A Troubled Family: NATO turns 70
Binoy Kampmark
Summit anniversaries are not usually this abysmally interesting. While those paying visits to Watford, England on the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation are supposedly signatories to the same agreement, a casual glance would have suggested otherwise. This was a show of some bickering.
France, never the most comfortable member, suggested the that NATO was “experiencing… brain death”. While this observation by French President Emmanuel Macron last month would have carried little weight in another age, it struck a chord, not least because it signalled a role reversal of sorts.
The US, he warned, was retreating in its international role. A vacuum had been created, and it was desperately in need of filling. Such language, and affront, is usually the preserve of the current US president, Donald Trump. In 2018, he suggested that the organisation was nothing less than “obsolete”, a relic. Now it was left to France to assume the role of chief heckler.
NATO has been a body in search of a role for some time. In the triumphant aftermath of the Cold War, it became the most visible reminder of US power and overstretch, a blunt instrument of deployment in such theatres as Afghanistan.
But the traditional sense that it remains a grouping marshalled against Russia and now, an emerging China, was not something Macron was having much truck with. Beijing should not “be the object of our collective defence… in strictly military terms”.
In company with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Macron told assembled members of the press that identifying enemies was not within the purview of the alliance. “Is our enemy today Russia? Or China? Is it the goal of NATO to designate them enemies? I don’t believe so.” The more standard, if stale problem, was that of “terrorism, which has hit each of our countries.”
This has been seen as a form of ratting. Trump, during the course of a 52-minute meeting on Tuesday morning with Stoltenberg, found the remarks “very insulting” and a “very, very nasty statement essentially to 28 countries.” He instead pushed for drumming up the China threat.
Be careful, warned the US president, about the technology giant Huawei. “I spoke to Italy and they look like they are not going to go forward with [Huawei].” But just to make matters interesting, Britain has refused to play along, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson not wanting Britain “to be unnecessarily hostile to investment from overseas”.
Another NATO member was also proving problematic, having not played by the rules of the club.
Turkey is only a half-hearted subscriber to the Russian demonology, preferring to ink agreements for the purchase of such Moscow sponsored hardware as the antiaircraft missile system, the S-400.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was keen to leave his mark at this anniversary meeting, threatening a veto of NATO’s efforts to boost defences within the Baltic States and Poland should members not designate Kurdish fighters in Syria terrorists.
For Macron, Turkey’s stance was a sore in the relationship, a point assisted by Trump’s withdrawal of troops from northern Syria. The gesture was sufficient to encourage the movement of Turkish units into territory once won by Kurdish-led forces in their fight against the zealots of Islamic State.
“When I look at Turkey, they are fighting against those who fight with us,” lamented Macron. “Who is the enemy today?” Regarding the issue of designating Kurdish fighters terrorists, there could be no “possible consensus”.
Trump was less troubled. “The border and the safe zone is working out very well… and I gave a lot of credit to Turkey for that. The ceasefire is holding very much so, and I think people are surprised, and maybe some day they’ll give me credit, but probably not.”
The US president kept to his usual 2 percent formula, namely, that member states needed to spend the equivalent of two percent of gross domestic product on defence to pass muster.
Germany remains stubbornly low in expenditure, though Canada has promised a spike. But sandpit politics was just around the corner, and Canada’s Justin Trudeau proved the target of Trump’s barbs at a news conference alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
I find him to be a very nice guy but you know the truth is that I called him out over the fact that he’s not paying 2 percent and I can see he’s not very happy about it.”
The comments were sparked by a recorded conversation between Trudeau, Johnson, Macron, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Queen Elizabeth’s daughter Anne. Not that there was much to go by. Some of the dignitaries had been running late. Johnson duly inquired.
“It was like a 40-minute press conference,” answered the Canadian leader. “Yeah, yeah, yeah! Forty minutes.” Inaudible chatter followed. “I just watched his team’s jaws drop to the floor,” come Trudeau’s words. And so did the prime minister earn the ire of Freedom’s Land’s commander-in-chief. “He’s two-faced,” stated Trump, almost pouting in indignation.
Stoltenberg was left to do the secretarial work and hammer out a position of sorts. He suggested that China offered “both opportunities but also challenges.”
