Said Solana, "Those Entangling Foreign Alliances are Good for you!"

Said Solana, "Those Entangling Foreign Alliances are Good for you!"

I am digressing this evening to research I did on Javier Solana starting on March 21, 1999.


"Why, those entangling foregn alliances are good for you!" exclaimed Javier Solana in accepting a 1999 Christian Herter Foreign Policy Award,in Boston, Massachusetts. Solana was referring, of course, to George Washington's Farewell Message to Americans. It takes a lot of "cheek" to come into a country and mock its national icons. It was no small demonstration of his self-confidence. Was there a basis in fact for it?

In the same speech, Solana confided that he had since January 30, 1999, exclusive authority to make military decisions for NATO, including, but not limited whether to bomb or not. "I don't intend to exercise it without checking in with the others, but nevertheless, the power is mine and mine alone," said he.

Solana indeed had an unusual grant of power from NATO. Usually the Secretary General of NATO plays a ministerial role, taking direction from its constituent members and then passing along that direction to the mlitary operatives.

Said Solana, "Those Entangling Foreign Alliances are Good for you!"

Madeline Albright noted on her State Department home page, "Solana has the power and has had it since January 30th [1999]. We are speaking with one voice through Javier Solana."

Much of my research has been done the "poor man's way" -- via television and the internet. Fortunately, if used appropriately, both give a much more accurate window on the world. On Sunday, March 21, 1999, I awakened with "the mother of all migraines." I planned to dress for church, but it was clear I was going nowhere in that condition. As I was nursing my headache, waiting for the Vanquish (my favorite headache remedy) to kick in, my husband switched on our bedroom TV to "Sunday Morning," the CBS news program that airs weekly from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

Midway through the program, there was an unusual interruption: "We interrupt this program to bring you an important announcement," said the show's host. "Javier Solana, the Secretary General of NATO has just announced that the bombing of Yugoslavia may start as soon as the next few hours."

As soon as the headache sufficiently lifted, I did not finish dressing; I did not go to Church. Instead, I went downstairs to my basement computer and learned that all NATO nations were unanimously speaking with one empowered voice of their Secretary General. The NATO tail was literally wagging the dog!

I stayed in all that Sunday. That night, March 21, 1999, when millions were in church for Sunday night services, President Clinton came on national television. He talked about the incipient bombings. I was waiting for him to say something to the effect that "this is what WE have decided to do," . . . "this is what WE have decided would be in the best interests of the GLOBAL COMMUNITY" or some such phraseology. Those words were never used. Instead he sad, I AGREE WTH JAVIER SOLANA'S DECISION TO DO THIS." Interestingly, few Americans, including the more sophisticated media ever bothered to say, "WHO'S JAVIER SOLANA?!!"

Clinton also made several pointed references in that speech saying that he felt it terrible that the Yugoslavians were doing whatever they were supposed to have been doing "for religious reasons."

Kosovo was clearly the religious center of the Serbian Orthodox Church. It was lost to Turkish Moslem interests for many centuries. Not until the WW I era, was it regained by the Orthodox Serbs. It is sacred ground to the Serbs -- the equivalent of Jerusalem to the Jews -- their long-lost spiritual homeland.

Interestingly, the focus for condemnation of claimed Serbian behavior was religious. President Clinton repeatedly said, "It's horrible that they are doing this for religious purposes."

Even more interesting shedding, doubt on the entire basis for USA engagement, are Yossef Bodansky's well-documented claims in his book, BIN LADEN: THE MAN WHO DECLARED WAR ON AMERICA. He wrote therein part of Bin Laden’s rage against the USA was for this bombing of Kosovo. The Islamic residents saw it as an attempt by the USA to get to the Caspian oil fields – using the Kosovo protection issue as a ruse. This means in effect it was a win-win for Europe and a lose-lose for the USA in the EU/Barcelona Process drive to get the United States out of the Mediterranean.

I remember that bombing well. I remember hearing that the pope was sending emissaries to Brussels to seek a truce between the two Easters. Reportedly, he had the concurrence of Eastern Orthodox patriarchs who would join with him in the negotiating. On Good Friday, 1999, some newspapers carried headlines of "Pope Rebuffed."

I personally saw Michigan's junior Senator Spencer Abraham at a banquet a week after Easter. I asked him, point blank, "why did we hand Solana all that power." He told me candidly he didn't understand the Yugoslavian policy himself, but he thought perhaps it was 'Bill Clinton hiding behind Javier Solana.' "Things happen like that in politics," he said. I have been around long enough to KNOW that things happen like that in politics.

What Spencer Abraham, the junior USA senator from Michigan volunteered to me next stunned me. He told me he had met Javier Solana personally. I said, "oh?" He said that he and ALL THE OTHER UNITED STATES SENATORS had been flown to Brussels to meet Javier Solana.

I must tell you, that's when I started to get a little scared. If the junior first term opposite party Senator from Michigan went in a Democratic presidency year, all must have gone and been subjected to Solana's obvious low-key charms.

Just how much power does the guy have. Why is Solana so successful at convincing people he is everybody's friend.

Just asking? Have a nice evening!