persist in trying to make me understand them, they loved me without that, but I knew that they would never understand me, and so I hardly spoke to them about our earth…
In the evening before going to sleep they liked singing in musical and harmonious chorus. In those songs they expressed all the sensations that the parting day had given them, sang its glories and took leave of it. They sang the praises of nature, of the sea, of the woods. They liked making songs about one another, and praised each other like children; they were the simplest songs, but they sprang from their hearts and went to one’s heart. And not only in their songs but in all their lives they seemed to do nothing but admire one another. It was like being in love with each other, but an all-embracing, universal feeling.
Some of their songs, solemn and rapturous, I scarcely understood at all. Though I understood the words I could never fathom their full significance. It remained, as it were, beyond the grasp of my mind, yet my heart unconsciously absorbed it more and more. I often told them that I had had a presentiment of it long before, that this joy and glory had come to me on our earth in the form of a yearning melancholy that at times approached insufferable sorrow; that I had had a foreknowledge of them all and of their glory in the dreams of my heart and the visions of my mind; that often on our earth I could not look at the setting sun without tears…that in my hatred for the men of our earth there was always a yearning anguish: why could I not hate them without loving them? why could I not help forgiving them? and in my love for them there was a yearning grief: why could I not love them without hating them? They listened to me, and I saw they could not conceive what I was saying, but I did not regret that I had spoken to them of it: I knew that they understood the intensity of my yearning anguish over those whom I had left. But when they looked at me with their sweet eyes full of love, when I felt that in their presence my heart, too, became as innocent and just as theirs, the feeling of the fullness of life took my breath away, and I worshipped them in silence.
…
Yes, yes, it ended in my corrupting them all! How it could come to pass I do not know, but I remember it clearly. The dream embraced thousands of years and left in me only a sense of the whole. I only know that I was the cause of their sin and downfall. Like a vile trichina, like a germ of the plague infecting whole kingdoms, so I contaminated all this earth, so happy and sinless before my coming. They learnt to lie, grew fond of lying, and discovered the charm of falsehood. Oh, at first perhaps it began innocently, with a jest, coquetry, with amorous play, perhaps indeed with a germ, but that germ of falsity made its way into their hearts and pleased them. Then sensuality was soon begotten, sensuality begot jealousy, jealousy – cruelty…Oh, I don’t know, I don’t remember; but soon, very soon the first blood was shed. They marvelled and were horrified, and began to be split up and divided. They formed into unions, but it was against one another.
Reproaches, upbraidings followed. They came to know shame, and shame brought them to virtue. The conception of honour sprang up, and every union began waving its flags. They began torturing animals, and the animals withdrew from them into the forests and became hostile to them. They began to struggle for separation, for isolation, for individuality, for mine and thine. They began to talk in different languages. They became acquainted with sorrow and loved sorrow; they thirsted for suffering, and said that truth could only be attained through suffering. Then science appeared. As they became wicked they began talking of brotherhood and humanitarianism, and understood those ideas. As they became criminal, they invented justice and drew up whole legal codes in order to observe it, and to ensure their being kept, set up a guillotine. They hardly remembered what they had lost, in fact refused to believe that they had ever been happy and innocent. They even laughed at the possibility of this happiness in the past, and called it a dream. They could not even imagine it in definite form and shape, but, strange and wonderful to relate, though they lost all faith in their past happiness and called it a legend, they so longed to be happy and innocent once more that they succumbed to this desire like children, made an idol of it, set up temples and worshipped their own idea, their own desire; though at the same time they fully believed that it was unattainable and could not be realised, yet they bowed down to it and adored it with tears! Nevertheless, if it could have happened that they had returned to the innocent and happy condition which they had lost, and if someone had shown it to them again and had asked them whether they wanted to go back to it, they would certainly have refused…