Being vague was the order of the day, and when asked about the squabbles, assumed the role of stern diplomat. The Economist was troubled enough to suggest that there were reasons to celebrate.
In Trump’s company, Stoltenberg called NATO “the most successful alliance in history because we have been able to change when the world is changing.”
This was Macron’s point, though not necessarily one that has found a soft landing. In Beijing and Moscow, it has probably caused pause for amusement.
Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: [email protected]
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Look what the cat just brought in:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/afghanistan-papers/afghanistan-war-confidential-documents/
I have to guess that the CIA had enough of Afghanistan and want Pakistan to continue its ways with Afghnistan solo. China will love that: loads of minerals. The US 1% therefore gave the green light.
Trump, wake up.
Pakistan was designated as a “Major non-NATO ally” as of 2004. The US under KSA pressure kept Pakistan’s nefarious role out of focus: only after 15 years, in a December 2016 “Lessons Learned” interview, (an old ambassador) Crocker said the only way to force Pakistan to change would be for Trump to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan indefinitely and give them the green light to hunt the Taliban on Pakistani territory.
Meanwhile: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/10/pensacola-flight-training-suspended-saudi-students
“Now that NATZO, its ISIS proxies and their Saudi bankrollers have all received bloody noses in Syria and Yemen, Pepe Escobar takes a hard look at Uncle $cam’s fantasy about “bringing Iran to its knees”:
https://thesaker.is/what-really-happened-in-iran/
““The US policy … presumed that they can force Iran to make concessions and bring it to its knees by focusing on maximum pressure, especially in the area of economy, but they have brought trouble on themselves.
In fact [Iran’s counter-policy] “maximum counter-pressure” is reaching a whole new level.
Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi confirmed that Iran will hold joint naval drills with Russia and China in the Indian Ocean in late December.
That came out of quite a significant meeting in Tehran, between Iranian Admiral Khanzadi and the deputy chief of the Chinese Joint Staff Department, Major General Shao Yuanming.
So welcome to Maritime Security Belt. In effect from December 27th. Smack on the Indian Ocean – the alleged privileged territory of Washington’s so-called ‘Indo-Pacific’. And uniting the three key nodes of Eurasia integration: Russia, China and Iran.
General Yuanming praised Iran’s Navy as “an international and strategic force.”
But geopolitically, this packs a way more significant game-changing punch. Russia may have conducted simple naval joint drills with Iran on the Caspian, but a complex drill with Iran including China in the Indian Ocean is a whole new ball game.”
Wiley Coyote moment for NATZO.
PS similar report by the Saker, on NATZO’z cookie Ukro-Nazi adventure:
“Second, Russia really is doing fine with sanctions and, in fact, the Russian agroindustry hopes that sanctions will remain in place. In reality, there are plenty of sectors of the Russian economy which are doing great thanks to these sanctions which have literally forced Russia to reform. This is ironical, but the Russian nation owes a great debt of gratitude to the leaders of the Anglo Zionist Empire which, with their sanctions, have mitigated the worst aspects of the Russian membership in the WTO or its integration into political, financial and economic structures controlled by the U$A.
Finally, it is pretty clear that the Ukraine has lost the war against the LDNR, and that WITHOUT overt Russian intervention. Which means that Putin’s original decision NOT to intervene was the right one.”
https://thesaker.is/making-sense-of-the-paris-summit-a-quick-analysis/
The expression that ‘The Emperor wears no clothes’ is wholly insufficient to describe the U$A. In its case the expression must be re-coined into:
‘The Emperor is utterly idiotic’.
Once upon a time, as a teenager, I wanted to join A NATO army and protect the block against those nasty commies.
How times change. These days I want to see the back end of this unnecessary organization whose sole purpose now appears to be to go to war outside its area of remit, and to lobby for a real war with its old foe Russia.
Dismantle it now before it’s too late and most of humanity is wiped out in WW3.
I already dismantled NATO & Security Complex, plus the God damned Western empire of Fractional Reserve Banking way back in 08. NATO et al. know they have been dismantled too. Heck, everyone knows that NATO is anachronism & defunct by now.
