Dear Kit, I think you've swallowed the theatrical experience, hook, line and sinker! The phony display in the White House, the Macron, Starmer diversion, all points to a well planned charade. The reality is that the US has never stopped suplying weapons and intelligence to Ukraine, what's really happened is that the US has outsourced the proxy war to Europe, with the US presenting itself as a peacemaker, hence the bullshit 'ceasefire' that the Empire knows the Russians would never agree to. The Russians are now presented with multiple positions on ending the war but the reality is that they're all designed to prolong the proxy war endlessly. End of Empire? Perhaps, in the long run...
"We are open to dialogue with the new American administration on the Ukrainian conflict. The most important thing here is to eliminate the root causes of the crisis, which we have already talked about many times. As for the settlement of the situation itself, I would like to emphasize once again that its goal should not be a short ceasefire, not some kind of respite for the regrouping of forces and rearmament with the aim of subsequently continuing the conflict, but a long-term peace based on respect for the legitimate interests of all people, all nations living in this region."
"Of course, we will fight for the interests of Russia, the Russian people, that is, in fact, the goal and meaning of conducting a special military operation."
William Bowles Surely the point isn't whether or not the Europeans steal Russian assets. (As if their banks wouldn't be hit with symmetrical response). Reality is that western stockpile aren't there any longer....
Theatre can't magically materialise non-existent weapon stockpiles! Or soldiers tor that matter..
Of course the Europeans can’t succeed. This is a war against the world and is meant to destroy Europe too. The young people of Europe can be fed into the meat mincer now the U.S. has fought to the last Ukrainian, but it’ll keep Russia tied down whilst the U.S. continues destroying the globe. A depopulated Europe, a depopulated Gaza, the destruction of Iran, a beautiful civilisation. Israel of course won’t survive and is not meant to. Kissinger mentioned this when he said Israel will not exist in ten years. Their tragedy was to be, as Kissinger also warned, a friend of the perfidious USA. I wonder who will be next?
Neoliberalism came to its grizzly end. The only way a neolib society can militarise is if a billionaire oligarch decides to invest their own offshored wealth to do so. And the other element is that all the high-tech, functionally useless equipment has the enormous margins - all the bread-and-butter military tech such as artillery, ammunition, all have low margins, considerably lower margins than financial speculation gives.
As Asimov argued in the Foundation books, large scale trends bring their own inevitabilities.
The USA has quite deliberately demilitarised the European powers, forcing them to spend their budgets on its own highly priced goods [People seem to imagine this was the USA being "generous" to Europe, ffs], leaving their own miltech industries moribund.
And now the European bigwigs want to create Eurobonds, and spend E100s of billions... one can already write off half of that in corruption schemes before it has even begun.
Amusingly, if Europe takes that 300bn of Russia's, within a week at least 5x that amount will leave the European financial system, leading to an immediate crash. But the greedy morons can only see the dangled carrot... Russia wins either way on that one. Putin has been laughing all along, and rightly so.
Europe is now doomed, the best it can hope for is a social democrat takeover to try to maintain a peaceful, welfare state, and semi-decent standard of living, with a new European Security Architecture including Russia to anchor the continent in the emerging Eurasian world order, and pray that in the future Russia doesn't elect someone considerably more expansionist than Putin could ever be.
Nobody wants what Europe is selling anymore, Gaza and Ukraine has cemented that, and the Global South now know that they can buy Russian defence arms that can keep the Old Powers out, or sign a military pact that can achieve likewise.
The bravery of Ansar Allah and Yemenis, and Hamas and Hezbollah, and the naked evidence that Europe was going back to its bad old ways of Imperialism and Colonialism, are signposts for the rest of the World to follow.
The lying haughtiness of VandurCrazy, the insanity of Kaya Kallis, the insincerity of Micron, and the combination of all those in 'sir' Kid Starver, indicates that only a fool would gamble on Europe's prosperous future.
"And now the European bigwigs want to create Eurobonds, and spend E100s of billions... one can already write off half of that in corruption schemes before it has even begun."
