{"id":197744,"date":"2019-11-12T08:00:15","date_gmt":"2019-11-12T08:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=197744"},"modified":"2019-11-14T07:08:58","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T07:08:58","slug":"macrons-brain-dead-nato-thou-protest-too-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=197744","title":{"rendered":"Macron\u2019s \u2018Brain-Dead\u2019 NATO?.. Thou Protest Too Much"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finian Cunningham \u2013 Strategic Review Nov 11, 2019<\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Does President Emmanuel Macron dream of restoring French imperial power? Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

French President Emmanuel Macron certainly ruffled a lot of feathers this week when he lamented the US-led NATO military alliance as being \u201cbrain dead\u201d. But his comments were less about a principled or objective assessment of NATO, and more about self-aggrandizement by the French leader.<\/span><\/p>\n

Macron, whose political ambition is suffused with reviving France as a global power, appears to be exploiting tensions in the transatlantic alliance in order to push his pet plan for creating a European Army.<\/span><\/p>\n

With Britain leaving the European Union, the French president sees an opportunity for France becoming the lead power in Europe. His call for Europe to regain \u201cmilitary sovereignty\u201d is aimed at enhancing French power as the top European military force.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an interview<\/a><\/strong><\/span> with the London-based Economist, Macron said: \u201cWhat we are currently experiencing is the brain death of NATO.\u201d He went on to claim that the United States is relinquishing commitment to the alliance; that the US is \u201cturning its back on us\u201d; and that European states must therefore \u201cwake up\u201d to \u201cbe in control of our destiny\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

His comments drew swift rebuke from the US and other NATO members. German Chancellor Angela Merkel dismissed<\/a><\/strong><\/span> Macron\u2019s words, saying they were \u201cdrastic\u201d. She asserted that NATO was the \u201ccornerstone of security\u201d for Germany.<\/span><\/p>\n

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, while visiting Germany this week, said that NATO was \u201ccritically important\u201d as ever and he reaffirmed<\/a><\/strong><\/span> America\u2019s military commitment to Germany, where there are over 38,000 US troops based.<\/span><\/p>\n

NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg, who spoke alongside Merkel in Berlin, also rejected Macron\u2019s apparent disparagement of the alliance\u2019s present status.<\/span><\/p>\n

Given that leaders of NATO\u2019s 29 member states are due to gather in London on December 3-4 to mark the 70th anniversary of the military bloc\u2019s foundation in 1949, Macron\u2019s interview comes at an awkward time. There is a sneaking suggestion the French leader deliberately aimed his media comments to spark controversy in his favor.<\/span><\/p>\n

At a superficial level, Macron may appear to be making a valid point. Yes, it is true that US President Donald Trump has continually lambasted European members of NATO for what he derides as their lack of military spending. Trump has warned about withdrawing US support for NATO. This is typical \u201ctransactional\u201d Trump taking the hump about perceived petty cost-sharing and his relentless griping about America being \u201cripped off\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

In spite of Trump\u2019s harrumphing, there is no sign that \u201cthe US is turning its back\u201d on NATO or Europe, as Macron claims. On the contrary, Washington is investing more troops, tanks and warplanes on European territory, especially in the Baltic states close to Russia\u2019s border.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump may threaten to walk away from NATO in Europe, but the US political and military establishment know full well that is an idle threat. America\u2019s geopolitical power relies on the transatlantic bond to Europe which is afforded by NATO \u2013 its intrinsic founding purpose. NATO is essential to Washington\u2019s hegemony over Europe and in particular for the prevention of any convergence between Europe and Russia as strategic partners. Rhetoric about \u201cdefending Europe\u201d from alleged Soviet and later Russian aggression is simply a pretext for American dominance over European politics.<\/span><\/p>\n

Macron is thus being melodramatic in his death-knell pronouncements for NATO. When he says, \u201cwe are currently experiencing the brain death of NATO\u201d, he is inferring a demise in American leadership. The supposed demise is only superficial due to Trump\u2019s tetchy rhetoric. In every fundamental way, the NATO alliance and Washington\u2019s strategic dependence on it as a structure for projecting American power over Europe is as paramount as ever.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is telling that Macron cites the purported US troop pullout from Syria last month as evidence for his depiction of a waning NATO. Macron is aggrieved that France and other European states were not consulted by the American move \u201cto abandon Kurdish allies\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

But those comments reveal Macron disingenuously \u201cprotesting too much\u201d. When were European states ever consulted by their American NATO paymaster?<\/span><\/p>\n

Washington has launched countless military invasions of foreign countries over the decades with hardly a call in advance for Europe\u2019s \u201cconsultation\u201d. It is the servile function of European members of NATO to simply follow orders and row in behind American troops on Washington\u2019s imperialist conquests in order to give US criminality a veneer of \u201cmultilateralism\u201d and \u201clegitimacy\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore for Macron to bemoan NATO as a \u201ccurrent experience\u201d of brain-death is an exaggeration. It has always been brain-dead as far as European consultation or independence goes. Europe habitually serves as a zombie pandering to Washington\u2019s imperialist demands.<\/span><\/p>\n

Witness how the European powers have slavishly deferred to the \u201cWashington consensus\u201d on socially disastrous neoliberal economic policy; or Washington\u2019s catastrophic wars in the Middle East and Central Asia which have generated a migration crisis for European societies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Witness too how European states have meekly, even keenly, gone along with Washington\u2019s policy of hostility towards Russia and the self-harming economic sanctions imposed on Moscow.<\/span><\/p>\n

Admittedly, Macron, in his interview this week, said that a more independent Europe should seek dialogue and partnership with Russia. That is to be welcomed. But Macron\u2019s chances of achieving that are remote when the fact is Europe is so dominated by Washington.<\/span><\/p>\n

Macron\u2019s attempt at stirring controversy over NATO and Washington\u2019s relations with Europe is a jejune self-serving bid by the French president to assert himself and France as the pivotal European power.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s no doubt why Germany\u2019s Merkel reacted quickly with reproach. After all, Berlin has shown a newfound desire to increase its national military power. This week defense minister Annegret Kamp-Karrenbauer called<\/a> for more \u201cproactive deployment\u201d internationally of the Bundeswehr in order to secure Germany\u2019s \u201cstrategic interests\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Merkel has previously joined<\/a><\/strong><\/span> Macron in endorsing a European Army. She too has complained about the US no longer being reliable as a protector. Such comments by Merkel, Macron and other European politicians betray their misplaced understanding about the nature of American power and its core relation to Europe. Calls for a European Army are not about rejecting the militarism of NATO in principle, but rather about France and Germany reviving their own national militaristic power.<\/span><\/p>\n

This week, however, the Neo-Napoleonic Macron went too far in his quest for renaissance of French global power. Exaggeration, pseudo criticism of America and NATO, were really all about aggrandizing French power by way of creating a new role of military supervisor of Europe. And Auntie Angela was compelled to slap down the naughty little French boy. Because Berlin has designs of its own.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Macron\u2019s pseudo criticism of America and NATO, were really all about aggrandizing French power by way of creating a new role of military supervisor of Europe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":153,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-197744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary","category-Current_Affairs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/153"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=197744"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":197747,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197744\/revisions\/197747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=197744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=197744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=197744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}