Who will follow the capitalist class clown car into future military adventures to protect the profits of fossil energy tycoons?
In the face of Trump’s clown car, Cold War rationales may no longer hold NATO together. Cartoon by Carlos3653 / Wikimedia Commons.
PARIS — NATO died recently. Over the past few months, its decline was rapid. Its death has yet to be reported in corporate media. It died because, as principally a vehicle for U.S. imperialism, it required U.S. leadership.
Once that fell into the hands of a cabal of incompetents, no NATO country was any longer willing to follow this capitalist class clown car into future military adventures to protect the profits of fossil energy tycoons.
Its withdrawal from the Paris Climate Treaty sent U.S. leadership irredeemably down the European toilet. At the G20 meeting in Hamburg, Trump’s isolation was on full display. Commentators in the French news media ooze unabashed contempt for the antics of Cheeto-head and friends.
Containment of the treacherous commies was the official U.S. propaganda line.
NATO’s original raison d’etre was stated to be blocking a Soviet invasion of Western Europe. The only problem with that rationale is that the Soviet Union never had the slightest interest in doing so. Containment of the treacherous commies was the official U.S. propaganda line based on the absurd narrative that the Soviet military, until the early 1950’s without nuclear weapons, intended to invade Western Europe into the teeth of the nuclear armed U.S.
The Soviets doing so would be completely contrary to the their most basic interests, survival. Having lost over 30 million of its citizens during two German invasions in less than 30 years, continued war for the conquest of Western Europe would have deprived the Soviet Union of the opportunity to rebuild its devastated country. The Soviets’ overarching interest was in a divided and demilitarized Germany. They also wanted to have pro-Soviet governments in power as buffers between themselves and Germany.
Having achieved those objectives by 1945, for the Soviets to prolong their state of war, this time against the world’s sole nuclear power and several of its allies, over land the Soviets did not need in order to protect themselves from further German invasions, would be the height of folly. The idea that the Soviets wanted to go beyond their previously stated objectives, which had already been achieved, to attack Western Europe, exposing themselves to nuclear destruction, is simply illogical and ridiculous.
Stalin may have been lots of odious things, but rash and suicidal were not his nature.
Stalin may have been lots of odious things, but rash and suicidal were not his nature. But just as Hitler had succeeded in convincing the supposedly sophisticated Germans that Poland’s horseback cavalry was going to attack their tanks, the “Cold War” became a wildly successful cover story for U.S. aggression.
New French president Emmanuel Macron came on the scene with a pro-American reputation. That’s gone. At one of the first major meetings of his presidency, Macron ritually slapped Putin on the wrist about gay rights and Ukraine and then immediately got down to the real business of hitting the restart button on France-Russia relations.
His Foreign Minister was soon in Moscow. France was among the EU countries that pushed back immediately when the U.S. Senate passed more sanctions on Iran and Russia. French business folks have been very busy signing billion dollar contracts in Tehran since the “nuclear treaty” and Iran sanctions lessened — including selling the Iranians 100 passenger planes from Airbus, partially owned by the French government. Europe gets most of its natural gas cheap from the Russians via pipelines. Americans would prefer they bought its more expensive gas via ships.
European leaders are now talking about forming an EU army to replace NATO.
Recently, Macron said, “Assad can stay.” That’s jumping off the bandwagon. Merkel was openly distancing herself from the U.S. at the G20 meeting in Hamburg. European leaders are now talking about forming an EU army to replace NATO, currently being euphemistically referred to as a “common European defense zone” on the Parisian pundit parade.
Europe is being pushed into improved relations with Russia by the universal European disrespect, if not revulsion, for Trump. Trump’s unintended consequences may lead to the ultimate failure of the post-WWII U.S. drive for world domination.
As a result of the demise of NATO, European countries become unreliable allies for future U.S. aggressions. The desertion of these traditional allies will lead the U.S. to more disreputable alliances featuring Israel, the Persian Gulf Sunni dictators (Saudi Arabia, etc.) and an increasingly privatized (i.e., mercenary) U.S. military.
[David P. Hamilton is a member of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin in history and government, David was an activist in 1960s-’70s Austin and was a contributor to the original Rag. David and wife Sally spend part of every year in France.]
- Read more articles by David P. Hamilton on The Rag Blog.
I enjoyed your observations, all keen, interesting and salient. I want to say something clever, such as ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’, but frankly I don’t know what ‘I/we’ are anymore besides roiled and royally screwed..