It was an event almost ignored by the western press. Last week, the presidents of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkey signed an accord to support building an oil pipeline through their countries, from the Caspian Sea -- bypassing Russia and Iran.
According to the New York Times:
"Construction of this pipeline, estimated at $2.4 billion, would give the United States and other Western countries access to an important new source of energy. But the main significance was that it would draw the new nations near the Caspian, which were part of the Soviet Union only a decade ago, away from Russia and give the United States greater influence in the region."
This has been the dominant theme of US foreign policy in 1999.
Just days before the war in Kosovo began, three former allies of Russia -- Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic -- were welcomed in as members of NATO.
We argued at the time that this was one of the main reasons for the war in Kosovo -- to finish driving a wedge between these countries and their former ally Russia. The war was about extending US and NATO influence east, deep into the former Russian empire.
In May of this year, that eastward expansion was solidified when Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova signed a pact in Washington adding Uzbekistan to a year-old alliance, creating a new alliance called Guuam.
According to the Financial Times:
"Guuam's main task is to develop the area's rich oil and gas deposits to the exclusion of Russia ... aligning with Guuam from the outside are Turkey, Britain and the US -- nations that have proved far more able than Russia to invest in and trade with the region."
So the expanded military alliance of the spring, the war in Kosovo, and the expansion of the pro-western alliance Guuam should all be seen as a piece -- deepening the reach of the US and NATO into the former Russian empire, with an eye to controlling the vast oil reserves of the Caspian.
The accord last week (including the two Guuam countries Georgia and Azerbaijan) is a step in that direction.
When this is understood, other aspects of the Kosovo conflict come into focus.
The US state department said the war was necessary to stop genocide.
Tony Blair said that it was necessary to save "thousands of innocent men women and children."
Most agreed that at least 10,000 Kosovar Albanians had been butchered.
US Defence Secretary William Cohen put the figure at 100,000.
But after months of investigation, these figures are now known to be absurd.
One hundred and fifty of the 400 suspected mass grave sites have been investigated. These include most of the large sites, identified with aerial photographs.
Yet to date, at these sites, fewer than 500 bodies have been found.
Some believe this is evidence of NATO's stupidity.
It could also be evidence of the big lie. Without the possibility of genocide, NATO would not have been able to justify its war to a sceptical working class at home.
NATO needed a war, to solidify its alliance with Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
NATO wanted a war to demonstrate to the Guuam countries that it was the new cop in the region.
NATO wanted a war to expand its sphere of influence eastwards towards the oil rich Caspian region.
So NATO needed to create a genocide where none existed.
If you want the truth involving the great powers, the secret, then, is to "follow the oil."