NATO has developed a tactic for halting the ‘imminent’ spread of nuclear weapons or of other weapons of mass destruction.
This is a formula tailor-made for confronting and attacking states such as Iran who are standing fast by their rights, in Iran’s case its right to develop nuclear power for its energy needs.
It is being accused by the US and its allies of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, with some insisting that it is very close to developing a nuclear weapon.
The NATO maxim is that only the Western powers and their allies such as Israel and Pakistan are entitled to possess nuclear weaponry, or even develop nuclear power programmes.
Its hue and cry over ‘Iranian ambitions’ is the same tactic that the US and the UK used against Iraq – a false accusation that it was developing weapons of mass destruction, – to prepare the way for an invasion.
Of course the whole thing was a cloak for an attempt to seize Iraq’s oil and gas wealth.
The pre-emptive nuclear assault is now being adopted by NATO as a tactic for the simple reason that after the mauling that US and UK forces are taking in Iraq, the US does not fancy another land war in Asia against the Iranian masses and their allies.
The tactic is to strike pre-emptively with nuclear weapons, perhaps using tactical nuclear weaponry, to show the oppressed nations such as Iran that the US-UK axis will not hesitate to completely obliterate them.
What theory there is for NATO pre-emptive nuclear strikes has been launched in a special manifesto.
This manifesto for a ‘new NATO’, has been written by five very senior military figures.
These warriors are agitating for a ‘new NATO’ that will bring the US and the EU together behind a ‘grand strategy’ whose basic axiom is that ‘a first strike nuclear option remains an indispensable instrument’ as there is ‘simply no realistic prospect of a nuclear-free world’.
The work has already been presented to the Pentagon and to NATO’s secretary general in the last week and will be discussed at the NATO summit in Bucharest this summer.
The authors are General Klaus Naumann, Germany’s ex-chairman of Nato’s military committee; Lord Inge, field marshal and ex-chief of the UK general staff; General John Shalikashvili, the former chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff and Nato’s ex-supreme commander in Europe; General Henk van den Breemen, a former Dutch chief of staff; and Admiral Jacques Lanxade, a former French chief of staff.
Their list of enemies include political fanaticism and religious fundamentalism, the spread of WMDs, and environmental migration of millions caused by climate change.
The remedy for decisive action against these evils is majority voting in NATO bodies, with only those who take part in operations having a role in decision making, and being able to use force without UN security council authorisation when ‘immediate action is needed’. This is the full Bush-Blair programme for unilateral action by the imperialist powers.
No wonder the Russian military staff has just announced that although Russia has no intention of attacking anybody, it reserves the right to launch a pre-emptive attack, including a nuclear attack to defend the sovereignty and the territory of Russia and its allies.
Driven on by the capitalist crisis the NATO generals are clearing the decks for action against the oppressed nations such as Iran, and also against the oil and gas rich Russian Federation.
News Line supports the right of Russia and the oppressed nations to defend themselves from imperialist attack.
We also stress that this is not enough, and that the world will not be safe until socialist revolutions in the western capitalist states have overthrown capitalism and imperialism and created the conditions for world socialism.
