of Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer andrnDefense Minister Rudolf Scharping duringrnthe attack, Lafontaine calls it “the t)’picalrnzeal of turncoats, of former ferventrnpacifists who are now even more ferventrnadvocates of war.”rnSimilar sentiments abound among thernnew members of the alliance, particularlyrnin Hungar)’ and the Czech Republic,rnas well as along the southern flank, notablyrnin Italy. The overwhelming unpopidarityrnof NATO among most Greeksrnhardly needs restating; were it not for thern(probably mistaken) belief that being arnmember of NA’I’O offers protectionrnagainst Turkey, Athens would have left arnlong time ago.rnOnly time will tell whether the uneasernon the European left will find its equivalentrnin a traditionalist backlash againstrnthe “new” NATO; but a reaction basedrnon the desire to defend the last vestiges ofrnthe Westphalian order against the postnational,rnpost-civilized ideologues ofrnuniversal human rights and global freerntrade is necessary. Europe needs its ownrnBuchanans, able to talk to the Eafontainesrnand willing to forge a commonrnfront with them to devise a strategy forrnthe Old Continent’s survival in the comingrncentur)’. Contrary to Chris Patten’srnviews, that strategy has to be outsidernNATO—indeed against it.rnOnce the Free World’s bulwarkrnagainst communist aggression, NATOrnhas now become an aggressive tool of thern”benevolent global hegenionists” inrnWashington and their European quislings.rnIt has lost more than ever)’ politicalrnand militar)’ reason to exist; it has lost thernright to do so.rn—Srdja TrifkovicrnT H E NOBEL PEACE PRIZE is byrnnow a running gag—or rather a runningrnsore. Ijike the Prize for Literature, givenrnnearly every year to an untalented antiwriterrnas obscure in his own country as hernis in the rest of the world, the Peace Prizernis generally awarded to failures, like thern1998 winners from Northern Irelandrnwho are no longer speaking to each other,rnor to complete cynics like HenryrnKissinger who consigned an allied andrndependent nation to devastation andrnslaughter. In 1906, the prize went tornTheodore Roosevelt, the bullying imperialistrnwho once opined, “What thisrncountr}’ needs is a good war”; the 1919 recipientrnwas Woodrow Wilson, who hadrnjust dragged his countr’ through an unnecessaryrnEuropean war whose conclusionrnwould set the stage for the rise of thernNazis and round two of the Europeanrnbloodbath.rnOccasionally the prize for literaturernhas gone to authentic writers (Eliot,rnMauriac, Camus, Andric), and—less frequentlyrn— the Peace Prize is given tornsome genuinely humane person like AlbertrnSchweitzer and (unless I am mistaken)rnRalph Bunche. This year, however,rnis not one of the exceptions. GiinterrnGrass, leftist activist and propagandist, receivedrnthe Prize for Literature, and thernrecipient of the Peace Prize is MedecinsrnSans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).rnGrass, a self-described “Spdtaufkldrer”rn(illuminatus-come-lately) whornhates his countr)’ and opposed its reunificationrn(which spoiled the communist experimentrnin the east), is a perfect matchrnfor the doctors who hate borders and thernnations they protect.rnEveryone has heard of these humblernmen of healing who wander the worldrnlooking for sick people to minister to,rnand although the Weekly Standard hasrngushed over the wisdom of the committee,rnthe borderless doctors (like mostrnglobal do-gooders) are practicing charityrnaccording to a double standard. WhilernMSF claims to reject political labels andrnentanglements, the ver)’ title of the organizationrnmore than implies its members’rncontempt for nations and historic traditions.rnLike the cynical doctors of fictionrnand film (think of William Holden inrnJohn Ford’s The Horse Soldiers, Bones onrnStar Trek), these “scientists” look at arnworld of love, poetr)’, and faith and see sornmany carcasses to be dosed or cut. Nationsrnare only conspiracies or bands ofrngangsters determined to make the lives ofrntheir own and other peoples miserable.rnAny pretense to humanity or impartialityrnwas dropped in late October when thernMedecins decided to expel the Greekrnbranch for sending doctors to Serbia duringrnthe NATO attack on Yugoslavia.rnMSF was thrown out of Kosovo last Julyrnwhen it refused to communicate with orrnthrough the Yugoslav government, butrnonly with nongovernmental organizations.rnThis was a blatantly political movernon the part of MSF, implicitly rejectingrnYugoslavia’s sovereignt)’ and slyl)’ connivingrnat the “legitimacy” of the self-st)’ledrngovernment of Ibrahim Rugova.rnSmarting from the Serbs’ rejection,rnMSF was angered when the Greekrnbranch was able to negotiate an exceptionrnin its favor. The Greeks may haverntechnically violated MSF rules whichrnprohibit working under government auspices,rnbut this is hardly the first occasionrnwhen the organization’s doctors, officiallyrnor not, were forced to work within staternguidelines, and the mask of nonviolentrnpartiality slipped more than a little whenrnsome of its members were caught in 1993rnnear Srebrenica with a cache of ammunitionrncarefully concealed under blanketsrnand medicine chests. MSF blamed,rnvariously, the Serbs and their Muslimrndriver.rnThe Greek physicians do admit thatrnthey made use of the friendly ties whichrnhave existed between the two Orthodoxrncountries, but they insist they were onlyrnliving up to the MSF charter, whichrnpromises to help both sides in a conflictrnregardless of ethnicit)-. But in expellingrntheir Greek colleagues, Medecins SansrnFrontieres — however inconsistent theyrnhave been in their humanitarianism —rnhave shown themselves consistent torntheir globalist vision that refuses to recognizernthe significance of nations. I amrntempted to say that the Peace Prizernshould be taken away from an organizationrnthat has so disgraced it, but the Prizernis itself a badge of dishonor, and MSFrnshoidd wear it with pride.rn— Thomas FlemingrnVLADIMIR PUTIN’S performance asrnRussian premier had, by the first ofrnNovember, won him high approval. Thernex-KGB professional, publicly tapped byrnBoris Yeltsin as his preferred successor,rnhas begun to show the political acumenrnthat attracted the attention of Yeltsin andrnhis “family,” the presidential entourage,rnwho are ver)’ worried about the anti-familyrncoalition formed by Moscow MayorrnYuri Luzhkov and Ycvgeni Primakov,rnwhom the Kremlin now fears far morernthan the Communists. Putin’s task is tornundermine Primakov, and the Kremlinrnmay have concocted an appropriate crisisrnto help him do it.rnLooking forrna good book?rnCheck out reviews from ourrnback issues online atrn« »vv.chroniclcsmagazinc.orgrnlANUARY 2000/7rnrnrn