Voltaire Network – Oct 28, 2019
U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchinson. Click to enlarge
The Defence Ministers of the North Atlantic Council met on 24-25 October 2019 at NATO Headquarters in Brussels. The meeting gave rise to fierce clashes between Germany, the Benelux countries and France on the one hand, and the United States and Turkey on the other.
The former members of the defunct Warsaw Pact, eager to keep up their guard against Russia, smoothed the waters.
Unlike the 1966 crisis, when France had refused to place its military forces under the orders of a US General and withdrew from the NATO Integrated Command, the current conflict is not about the independence of individual members from the USA, but concerns the survival of the Alliance itself.
Germany, Benelux and France have called for a military intervention in north eastern Syria, both against the armed forces of Syria and Turkey (a NATO member), and in support of YPG Kurdish militias. For their part, the United States and Turkey argued that US forces did not have a mandate to justify their presence in Syria, and that Turkey was legally acting on the basis of its right to counter attacks from terrorists inside Syria.
This situation raises the broader question of what will become of the Alliance now that the United States has decided to step down from its imperial throne, having already taken steps in that direction.
Nature abhorring a vacuum, Germany, Benelux and France are obvious candidates, as a group, to take over the task, though they lack the necessary means. This being said, Germany prefers to remain within the framework of the Alliance, [1] while France envisions this change to take place within the structure of the European Union (that is, without both the United States and the United Kingdom).
As a historical reminder, at the time of the collapse of the USSR, the Warsaw Pact did not survive Moscow’s recognition of the independence of its member states. The “Brezhnev Doctrine” of 1968 justified a military intervention in member countries of the Pact if the socialist character of the Eastern Bloc was at stake. Consequently, Moscow was able to crush the “Prague Spring.” By contrast, in 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev declared that Moscow was no longer in a position to dictate its law to its allies; a principle he facetiously called the “Sinatra Doctrine” (referring to Frank Sinatra’s song My Way). There was no repression in Hungary and, in the German Democratic Republic, the Berlin Wall came down all of a sudden.
The Atlantic Alliance also has stay-behind secret services, [2] in charge of keeping Member States in line, by resorting, if necessary, to assassination or regime-change methods. Although these services have been dissolved on several occasions, they are still active. However, it had never been anticipated that the problem would be coming from the United States.
[1] “Can Germany supplant US imperialism?”, Voltaire Network, October 24, 2019.
[2] NATO’s Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe, Daniele Ganser, Frank Cass (2004)
The united kingdom or great Britain is unfortunately still part of the EU and therefore still part of the EU defence union. This new EU defence union would presumably render NATO obsolete anyway. Interestingly the UK was linking up with the EU defence union before during and after the 2016 Brexit referendum which proves that they have planned for the UK to be forever tied into their tyranny and democracy is an illusion. The new EU army can now go into any EU state where there is public dissent and stamp their boots all over what remains of free speech without any sense of loyalty or compassion for their victims nations.
The UK (including Britain) have signed militarily up to Europe and remains clearly NATO member.
Should an european military be created , be sure Britain is in the middle of it.
IMO, they already signed up for this occasion before BREXIT.
Britain is a big part of the New World Government that might be awaiting us.
The British Empire is still there but not in the shape and form we know from the victor’s history books.
You may ask their queen for she knows quiet a lot about it.
Staggeringly funny if it did not involve the loss of life. The US had no legal right to be in Syria. EU states have no right to be in Syria and Turkey has grounds to be in Northern Syria. Let us remember that Turkey is still just about a NATO member. Isreal is a NATO member in all but signature. Israel sits in on top-secret closed-door NATO meetings but Israel has twice tried to coup Turkey and this has made Erdogan clamp down on internal Zionist factions. Amazing that one NATO member tries to coup another NATO member.
As to the UK, we are still in the EU and NATO but Brexit is much more than leaving the EU. If Boris gets his way, the UK will hard Brexit & become the 51st state. MI6 and UK corrupt elite realise that the EU will eventually trade more with Russia and that both will be big players in China’s Silk Road 2. The UK says it is interested in SR2 but I think this is bullshit. The UK sounds positive but this is a diplomatic front.
What the US and UK want is revived Commonwealth block with Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan & any other countries they can strongarm such as South Africa & some Middle East states.