[E]veryone began to love himself better than anyone else, and indeed they could not do otherwise. All became so jealous of the rights of their own personality that they did their very utmost to curtail and destroy them in others, and made that the chief thing in their lives. Slavery followed, even voluntary slavery; the weak eagerly submitted to the strong, on condition that the latter aided them to subdue the still weaker. Then there were saints who came to these people, weeping, and talked to them of their pride, of their loss of harmony and due proportion, of their loss of shame. They were laughed at or pelted with stones. Holy blood was shed on the threshold of the temples. Then there arose men who began to think how to bring all people together again, so that everybody, while still loving himself best of all, might not interfere with others, and all might live together in something like a harmonious society. Regular wars sprang up over this idea. All the combatants at the same time firmly believed that science, wisdom and the instinct of self-preservation would force men at last to unite into a harmonious and rational society; and so, meanwhile, to hasten matters, ‘the wise’ endeavoured to exterminate as rapidly as possible all who were ‘not wise’ and did not understand their idea, that the latter might not hinder its triumph. But the instinct of self-preservation grew rapidly weaker; there arose men, haughty and sensual, who demanded all or nothing. In order to obtain everything they resorted to crime, and if they did not succeed – to suicide. There arose religions with a cult of non-existence and self-destruction for the sake of the everlasting peace of annihilation. At last these people grew weary of their meaningless toil, and signs of suffering came into their faces, and then they proclaimed that suffering was a beauty, for in suffering alone was there meaning. They glorified suffering in their songs. I moved about among them, wringing my hands and weeping over them, but I loved them perhaps more than in old days when there was no suffering in their faces and when they were innocent and so lovely. I loved the earth they had polluted even more than when it had been a paradise, if only because sorrow had come to it. Alas! I always loved sorrow and tribulation, but only for myself, for myself; but I wept over them, pitying them. I stretched out my hands to them in despair, blaming, cursing and despising myself. I told them that all this was my doing, mine alone; that it was I had brought them corruption, contamination and falsity. I besought them to crucify me, I taught them how to make a cross. I could not kill myself, I had not the strength, but I wanted to suffer at their hands. I yearned for suffering, I longed that my blood should be drained to the last drop in these agonies. But they only laughed at me, and began at last to look upon me as crazy. They justified me, they declared that they had only got what they wanted themselves, and that all that now was could not have been otherwise. At last they declared to me that I was becoming dangerous and that they should lock me up in a madhouse if I did not hold my tongue. Then such grief took possession of my soul that my heart was wrung, and I felt as though I were dying; and then…then I awoke.
It was morning, that is, it was not yet daylight, but about six o’clock. I woke up in the same arm-chair; my candle had burnt out; everyone was asleep in the captain’s room, and there was a stillness all round, rare in our flat. First of all I leapt up in great amazement: nothing like this had ever happened to me before, not even in the most trivial detail; I had never, for instance, fallen asleep like this in my arm-chair. While I was standing and coming to myself I suddenly caught sight of my revolver lying loaded, ready – but instantly I thrust it away! Oh, now, life, life! I lifted up my hands and called upon eternal truth, not with words, but with tears; ecstasy, immeasurable ecstasy flooded my soul. Yes, life and spreading the good tidings! Oh, I at that moment resolved to spread the tidings, and resolved it, of course, for my whole life. I go to spread the tidings, I want to spread the tidings – of what? Of the truth, for I have seen it, have seen it with my own eyes, have seen it in all its glory.
