Bill Clinton as NATO Chief?

"One of Norway’s most highly profiled and right-wing politicians, Carl I. Hagen, is urging the nomination of former U.S. President Bill Clinton as new NATO boss," reported Norway’s Aftenposten on June 17th. Hagen, head of Norway’s Progress Party, insists that "NATO’s new leader should have international authority," continued the report. "He thinks Clinton, therefore, is the perfect choice."

"There are plenty of people who can be leader of a secretariat in Brussels, but that’s not what NATO needs right now," Hagen told the newspaper. He maintains that Clinton is exactly the kind of "political heavyweight" who could succeed current NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson (a former Marxist agitator from Scotland). Robertson leapt to prominence as British defense minister during NATO’s 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia. Clinton’s support for that campaign, which brought allies of Osama bin Laden to power in Kosovo, earned the gratitude of the Marxist figures currently occupying key posts in NATO countries, such as Robertson, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

"NATO is in a very difficult situation, with a deep conflict between the U.S. and the major EU countries Germany and France," elaborated Hagen. Clinton "has good and close contact with many of Europe’s leaders, and he enjoys considerable respect. He can be the bridge-builder the alliance needs." Additionally, Hagen believes it would be difficult for President Bush to oppose Clinton if his candidacy is supported by a majority of European governments.