They only reason everyone is talking about NATO is due to the fact that they are parked everywhere in over 900 worldwide bases and the rent money is due for long term rentals.
NATO will go out in grand style due to lack of control over USA MIC when it comes to the now defunct principle of American exceptionalism. As it turns out Uncle Sam owes bills all over town & beyond. Uncle Sam is spendthrift with USA tax dollars & dotards of Wall Street culture just like Charles Ponzi was too.
For NATO & America/EU this time there is no money in the coffers to brag about & lord over the third world. NATO/EU/USA cannot grow themselves out of debt by attacking their creditors before their creditors can get signed judgements by USA Court judges for money owed that is in arrears. I suppose the NATO MIC contingent of warmongers can bomb their creditors just as they bombed the WTC 1 Pentagon Auditors on 911.
Time will tell but my money is on China & the Russian Federation given that money is real to them instead of fake to Americans with $22 trillion in debt.
Way to go, Captain America.
MOU
WADA cannuck fuckwits are a 4 lettered agency like nato, they joining in the Bear poking now!
This will the end of FIFA too and the IOC.
Ha ha banning Russia!
Slightly off topic, but speaking of U.$ bitches, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1efOs0BsE0g&list=PLrQu8dSg1bHbQ0fVv8CD8EFAk8hTInigg
Brozza…. Bonza! That clip says it all, cheers. They’re all snivelling vassals of the Empire, so it is relevant to this story.
These are extraordinary folks and I love them for their ‘truthire’ – which is truth that can only be presented as satire. Perfecd for truth binging.
Superb – Freeeee -Julian Asangeeeee!
He is our Mandela and our Biko , the turds who have done this to him will pay for it.
Time to make a song and dance about it!
Their other ‘stuff’, though mainly to do with Aussie politics, can also be relevant as an expose of the neo-lieberal agenda, and equally as humorous.
Enjoy.
Exellent link Brozza and totally relevant to the situation we are all in, because it’s the SAME people controlling it..
I especially loved these:
The Economy
PLrQu8dSg1bHbQ0fVv8CD8EFAk8hTInigg
The Arms Industry
Renewable energy:
Just had a discussion with my Husband who reminded me about when we had a left wing press and TV programmes. Remember Spitting Images? Not so now…I think they are running scared of being called commies, and having their lives torn apart by MI5/6
Ooops, the honest Government ad is notthe what I posted???? Try again..
The Economy:
The Arms Industry:
Renewable energy:
ADMIN! what is the crack here????
Why are the links I am posting not being shown?
There are no comments of yours awaiting moderation and none in the spam folder. What exactly is the problem?
Ok I see what the problem is. You seem to have posted the same YouTube video multiple times. The code is identical each time. If you send me the links I can edit the post for you.
I know that NATO is into expanding eastwards Wehrmacht style but China? Seriously? If it keeps expanding its mission it will eventually be basing offensive missiles off the west coast of the USA.
NATO is a typical example for Parkinson’s Law. When once an organization has been built to deal with a particular issue it is not to be expected that the end of the issue will mean an end to the organisation. It will find another issue to justify continuing its existence.
The plans for rebuilding and extension of NATO were drawn up in the early 1990s when Russia had no capacity to be a threat to primacy.
Can we buy the S-400 as part of our 2% GDP expenditure?!
Just more yankee forcing people to buy American weaponry.
This US run club should have been abolished in 1992 after the Warsaw Pact died in 1991. With president George H. W. Bush -ex-CIA director- the US didn’t didn’t. The CIA was surprised by the fall of the Berlin Wall, but this failed mafia managed to keep its secret dominance through this POTUS of their own.
Europa had no clue and was just grateful for the new Europe: Germany even made a quick blunder incorporation of East Germany out of surprise.
Yes, the Treuhand blunder cost me our family’s land (Prenzlauer Promenade 191 in Berlin). Kohleone Kleptocrats were protected by US meddlers. My opinion for NATO and democracy has not been the same since.
Treuhand’s manager Detlev Karsten Rohwedder was assassinated in 1991: he probably knew too much about yankee panky…
+ Wilmers31
If not a crime against humanity, certainly a crime against the people of the former GDR. They were treated like losers, trash and ridiculed for having lived in their half of Germany. Little did it matter that the wall was the consequence of fascist U.S.provocations against the U.S.S.R.