They're either idiots, ignorami, or crooks. My vote goes to the latter.
Of course they can. The first steps are disinformation, the next step is vote-rigging, the next step is lawfare, and only then do they they resort to outright repression. Most people simply do not realise they are living in authoritarian dictatorships with a figleaf of 'democratic accountability'.
Romanians have unexpectedly pushed through all the barriers, and are now facing outright repression.
You know, the Soviet Union could easily have violently repressed the uprisings, but chose not to. The Western Empire has considerably fewer scruples, and will quickly reach for the machine guns again - it's in its DNA, as strikers found in the early 20th, and Liberation movements had already learned many times.
More likely the Central-East states, like Hungary, Slovakia, Romania - who will get a BRICS trade lifeline once Russia takes Odessa.
The Baltics seem full of genuine anti-Rus racialist hatred, and are desperate to keep the US in Europe so their various antics will not be punished as they deserve to be by Russia.
Iceland will be in great difficulties once the AMOC slows or stops. Sadly, as it is a great Scandinavian culture.
The Russians want the US to continue occupying western Europe. Everyone knows what will happen when left to their own devices, more wars.
Norway is the wealthiest and most prosperous nation in Europe. If it wants to remain so it can't stay chained to the Globalists.
I am not sure Russia is going to liberate Odessa. I think it should, but so far Lavrov hasn't asked for my advice.
Should it happen Slovakia, Hungary and Serbia will be in BRICS and Belt and Road as quick as they can. Probably Romania, too. And Moldova, if Romania doesn't get it for a consolation prize.
I think it silly to say 'NATO is Dead'. I dearly hope NATO has died as an aggressive force with world domination its impossible goal. But if NATO were attacked it would surely pull together. I see this as a return to its proper place as a defensive alliance.
This idea that Russia will invade NATO is SO ridiculous. Russia has neither the will nor the power to conquer NATO. Russia is less populous than Nigeria, about the same as Japan. It has done everything it could to resolve the situation peacefully. This panic in Europe is madness. Not to mention that the USA's blowing up the Nordstreem pipeline was by far the biggest act of war against Europe since 1945. How do they tolerate this? It's incredible, weird.
John Mearsheimer believes that if the USA pulls out of Europe that the Europeans will resume making war upon one another. He may be right.
We are duly assured each day that Russia is collapsing, but at the same time, Russia is on the cusp of overrunning europe, which Russia wishes to do for no particular reason.
For that matter, we also are duly assured that Putin is a power-hungry megalomaniac who- will stop at nothing in his quest for world domination, just because, but at the same time, we need not fear that he would ever resort to nuclear weapons, even if cornered.
That these narratives are absurd and internally contradictory is obvious, but at the same time, it does not matter. What matters is that people believe them.
I am very impressed with the accuracy of George Orwell's 1984. George himself didn't believe it would happen. He said it was a "parody." He didn't know his own strength. Now doublethink roolz.
How many people believe it and how many pretend to believe it? All research into this area was blocked long ago. One may wonder why.
"Putin has an insane plan to conquer Europe!"
How do you know he's insane?
"Because he has this plan!"
How do you know he has this plan?
"Because he's insane!"
As usual reversing the Western narrative is very effective. From the media I know that the West has the insane plan to rule the world.
I think what they do is come up with 20 absurd narratives, send them out to the Internet, see which ones work, and push those until they run out of steam. Which can be a remarkably long time. This feedback mechanism is what makes 21st century propaganda so efficient.
My ol’ mum used to say “put all the leaders into a great big ring and let them fight each other” we used to laugh but I think she may have been onto something.
If Israel is planning to kick off again, the US will be again preoccupied with supplying that theatre, it cannot keep up with 2 major consumers of munitions.
Alternatively this could all be theatre - bearing in mind that VDL & co have been pushing the idea of More War and Yet More Austerity for a few years. Certainly that was the overriding theme of Macron & co's 2022 manifesto (from what I read in the mini manifesto at least), and has been raised a few times by various of them. Also Germany have been making rearmament noises for a good while now.
Then there's the European 'Defence Fund' (since c. 2018).
