Thursday, March 26, 2009

Denmark: Burning flags

The Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is frequently mentioned by international media as a favourite candidate as the next secretary general of NATO. For the first time an acting prime minister might resign from his post to become the figurehead of this imperialist grouping, originally created to ‘counter the danger from the Soviet Union’, but presently active in Central Asia – and all over the world. The appointment of an acting head of state would indicate the increased importance attached by US and the big EU powers to the development of NATO as their joint military instrument.
The inveterate war criminal and neoliberal militarist Fogh is no doubt suited for the job. He has from 2001 been the leader of the worst rightist government in Denmark since the Nazi occupation, and has systematically turned Denmark into a front runner of imperialist aggression, racism and islamophobia. An echo of George W. Bush, Fogh played a major role in the run up to the illegal war against Iraq, even surpassing his master, stating: " Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction. This is not something we simple believe. We know it for a fact.”!
Defeated and under fire by the Danish anti war movement Fogh withdrew his soldiers from Iraq in 2007-08, sharply increasing the number of Danish combat troops in Afghanistan. 22 of them have been killed until now, proportionately the greatest losses among the NATO occupiers.
Fogh, the friend of zionist Israel, supported the islamophobic intrigue of Jyllands Posten, Denmark’s most reactionary daily, that published the Mohammed caricatures, designed as a provocation against arabs and muslims. In the 30’s of the last century this newspaper supported the policies of neighbouring chancellor Adolph Hitler towards the German jews. Fogh promoted the caricatures as ‘the Western value of freedom of expression’, while hundred of thousands muslims took to the streets, burning the Danish flag, rightly depicting Fogh as the running dog of George Bush and U.S. imperialism.
During his time in office the Danish so-called welfare state has itself been reduced to a caricature.

This is the kind of man, who is said to be the present favourite of the big EU-powers France, Germany and UK as the next secretary general of NATO. Whether Fogh will be appointed or not, the figurehead of NATO will be an accomplish militarist and imperialist. Fogh’s candidacy has created a major parliamentary crisis in Denmark, and in any case his days as Danish prime minister and leader of the war party will be numbered.
In the period of Obama, Sarkozy, Merkel and Brown NATO will not only be an auxiliary tool of the US wars, but the primary instrument of US and EU-imperialism for joint world hegemony. The European Union of old colonialist powers is not a ‘progressive counterweight to US unilateralism’. No illusions should be nurtured. Of 27 EU member countries 21 are also NATO members. Five are members of ‘Partnership for Peace’. Only Cyprus is still not involved, and only Malta has no military force in Afghanistan. Out of 26 NATO member states only the three Non-European states (Canada, US and Iceland) and one European country (Norway) are not members of the European Union.
NATO is planned to become the ‘21st century alliance for global dominance’.
Of course a majority of the Danes were and are against the imperialist wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the barbarous Israeli subjugation of the Palestinians. Great protests in the streets and elsewhere have been staged against Fogh and Danish participation in the criminal aggressions. Now the anti war movement is also focusing on combating the NATO build up.

Workers’ Communist Party of Denmark – APK
www.apk2000.dk

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