The pig Kohl, who sold – among countless other assests – a freshly modernized steel mill in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (value~ < 650 mio) for ONE German Mark (DM 1.00) to his buddies at the RIVA group. RIVA? Anybody?
Kohl is a despicable cretin that was deserving of being thrown into the landfill. A person with a shitring around his neck from having his head up the U.S.'s ass 24/7.
There are now proceedings in regard to sue the West German regime for its crimes. But without another Rudi Dutschke (one that does not get assassinated) only a violent revolution will bring about the closure Germany needs to be once again one nation.
However, it was never in the interest of neither NATO, or the West, to let that happen. CIA Speichellecker at the BND moved into the former GDR and promoted Neo-Nazism – including having them on a payroll large scale.
So, yes, Kohl was a MoFo³ and NATO is a criminal organization that needs to be tried for instigating, promoting, supporting and perpetrating terrorism, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. These wankers are stealing humanity's future for their psychopathic aggressions. A real war crimes tribunal is needed, not the Kangaroo version the fascist U.S. gifted the Germans with.
Nato is the MIC.
It is incapable of fighting an actual war against a properly organised defence.
Their own war games have proved it. No matter to the MIC as long as they can keep ripping off the US Treasury.
The top 10 MIC and their bipartisan feed masters see to that.
How?
Having produced an effective offensive weapons system and sold it to the US forces and then to nato countries – their income stream drops.
They r&d and invent a newer, shinier weapons system upgrade and get the US treasury to commit to developing and buying it and their nato allies too – it always goes over budget, is late and never functions as the advertising and r&d suggested.
Against that the supposed enemy, say Russia, an economy the size of Spain say, doesn’t have a MIC that is designed to suck the funds out of their treasuries to enrich the privately owned western MIC.
They don’t constantly upgrade their ‘offensive’ weapon systems.
They do howevet discern what defensive systems they may need to protect themselves. Their r&d has well defined goals. Which they achieve as CHEAPLY as possible. On time and as effective as planned.
Job done – no more money wasted.
So Russian defence spending is a fraction of the US and more effective.
Trump has tried to offer these MIC’s new ways of using their r&d and build a SPACEFORCE, he is trying to lure them back to the moon and then send them to Mars!
But that would require them to actually deliver real measurable SUCCESS and take a risk of failure and loss of profits.
Boeings failures recently are down to anandoning their high standards for easy profit. They will be begging for even more ‘too big to fail’ zillions. The MIC is shit.
Nato is not fit for purpose.
I’d rather be protected by S400’s then Patriots which cost a lot more and don’t work!
I’d rather have Hypersonics then a/c carriers with shit F35’s that burn holes in the flight deck – hell i’d rather have Harriers!
Nato is useless – what have they ever achieved since the end of the cold war? Why are they spending more than they did to ‘win’ that cold war?
Yugoslavia and the Serbs were the first victims of the American-led unipolar world that emerged in 1991. Because it was in Yugoslavia — namely, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo — where the U.S. and its principal ally, Britain, together with Germany, destroyed the sanctity of internationally recognized borders; disregarded the authority of the United Nations Security Council; dealt irrevocable damage to the United Nations Charter by having undermined legitimate state authorities and having supported, with arms, training, money, logistics and intelligence information, armed secessionist movements (which comprised fascist, Islamist and organised crime groups); facilitated the arrival of Mujahideen and jihadist fighters to the region; employed their respective media outlets to demonize the people standing in the way of their objectives — the Serbs — accusing them of mass murder and genocide, thus justifying the West’s policy in the Balkans; and then directly intervened with military force to guarantee the accomplishment of their objectives. In short, Yugoslavia was the template for Iraq, Libya and Syria.”