Still, it's very kind of Macron to offer the Fr. nuclear deterrent to EU partners isn't it? So much for nuclear non-proliferation!
The current crop of European "leaders" still believes that given enough money, production will magically appear instantly. They already tried buying artillery rounds from around the world, and without stimulating production at all, managed instead to drive the price up from $2K per round to $8K.
These people have been inside their own painstakingly constructed narrative universe for so long that they no longer have the ability to recognize battlefield reality and don't even know how the real world of industrial economy works.
It would've been nice for everyone if the West had laid NATO to rest when the Cold War ended. But no. They revived it as a zombie to harass and terrify countries across the globe. Now spent, it's a rotting corpse just staggering around, purposeless. It's unlikely to end in a dignified way.
Peace would cost the least and create the most benefits down the line. It boggles the mind that these idiots always want to break stuff, and at the same time fear an invasion/retaliation. It's a construct. One would hope the masses wake up to this one day, but most people still believe in the 'democratic west' having to 'defend' itself from their self-proclaimed adversaries.
Quality comment. It's ALL a construct. Talking heads get the memo, all say the same thing, "xxx is totally evil and against democracy and we have to save the world". Then use money that should be utilized to benefit citizens to fund the destruction of other countries. Rinse, repeat.
Anytime someone mentions saving democracy, it's a scam.
Leaving aside the veracity of everything in the article, I'd say there are 3 hidden reasons why Trump is making a charade of abandoning Europe.
1/ It makes a lot of money for the arms industry (this 800billion euro idiocy);
2/ It creates a new strategy of tension (cold war 2.0);
and 3/ It's an excellent excuse to continue 'austerity'. Austerity after all is just neoliberalism-as-normal, which is not an economic system, but a system of social control achieved by restricting the availability of resources (including money), making supply greater than demand, creating permanent recession/inflation. So they say no money for the people/welfare/decent investment etc.
We could add a 4/ here, which is continuing to drive people further to the right-wing. In Britain, for example, they are absolutely manipulating everything to lead to a far-right (Farage) victory in 2029. And of course they can rig it if they need to.
Couldn't tolerate the mendacity of Chatham House's Timothy Ash! If the RIIA wants NATO dismantled then Trump's threat to withdraw is part of the soap opera we call geo-politics.
The Empire is NOT collapsing at all.... it is going for global totalitarian rule and NOBODY escapes. Do not be fooled by Perfidious Albion talking heads, they represent the international crime syndicate whose HQ is in the independent City of London.
They have NEVER, not even for a split second, represented the British people.
Nothing has quite exposed the insanity of Europe and its commitment to colonialist values than its posturing around Ukraine. Come on, it's time for peace, and not the ridiculous deal that Trump and crew came up with. Russia is winning this war, and will be regardless of what Europe does. Europe needs to get to the negotiating table and listen to Russia's wants.
Good article. It is never too much to differentiate the end of the unipolar world, which began after the end of the USSR and the balance that the USSR provided to the world, from the end of the World Order based on International Law and the UN Charter, which began after the WWII. And we cannot forget the dismantling of the YU before the illegal bombing of present-day Serbia. As well as of several former allies of the USSR, such as AF, IQ, LY, SY, etc. Because it was no coincidence.
The dismantling of the YU took advantage of Russia's weakness, after the end of the USSR, encouraged by the Anglo-Saxons on both sides of the Atlantic and by Germany, eager to regain influence in the Balkans. The US was primarily interested in controlling the energy pipelines from Central Asia to Europe and the Caspian oil, and for this purpose the largest US base abroad after Vietnam, Camp Bondsteel, was created.
In short, NATO’s first major intervention after the collapse of the USSR, with goals very similar to the proxy war in Ukraine – to cut off Russian gas from Europe and weaken and divide RU like the YU. The main reason for Russophobia has always been envy and greed for Russia’s wealth, its natural resources, which make it impossible to defeat Russia. And it is still the spoils of Russia’s defeat, its natural resources, that the EU and the UK dream of today! The spoils promised by Biden, eager to overthrow Putin. The EU and the UK, today bankrupt due to the financial and economic devastation caused by the 2008 crash.
