The Russian surprise for Cecil Rhodes

By Samuel L. Blumenfeld

As is well known, the Russians are superb chess players. They are well aware of NATO's geopolitical agenda and are not about to be told by NATO what they can and cannot do in Kosovo. And so, with the help of their Yugoslav allies and orders from Gen. Anatoly Kvashnin, the head of Russia's general staff and a critic of the peace deal brokered by Russian special envoy Victor Chernomyrdin, a Russian unit of 200 paratroopers entered Kosovo and reached Pristina, the capital, before a single NATO soldier had crossed the border into Kosovo. The move not only took NATO by surprise, but undercut what was to be a total and exuberant NATO victory.

We're not sure whether or not Madeleine Albright choked on her dinner when she heard the news. But she told Strobe Talbott, who had just left Moscow on a plane, to turn back and once more read the riot act to the Russians. Talbott, who speaks Russian fluently... is learning that you can't control the Russians by merely shaking your fist with a few billion dollars.

In a sense, the Russians have us where they want us. We can't deny them the economic aid they need, because then it would look like blackmail by NATO and simply confirm their fears that the West wants hegemony over them. Nor can we threaten them militarily since they also have nuclear missiles. The Yugoslavs could not retaliate against NATO bombing, but Russia can and would. Russia's current weakness should not be seen as a sign of military impotence. With only 200 paratroopers in Kosovo, they showed quite dramatically that they are still a force to be reckoned with.

It is also clear that Gen. Kvashnin acted with the approval of President Yeltsin, who then promoted the commander of the Russian contingent in Kosovo, Viktor Zavarzin to the rank of three-star general. Obviously, the Russian move was planned in case NATO excluded Russia from participation in the peacekeeping operation because it refused to put its troops under NATO command. Thus, the Yugoslav authorities escorted the Russians to the Pristina airport, exactly where NATO had planned to set up the command post for their force's commander, British Lt. Gen. Michael Jackson.

Vladimir Lukin, chairman of the Russian parliament's foreign affairs committee, explained, "NATO had impudently decided to turn a U.N. operation into a NATO operation. Something had to be done, and it was." In other words, Russia was acting in behalf of the United Nations and not merely for its own interests. Interesting that Russia and not the U.S. or Britain is defending the United Nations position in all of this.

It is clear that the U.S. and NATO acted in violation of the United Nations charter in bombing Yugoslavia, which had attacked no one. Kosovo is a province of Yugoslavia. The latter had a perfect right to quell an insurrection by ethnic Albanians in its territory. In the case of Iraq, which had invaded Kuwait, George Bush was able to get U.N. backing for going to war against Iraq. But in the case of Kosovo, NATO deliberately ignored the U.N. because of the veto power that both China and Russia have in the Security Council. Whereas China and Russia were willing to abide by the U.N. charter, the U.S. and its NATO allies were not. Apparently, the NATO allies want the freedom to set up their own New World Order -- their own kind of world hegemony - without having to consult all of those other nations in the U.N.

Why? Perhaps it has a lot to do with the ideology of Cecil Rhodes, the prime mover of a plan for world government to be dominated by the Anglo-Saxons. He believed that a federation of English-speaking people, controlling the bulk of the wealth and the material resources of the civilized world would be unconquerable
by any conceivable combination of powers.... [...]

It was his distinction to be the first of a new Dynasty of Money Kings which has been evolved in these later days as the real rulers of the modern world.... But although there have been many wealthier men, none of them before Mr. Rhodes recognised the opportunities which wealth affords its possessor of ruling the world....

One of the important components of Rhodes' plan was the creation of the Rhodes Scholarships at Oxford whereby the "best souls" could be recruited to further the progress of the Order and its plan. Strobe Talbott as well as Bill Clinton are Rhodes Scholars. In an article entitled "The Birth of the Global Nation" published in Time, July 20, 1992, Talbott wrote:

The big question these days is, Which political forces will prevail, those stitching nations together or those tearing them apart? Here is one optimist's reason for believing unity will prevail over disunity, integration over disintegration. In fact, I'll bet that within the next hundred years (I'm giving the world time for setbacks and myself time to be out of the betting game, just in case I lose this one), nationhood as we know it will be obsolete; all states will recognize a single, global authority.

Strobe is on the mark according to Rhodes' timetable. The plan has been in effect for about 100 years, with 100 more years to go. The Order already controls the wealth of the world. Now, if it can keep recruiting the "best souls" (like Bill and Strobe) to complete the job, Rhodes' dream of world government may indeed be realized. The only problem is that human nature won't let it happen.

Samuel L. Blumenfeld is the author of eight books on education, including "NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education".