Dr. Marcus Papadopoulos
nato helped us freedumb lovers put the balkans into yugoslavia
helped rid are nuclear power stations of the complex expensive storage issues of depleted uranium.
nato helped libya 2
nato helped libya return too year zero
helped the great water projects converting some of the biggest engineering projects ever back too desert.
converting ancient water systems into radioactive mud with a half life of a million years.
the green book the greening of the desert no thanks
bunker busting bombs destroying the 50 billion dollar projects that europe corporations had helped build.like a sandcastle stamped on never too return.
these sickos run the greta thurnberg projects the global warming climate change tax scams.
build um up knock um down around and around
for what they call the great game they nuclear dosed up serbia,syria,iraq and yemen dustified dumped depleted uranium waste all over
thats how much they love kids and are future.
strangelove sickos sitting around a flat earth sin bull
– Do you think, Photo Crediting is a standard international practice that needs to be respected?
Off-Guardian: I don’t believe so
– Do you think paragraph spacing is crooked on this website?
Off-Guardian: I don’t believe so
Macron: “Is our enemy today Russia? Or China? Is it the goal of NATO to designate them enemies? I don’t believe so.”
– Is the US the biggest purveyor of Terrorism in the world?
Macron: i don’t believe so
– Is the US an economic predator?
Macron: i don’t believe so
– Is the US a political predator?
Macron: i don’t believe so
– Is the US a cultural predator?
Macron: i don’t believe so
NATO is a police force used to enforce G-20 dictates & especially USA MIC dictates. NATO is a criminal thug police force for the UN too. NATO is insolvent seventy five million times over as is the United States of America. NATO is spread too thin and is engineered & planned failure as a professionally run bureaucracy.
NATO is a worldwide joke that is supported by sovereign debt that will never be repaid because no sovereign could afford the payments.
NATO is the true meaning of insolvency & social & moral bankruptcy.
I’m not surprised to see a deadbeat Real Estate scion of NYC carping on about sovereign nations forking over their protection payments to the USA Mafia.
MOU
Mr. Trump summed it up perfectly when he suggested Mr. Trudeau is ‘two faced’. I feel that Justin is more Mick Jaggers’ sperm than the intellectual Pierre. Maggie was after all known to frequent Micks bed.
Nevertheless Mr. Trudeau had the wherewithal to demote (or as some think promote) the unbalanced Mrs. Freeland to the powerless post of deputy PM – in what will soon appear to be a clearing pathway of reconciling and mending the wounds Mrs. Freeland caused with China and Russia.
Perhaps the two faced idiot is learning ( albeit on the job) how not to listen (too much) to Freelands’ handlers – the Canadian arm of the Neocons to the South.
NATO is as Mr. Macron says it is however I am not truly sure what Mr. Marcon’s angle is. Perhaps he too is learning something.
I mean if anyone really thinks that we will enter another world war , your severely mistaken not to mention delusional. The US will devalue their currency within the early part of the next decade – most likely prior to 2024, China having enough. In the past we used world wars to do the job of devaluation. Today its rather different.
Mr. Trump needs to free the US of NATO and the best way to do it is to have as many suckers fund it while the US pulls away. Perhaps Macron smells this coming. Its a waste of capital and they all know it.
They need the cash.
Macron like Sarkozy has failed to neoliberalise France and grab control of the EU. He has failed to destroy Syria. He is a dead duck. He will be turfed any day.
Vive la France
They know how to get on the streets and revolt!
They definitely put their equally, from the same neoliberalism suffering neighbors to the greatest shame. Just look at the Germans. They are going down right now. As planned. But the Germans would never revolt. They rather watch soccer, polish their car (and else) and are totally addicted to social con-media and watching idiotic talk shows in which everubody knows that it’s all the fault of the Russians.
As a German native, I am deeply ashamed – not of the criminal pissers in the regime, but of the German population. However, since that is nothing new, I left 25 years ago and would not return – even with the feet first.
I dunno, they may be a bit straight, but they have fucked off the AdF foreign billionaire funded Bannon run alt-rightists faster than we sid the kippers here.
I like Germans.
oh they have done much more – say what you will but Mrs. Merkel is one smart lady and a true diplomat. She knows how to talk and how to do.
History will show she made some poor deals to get the end result Germany needed to come out on top. Its not always 100% win win in this game. Mr. Putin knows this as does Mr. Trump.
I consider Mutti to be the European if not World leader for at least 50 years.
