or above the ‘replacement level’ of 2.1rnchildren per woman,” but that’s hardlv arnconsolation, considering one third of ourrnnation’s births are illegitimate. In otherrnwords, married couples are not replacingrnthemselves, and a growing illegitimaternpopulation is also bad economic news,rnimless you are among the few who havernfound a way to profit from an expandingrnwelfare state.rnAs governments in the West seek to arrestrneconomic decline, they will continuernto encourage liberal immigration fromrnthe Third World (even as they schizophrenicallyrnspend billions to sterilize thernworld’s brown people). Their plan won’trnwork: Peter Brimelow of VDare.com,rnDonald Huddle of Rice University, andrnplenty of others have exposed the financialrncosts of open borders. By the timernsomeone in authorit}’ recognizes (muchrnless admits) these costs, it will be too late:rnThe West will have become the ThirdrnWorld.rnThe contraceptive imperialists at hiternationalrnPlanned Parenthood and thernUnited Nations Fund for Population Activitiesrnand the environmentalists at ZerornPopulation Growth and the Sierra Clubrnare two sides of the same coin. ProtectingrnAmerica’s wide-open spaces is insufficientrnreason for a wall with 50-caliber turretsrnalong the border. Preserving Americanrncivilization is, but its future can hardly bernon the minds of people who refuse to procreate.rnLove of countrv’ is meaningless to arnpeople so steeped in self-loatliing that theyrneat pills to avoid perpetuating their name.rnSome honest-to-goodness bleedingrnhearts undoubtedly bought the pill’srnempty promises — ranging from greaterrnmarital intimacy to fewer abortions. Wernknow today that the opposite is true: Becausernof the pill and the sexual license itrnencourages, divorce and abortion havernbecome commonplace and acceptable.rnThe problem is not permanent, however.rnContraceptors, after all, will takerncare of themselves. As they do, the meek,rnwho have surrendered their lives —andrntheir lineages —to Divine Providencernwill begin to inherit the earth. It will bernup to this remnant of Christianity tornevangelize the growing Third World.rnDoing so may not prove as insurmountablernas some might imagine. After all,rnenough citizens of the Third World arernsufficiently meek before their Makerevenrnthose who do not yet know HisrnName —to appreciate that they ought notrninterfere with His creative forces.rn— Christopher]. CheckrnALEKSANDR ZHUKOV’s April 7 arrestrnin Sardinia was played up by the ItalianrnDIA (an anti-Mafia investigative unit)rnas having eliminated an important armstraffickingrnchannel to the war-torn Balkans.rnThe most intriguing aspect of tlie story,rnhowever, involves NATC), the strugglernbetween Russia and tlie West for influencernin the former Soviet republics, and the rolernof former Ukrainian Premier Marchukrnand the Russian mafia in the affair.rnZhukov, a Russian millionaire with arnBritish passport and residences in Sardinia,rnLondon, Kiev, and Tel Aviv, wasrncharged with illegally trafficking arms tornthe Balkans in the mid-1990’s, allegedlyrnusing his Sintez corporafion and variousrnfront companies to reap (and launder)rnthe profits from arms sales to the Croatsrnduring their bloody conflict with thernSerbs. DIA officials also claim that somernof the weapons wound up in the hands ofrnthe Italian Mafia.rnAccording to European and Russianrnpress accounts, Zhukov’s Sintez companyrngrew out of a perestroika-eni Soviet cooperative,rnone that was either founded orrnco-opted by the KGB to engage in thernarms trade, setting up offshore companiesrnto launder the profits, as well as sellrncrude oil. In fact, Anatoli Fedorenko, anrnex-KGB officer from Kiev, and CezarnMezosy, an Hungarian living in Belgium,rnwere arrested last year for their rolernin the weapons-trade shell game, andrnDIA spokesmen are now claiming thatrnFedorenko was the Sintez link to the Solntsevorncrime syndicate, one of the mostrnpowerful in Russia.rnThe charges sound plausible: Beginningrnin the late 80’s, the KGB and its successorrnorganizations set up a slew of offshorerncompanies, funneling CommunistrnParty funds abroad as the Soviet Unionrncollapsed around them. Moreover, thernKGB, which had long employed thernparticular talents of Russia’s underworldrnin its “special operations,” effectivelyrnmerged with the emerging post-Sovietrncrime syndicates, often employing overseas-rnbased front men —like Zhukov—tornhandle the European end of their variousrnenterprises.rnThe real bombshell in the wholernZhukov-Sintez affair, however, might bernthe role of Evgeni Marchuk and NATO’srnpossible collusion in the Balkans armsrntrade, the ultimate aim of which was thernarming of the Croats—and the defeat ofrnthe West’s chosen bad guys, the Serbs.rnMarchuk —a one-time KGB general,rnfounder of independent Ukraine’s intelligencernservice, and former Ukrainianrnpremier and current securiti,’ council secretaryrn— was allegedly the operation’srnUkrainian cover. The weapons originatedrnin L’kraine and Belarus and were funneledrnby Sintez and its front companiesrnto the Balkans via Italy, after being stored,rnaccording to Italian press sources, at arnNATO installation on Sardinia. For thernrecord, Marchuk has been a proponentrnof Ukrainian cooperation with the West,rneven as Russia courted politically vulnerablernUkrainian President Kuchma.rnIn view of NATO’s stated intention tornexpand eastward over Russia’s protestsrnand the West’s determination to crushrnthe Serbs and weaken Russian influencernin both the Balkans and the former Sovietrnrepublics, Western journalists shouldrnbe interested in following this trail further.rnSo far, they haven’t. Did NATOrncollude with organized-crime syndicatesrnin illegal arms sales? Was Marchuk effectivelyrnNATO’s agent and partner?rnThe West’s media watchdogs don’t seemrnto care.rn— Denis PetrovrnO B I T E R D I C T A : AS we go to press,rnLutheran Brotherhood has announcedrnthat, because of the concerns of its members,rnit will no longer sponsor the RespecTeenrncontest discussed by Aaron D.rnWolf in his Cultural Revolutions thisrnmonth.rnPaul Lake, who teaches English andrncreative writing at Arkansas Tech, hasrncontributed two poems to this issue. Hisrnsecond collection of poetry. WalkingrnBackward, was released by Story LinernPress. The author of The MeasuredrnWord: Essays on Poetry and Science (Universityrnof Georgia Press), Mr. Lake hasrnpublished poems in the Formalist, thernHudson Review, the Sewanee Review, andrnthe Paris Review, among others.rnOur art this month is provided by EarlrnKeleny of Madison, Wisconsin, whosernother clients have included Barron’s,rnAmerican Airlines, Simon & Schuster,rnthe Franklin Library, Newsweek, and RinglingrnBros, and Barnum & Bailey. An extensivernportfolio of his work can be foundrnat www.earlkeleny.com.rnf7() t^f(/hscri/)crna/CHRONICLESrnrnrn