2 July 2011 — Stop NATO

• Video And Text: Even If Gaddafi Is Killed, NATO To Take Over North Africa
• Clinton, Community Of Democracies And Invasions Of Sovereign Nations
• Prague/Arab Springs: Clinton Targets Syria, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia
• Russia Slams West For Striving To Topple Middle Eastern Governments
• $4 Trillion For U.S. Wars; Quarter Million Killed, Eight Million Displaced
• Afghan War: NATO’s 2011 Fatalities Approaching 300
• Poland: Tighten EU-NATO Strategic Integration, Form EU Combat Groups
• Russia To Deploy Two Infantry Brigades In Arctic

Video And Text: Even If Gaddafi Is Killed, NATO To Take Over North Africa

http://rt.com/news/nato-libya-regime-gaddafi/

RT
July 2, 2011

Even if Gaddafi is killed, NATO will not leave – ex-Belgian MP

Video

Regime change is the real reason NATO is in Libya, Lode Vanoost, international consultant and former deputy speaker of the Belgian Parliament told RT. Even if Gaddafi is ousted, murdered or flees the country, NATO forces will not leave right away.

According to Vanoost, there are more serious problems with the resolutions than it was possible to originally discern.

‘The problem with resolutions is that they are not legal texts. Basically the interpretation of resolutions is a matter of ideology and power. France interpreted it the way they did just because they could! One shouldn’t forget they drafted these resolutions themselves. It just suits their interests,’ stated Vanoost.

He also said a land operation could be interpreted as one means to protect civilians under the UN resolution.

‘I am sure this is already on the table as a plan. But thankfully behind the scenes the NATO member countries are not of the same opinion on the issue, they cover it up. But basically one of the problems NATO has is its members don’t agree with each other. And that’s the only hope we have’.

‘France and the UK for example have been saying long before the resolution that regime change is the issue. They are not going to change their mind all of a sudden. They want to take control over Libya,’ explained Vanoost.

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Clinton, Community Of Democracies And Invasions Of Sovereign Nations

http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/07/02/52693808.html

Voice of Russia
July 2, 2011

Clinton addresses Community of Democracies
Alexander Vatutin Jul 2, 2011 16:23 Moscow Time

-’Hillary Clinton simply passed the position of the US administration and the US establishment which see democratic processes across the world as a target. As a result, they invaded sovereign countries, such as Iraq, Yugoslavia, and now Libya. Democracy is the power of people. It is not imposed from outside.’
-And it looks like Syria is going to be next. Otherwise, the recent reports saying that President Bashar al-Assad has drained his potential as the country’s leader would make no sense.

US Secretary of State spoke at the Community of Democracies ministerial meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, this week. The main point of her address was that developed democracies should provide support for developing ones.

The Community of Democracies was founded at the initiative of the United States in 1999. It is based on the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and it unites democracies and democratizing countries with a stated commitment to strengthening democratic norms.

The conference in Vilnius took place amid the continuing unrest in countries of North Africa and the Middle East, which are witnessing a dramatic change of old bureaucratic regimes for new governments, professing human rights and democratic values.

As she addressed the Community of Democracies ministerial meeting, Hillary Clinton admitted that the United States was unprepared for revolutionary changes in Arab countries. The success of revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia depended on coordinated efforts from civil activists who stayed in touch via the Internet. The US, Mrs.Clinton said, should assist in training activists well-versed in IT and capable of resisting the governments’ efforts to stifle communication via social networking sites. For now, Mrs. Clinton says, changes in North Africa and the Middle East are shaky and may crumble.

But there is a clear discrepancy between Mrs. Clinton’s words and the reality. NATO’s military intervention in Libya can hardly be described as democracy-building efforts. Political analyst Leonid Polyakov has this to say.

‘Hillary Clinton simply passed the position of the US administration and the US establishment which see democratic processes across the world as a target. As a result, they invaded sovereign countries, such as Iraq, Yugoslavia, and now Libya. Democracy is the power of people. It is not imposed from outside.’

Instead of encouraging a domestic dialogue, coalition countries embarked on eliminating Gaddafi. NATO bombardments will do little to secure the formation of a civil society in Libya. And it looks like Syria is going to be next. Otherwise, the recent reports saying that President Bashar al-Assad has drained his potential as the country’s leader would make no sense. Russia is exerting maximum efforts to secure dialogue within Libya which would be much more effective for introducing democracy than outside pressure. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke to this effect over the week.

