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NATO

"Their Country Needs You"

At the moment we have adverts appearing on television, encouraging young people to join the armed forces, each one portraying the state killing machine as a force for worldwide benevolence.

The Air Force's advert, which contains the above slogan shows scenes of helpless civilians, clearly meant to be in the former Yugoslavia, being helped by a British air force aid drop. Isn't it lovely? "Join the Air Force, save the world." But let's look further into what the armed forces really are doing in the former Yugoslavia, and exactly how benevolent the military presence there is.

Editorial: Russia and the US Face Up Once Again

As the crisis in the Gulf escalates, it is noticeable that the Russian ruling class is busy lining up behind Saddam Hussein`s Iraq. This is not because of any love affair with Saddam, but due to Russia`s transparent need to counter United States influence in the region while simultaneously exploiting divisions between the "old alliance" of the western states.

Just like the French, Russia also wants to bring Iraq back into the world economy (not least of all because Russia wants to recover its Iraqi debts). The current stand-off between the Russians and the Americans--including the recent diplomatic contact--has only served to promote the anti-Yeltsin extremes in Russian politics such as the neo-Fascist leader Zhirinovsky, currently making much noise about "solidarity with Saddam". And these are precisely the type of forces which have the largest influence on the Russian Duma.

World View: 'Bombing for Peace - the Real Crisis in NATO', 'Profit or the Environment?'

Contents

    * Bombing for peace—the real crisis in NATO
    * Profit or the environment?

Bombing for peace—the real crisis in NATO

Western liberals are in a flap about NATO's bombardment of Serbia. Whichever position they take appears to condone violence against somebody, and the shallowness of liberal thinking has never been more cruelly exposed than now. Yet the cynics are having trouble too, because they can't see an economic motive behind NATO's actions, and nobody can believe that the West would spend £2 billion on a purely humanitarian exercise when it didn't show the slightest concern over East Timor, Rwanda or any other killing ground of recent years.

Letters

Contents

    * Not my war
    * We have a dream
    * Labour no good
    * Become a socialist

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