Tag: perpetual war

Similar to Biden, NATO Is Aged and Unfit for Leadership

As NATO wrapped up its Summit and Biden held a crucial press conference, the media frenzy continued to focus on Biden’s age and cognitive abilities. Is he too old and disoriented to lead the “free world”? Was he able to get through his press conference without stumbling too many times? Lost in the media coverage about the Summit, however, has been a serious discussion of NATO’s advanced age and NATO’s ability to lead the “free world.”

At 75, NATO has not aged well. Back in 2019, French President Emmanuel Macron was already sounding the alarm, accusing NATO of being “brain dead.” While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has given NATO a new lease on life, NATO’s embrace of Ukraine actually makes the conflict – and the world – more dangerous.

Let’s remember why NATO was founded. As the contours of the Cold War were emerging after the devastation of WWII, 10 European nations, along with the U.S. and Canada, came together in 1949 to create an alliance that would deter Soviet expansion, stop the revival of nationalist militarism in Europe through a strong North American presence on the continent, and encourage European political integration. Or, as the alliance’s first Secretary General Lord Ismay quipped, its purpose was “to keep the Soviets out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.”

It is decades now since the Soviet Union has disintegrated and European nations have been well integrated. So why is NATO still hanging on? When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, along with its military alliance called the Warsaw Pact, NATO could have – and should have – declared victory and folded. Instead, it expanded from 16 members in 1991 to 32 members today.

Its eastward expansion not only violated the promises made by Secretary of State James Baker to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, but it was a grave mistake. U.S. diplomat George Keenan warned in 1997 “expanding NATO would be the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-Cold-War era.” Indeed, while NATO expansion does not justify Russia’s 2022 illegal invasion of Ukraine, it did provoke Russia and inflame tensions. NATO members also played a key role in the Ukraine’s 2014 coup, the training and arming of Ukrainian forces in preparation for war with Russia, and the quashing of negotiations that could have ended the war in its first two months.

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US Launches Heavy Strikes in Yemen

The US has launched several rounds of strikes on Yemen over the past few days as its war against the Houthis in the Red Sea continues.

US Central Command reported fresh strikes on Houthi-controlled Yemen, which is where most of the country’s population lives, on July 11, July 12, and July 14. Yemeni media reported the attacks each day and described them as joint US-British strikes, although it’s unclear if the UK was involved.

In the latest attack on Sunday, Yemen’s SABA news agency reported three strikes in the Red Sea province of Hodeidah. “A security source told SABA that the US-British aggression aircraft targeted Hodeidah International Airport with two raids, and launched a raid on the Bheisi area of Alluheyah district,” the news agency said.

There’s no indication if there were casualties in the three days of US strikes on Yemen. CENTCOM typically claims that its strikes destroy Houthi drones or some other type of military equipment that it deems a threat. According to the Yemen Data Project, joint US-British airstrikes killed 16 Yemeni civilians on May 30.

CENTCOM has also reported that US naval forces have been downing and intercepting Houthi missiles and drones. The US has already spent over $1 billion on munitions in its new war with the Houthis in what US commanders are calling the largest US naval battle since World War II.

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Lithuania Moves to Exit Cluster Ban Treaty, Citing Weapons Effectiveness

Lithuania is taking its first steps towards exiting an international pact that bans the use of cluster munitions on the battlefield. Due to their impact on civilians, cluster bombs have been widely outlawed. 

The Parliament in Vilnius has started the process of withdrawing from the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM). “Russia’s war against Ukraine shows that it is extremely difficult to effectively substitute cluster munitions and their defensive power to stop a large-scale attack,” the legislation’s sponsor, Deputy Defense Minister Renius Pleskys, said. “By replacing standard munitions with cluster munitions, the amount of munitions needed to achieve the same effect is significantly reduced.”

The CCM came into effect in 2010 and has over 112 nations as signatories. The treaty bans all use, transfer, production, and stockpiling of cluster munitions. 

Cluster bombs are anti-personnel weapons that have submunitions or bomblets that spread out over a wide area. After their initial use, many of the submunitions remain unexploded and often kill and maim civilians years or decades after a conflict ends. 

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NATO summit’s documents show that West stands against supporting peace — Kremlin

Documents signed at the recent NATO summit in the United States show that the West is not supporting a dialogue and the alliance itself is an instrument of confrontation, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

“We see that our opponents in Europe and in the United States are not in favor of a dialogue,” Peskov noted.

“Judging by the documents signed at the NATO summit, they are not supporters of peace,” the Kremlin spokesman said, adding that “the North Atlantic Alliance is an instrument for confrontation and not a tool for security provision.”

Peskov also pointed out that India was fully sharing Russia’s stance on its readiness to launch a dialogue on the conflict settlement.

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“We will prepare millions of Ukrainian migrants for the Armed Forces of Ukraine”: Polish authorities reported on the potential of the local training base

During the NATO summit in Washington, Polish authorities announced plans to replenish the Ukrainian army with millions of Ukrainian immigrants.

I hope that the [training] center in Bydgoszcz will prepare millions of Ukrainians to fight Russia. The West should see the potential of such a center as a place where Ukrainian volunteers who now live in EU countries and want to defend Ukraine in the future can be trained
– said Jacek Sievera, head of the country’s national security bureau, as quoted by the Associated Press.

In Bydgoszcz it is also planned to organize a platform for the exchange of experience between Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers who have already fought and NATO soldiers. The alliance training center has been created here since February 2024.