‘In any conflict settlement, options for dialogue should be kept open. Russia is guided by this principle with regards to Libya, and will do the same regarding Syria. But first and foremost, all parties involved, particularly the opposition, should be compelled to dialogue and made to give up on all kinds of provocations which would encourage the world community to step in and use force.’

Hillary Clinton is playing honest in her attempts to defend the principles of US democracy. But these principles are not universal. Present-day society is multifaceted and civil society principles in the West alone differ greatly.

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Prague/Arab Springs: Clinton Targets Syria, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia

http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=150732

Azeri Press Agency
Julyt 2, 2011

Clinton outlines road ahead for Arab democracy

Baku: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that the rule of law, political parties and democratic institutions must emerge in the Arab world if it is to emulate Eastern Europe’s remarkable transition two decades ago from authoritarianism to truly free societies, APA reports quoting ‘Associated Press’.

In Lithuania for an international democracy conference, Clinton cited the real risk of Middle East and North African nations slipping back into autocratic old ways. And she lamented the latest accounts of violence in Syria…

‘Today there are new democracies fighting for life, there are vicious autocrats clinging to power,’ Clinton said in a speech at the ‘Community of Democracies’ meeting. ‘This is an hour of need. And every democracy should stand up and be counted.’

Drawing on the experience of Lithuania and other countries that opened up when the Iron Curtain came down 22 years ago, Clinton outlined a series of fundamentals she said were necessary for nations to make the transition to democracy…

The implicit warning was that it is uncertain if the Arab reform movements will translate into stable democratic societies. While Tunisia and Egypt try to find their own formulas for a new system of governance, the would-be democrats of Syria may never get their chance.

Speaking at a news conference in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, Clinton said Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime wasn’t sending a coherent message…

‘We know what they have to do,’ Clinton said. ‘They must begin a genuine transition to democracy and allowing one meeting of the opposition in Damascus is not sufficient action toward achieving that goal.’

Clinton said Assad’s government is running out of time and it must advance a serious political process or face increased resistance.

The democracy conference was being held only a short distance from Belarus…

Clinton lamented the brutal repression in the country and how the government denies its citizens the most basic rights. President Alexander Lukashenko’s iron fist has long been an asterisk to democratic change in eastern Europe, and the Obama administration is alarmed by the rapidly deteriorating situation.

Without mentioning either country by name, Clinton also expressed concerns about the political motivations behind Ukraine’s legal proceedings against former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, and Russia’s refusal to allow a new opposition party to participate in upcoming elections.

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Russia Slams West For Striving To Topple Middle Eastern Governments

http://top.rbc.ru/english/index.shtml?/news/english/2011/06/30/30172052_bod.shtml

RosBusinessConsulting
June 30, 2011

Moscow slams West for striving to topple Mideast regimes

Any attempts by the West to overthrow undesirable regimes in the Middle East are unacceptable, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in parliament today.

‘Our position is that Western aspirations to ride the wave of protests in Middle Eastern countries for its own aims and topple unwelcome regimes cannot be supported.’ Russia adamantly opposes the use of force against civilians and misinterpretation of international agreements, the top diplomat said.

He pointed out to the application of double standards to Syria and Yemen. The situation in Yemen is no better than in Syria, but no one in the United Nations Security Council is trying to stop violence there unlike in Syria.

Russia opposes the Security Council’s resolution on Syria. The main UN body for international peace and security considered the draft resolution seeking to authorize a new military operation in the Middle East in April. But Russia and China voted against it.

President Dmitry Medvedev said that Russia would not back a resolution on Syria as events in Libya have shown that such resolutions can be manipulated. Nations should be allowed to choose their own path of development, the Russian president said earlier.

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$4 Trillion For U.S. Wars; Quarter Million Killed, Eight Million Displaced

http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=150747

Azeri Press Agency
July 2, 2011

US cost: $3.7 trillion & counting, dead estimated at 225,000, refugees – 7.8 mln

Baku: When President Barack Obama cited cost as a reason to bring troops home from Afghanistan, he referred to a $1 trillion price tag for America’s wars, APA reports citing foreign news agencies.

Staggering as it is, that figure grossly underestimates the total cost of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan to the US Treasury and ignores more imposing costs yet to come, according to a study released today.

