- by Jan Dieles
- The Guardian
- Issue #1962
The United States continues its march towards a new world war.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Ukraine on 6th May. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky requested an expedited admission into NATO.
The same day, the European Union granted US troops “unhindered movement” across EU member states.
Meanwhile, the massive “Defender Europe 21” military exercises are taking place, with EU and US troops across Europe and Northern Africa, most significantly near the Russian border.
All this sums to a huge escalation in US-EU aggression towards Russia.
While the Trump administration had alienated Europe, the Biden administration signals a return to “normal” US imperialism. But the escalations under Trump have only continued.
The war plans against China are clearly still in place. That war is already an unwinnable one. How could the same US who failed to defeat the Taliban expect to defeat a rising advanced power that is the most populous country in the world? But the unwinnability of a war has never dulled the American thirst for blood. By this point, it is all they know.
The deepening Russian alliance with China has made such a war all the more unwinnable. The US has gone to great lengths attempting to drive a wedge between the two, or to topple either government and install a puppet. Navalny has been groomed for that role in Russia, but his failure has been so embarrassing that even the American government must question, for a moment, its abilities.
So here we are, with the most ridiculous war theatrics imaginable. US troops are circling both Russia and China, with the shameful support of such American puppies as the EU countries, Japan, South Korea, and our own country.
Around 70,000 US troops are stationed in Europe. This is more than a presence, it is an occupation, maintained since WW2.
Previously, the US military presence in Europe was targeted against the Soviet Union. But since the destruction of the Soviet Union, this presence was maintained, even when the US-friendly Yeltsin government held power. True to expectations, resistance against the US highway robbery of the Russian people found some sort of voice in the form of Vladimir Putin.
The US is an expert in creating enemies.
The US Department of Defense reports:
“[Pentagon Press Secretary] Kirby said that openly discussing the Defender Europe 21 exercise and why US, NATO partners and other European allies are gathering troops is an important facet of the operation. Other nations have not been so clear or forthright about their own amassing of troops, he said.”
Is such openness really something to brag about? The fact that the US is able to be so open about its aggressions is only another symptom of its status as world hegemon.
This comment is intended to imply that Russia is amassing troops unprompted. Can such a claim be made reasonably in the circumstances of a decades-old US campaign of hostility? Consider the ongoing US interference in Russia’s neighbours, including Ukraine, Georgia and Belarus.
The US loves to play victim, but no reasonable person is fooled.
The US aggressions in Europe, in Africa, in Asia, in Latin America, are crimes against the whole world’s peoples. The defeat of US imperialism is the only path forward for humanity.
The Australian people have so far been sheltered from the worst impacts of imperialism – with the significant exception of the very people whose land this is. This temporary stability for the majority breeds complacency; but it cannot last forever. We are today seeing the US empire in desperation, crumbling. There will be an end to it, the only question is how destructive it will be. We must act to oppose the drive to war and build a peoples’ resistance.
