Watch this 6-min video where the two people on NATO’s stage at its summit in Madrid are US President Biden and NATO Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg – identically dressed by the same ‘school’ both on the outside and the inside, the Master keeping to some notes, the apprentice gesturing energetically to be the Master’s most pleasing pet:
Undoubtedly intellectual high-jumpers. And you did hear it right: US$ 350 billion more in NATO military expenditures since 2014. Russia’s annual military expenditures amount to US $ 66 billion and all UN peacekeeping cost US $ 7 billion. Just so you get the proportions.
The 2% of GDP goal is now a floor, not a ceiling, Stoltenberg told the world the day before. It’s anyhow intellectual nonsense since a security budget shall be tied to a decent threat analysis and not to the state of a country’s economy.
Ukraine – a non-NATO state that NATO has no legal obligations for – will receive weapons up to perhaps US$ 100 billion in my rough estimate. The reason – not told by these gentlemen: That NATO has promised it membership without paying the slightest attention to 30 years of Russian leadership concerns, without listening to any of the dozens of Realpolitik experts who said it should never become a NATO member and because the US masterminded and financed a regime change in Kiev in 2014, installed a pro-US/NATO leadership and then spent 8 years giving Ukraine the weapons, training, funds and advice so it was ready for membership.
Read the account by the former Ukrainian president, Poroshenko, here and you’ll understand what I mean.
The other reason not told by them is this. By means of fighting Russia in Ukraine – to the last Ukrainian – and attempting to undermine its economy back home, Russia shall be defeated and deleted.
Thereafter, the next enemy is China.
It can’t do without enemies. No alliance can. In particular not an alliance of Christian nations trained in ‘civilising’ missions, universalising and converting others to its thinking and values – by the Bible or, if not enough, the Sword.
Yes, Russia invaded Ukraine – it was immoral and a crystal clear violation of international law. Russia is responsible for the war. But NATO’s reckless, autistic expansion over 30 years is the underlying conflict.
What NATO decides these very days is not a rational response to or caused by that invasion. Instead, it is using the invasion as a pretext for its own further expansion and global dominance brought about by complete subordination to Washington, to the US Empire which is a declining and soon-to-fall Empire at that.
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What strikes you is this: NATO countries would never mobilise such resources for the environment, eradication of poverty and illiteracy, civil infrastructure, pandemic security or any other important civilian goal to save humanity. Here is an analysis of what happened to the idea of a US$ 100 billion pledge to battle climate change.
The West is united – for the moment, at least and outward – by hatred and militarism and by the complete lack of a positive vision for humanity’s future.
Without a single democratic, parliamentary decision about all this, your NATO governments deprive you of your right to and hope for a better, peaceful future.
I silently ask myself:
Where is the money going to come from in economies that were already under strain from economic decline and the Corona pandemic? Which social classes will pay the price – what social benefits will be reduced and for whom? What has such decision-making at summits far away from parliaments got to do with democracy? And with NATO already spending 12 times more than Russia on armament, is there any thinkable point at which enough will ever be enough?
And finally: How much faster and deeper will the world’s multi-crisis manifest itself thanks to this completely wasteful investment in utterly destructive militarism instead of constructive problem-solving. Even before all this, any knowledgeable person knew that we were in the 11th hour to do so.
Now NATO plans deliberately for decades of Cold and – most likely, in my view – Warm war in Europe. There will be a global impact.
God save us all from the most dangerous, delusional development since 1949: The failed NATO alliance that has, manifestly and consistently, shown itself unable to create peace but constantly mobilises for war. For your money. And in complete violation of its own original – meaningful and defensive – Treaty provisions.