And since then I have been preaching! Moreover I love all those who laugh at me more than any of the rest. Why that is so I do not know and cannot explain, but so be it. I am told that I am vague and confused, and if I am vague and confused now, what shall I be later on? It is true indeed: I am vague and confused, and perhaps as time goes on I shall be more so. And of course I shall make many blunders before I find out how to preach, that is, find out what words to say, what things to do, for it is a very difficult task. I see all that as clear as daylight, but, listen, who does not make mistakes? And yet, you know, all are making for the same goal, all are striving in the same direction anyway, from the sage to the lowest robber, only by different roads. It is an old truth, but this is what is new: I cannot go far wrong. For I have seen the truth; I have seen and I know that people can be beautiful and happy without losing the power of living on earth. I will not and cannot believe that evil is the normal condition of mankind. And it is just this faith of mine that they laugh at. But how can I help believing it? I have seen the truth – it is not as though I had invented it with my mind, I have seen it, seen it, and the living image of it has filled my soul forever. I have seen it in such full perfection that I cannot believe that it is impossible for people to have it. And so how can I go wrong? I shall make some slips no doubt, and shall perhaps talk in second-hand language, but not for long: the living image of what I saw will always be with me and will always correct and guide me. Oh, I am full of courage and freshness, and I will go on and on if it were for a thousand years! Do you know, at first I meant to conceal the fact that I corrupted them, but that was a mistake – that was my first mistake! But truth whispered to me that I was lying, and preserved me and corrected me. But how establish paradise – I don’t know, because I do not know how to put it into words. After my dream I lost command of words. All the chief words, anyway, the most necessary ones. But never mind, I shall go and I shall keep talking, I won’t leave off, for anyway I have seen it with my own eyes, though I cannot describe what I saw. But the scoffers do not understand that. It was a dream, they say, delirium, hallucination. Oh! As though that meant so much! And they are so proud! A dream! What is a dream? And is not our life a dream? I will say more. Suppose that this paradise will never come to pass (that I understand), yet I shall go on preaching it. And yet how simple it is: in one day, in one hour everything could be arranged at once! The chief thing is to love others like yourself, that’s the chief thing, and that’s everything; nothing else is wanted – you will find out at once how to arrange it all. And yet it’s an old truth which has been told and retold a billion times – but it has not formed part of our lives!…If only everyone wants it, it can be arranged at once.
Azerbaijan: Entire Armed Forces Brought Under NATO Standards
Trend News Agency
October 30, 2012
Defense ministry: Azerbaijani Armed Forces brought to conformity with NATO standards
E. Mehdiyev
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and NATO’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen
Baku: The entire staff structure of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces has been brought into conformity with NATO standards, head of the Defense Ministry press service Eldar Sabiroglu told media today.
“Azerbaijani officers in NATO headquarters serve as NATO officers and the number of these officers is growing,” he said.
Sabiroglu said that Azerbaijan has its military attaches and representatives in 21 countries and cooperates with 53 countries in the military sphere.
“The High Military School in Azerbaijan is so developed that students from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan study here,” he said. “Several other countries have also appealed regarding sending their students.”
NATO war games in Azerbaijan in 2009
————————————————————————–
NATO International School of Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan-NATO Relations
Information on Azerbaijan-NATO cooperation
Azerbaijan was among the first countries from the former Soviet Union, who joined the Partnership for Peace (PFP) programme of NATO. The President of Azerbaijan H.E. Mr. Heydar Aliyev signed the PFP Framework Document on the accession to PFP during his official visit to NATO HQ on 4 May 1994.
In order to determine the areas of future cooperation with NATO, Azerbaijan prepared the PFP Presentation document and submitted it to the Alliance in April 1996. Bilateral partnership incorporated such spheres as military cooperation, defence modernization, democratic control of the armed forces, political consultations on security issues, peace support operations, security sector reform, civil emergency planning, security related scientific, economic and environmental cooperation.
Since 1996, on the basis of its Presentation Document and Partnership Work Programme prepared by the NATO, Azerbaijan has been annually adopting Individual Partnership Programme (IPP), which includes all joint activities and events to be attended by national military and civilian representatives. Annually expanding the scope of its Individual Partnership Programme, Azerbaijan participated in more than 250 NATO/PFP activities and events in 2007. This number is one of the highest in the ranking among the Partner Nations and the highest one in the South Caucasus.
In 2006, Government of Azerbaijan increased financing of the PFP Programme from 300 000 USD to 850 000 USD. In 2007 this figure was increased to 1.8 million USD. In 2008 it was approximately 2 million USD.
