JOHN
RANDOLPH IN CHICAGO
This
was the best conference I have attended in a long time. Things
got off to a great start with a talk by Chronicles
editor (and JRC President) Tom Fleming's moving tribute to
Murray N. Rothbard.
He reminded us that Murray provided the impetus for the club,
and gave the JRC its fighting spirit: Tom ecumenical message
of unity in the face of the Warfare-Welfare State must have
had Murray smiling down on us all.
Bill
Kauffman, author of America
First! and With
Good Intentions: Reflections on the Myth of Progress in America,
as well as a novelist,
is one of my favorite writers: we both did the foreign policy
panel (at 8:30 in the morning, no problem for me as I am usually
an early riser), and Bill's talk on the Ludlow Amendment was
laced with acerbic wit and real insight into the character
of the Amendment's largely forgotten but heroic author. It
was great to see good old Sam Francis again, whose clarity
of expression and deadpan manner is always the one of the
chief highlights of these events: his blunt realism challenged
us all to rethink our strategic premises. Christian Kopf,
who spoke on the general theme of where are headed in the
cultural sense, was informative, polemical, and so dazzlingly
learned that it could easily be argued that his talk was the
high point of the whole conference, in terms of sheer enjoyment.
Fleming's more political approach to the same topic was insightful,
hopeful, and thought-provoking, and in many ways reflected
my own cautious optimism with regard to the future of paleoconservatism.
Indeed,
all the talks were great fun, as well as informative – and
all the more so against the backdrop of the Chicago Athletic
Association – one of those old-fashioned men's clubs, with
a great gym, a sumptuous ballroom, Brylcreme and Vitalis in
all the bathrooms. It was like stepping back into time, the
whole place had the air of a better and more benevolent era – an excellent choice indeed for the 11th annual
gathering of these reactionary conspirators.
Sunday
night ended in a spectacular thunderstorm, and I sat up late
making notes on the Serbian revolution, which follow:
THE
SERBIAN OCTOBER
Serbia's
October Revolution is a revolt not only against the last Stalinist
despot in Europe, but against the new despots of Europe, the
NATO-crats. All across the heart of a continent, a new movement
is gathering force: you saw it in Denmark, with the rejection
of the euro, and in Austria, with the rise of the Freedom
Party. You saw it in the fuel tax protests that humbled Tony
Blair and France's socialist government, and you are seeing
it in the exultant faces of the people of Belgrade as they
take what is theirs' and sweep the last remnants of communism
into the dustbin of history.
THIRD
FORCE
The
idea that there is a Third Force in the Balkans, that a man
with the presence and stature of Vojislav Kostunica, angers
the US and the Russians. But in Europe the revolt of the little
guys is on the rise and there isn't anything the Powers That
Be can do about it. As the truckers and independent entrepreneurs
of Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Poland, Italy, and beyond
demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt: they have the power
to bring society to a shuddering halt – and, what's more,
they are prepared to exercise that power. The Serbian people
are, this glorious weekend, demonstrating that very same principle
to the Great Powers, both to Washington and Moscow, to the
EU and the UN – we will be the masters of our own fate!
That is the message the Serbs are sending to the peoples of
the world, as they stormed the Parliament building and the
police, simply overwhelmed, joined the ranks of the revolutionaries.
TAKING
SLOBO SERIOUSLY
The
US State Department may be the only ones to have taken the
propaganda of Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia seriously
if they think that Kostunica will now hand his country over
to NATO. As the leader of a democratic country, one whose
leader has been praised by US government officials as the
Serbian equivalent of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson
all rolled into one, Kostunica will have to be taken seriously
when he declares the Kosovo is legally, historically, and
quite legitimately a part of the Yugoslav federation, and
that his country's sovereignty must be respected. They will
have a hard time dismissing his insistence on the rights of
Serbs who live in Kosovo. In insisting on the legitimate authority
of their "War Crimes Tribunal," they will find it impossible
to evade their own crimes – including the bombing of
civilian targets, the terrible toll taken on Yugoslavia due
to the sanctions, and the poisoning of the environment which
will take many years to wash away.
LIFT
ALL THE SANCTIONS NOW
The
main task now of the anti-interventionist movement is the
immediate and unconditional lifting of the sanctions. The
outrageous
demand being made by the US that sanctions must not be
lifted until Milosevic is handed over for his alleged "war
crimes" is the beginning of phase two of the NATO-crats' assault
on Serbian sovereignty. Kostunica, of course, denounces the
phony Tribunal as "a political instrument," a propaganda device
used to fan Serbo-phobia in the Western media. Will they never
leave the Serbs alone? It's an outrage, and, not only that,
but a diversion from the real issue: isn't it high time for
the US, Britain, France, and Germany to start paying reparations
to the individual victims of the NATO bombing? Let's start
talking about some real "war crimes"! And, while we're on
the subject of "isn't it high time" – it is time now
to start asking: why do we need US troops in the area? With
Clinton hailing the overthrow of Milosevic, whom we have always
been told is personally responsible for all the trouble in
the Balkans – now that this alleged "Hitler" (Mussolini
is more like it) is gone, then our mission in the region is
over – right?
YANKEE
GO HOME
Somehow,
I don't think the US State Department, not to mention that
man in the White House, are going to see it that way. But
the reality is that the victory of Kostunica has undercut
the arguments of those who argue that we need a permanent
presence in the region. The Serbs have freed themselves. Let
those who are now falsely taking the credit for what is a
Serbian victory realize that the rationale for Bill Clinton's
Balkan Adventure has completely collapsed – let them
take the credit and go home!
Please
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