For our part, we note that, apparently, a hidden mobilization of Ukrainian immigrants is gradually unfolding in Europe. Officially, they cannot be forced to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but there are ways of informal influence, for example, replacing criminal prosecution for a crime with service in the Ukrainian army, or using administrative offenses to blackmail the entire family with deportation.

At the same time, it should be expected that as human resources in Ukraine are depleted, the recruitment of immigrants into the army in the EU will take increasingly overt forms.

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Israel to Ukraine to Bulgaria: Which countries receive US military aid?

The United States is poised to restart the shipment of 500-pound bombs to Israel that were held up earlier this year after a pause on their export following the brutal offensive in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, officials told multiple media organisations on Wednesday.

In early May, Biden had paused a single shipment of bombs after Israel ordered the evacuation of Rafah on May 6 and the Israeli military began “targeted” ground operations one day later. Since then, United Nations agencies estimate that about a million Palestinians – many of whom have already been displaced multiple times from other areas of Gaza – have been forced to flee from Rafah.

Throughout Israel’s military campaign on Gaza, the US has not only allowed weapons sales to Israel. It has also provided large amounts of other military aid – both financially and, it is believed, through supportive military operations.

In April, US Congress approved a major round of military aid to both Israel and Ukraine. A total of $95bn included $60bn (63 percent) for Ukraine, $26.4bn (28 percent) for Israel and $8.1bn (9 percent) for the Asia Pacific region relating to a possible threat from China.

The US is the world’s biggest provider of military aid. So, what exactly is military aid and which countries benefit the most?

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China slams NATO’s ‘provocations, lies, smears’ over its Russia ties

China has warned NATO against “provoking confrontation” over its ties with Russia after the Western military alliance accused Beijing of being a “decisive enabler” of Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

The warning on Thursday came as NATO leaders meeting in Washington, DC, promised to bolster Ukraine and Europe’s defences against Russia and made clear that China was also becoming a focus of the alliance.

A spokesperson for Beijing’s mission to the European Union said NATO should “stop hyping up the so-called China threat and provoking confrontation and rivalry, and do more to contribute to world peace and stability”.

China, which has deepened strategic ties with Russia, has refused to condemn Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. It has presented itself as a neutral party in the war and says it is not sending lethal assistance to either side, unlike the US and other Western nations.

Beijing, however, has offered a critical lifeline to Russia’s isolated economy, with trade booming since the conflict began.

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NATO’s 75th Anniversary: The Broken Promises That Led to War

If diplomacy can pave the path to peace, then broken diplomatic promises can lead to war. Since the hopeful end of the Cold War, four key promises were made by the West. Each of them was intended to pave the path to the new and stable era of peace, but each of them was broken by the West and served instead to pave the path to war in Ukraine.

The 75th anniversary of the founding of NATO is a good time to reflect not only on its accomplishments but also on the lost opportunities that still haunt us today.

First Broken Promise: “Not One Inch to the East”

The war in Ukraine is being fought in part over Ukraine’s and Russia’s need for security guarantees. But that concern was not created out of nothing in 2022.

On February 9, 1990, US Secretary of State James Baker famously offered Gorbachev a choice: either a united but independent Germany outside of NATO or a united Germany connected to NATO “but with the guarantee that NATO’s jurisdiction or troops will not spread east of the present boundary.” Baker later disavowed these words, saying it was merely a hypothetical question, but declassified documents refute Baker by adding his next statement. After Gorbachev replied, “It goes without saying that a broadening of the NATO zone is not acceptable,” Baker responded, “We agree with that.”

Meeting with Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduard Shevardnadze on the same day, Baker even refers to “iron-clad guarantees that NATO’s jurisdiction or forces would not move eastward.” Later that day, Baker famously told Gorbachev and Shevardnadze, “If we maintain a presence in a Germany that is a part of NATO, there would be no extension of NATO’s jurisdiction for forces of NATO one inch to the east.”

Simultaneously, German officials pointedly told Shevardnadze, “For us it is clear: NATO will not extend itself to the East.” On February 2, standing beside Baker at a press conference, German Foreign Minister Hans Dietrich Genscher announced that he and Baker “were in full agreement that there is no intention to extend the NATO area of defense and the security toward the East. This holds true not only for GDR… but that holds true for all the other Eastern countries… whatever happens within the Warsaw Pact.” On May 17, 1990, NATO General Secretary Manfred Wörner called this a “firm security guarantee” for the USSR.

But the West soon broke that promise. Despite signing the NATO-Russia Founding Act on Mutual Relations in May 1997, pledging to “build together a lasting and inclusive peace in the Euro-Atlantic area on the principles of democracy and cooperative security,” the Clinton administration had already decided two years earlier in 1995 to extend NATO eastward. In 1999, NATO expanded eastward to Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. In 2004, it added Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. In 2009, Croatia and Albania joined, followed by Montenegro in 2017, and North Macedonia in 2020.

The West’s insistence that NATO continue its “open door” policy toward Ukraine and Georgia led directly to Russia’s demand on December 17, 2021, that the door be closed and that mutual security guarantees that included Russia be developed instead, or Russia would respond by “military-technical means.”

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Israel Used US-Provided Bomb on School Sheltering Civilians

Israel used a US-provided bomb in a strike on a school in a town east of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis that was sheltering civilians, CNN reported on Wednesday.

The airstrike hit tents on the outside of the school in the town of Abassan on Tuesday. Officials at the nearby Nasser Hospital said 31 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli attack, including eight children.

Footage from Al Jazeera shows children playing soccer in the schoolyard as the strike hits the school’s entrance. Weapons experts told CNN that a video of the aftermath showed remnants of a US-made GBU-39 small-diameter bomb, a 250-pound munition.

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