In 1997 Azerbaijan joined the Planning and Review Process (PARP). PARP related activities were aimed at engaging Azerbaijan more closely to NATO’s defence planning for operations. Since then Azerbaijani Armed Forces are undertaking increasing number of so-called Partnership Goals (PG) based on two-year cycles . PG are focused on achieving military interoperability with NATO troops through introduction of NATO’s political-military, military, training and technical standards.
In 2002 Azerbaijan proposed to extend PfP cooperation to broader security sector issues such as the defence against terrorism, the modernization of the State Border Service and transformation of Internal Troops. At the moment, Azerbaijan has undertaken more than 50 Partnership Goals, mainly related to national defence and security sectors.
In 2002 NATO/EAPC Prague Summit adopted Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) instrument in order to improve cooperation with the Partner nations. In May 2003 Azerbaijan formally applied for joining the IPAP. In May 2004 President of Azerbaijan H.E. Mr. Ilham Aliyev officially submitted the IPAP Presentation Document to the Alliance, which included comprehensive information on the current status of political, economic and security developments in Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan and NATO elaborated and approved the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) in May 2005, on the basis of this Presentation Document. The IPAP covers all major political, defence, security and security related economic, scientific and environmental spheres. IPAP implementation and update is based on two-year cycles and annual assessment reports, which are considered at the level of North Atlantic Council +Azerbaijan.
In August 2007 Azerbaijan has completed first IPAP cycle. The new IPAP document was approved in March 2008. Since the adoption of the first IPAP of Azerbaijan in May 2005 real steps have been made towards its successful implementation, including in the sphere of security sector reform. Taking together all the fields of cooperation, progress of Azerbaijan on implementation of IPAP has been considerable.
- Special Presidential decree was issued to task the State Commission, which is composed of the heads of various Ministries, with IPAP’s implementation and defining resources. Since then budget allocations for IPAP and PFP activities have considerably increased.
- The progress has been made in the implementation of the most IPAP goals, including those events, which were added and amended during the modification of the IPAP document in Autumn 2006. The work has also begun on the elimination of the shortcomings in the field of controlling, directing and planning of the IPAP process.
- Work on the National Security Concept has been completed and it was subsequently endorsed by the Government and Parliament on 19 May 2007. The work on the Military doctrine is close to finalisation. These two fundamental documents will guide the Strategic Defence Review of the security sector.
- Despite the on-going conflict, the process of gradual transformation of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan has been started. Structural changes on the basis of NATO standarts are under way within MOD, General Staff and army units. It is planned to complete this process in 2009 integrating needs and requirements identified within the Strategic Defence Review (SDR).
- Appropriate measures are being taken for gradual transformation of the State Border Service (SBS) from military strucuture into a law-enforcement type of organization. Considerable work has been done for the reinforcement of technical capabilities and improvement of human resources management within the State Border Service.
- Azerbaijan has already integrated NATO standards into the national military education and training system.
- Amendments to the national legislation are being prepared on the establishment of practical policy related to the career development of civilian personal within the defence system. This will contribute to further strengthening of civilian control on the armed forces.
- Cooperation in the field of Public Diplomacy and Science, as well as the Trust Fund Project on the cleaning of the unexploded munitions have been continuning with success. The foundation of the Euro-Atlantic Centre within the Azerbaijan State Library in Baku, official registration of NISA (NATO International School of Azerbaijan) as an NGO, the beginning of the implemention of the project of Melange conversion and the conclusion of the second cycle of NATO PFP Saloglu Project (the cleaning of 600 hectars of land of Agstafa region of Azerbaijan from unexploded artillery shells and other ammunition) are the main issues in this direction.
Republic of Azerbaijan is following closely the future development of Partnership with NATO and continuesly contributes to its expansion to wider areas.
With regard to the future of the Partnership and the policy of NATO in the region, Azerbaijan considers that the security in Euro-Atlantic area depends on improvement of the capacity of crises management, creation of secure transport corridors, and development of energy security. All of these are essential for the development of Partnership as an institution. The development of Partnership has to give opportunity for the development of security cooperation with NATO on the basis of 3 pillars: political unanimity, legal harmony, practical interoperability.