Putin to has steered Russia well enough to stop the cfr/Fed/MIC getting their hands on Russia.
The UK on Thurs will show the same mettle, fingers crossed.
We are at the crossroads.
‘ …the Germans ‘ … differ from the French. Germany is doing better and making the correct deals with Russia through back doors. France knows it too needs this.
Your not fair on them. Berlin is wonderful.
The yellow vested movement and now the current wave of protests which includes them has little interest in whats going on in Syria or the failure to further succumb to neoliberalism.
Its about putting food on the table.
They do know how to revolt – I do agree with that – other countries could learn a thing or two – not to be mistaken for the vast numbers of young unemployed criminals on the streets of Hong Kong. Lets see if the US and UK accept them as immigrants …..
Just imagine how much scum could be removed from the stain of humanity by spring cleaning this filthy place. All MoFos of the world in one room. Wow.
Where is the asteroid we are so desperately in need of crushing through the roof?
NAzi Terror Organization. Bunch of war criminals.
Keeping humanity from evolving to a higher consciousness like an emergency break a train from running.
Nazi Germany all hellbent to go to war with Russia – again. On the orders of fascist U.S. – again. But you will get arrested for a joint. Fuck them all and their psychopathic war addiction on the expense of the masses.
(Apologies to my Mother. Sometimes, swear words are the only ones that work.)
here here gangsta
wanker
happy birth day gladio
dadio
every day these satanick masonic vampyre save us from new hitlers at a cost of only 2 % of gdp
already
with free side order of depleted uranium vitamin pills
which through dustification we can all breath in
bravo zios
you demonic sickos
I am presuming that the 2% figure only applies if you are purchasing American weapons.
Frankly, I am amazed with what Russia has been able to achieve with a very limited budget which I think runs at just 10% to that of NATO.
Actually, the real threat will come from a totally different direction and that is using CRISPR technology to develop new bioweapons.
I even wonder if it has already started with African Swine fever where it jumps from Africa to Georgia and then into Russia. How it arrived in China I do not know but I do believe that America has a patented GM version of a pig that is resistant to this deadly disease. The fall armyworm might be another suspect.
I don’t know how this will play out, but my gut reaction to the US in general terms is this:
If the US wishes to consider itself “exceptional” – in other words, if international agreements and laws apply to everybody else except the US, then the word, “isolated” can be substituted for “exceptional”.
It automatically follows that if the US wishes to be isolated, then so be it, and the US will suffer the consequences.
Just as with the “eccentric” hermit, or recluse, who cannot interact with the social environment around him, when he eventually sickens and dies, nobody will even notice.
For the record, I have every sympathy for the eccentric hermit. The world is no longer a fit place for decent human beings who take their humanity seriously, and for that, of course, we mostly have ourselves to blame.
It is a long time since I first heard it said that NATO was, essentially, Washington, and today that is a hundred times more obviously true.
“I don’t know how this will play out”
There is an out-of-control vicious ‘Exceptional’ animal in a dark room but somewhere in the room there is also a nuke button. So ..
Nato is nothing more than the trade association for the MIC.
Their gangsterish 2% protection racket is pure Al Capone.
Their main source of profits is the US treasury.
They would not last a day as an effective fighting force against a much smaller but deadlier force.
The Nato folly lines the pockets of it’s placemen in European politics.
Their always ‘newer’ wrapons systems are just the latest ‘washing powder’ invented and sold ‘just because’ otherwise how would profits keep making a few plutocrats even wealthier from the US taxpayers?
The low point of the NATO birthday celebration was the shameless search for enemies that could be built up into feared Demons requiring new weapons, new armies. Now the Russians have turned out more capitalist than anything in Europe they seriously needed something new. You can’t really fight somebody who only wants to be friends and do business. Despite their Pact being called the North Atlantic Treaty they easily hit on the South China Sea and the Communist peril as the new target – after all there aren’t any borders in the oceans so Atlantic-Pacific, its all one. And with China as the new enemy there is every prospect of a very long protracted ideological and military struggle that might well last 100 years. That’s what weapon makers need; certainty of continued demand and massive R+D subsidies (that so often disappear into pin striped trousers). NATO can also count on the Chinese giving them a harder fight than the Russians who gave in too quickly, the surrender monkeys.
