From: "Dave Coull" <d.y.coull-AT-dundee.ac.uk>
Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1999 16:38:12 GMT
Subject: Why Tony Needed A War


I firmly believe that the reasons this war in Europe started
had a lot to do with domestic politics in the NATO countries.
Now, no doubt our American colleagues can come up 
with reasons why Bill Clinton, who declined to participate
in Vietnam, felt keener on  _this_  foreign adventure. 
But the NATO offensive would have been impossible
without the enthusiastic support of British prime minister
Tony Blair, foreign secretary Robin Cook, and Defence Secretary
George Robertson. If anything, they have been even more 
gung-ho than the Americans. Why ? 

Well, Robin Cook is Scottish, so is George Robertson,
and Tony Blair himself has Scottish parents. They are
all people of Caledonian origins who have done well
out of the United Kingdom. All three of them are members 
of a UK government which definitely does not want the UK 
to break up. There is an election for the Scottish parliament
on May 6th, and until a couple of weeks ago the Labour
Party and the Scottish National party were running neck 
and neck in the opinion polls. It looked distinctly possible 
that the Labour Party were going to lose that election. 

But Tony knew that the SNP was notoriously peacenik
and anti-NATO. What he needed was a war. The best
way to keep the United Kingdom together was to encourage
the further disintegration of Yugoslavia.

The bombing of Yugoslavia started, and the leader of the SNP
went on television to condemn it as folly. With "our boys" in 
action, this did not go down well in Scotland. Sure enough,
Labour is ahead of the SNP in the opinion polls again.

Here in Dundee, the largest church in town, the one which,
if it was catholic or anglican, would be called the "cathedral",
has a flag flying over it. Up until a couple of weeks ago that flag
was the union jack. But there must have been complaints from
members of the congregation, because the British flag was
pulled down, and for a few days the Scottish flag was raised.
That was a sign of the way the wind was blowing. Then SNP 
leader Alex Salmond gave his anti-war speech. Now they've 
raised the union jack again. Onward Christian Soldiers.


Dave