Against the background of the increasing global role of NATO and on the basis of the principles provided for in the Partnership for Peace Framework Document, such development has to ensure security guarantees to Partners, which actively share European values and respect international law.
Providing security guarantees would prevent the violation of international law and promote stability in international relations.
Please see the official MFA of Republic of Azerbaijan and NATO websites for more information:
http://www.nato.int/issues/nato-azerbaijan/index.html
http://www.otan.nato.int/issues/nato-azerbaijan/practice.html
U.S. Establishing Georgia As Strategic NATO Outpost In Caucasus: Analyst
Fars News Agency
October 30, 2012
Analyst: Georgia Serving NATO as Caucasus Base
U.S. Army Brigadier General William Garrett, U.S Southern European Task Force (Airborne) Commander and exercise director for Exercise Immediate Response 2008, leads Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili (second from right), Georgian Minister of Defense Davit Kezerashvili (third from right) and Georgian Chief of Joint Defense Brigadier General Zaza Gogava on a tour of the Vaziani Training Area during the NATO Partnership for Peace military exercise some sixteen days before Georgia invaded South Ossetia.
TEHRAN: The US and other NATO members have increased their ties and cooperation with Georgia during the past two decades and the Caucasus state is now playing a major role in NATO’s strategic plans, analysts say.
“Right now the US and other leading NATO members are expanding their relations with Tbilisi in the political, military and technical fields and the US congress has recently approved strengthening military cooperation with Georgia and arms shipments to the Caucasus country,” Stanislav Ivanov, an analyst of Caucasus affairs, wrote in an article about NATO-Georgia relations.
He said a pro-Georgian lobby has also been established in the US congress and that the necessary financial backup has been allocated in the Pentagon’s 2012 budget for arms assistance to Georgia.
The US is not at all trying to hide its plan for turning Georgia into a NATO base in the region and is encouraging other NATO members to join efforts to strengthen the Georgian armed forces.
Georgia and North Atlantic Treaty Organization relations officially began in 1994 when Georgia joined the NATO-run Partnership for Peace. Georgia has moved quickly following the so-called Rose Revolution in 2003 to seek closer ties with and eventual membership in NATO.
Georgia opened official relations with NATO in 1998 by opening a diplomatic mission and assigning an ambassador. Following more discussions, the first joint military exercises occurred in Poti in 2001, with more in 2002.
The so-called Rose Revolution in 2003 replaced Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze with Mikheil Saakashvili, who has promoted closer ties with Western institutions including NATO. In 2004, Georgian forces worked with NATO forces in the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan as part of the election security force.
Meantime the US hopes for continued cooperation with Georgia on the Iranian and Turkish-Syrian issues. The US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Eric Rubin stated this while answering journalists’ questions at a briefing at the US embassy in Tbilisi in October 2012.
He emphasized that the USA and Georgia have established good relations on this issue.
“Our cooperation on the Turkish-Syrian issue is considerable,” Rubin added.
Finland, Sweden To Join NATO Air Surveillance Over Iceland
Pentagon’s New Global Military Partner: Sweden
Afghan War: NATO Trains Finland, Sweden For Conflict With Russia
End of Scandinavian Neutrality: NATO’s Militarization Of Europe
Reuters
October 30, 2012
Finland, Sweden to help NATO in Iceland air policing
By Terhi Kinnunen
HELSINKI: Finland and Sweden plan to join some NATO air surveillance operations over Iceland, their prime ministers said on Tuesday, in a sign the neutral Nordic states are ready for more cooperation with the Western alliance.
Iceland, a NATO member without its own air force, had asked Finland and Sweden to help the alliance monitor its airspace.
The move has been politically sensitive, particularly in Finland where many fear it would breach the country’s neutrality and provoke neighboring Russia.