It wasn’t just that Russia gave up the ideological war but offered its vast natural resources to European exploiters; capital investment to extract the resources and provide Europe with cheap abundant energy. Unfortunately the US couldn’t stomach that because they had all the gas and oil Europe might need – somewhat more expensive maybe but Hey! We’re all pals aren’t we? So they put a stop to these European ventures by fermenting a coup d’etat in Kiev and accusing Russia of ‘invading’ (sic) Crimea. Sorry guys, no cheap energy after all but Uncle Sam is ALWAYS happy to help!! The Europeans are so weak they still haven’t managed to summon the courage to complain.
True, but perhaps it’s not so much the Europeans who are weak, but the in-bred, instantly-recognizable cloned types who claim to represent them. Those types are paid handsomely NOT to complain.
It seems to me there are many millions of Europeans who do have the courage to complain, like many of us here, but their complaints are simply erased from the media narrative.
That must mean that people who don’t dig industriously to get behind that weird narrative basically know nothing, and it is therefore exactly they who impress their employers the most.
The relevant historic parallels seem to be very dramatic ones.
The fall of various illustrious empires comes to mind.
I remember as a schoolboy hearing that not only was France not a member of NATO which I’d assumed it was, but it’s nuclear weapons pointed to West Germany, not Russia. It was a confusing idea in the middle of the Cold War! Vichy France had surrendered to the Nazi’s, fought the allies in N Africa and across the ME and gave up its Jewish population to the Death Camps! In truth France had been in a state of panic about Germany since at least the War of 1870. Only the creation of the EU has ended that angst. (Mind you maybe the Coal and Steel pact may have been enough?). Meanwhile Britain’s paranoia about France has never been stronger as they both fight for influence across Africa and the ME. (you cant change the habits of 100+ years ). Brexit will probably see the French cockerel on top of the dung heap as Britain can’t possibly maintain some sort of notion that they could balance competing interests in Europe, as they did in the 1930’s. Today the French nuclear powered aircraft carrier, Charles de Gaulle, the biggest in the World, cruises off the Lebanese coast packed full of cruise missiles and God knows what. Its been operational for 3 years now and carries a loud message to its former colonial subjects in Lebanon and Syria and the old enemy in London. Their carrier even has planes!
It would last less then half an hour if it was targeted by Turkey, Iran or Russians.
The same goes for the US carrier groups in the South CHINA Sea.
The only way they woul survive is if they were in a port and not capable of launching attacks.
The nuclear subs and their ICBM’s became obsolete the moment low orbit military satellites and high flying surveillance drones could track them into the deep oceans – they are only able to hide in the deepest trenches – where they are mainly unable to communicate from.
Hypersonics and space based platforms have made nuclear MAD as pointless as a cavalry charge against canons or trench warfare against machine guns.
Let’s look at some of the language used here “enemy” “threat”. “terrorist”. “fighting” “no possible consensus” “pouting in indignation” etc and ask ourselves the question “is it any wonder the extra-terrestrials give our planet a wide berth?”
Nice observation Anon, thank you, but how long do you think the UFOs will stay away before they are inevitably called in to save the planet from these bungling morons?
“bungling morons”. – yes, I couldn’t have put it better myself – and let’s hope this bungling moron is removed from No.10 on Friday 13th – Seasons Greetings to you Peter.
Thank you Anon and may I also return greetings to you and yours for a happy Xmas and hopefully a prosperous New Year. Best Wishes Anon.
Its spelled Christmas. Merry Christmas Peter.
OK – point taken :-)))
“I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world because they’d never expect it.“
Suitably from the American comedian Jack Handy.
And Strangelove was received as a comedy!
Quite so George and a worthy quote. And might I return a quote from Plato that applies to many of our politicians this Xmas election period :
“Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.”
quite a bit of the latter going around here…. thank you Plato and thank you Peter.
:-))))
Funny. However, in this Universe, fools are required to make it possible for wise men to exist. Wise men and fools are like day and night. No need to take a side while still alive. Death makes fools of all of us.
Well said and I am nearer to that place than I have ever been before as my birthday has just passed yet again.