Last Flight For Switzerland�s Mirages
By Alessandro RAIMONDI
BERN, Nov 29 (THE GLOBE)
Switzerland, or at least her air force, will be somewhat weaker by the end of the year. The Defence Ministry of the Confederation has, in fact, decided to retire the last 29 Mirage IIIS fighter-bombers still on duty in the blue but limited skies of this Alpine country.
The Mirage, a jewel of the French aircraft industry, has been for years the forerunner of Europe�s defence and attack capability, a jet which has lead the way of the military supersonic age for some time.
The Swiss Air Force still makes use of some 45 of these machines that, acquired back in 1961, costed the country much more than the 871 million SF allowed for 100 such units. At the time a financial scandal forced the federal counsellor Paul Chauset to resign: indeed the total bill went so sky-high (weren�t they Mirages after all?) that in the end the country withdrew only 61 planes for as much as 1,240,000 SF! All this in only 3 years time: it was indeed the case, as some press �ironized�, of �having witnessed a supersonic speed in price rising�!
The plane anyhow was OK, but supersonic jets found very hard to practice at top speed on such limited domestic skies, because in a matter of minutes they would have trespassed the airspace of the bordering countries: Italy, France, Germany, Austria and Liechtenstein. A solution was found by asking permission to train on the neighbours� wider skies such as Italy�s Sardinia case, where the Swiss jets flew in 1985 to train at low altitude and high speed, or France and Sweden�s cases, whose airspaces have been used to train with guided missiles.
Of the original 61 units (36 fighters, 18 reconnaissances, 3 trainers and 4 second-hand planes) only 45 jets have survived, 29 fighters and 18 reconnaissances. Ten airplanes have crushed in some 30 odd years of service. The deadline set up for the end of 1999 regards the 29 fighters, while the reconnaissances will continue flying the friendly skies of Switzerland also in the next millennium, until 2003.
What will happen to the 29 fighters currently still in perfect running conditions? Twelve of them will be made incapable of flying and so auctioned for museums and collectors, while the other 17 will become scrap unless somebody will be interested in salvaging them.
These Mirages can reach Mach 2 (2,400 kph) at 23,000 meters altitude. They are best remembered for the excellent proof given during the 6-day War in the Israeli Air Force against the Migs of the Arab coalition.
By Alessandro RAIMONDI
(THE GLOBE)
�It�s none of yor business!� has been Boris Yeltsin�s harsh answer to the representatives of the nations convened in Istanbul at the OSCE summit, meaning to include the Chechnya issue in the agenda.
Again a somewhat embarassing reaction from the Russian leader that it�s proof of his unfitness for the role he�ll probably play till the end of his mandate, in the year 2000.
It certainly hurts to witness such a poor performance, nevertheless it�s hard to expect anything short of that since Mr. Yeltsin is the specular representation of his country, nowadays: a sick giant. Now then, when somebody doesn�t feel well, it�s good practice trying to rest, not getting tired, saving energy. In politics such acting is the equivalent of �maintaining a low profile�, which is not exactly the case of both Russia and her president at this very moment.
You see, by liquidating the West tentatives of offering suggestions and solutions on a crisis that is devastating both for Chechnya and Russia, the Euro-Asiatic giant doesn�t seem to comply with the most basic elements of �realpolitik�. For more than one reason.
# 1. Russia seems having forgotten one of the four reasons that lead to the dissolution of the Soviet Union: the financial disaster generated by the crazy adventure she tangled herself with in Afghanistan. Badly needed resources having been literally thrown away in practicing the most expensive of all luxuries: war. Now this Chechnya affair seems being coped with in the same unproductive manner, with an aggravating circumstance: nowadays Russia is not as healthy as the USSR was at the beginning of the Afghan campaign.
Apart from political conjectures, the ongoing clearly demonstrates that Russia is wrongly advised by her military leaders, who are trying to come out of the shadow and cut a tole for themselves under political spotlights.Chechnya is all but a place where to practice war games since it�s an area where, willing or not, the geopolitical setting of the next millennium is being shaped.
# 2. In declaring Chechnya none of the West�s business, Yeltsin and his group fall in a blatant contradiction. Was perhaps Kosovo any of Russia�s business? No, should be the answer, following her later reasoning. Nevertheless Kosovo has become a Russian issue, so much so that after having done absolutely �zero� all along the regrettable campaign (of which �Butcher� Milosevic bears the total responsability), the Russian tricked their way to Pristina to be there before the British who fought their way there. Still today Europeans are laughing at that poor show that Russians back home didn�t deserve�
It�s true the people around the president today are not the same of the Pristina hilar stratagem (anyway it�s kind of hard to keep track of Mr. Eltsin�s frequent cabinets reshuffling attitude�), but the policy, once cast, or adopted, should follow a given philosophy. Well, what Russia lack is just that. Back to square 1 then, is Mr. Yeltsin fit for the job? Nah�
# 3. OK, Russia is not the USSR, but most politicians and the military have been inherited by the young democracy who arose from Soviet ashes. Now then, is it possible that by changing hat also the head below would be replaced? Europeans are not that much into the magic business, so without being that kind of expert they all agree that if you substitute one hat with another, that is the only thing you accomplish. Hence, Russia is still in the hands of many communists: some of them in good faith are trying their best to adjust to the new scenario, others even willing are just unable to change mentality, but many � that�s worrying � are not even trying to, specially in the military ranks. Europeans are largely convinced that Soviet Communism has done very little good all along its bloody 70 odd years history, so could any good come out from today�s Russian communists? We think to know the answer, but perhaps Mr. Eltsin would object that it�s none of our business�
# 4. This issue has rather to do with the history of the Caucasus region, showing, all along its development, how much the area was interesting for the tzarist Russian Empire in its quest to reach warmer seas, and ultimately British India with all her riches.
From a purely historic point of view the Caucasus has been Turkish and Persian for centuries, therefore predominantly Muslim, with very little � but we might even say none � �trait d�union� with the Russian bear, so that the following step-by-step conquest of the whole area by the Russians is absolutely comparable to the colonization process conducted by Western powers, elsewhere in the world, exactly at the same time. No question about it. The point is that in the �50s and the sixties of this century a global social and political movement has reshaped the entire world: they called it �decolonization�. Right or wrong it�s debatable, even if the common tendency, inspired by democratic principles, has adopted out of the two the favourable vision to it, forecasting beneficial effects for all former colonies.
To such epochal change all Western powers, or former so, have participated: the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal. Others had chosen or had been forced by earlier events to do it, such as Denmark, Germany and Japan. Only one country has failed to join the club that with its political powerful pressure it mainly contributed to create: the Soviet Union, direct heir of the Russian Empire.
Mind you, to create such a worldwide movement the USSR has not only used her political levers, it�s acknowledged how many guerrilla movements it has financed and militarily helped all along those decades (and after) to end the colonization rule, meant to jeopardize the economic leadership of the West. All was OK on condition that that trend was not applicable within USSR�s borders. An �ante litteram� none of anybody else�s business doctrine. Not only, but what was the 10-year war in Afghanistan if not a latest colonization attempt?
Time has come for Russia to redesign her own shape, doing in the new millennium what she has negligently failed to do in this one. Pack up and leave some territories (many indeed) to the local people, to their own languages, histories, traditions and religions. And, inevitably, their own problems, if so they elect. Russia as it is designed today is a nonsense and everybody knows it, Russians first.
There�s certainly room to amend�...
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