The final bill will run at least $3.7 trillion and could reach as high as $4.4 trillion, according to the research project ‘Costs of War’ by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies.

In the 10 years since US troops went into Afghanistan…spending on the conflicts totalled $2.3 trillion to $2.7 trillion.

Those numbers will continue to soar when considering often overlooked costs such as long-term obligations to wounded veterans and projected war spending from 2012 through 2020. The estimates do not include at least $1 trillion more in interest payments coming due and many billions more in expenses that cannot be counted, according to the study.

In human terms, 225,000 to 258,000 people have died directly from warfare, including 125,000 civilians in Iraq. Many more have died indirectly, from the loss of clean drinking water, healthcare, and nutrition. An additional 365,000 have been wounded and 7.8 million people, equal to the combined population of Connecticut and Kentucky, have been displaced.

‘Costs of War’ brought together more than 20 academics to uncover the expense of war in lives and dollars, a daunting task given the inconsistent recording of lives lost and what the report called opaque and sloppy accounting by the US Congress and the Pentagon.

The report underlines the extent to which war will continue to stretch the US federal budget, which is already on an unsustainable course due to an aging American population and skyrocketing healthcare costs.

…

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Afghan War: NATO’s 2011 Fatalities Approaching 300

http://wireupdate.com/wires/18546/roadside-bombs-kill-two-coalition-service-members-in-afghanistan/

BNO News
July 2, 2011

Roadside bombs kill two coalition service members in Afghanistan

KABUL: Two coalition service members were killed in western and southern Afghanistan on Friday and Saturday as a result of two bomb blasts, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said on Saturday.

ISAF said one of its service members was killed on Friday evening as a result of an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in southern Afghanistan. Another service member died in western Afghanistan on Saturday morning as a result of another IED attack.

As usual, the multinational force gave no other details about the incidents, including the exact location and the nationalities of those killed. ‘It is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities,’ a brief statement said.

Coalition casualties in Afghanistan have been rising sharply in recent years, with a total coalition death toll of 709 in 2010, making it the deadliest year for international troops since the war began…

So far this year, at least 283 coalition service members have been killed in Afghanistan. Most troops are killed in the country’s south, which is plagued by IED attacks on troops and civilians. Most of the casualties are American.

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Poland: Tighten EU-NATO Strategic Integration, Form EU Combat Groups

http://www.thenews.pl/1/10/Artykul/46747,Klich-‘common-defence-is-EU-presidency-priority

Polish Radio
June 29, 2011

Klich – ‘common defence’ is EU presidency priority

A common security and defence policy shall be the chief priority during Poland’s EU presidency, says Defence Minister Bogdan Klich.

Klich said this primarily concerns the development of EU combat groups, research on new types of armaments, EU cooperation with NATO as well as eastern partners.

One of the problems to be tackled during the Polish presidency will be defining in practical terms the operations of EU combat groups.

‘These cannot only be costly paper structures. They need to have real application in various situations, either as an Initial Entry Force or an operation back-up,’ Minister Klich stressed.

The Polish defence ministry will also work towards tightening strategic dialogue between the EU and NATO, he declared.

Especially important will be better Union coordination of actions conducted both in the military as well as civilian sphere.

During the upcoming EU presidency which begins on 1 July Poland’s defence ministry is also intent on developing broader cooperation with countries encompassed by the Eastern Partnership project, mainly through including them in various EU military missions.

So far, only Ukraine had given formal consent for joining such actions.

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Russia To Deploy Two Infantry Brigades In Arctic

http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=150727

Azeri Press Agency
July 2, 2011

Russia to deploy 2 army brigades in Arctic

Baku: Russia’s defense minister says the military will deploy two army brigades to help protect the nation’s interests in the Arctic, APA reports quoting AFP.

Anatoly Serdyukov says his ministry is working out specifics, such as troops numbers, weapons and bases, but a brigade includes a few thousand soldiers.

Serdyukov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying Friday the brigades could be based in Murmansk, Arkhangelsk or other areas.

Russia, the U.S., Canada, Denmark and Norway have been trying to assert jurisdiction over parts of the Arctic, believed to hold up to a quarter of the Earth’s undiscovered oil and gas.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Russia ‘remains open for dialogue’ with its polar neighbors, but will ‘strongly and persistently’ defend its interests in the region.