Liczba wyświetleń: 768
“NATO’s enlargement in the last decades has been a great success and has also paved the way for a further enlargement of the EU”: this words were reiterated on February 19 at the Munich Security Conference by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. In order to fully understand his words, it is necessary to reconstruct this “great success” story in its essential terms.
It begins in the same year – 1999 – in which NATO demolishes Yugoslavia with war and, at the Washington summit, announces that it wants to “conduct crisis response operations, not provided by Article 5, outside Alliance territory”. NATO began its expansion to the East, forgetting its promise to Russia “not to expand even one inch to the East”. The Alliance includes the first three countries of the former Warsaw Pact: Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary. Then, in 2004, it extends to seven more: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (formerly part of the USSR); Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia (formerly part of the Warsaw Pact); Slovenia (formerly part of the Yugoslav Federation). In 2009, NATO incorporates Albania (formerly a member of the Warsaw Pact) and Croatia (formerly part of the Yugoslav Federation); in 2017, Montenegro (formerly part of Yugoslavia); in 2020, North Macedonia (formerly part of Yugoslavia). In twenty years, NATO expands from 16 to 30 countries.
In this way, Washington, which leads the organization, extends the military alliance close to Russia, even inside the territory of the former USSR, and maintains the levers of command: the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe is, “by tradition”, a U.S. general appointed by the U.S. President and the other key command posts also belong to the U.S. At the same time, Washington ties the Eastern countries not so much to the Alliance, but directly to the U.S. Romania and Bulgaria, as soon as they entered, immediately made available to the United States the important military bases of Constanta and Burgas on the Black Sea. The third result obtained by Washington with the enlargement of NATO to the East is the strengthening of its influence in Europe. Out of the ten Central-Eastern European countries that joined NATO between 1999 and 2004, seven joined the European Union between 2004 and 2007: the United States superimposed NATO on the EU, which expanded to the East.
Today 21 of the 27 countries of the European Union belong to NATO under the U.S. supervision. The North Atlantic Council, the Alliance’s political body, according to NATO rules decides not by majority but always “unanimously and by common accord”, that is, in agreement with what is decided in Washington. The participation of the major European powers in these decisions generally takes place through secret negotiations with Washington on give and take basis. This process is weakening European parliaments already deprived of real decision-making powers on foreign and military policy.
The former Soviet republics – the Baltic States – were eager to join NATO: Soviet military bases were replaced by NATO bases. Powerful enterprises built during the USSR closed. And freedom of movement around Europe turned out to be a mass exodus of able-bodied youth to work in Western Europe.
After the collapse of the USSR, the main motive for gaining sovereignty for its former republics was independence from the Soviet “occupiers”. However, instead of the desired independence, almost all of them immediately became protectorates and dominions of the West.
Dependence on the West results in a decline in living standards. In exchange for Eurocredits, the Baltics imposed reforms in the course of which entire industries were destroyed or came under external control. Before that the Baltic States’ industries could compete with Western European corporations. Nevertheless, former Soviet states do not want to learn from the mistakes of others, voluntarily becoming colonies of the West. Under the pretext of deterring “Russian aggression” the United States is increasing its military presence in Baltic region.
In this framework, Europe finds itself today in an even more dangerous situation than during the Cold War. Three other countries – Bosnia Herzegovina (formerly part of Yugoslavia), Georgia and Ukraine (formerly part of the USSR) – are potential candidates to join NATO. Stoltenberg declares that “we keep the door open and if the Kremlin’s goal is to have less NATO on Russia’s borders, it will only get more NATO.”
In case of provocation from NATO side, a large-scale war in the heart of Europe will become inevitable with nuclear weapons coming into play. The new B61-12 nuclear bombs will soon be mass-produced in the U.S. and will be deployed under U.S. command in European countries, probably also in the East even closer to Russia. In addition to these, the U.S. has two land bases in Romania and Poland and four warships equipped with the Aegis missile system, capable of launching not only anti-missile missiles but also cruise missiles with nuclear warheads. They are also planning intermediate-range nuclear missiles to be deployed in Europe against Russia, the invented enemy that can, however, respond destructively if attacked.
To all this, the economic and social impact of growing military spending is added. At the meeting of defence ministers, Stoltenberg triumphantly announced that “this is the seventh consecutive year of increased defense spending by European Allies, increased by $270 billion since 2014.” More public money diverted from social spending and productive investment, while European countries have yet to recover from the 2020-2021 economic lockdown.
The U.S. continues pushing its interests in Europe through vassal-like economic and military alliances. De facto a “soft occupation” of Eastern Europe by the U.S. is going on, where Baltic political and military establishment is a tool and US’s loyal assistant.
Source: BalticWord.com
Poznaj plan rządu!