“Finland will inform Iceland’s government that we are willing to participate in Iceland’s air space surveillance in 2014, together with Sweden,” Katainen said at a meeting of Nordic leaders in Helsinki.
His conservative National Coalition party favors closer cooperation with NATO to strengthen national security.
Sweden’s Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, at the same meeting, said his country was “positive” about Iceland’s request. Swedish participation was a condition for Finland’s decision to join the operations.
Finland’s opposition politicians criticized the plan.
“Participating in the air surveillance of a NATO member country absolutely does not concern non-allied Finland,” Kimmo Tiilikainen of the Centre Party said in a statement.
A Finnish opinion survey on Tuesday showed 42 percent of Finns opposed participation and 22 percent supported it, while the rest did not have a stance.
(Additional reporting by Jussi Rosendahl; Writing by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Alistair Lyon)
—————————————————————————-
Helsingin Sanomat
October 26, 2012
Opposition lashes out against participation in monitoring of Iceland’s airspace
All opposition forces in the Finnish Parliament – the Finns Party, the Centre Party, and the Left Group (which broke away from the Left Alliance because it disapproved of the party’s decision to join the current coalition government), have come out against Finnish participation in the monitoring of the airspace of Iceland.
The stand taken by the Centre Party was especially disappointing to Minister of Defence Carl Haglund (Swed. People’s Party).
The opponents say that organising the monitoring of Iceland’s airspace is the responsibility of NATO. “NATO is cutting costs, and Finland pays”, said Jussi Niinistö (Finns Party), chairman of the Parliament’s Defence Committee.
Haglund maintains that the flights over Iceland would be paid out of the Defence Forces’ normal flight budget, but Niinistö disputes this. Both Niinistö, and Defence Committee vice chairman Seppo Kääriäinen (Centre) say that the project is very political.
They both see no military benefit for Finland from the practice in Iceland.
The Centre Party made reference to a statement by the Defence Committee from 2009 in which Finnish participation in Iceland’s air surveillance was not considered possible.
Kääriäinen emphasised that the project is not compatible with any of the tasks that have been set in Finnish law for the country’s Defence Forces.
Jussi Niinistö says that the biggest question is, if Finland will take part in exercises alone, or if the activity will also involve identification flights. If the latter is the case, he says that Finnish legislation would have to be amended. “That would be quite a big leap for Finland, which is not allied”, Niinistö said.
Defence Committee member Pentti Oinonen (Finns Party) voiced amazement that the Defence Forces are shutting down garrisons in Finland, while at the same time they seem to be able to afford to go to Iceland.
“The government is more concerned about the security of NATO countries than about maintaining defence capability.” Defence Committee member Jyrki Yrttiaho (Left Group) asked if it is the task of the Finnish Defence Forces now to take part in NATO surveillance. “How would Finland respond to a possible request from the Baltic Countries to take part in the monitoring of its air space?”
Haglund said that participation in identification flights is something that is hoped for, but that it does not play a very big part in the project.
“This year there have been no aircraft flying near Iceland that would have required identification.”
Niinistö opined that it is certain that if Sweden and Finland start monitoring airspace over Iceland, Russia will want to test the quality of the surveillance.
“Every great power does this kind of testing. It is quite natural”, Niinistö said.
In the view of Defence Minister Haglund, Finland would have an estimated 80 flight hours over Iceland in 2014 – about one per cent of the flight hours for the whole year.
The Defence minister says that an initial decision on Finnish participation might be forthcoming as early as next week.
Georgia’s Saakashvili: Washington’s Man to the End
Frontline
October 20-November 2, 2012
Georgians vote for change
John Cherian
Misha and Barry at the NATO summit in Lisbon, Portugal in 2010
President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia, who thought he was politically indestructible, finally met his nemesis in the form of a reclusive billionaire, Bidzina Ivanishvili. In the parliamentary elections held on October 1, the coalition led by Ivanishvili, “The Georgian Dream”, won 55 per cent of the vote. Saakashvili, despite predictions to the contrary, was quick to accept the result. He has one more year in office as President. Ivanishvili, who will assume the Prime Minster’s post, demanded in his first press conference after the election results the President’s immediate resignation. However, after strong protests from Western capitals, he accepted political cohabitation with his bete noire. Under a new constitution, the Prime Minister will exercise executive authority and the President will be a rubber stamp.