Finally, I agree with the end of NATO and most likely the EU. Which, as a European today, I see as a positive thing. Because the Europe that said no to the Iraq war in 2003 no longer exists. That is, the Western Europe that built the pinnacle of our civilization. That is, the democratic Western European welfare states. Unfortunately, with the emergence of a unipolar world, we have also witnessed the return of economic liberalism, which in the past caused the 1929 crash that led to the WWII. Now renamed neoliberalism through the deregulation of financial markets by Bill Cliton.
Financial markets and investors who quickly took over and plundered all Western nations. That in Europe, if they had remained sovereign, without EU, would never have fallen victim to the financial markets and the financial oligarchy and, above all, would never have agreed to NATO's eastward expansion. The main reason for the war in Ukraine. So today there are good reasons to celebrate the end of NATO and the EU. Both, right after they supporting Nuland's coup in Kiev, in an attempt to rewrite history, blamed Russia for the WWII. The most infamous thing I have heard since the WWII. It was the beginning of the propaganda campaign to support the supply of weapons to the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine.
This is all coordinated, staged action to accelerate the plunder of the pockets of European people, by the US empire. Making them spend huge amounts of weapons. Europe has relatively small weapons production capacity, so when they all declare they will spend 5 percent of GDP on weapons.....that's huge amount of weapons imports, and almost all of it from the US. Even if they have production bottlenecks, the orders are going to be booked. Plus they will also end up diverting a lot of money to and dual use products like drones, and tech and communications products and sevices, all from the US.
(yes, that's happening while both the US and Europe play this pantomime about "tarriffs" for the cameras!!)
If you ignore the big flourish of "NATO" is dead by Trump, you'll find that in fact the Biden admin spent the past years signing new military vassalage treaties ("Defence Cooperation Agreement") with several European countries, and refreshing or expanding other ones.
Anyone who does not understand how exploitative these DCA bilateral miltary treaties are should go investigate. They are basically turnkey agreements for the US to take over these countries and impose martial law. Along side these these countries are quietly putting in place "emergency status" laws that allow them to impose forced labour on people and impound property, and turn private homes with people living in them into military storage faciliies (aka legit targets to be bombed in a conflict). Its horrific. This is WORSE state of national slavery than being a member of the NATO alliance.
Biden admin also spent great effort to hamtring Europe and put it on a burning platform by starting a needless European proxy war against Russia, and then severing economic ties with Russia (Bombing of European cheap energy via Nordsteam, and then strongarming EU into imposing FIFTEEN tranches of self harming sanctions on trade with Russia). Meanwhile the US actually stull imports petrol and jet fuel from......Russia.
So oo, NATO aint dead. And the empire aint dead. The US has simply put the Europeans balls in a vice and is squeezing while asking them to hand over their wallet.
Same old gangster stuff the US always does. They dont know anything else. And there is continuity in all these policies. Trump is simply accelerating what Biden was doing.
Dear Kit, I think you've swallowed the theatrical experience, hook, line and sinker! The phony display in the White House, the Macron, Starmer diversion, all points to a well planned charade. The reality is that the US has never stopped suplying weapons and intelligence to Ukraine, what's really happened is that the US has outsourced the proxy war to Europe, with the US presenting itself as a peacemaker, hence the bullshit 'ceasefire' that the Empire knows the Russians would never agree to. The Russians are now presented with multiple positions on ending the war but the reality is that they're all designed to prolong the proxy war endlessly. End of Empire? Perhaps, in the long run...
What Putin says:
Putin on ceasefires, in January:
"We are open to dialogue with the new American administration on the Ukrainian conflict. The most important thing here is to eliminate the root causes of the crisis, which we have already talked about many times. As for the settlement of the situation itself, I would like to emphasize once again that its goal should not be a short ceasefire, not some kind of respite for the regrouping of forces and rearmament with the aim of subsequently continuing the conflict, but a long-term peace based on respect for the legitimate interests of all people, all nations living in this region."
