turned deadly serious on Mondayrnnight. The teenagersrngrabbed 10 rocks, each weighingrnabout 8kg, from a localrnbuilding s i t e . They launchedrnthem from the overpass, cheeringrneach time they scored arnh i t . Two women driving separrna t e cars died instantly.rnNow the boys are under arrest, facing arnGerman trial for murder. The “killer kids”rncan expect to spend up to ten years in arnGerman jail if convicted. But the funnyrnpart is the absence of this story from ourrnown media. Had German teens from thernembassy in D.C. murdered Washingtoniansrnon the Beltway in a similar fashion, itrnwould have been headline news, from searnto shining sea.rnSo who can blame those Europeansrnwho wish to develop a defense structurernthat is independent of the United States?rnBritain’s Daily Telegraph (March 6) reportsrnthat the former NATO Secretary-rnGeneral Javier Solana, who is the presentrnhead of security for the European Union,rnhas angered France by trying to end itsrnhopes for a European army. He and his alliesrnwithin the European Union even:rnproposed allowing Nato officrni a l s to attend meetings of thernEU’s new m i l i t a r y committees,rncausing consternation inrnParis, where the move is seenrnas tantamount to handing thernnew bodies to Washington on arnp l a t e . Paris wants to keep thernAmericans locked out u n t i l thernnew i n s t i t u t i o n s have grown tornmaturity and established thernfinal blueprint for EU defencernintegration.rnAt a summit in Helsinki in December,rnE.U. leaders vowed to develop by 2003rnthe ability to deploy up to 60,000 soldiersrnwithin 60 days and to sustain that force forrnup to a year. Secretary of State MadeleinernAlbright has summed up U.S. concernsrnabout the plan in what she calls the “threernD’s”: The European defense initiativernmust not “decouple” the United Statesrnfrom Europe; it must not “dupUcate” NATOrnstructures and capabilities; and it mustrnnot “discriminate” against NATO membersrnthat do not belong to the EuropeanrnUnion.rnMrs. Albright’s stock in Europe isrnsomewhat low right now, as even “mainstream”rnpublications have unveiled herrnbellicose deviousness in dealings withrnAmerica’s “alhes.” The Sunday Telegraphrnof London (Febiuary 27) is one example:rnWhen news of a massacre in thernKosovan v i l l a g e of Racakrnreached Washington early lastrnyear, Madeleine Albright’s reactionrnwas immediate. “Springrnhas come early,” the US Secretrna ry of State told Sandy Berger,rnthe National Security Adviser,rnafter hearing that therncorpses of 45 ethnic Albaniansrnhad been found following an attackrnby Serb forces. Ms Albright,rnone of the West’s leadingrnanti-Serb hawks . . . knewrnthat she would have to movernquickly to take advantage ofrnthe Racak effect. “It was thernkind of event we wanted tornavoid,” she told me. “But thernfact that i t had happened meantrnthat i t had to be a galvanisingrnevent and we had to move thernAllies as rapidly as we could.”rnThe whole thing was a setup, of course,rnas our readers have known for a yeai’ now.rnThe Sunday Telegraph’s reporter adds thatrnMs Albright and Mr Thaci madernt h e i r candid admissions to mernas I compiled a BBC documentaryrnto mark the f i r s t anniversaryrnof a war which the West presentedrnas a moral crusadernagainst ethnic cleansing butrnwhich, in r e a l i t y , was ratherrnmore complex . . . Even on thernNorth Atlantic Council, Nato’srngoverning body, there was profoundrnscepticism about rebelrnintentions. Confidential minutesrntaken by one member nationrnon November 13, 1998, speak ofrnthe KLA as “the main i n i t i a t o rrnof the violence which isrnthreatening the ceasefire arrangementsrn.”rnBut the Americans took a firm line:rnThree days after Racak Ms Albrightrnpersuaded PresidentrnClinton to promise that USrntroops would be part of arnpeacekeeping force in thernevent of a p o l i t i c a l agreementrn. She then began to workrnon the European a l l i e s . Theyrnwanted another round of diplomacy.rnShe declared bluntlyrnthat she had had enough ofrnmeetings that did not lead anywhere.rn”I remember t e l l i n g thernEuropeans that I was not goingrnto come to any more meetingsrnwhere nothing happened untilrnyou give me your word that wernwill have a Nato activation orderrnauthorising the threat ofrnthe use of force.”rnThe rest, as they say, is history, in whichrnMrs. Albright’s place is assured. So is thatrnof Mr. Milosevic. Very few Western journalistsrnhave grasped the essence of thernSerbs’ drama, squeezed between the hammerrnof NATO bombs and the anvil ofrnMilosevic’s ruthless regime. One excepdonrnis Marcus Gee, writing in Canada’srnGlobe and Mail (March 1):rnAn evil lord rules over a poorrnmedieval town. The lord is sorncruel to his people, and such arnnuisance to his neighbours,rnthat all the nobles of the landrnband together to overthrowrnhim. There i s one problem:rnNone of the nobles are willingrnto shed a drop of their ownrnblood. So, instead of attackingrnthe lord in his castle,rnthey surround the town and letrnnothing in or out-no food, nornwater, no wagons, no people.rnEventually, the nobles reason,rnthe townsfolk will be so hungryrnand poor that they will r i s e uprnand overthrow the lord themselvesrn. This, in a nutshell,rni s the Western plan for unseatingrnSlobodan Milosevic, thernevil lord of Serbia. NATOrnbombed him into pulling out ofrnKosovo l a s t spring, but i trnstopped short of toppling him.rnSince the end of the Kosovo war last June,rnthe victorious Western allies have tightenedrnthe economic noose on Serbia, chokingrnoff all legal ti’ade and reducing the Serbianrneconomy to a gasping wreck.rnWestern leaders insist that, as long as MrrnMilosevic is in power, there will be no endrnto sanctions and no Western help in repairingrnthe billions of dollars in damage fromrnlast year’s airstrikes.rn”A cruder and more stupid policyrnwould be hard to imagine,” Gee concludes.rnMAY 2000/2Srnrnrn