Saakashvili became President in 2003 after staging a “rose revolution” with the support of the West to undemocratically oust the government led by Eduard Shevernadze. The Western-educated Saakashvili promptly became the West’s point man in the region, breaking the country’s traditional links with Russia. Georgia applied to be a full member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and even sent troops to fight alongside the United States/NATO forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. President George W. Bush was given a hero’s welcome when he visited Georgia in 2005. The U.S. had assured Saakashvili that Georgia would eventually be made a full member of NATO, but other member countries did not want to anger Russia and managed to put the issue of Georgia’s membership on hold.
Saakashvili’s political unravelling started after his disastrous attempt to reincorporate South Ossetia. The brief conflict in 2008 led to the death of more than 2,000 people and a crushing military defeat for the Georgian army. Russian troops, which were stationed in South Ossetia, were at the doors of Tbilisi, the Georgian capital. The war made Saakashvili unpopular, but he tried to brazen it out by resorting to more authoritarian methods. All the while, the West stood by him. On a recent visit to Georgia, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton refused Ivanishvili’s request for a one-on-one meeting. The U.S. had put all its bets on Saakashvili winning the elections.
The turning point in the election campaign, according to observers, was the secret footage that emerged showing the rampant abuse of prisoners in Georgian jails. The tapes, showing jailers torturing and raping prisoners, became the final proof for Georgians that the rule of law was being wantonly trampled upon in their country since Saakashvili came to power.
Ivanishvili made his fortune in Russia in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since his entry into politics a year ago, he has been calling for improved relations with Moscow. Saakashvili had tried to paint him as an “agent” of Moscow. The economic sanctions that Russia had imposed after the 2008 military confrontation had an adverse impact on Georgia’s economy. Ivanishvili has said that the U.S. will continue to be his country’s “first friend”. At the same time, he emphasised that it was important to “have good relations with everybody”.
Leo Tolstoy: Murder and vengeance are not the will of the people
====
Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Leo Tolstoy: Selections on war
====
Leo Tolstoy
From Anna Karenina (1877)
Translated by Constance Garnett
“So it is with the unanimity of the press. That’s been explained to me: as soon as there’s war their incomes are doubled…”
“I don’t care for many of the papers, but that’s unjust,” said Sergey Ivanovitch.
“I would only make one condition,” pursued the old prince. “Alphonse Karr said a capital thing before the war with Prussia: ‘You consider war to be inevitable? Very good. Let everyone who advocates war be enrolled in a special regiment of advance-guards, for the front of every storm, of every attack, to lead them all!’”
“A nice lot the editors would make!” said Katavasov, with a loud roar, as he pictured the editors he knew in this picked legion.
“But they’d run,” said Dolly, “they’d only be in the way.”
“Oh, if they ran away, then we’d have grape-shot or Cossacks with whips behind them,” said the prince.
…
He [Levin] saw that it was impossible to convince his brother and Katavasov, and he saw even less possibility of himself agreeing with them. What they advocated was the very pride of intellect that had almost been his ruin. He could not admit that some dozens of men, among them his brother, had the right, on the ground of what they were told by some hundreds of glib volunteers swarming to the capital, to say that they and the newspapers were expressing the will and feeling of the people, and a feeling which was expressed in vengeance and murder. He could not admit this, because he neither saw the expression of such feelings in the people among whom he was living, nor found them in himself (and he could not but consider himself one of the persons making up the Russian people), and most of all because he, like the people, did not know and could not know what is for the general good, though he knew beyond a doubt that this general good could be attained only by the strict observance of that law of right and wrong which has been revealed to every man, and therefore he could not wish for war or advocate war for any general objects whatever.