"Of course, we will fight for the interests of Russia, the Russian people, that is, in fact, the goal and meaning of conducting a special military operation."
https://t.me/rocknrollgeopolitics/14712
William Bowles Surely the point isn't whether or not the Europeans steal Russian assets. (As if their banks wouldn't be hit with symmetrical response). Reality is that western stockpile aren't there any longer....
Theatre can't magically materialise non-existent weapon stockpiles! Or soldiers tor that matter..
You need to read Kit's piece more carefully imo
You need to hear Hegseth’s multipolar order claptrap more carefully , where he instructs Europe to keep the war going. America’s new proxies.
With what? Guff and posturing.
That is Kit's point. Europe has insufficient weapons left.
No need to pay attention to claptrap from Hegseth or anyone else. It's claptrap.
Of course the Europeans can’t succeed. This is a war against the world and is meant to destroy Europe too. The young people of Europe can be fed into the meat mincer now the U.S. has fought to the last Ukrainian, but it’ll keep Russia tied down whilst the U.S. continues destroying the globe. A depopulated Europe, a depopulated Gaza, the destruction of Iran, a beautiful civilisation. Israel of course won’t survive and is not meant to. Kissinger mentioned this when he said Israel will not exist in ten years. Their tragedy was to be, as Kissinger also warned, a friend of the perfidious USA. I wonder who will be next?
Yes so vassal Europe will keep the war going whilst the US focuses on China
Exactly
I agree
With William Bowles
Maybe yes. Maybe no.
🎯
Neoliberalism came to its grizzly end. The only way a neolib society can militarise is if a billionaire oligarch decides to invest their own offshored wealth to do so. And the other element is that all the high-tech, functionally useless equipment has the enormous margins - all the bread-and-butter military tech such as artillery, ammunition, all have low margins, considerably lower margins than financial speculation gives.
As Asimov argued in the Foundation books, large scale trends bring their own inevitabilities.
The USA has quite deliberately demilitarised the European powers, forcing them to spend their budgets on its own highly priced goods [People seem to imagine this was the USA being "generous" to Europe, ffs], leaving their own miltech industries moribund.
And now the European bigwigs want to create Eurobonds, and spend E100s of billions... one can already write off half of that in corruption schemes before it has even begun.
Amusingly, if Europe takes that 300bn of Russia's, within a week at least 5x that amount will leave the European financial system, leading to an immediate crash. But the greedy morons can only see the dangled carrot... Russia wins either way on that one. Putin has been laughing all along, and rightly so.
Europe is now doomed, the best it can hope for is a social democrat takeover to try to maintain a peaceful, welfare state, and semi-decent standard of living, with a new European Security Architecture including Russia to anchor the continent in the emerging Eurasian world order, and pray that in the future Russia doesn't elect someone considerably more expansionist than Putin could ever be.
Nobody wants what Europe is selling anymore, Gaza and Ukraine has cemented that, and the Global South now know that they can buy Russian defence arms that can keep the Old Powers out, or sign a military pact that can achieve likewise.
The bravery of Ansar Allah and Yemenis, and Hamas and Hezbollah, and the naked evidence that Europe was going back to its bad old ways of Imperialism and Colonialism, are signposts for the rest of the World to follow.
The lying haughtiness of VandurCrazy, the insanity of Kaya Kallis, the insincerity of Micron, and the combination of all those in 'sir' Kid Starver, indicates that only a fool would gamble on Europe's prosperous future.
"And now the European bigwigs want to create Eurobonds, and spend E100s of billions... one can already write off half of that in corruption schemes before it has even begun."
They're either idiots, ignorami, or crooks. My vote goes to the latter.
I'm not so sure idiocy and crookedness are mutually-exclusive, especially in this instance. :)
Sooner or later the people will rebel. If Romania is any bellwether, EU will choose the naked repression option. Can they get away with it?
Of course they can. The first steps are disinformation, the next step is vote-rigging, the next step is lawfare, and only then do they they resort to outright repression. Most people simply do not realise they are living in authoritarian dictatorships with a figleaf of 'democratic accountability'.
