The degree of alarm expressed in this bourgeois newspaper, a major voice of the Indian political establishment, is quite striking. This commentary in The Times of India is the assessment which an intelligent observer makes of the extraordinary escalation of both military action and bellicose rhetoric on the part of American ruling circles. More of both were in evidence this weekend. In the war, NATO bombers continued their attacks, focused on other Serbian cities rather than Belgrade, and NATO's commander sought a further expansion of the scope of the attack on Yugoslavia. General Wesley Clark requested authority to station rocket batteries along Serbia's borders, some of them on the territory of Croatia, others in Hungary and Bosnia.
War fever continues to rage in the elite media and among many Washington politicians.
Even more extraordinary was the tone of outrage adopted by media commentators and politicians over the alleged Chinese government failure to protect the American embassy in Beijing from Chinese demonstrators, as though protests and rock-throwing far outweighed the bombing and murder in Belgrade. This double standard is more remarkable when one considers the US reaction after terrorist bombs hit American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania last August. Such statements are the product of a ruling class that has lost its bearings and which has embarked on a course of militarism and aggression that can only end in a bloody disaster. Please send e-mail .