Romanians have unexpectedly pushed through all the barriers, and are now facing outright repression.
You know, the Soviet Union could easily have violently repressed the uprisings, but chose not to. The Western Empire has considerably fewer scruples, and will quickly reach for the machine guns again - it's in its DNA, as strikers found in the early 20th, and Liberation movements had already learned many times.
They're already getting away with it.
Same as it ever was.
One thing Starmer does excel at is lying and breaking promises and/or pledges.
Ehh...Iceland will be fine.
I am figuring the North Baltic states are going to be the first to leave NATO en masse, stay in the EU, join BRICS and the Belt-and-Road.
Got a list of events that are going to change Europe forever.
More likely the Central-East states, like Hungary, Slovakia, Romania - who will get a BRICS trade lifeline once Russia takes Odessa.
The Baltics seem full of genuine anti-Rus racialist hatred, and are desperate to keep the US in Europe so their various antics will not be punished as they deserve to be by Russia.
Iceland will be in great difficulties once the AMOC slows or stops. Sadly, as it is a great Scandinavian culture.
The Russians want the US to continue occupying western Europe. Everyone knows what will happen when left to their own devices, more wars.
Norway is the wealthiest and most prosperous nation in Europe. If it wants to remain so it can't stay chained to the Globalists.
I am not sure Russia is going to liberate Odessa. I think it should, but so far Lavrov hasn't asked for my advice.
Should it happen Slovakia, Hungary and Serbia will be in BRICS and Belt and Road as quick as they can. Probably Romania, too. And Moldova, if Romania doesn't get it for a consolation prize.
I'm trying, but can't find a thing to disagree with there, TRID.
Hahaha... Thanks.
These are times of great change for the West. Our prosperity has unleashed decadence and the rise of sophistry as intellect.
"Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them."
Geo Orwell
Gorramnit, stop it already!!
I can't take all these comments I have to agree with! It's unnatural online behaviour!!! >_<
All they’re not saying is give peace a chance!
I'm voting for Asteroid for President 2028: "Just End it Already"
Xi Jin Ping, end our misery. Let em rip!
I think it silly to say 'NATO is Dead'. I dearly hope NATO has died as an aggressive force with world domination its impossible goal. But if NATO were attacked it would surely pull together. I see this as a return to its proper place as a defensive alliance.
This idea that Russia will invade NATO is SO ridiculous. Russia has neither the will nor the power to conquer NATO. Russia is less populous than Nigeria, about the same as Japan. It has done everything it could to resolve the situation peacefully. This panic in Europe is madness. Not to mention that the USA's blowing up the Nordstreem pipeline was by far the biggest act of war against Europe since 1945. How do they tolerate this? It's incredible, weird.
John Mearsheimer believes that if the USA pulls out of Europe that the Europeans will resume making war upon one another. He may be right.
We are duly assured each day that Russia is collapsing, but at the same time, Russia is on the cusp of overrunning europe, which Russia wishes to do for no particular reason.
For that matter, we also are duly assured that Putin is a power-hungry megalomaniac who- will stop at nothing in his quest for world domination, just because, but at the same time, we need not fear that he would ever resort to nuclear weapons, even if cornered.
That these narratives are absurd and internally contradictory is obvious, but at the same time, it does not matter. What matters is that people believe them.
I am very impressed with the accuracy of George Orwell's 1984. George himself didn't believe it would happen. He said it was a "parody." He didn't know his own strength. Now doublethink roolz.
How many people believe it and how many pretend to believe it? All research into this area was blocked long ago. One may wonder why.
"Putin has an insane plan to conquer Europe!"
How do you know he's insane?
"Because he has this plan!"
How do you know he has this plan?
"Because he's insane!"
As usual reversing the Western narrative is very effective. From the media I know that the West has the insane plan to rule the world.
Not arguiong any of that. What matters is not whether the narrative is internally consistent, not blatantly self-serving, or free of hypocrisy.
What matters is whether the narrative gets the desired results.
I think what they do is come up with 20 absurd narratives, send them out to the Internet, see which ones work, and push those until they run out of steam. Which can be a remarkably long time. This feedback mechanism is what makes 21st century propaganda so efficient.
Even if the narratives run out of steam, then TPTB just push new narratives.
My ol’ mum used to say “put all the leaders into a great big ring and let them fight each other” we used to laugh but I think she may have been onto something.
I don't think he said that exactly or with that in mind for the foreseeable future.
If Israel is planning to kick off again, the US will be again preoccupied with supplying that theatre, it cannot keep up with 2 major consumers of munitions.
Alternatively this could all be theatre - bearing in mind that VDL & co have been pushing the idea of More War and Yet More Austerity for a few years. Certainly that was the overriding theme of Macron & co's 2022 manifesto (from what I read in the mini manifesto at least), and has been raised a few times by various of them. Also Germany have been making rearmament noises for a good while now.
Then there's the European 'Defence Fund' (since c. 2018).
Still, it's very kind of Macron to offer the Fr. nuclear deterrent to EU partners isn't it? So much for nuclear non-proliferation!
The current crop of European "leaders" still believes that given enough money, production will magically appear instantly. They already tried buying artillery rounds from around the world, and without stimulating production at all, managed instead to drive the price up from $2K per round to $8K.
These people have been inside their own painstakingly constructed narrative universe for so long that they no longer have the ability to recognize battlefield reality and don't even know how the real world of industrial economy works.
It would've been nice for everyone if the West had laid NATO to rest when the Cold War ended. But no. They revived it as a zombie to harass and terrify countries across the globe. Now spent, it's a rotting corpse just staggering around, purposeless. It's unlikely to end in a dignified way.
Peace would cost the least and create the most benefits down the line. It boggles the mind that these idiots always want to break stuff, and at the same time fear an invasion/retaliation. It's a construct. One would hope the masses wake up to this one day, but most people still believe in the 'democratic west' having to 'defend' itself from their self-proclaimed adversaries.
Quality comment. It's ALL a construct. Talking heads get the memo, all say the same thing, "xxx is totally evil and against democracy and we have to save the world". Then use money that should be utilized to benefit citizens to fund the destruction of other countries. Rinse, repeat.
Anytime someone mentions saving democracy, it's a scam.
Leaving aside the veracity of everything in the article, I'd say there are 3 hidden reasons why Trump is making a charade of abandoning Europe.
1/ It makes a lot of money for the arms industry (this 800billion euro idiocy);
2/ It creates a new strategy of tension (cold war 2.0);
and 3/ It's an excellent excuse to continue 'austerity'. Austerity after all is just neoliberalism-as-normal, which is not an economic system, but a system of social control achieved by restricting the availability of resources (including money), making supply greater than demand, creating permanent recession/inflation. So they say no money for the people/welfare/decent investment etc.
We could add a 4/ here, which is continuing to drive people further to the right-wing. In Britain, for example, they are absolutely manipulating everything to lead to a far-right (Farage) victory in 2029. And of course they can rig it if they need to.
It's all very 1984.
Couldn't tolerate the mendacity of Chatham House's Timothy Ash! If the RIIA wants NATO dismantled then Trump's threat to withdraw is part of the soap opera we call geo-politics.
The Empire is NOT collapsing at all.... it is going for global totalitarian rule and NOBODY escapes. Do not be fooled by Perfidious Albion talking heads, they represent the international crime syndicate whose HQ is in the independent City of London.
They have NEVER, not even for a split second, represented the British people.
DAMNED WARMONGERS ALL.
Nothing has quite exposed the insanity of Europe and its commitment to colonialist values than its posturing around Ukraine. Come on, it's time for peace, and not the ridiculous deal that Trump and crew came up with. Russia is winning this war, and will be regardless of what Europe does. Europe needs to get to the negotiating table and listen to Russia's wants.
Good article. It is never too much to differentiate the end of the unipolar world, which began after the end of the USSR and the balance that the USSR provided to the world, from the end of the World Order based on International Law and the UN Charter, which began after the WWII. And we cannot forget the dismantling of the YU before the illegal bombing of present-day Serbia. As well as of several former allies of the USSR, such as AF, IQ, LY, SY, etc. Because it was no coincidence.
The dismantling of the YU took advantage of Russia's weakness, after the end of the USSR, encouraged by the Anglo-Saxons on both sides of the Atlantic and by Germany, eager to regain influence in the Balkans. The US was primarily interested in controlling the energy pipelines from Central Asia to Europe and the Caspian oil, and for this purpose the largest US base abroad after Vietnam, Camp Bondsteel, was created.
In short, NATO’s first major intervention after the collapse of the USSR, with goals very similar to the proxy war in Ukraine – to cut off Russian gas from Europe and weaken and divide RU like the YU. The main reason for Russophobia has always been envy and greed for Russia’s wealth, its natural resources, which make it impossible to defeat Russia. And it is still the spoils of Russia’s defeat, its natural resources, that the EU and the UK dream of today! The spoils promised by Biden, eager to overthrow Putin. The EU and the UK, today bankrupt due to the financial and economic devastation caused by the 2008 crash.
Finally, I agree with the end of NATO and most likely the EU. Which, as a European today, I see as a positive thing. Because the Europe that said no to the Iraq war in 2003 no longer exists. That is, the Western Europe that built the pinnacle of our civilization. That is, the democratic Western European welfare states. Unfortunately, with the emergence of a unipolar world, we have also witnessed the return of economic liberalism, which in the past caused the 1929 crash that led to the WWII. Now renamed neoliberalism through the deregulation of financial markets by Bill Cliton.
Financial markets and investors who quickly took over and plundered all Western nations. That in Europe, if they had remained sovereign, without EU, would never have fallen victim to the financial markets and the financial oligarchy and, above all, would never have agreed to NATO's eastward expansion. The main reason for the war in Ukraine. So today there are good reasons to celebrate the end of NATO and the EU. Both, right after they supporting Nuland's coup in Kiev, in an attempt to rewrite history, blamed Russia for the WWII. The most infamous thing I have heard since the WWII. It was the beginning of the propaganda campaign to support the supply of weapons to the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine.
Jew Nazi Soviet Russia died!
So must Jew Nazi Soviet Europe!
This is all coordinated, staged action to accelerate the plunder of the pockets of European people, by the US empire. Making them spend huge amounts of weapons. Europe has relatively small weapons production capacity, so when they all declare they will spend 5 percent of GDP on weapons.....that's huge amount of weapons imports, and almost all of it from the US. Even if they have production bottlenecks, the orders are going to be booked. Plus they will also end up diverting a lot of money to and dual use products like drones, and tech and communications products and sevices, all from the US.
(yes, that's happening while both the US and Europe play this pantomime about "tarriffs" for the cameras!!)
If you ignore the big flourish of "NATO" is dead by Trump, you'll find that in fact the Biden admin spent the past years signing new military vassalage treaties ("Defence Cooperation Agreement") with several European countries, and refreshing or expanding other ones.
Anyone who does not understand how exploitative these DCA bilateral miltary treaties are should go investigate. They are basically turnkey agreements for the US to take over these countries and impose martial law. Along side these these countries are quietly putting in place "emergency status" laws that allow them to impose forced labour on people and impound property, and turn private homes with people living in them into military storage faciliies (aka legit targets to be bombed in a conflict). Its horrific. This is WORSE state of national slavery than being a member of the NATO alliance.
Biden admin also spent great effort to hamtring Europe and put it on a burning platform by starting a needless European proxy war against Russia, and then severing economic ties with Russia (Bombing of European cheap energy via Nordsteam, and then strongarming EU into imposing FIFTEEN tranches of self harming sanctions on trade with Russia). Meanwhile the US actually stull imports petrol and jet fuel from......Russia.
So oo, NATO aint dead. And the empire aint dead. The US has simply put the Europeans balls in a vice and is squeezing while asking them to hand over their wallet.
Same old gangster stuff the US always does. They dont know anything else. And there is continuity in all these policies. Trump is simply accelerating what Biden was doing.