The entire world is watching the actions of President Trump and the reaction—if any reaction exists—of the West. The American President is not attacking Russia or China, but Europe. He has already warned it that it has taken the wrong path. In Alaska, at the US-Russia Summit, it was agreed to marginalize the role of NATO, a defensive alliance that has evolved into a clear offensive coalition. Ultimately, sooner or later, NATO will share the fate of the Warsaw Pact.
Trump knows what he is doing
Trump knows what he is doing. And what he is saying. Before the tsunami of outcries over the acquisition of Greenland, the President of the United States fanned the flames. "We don't need NATO," Trump said. The American leader is skillful; he is not just good at real estate and business deals. He does an excellent job of presenting the facts, separating the widespread media hype from reality with a surgical scalpel.
Cries of hysteria but the numbers are relentless
The cries from Europe's still-formal allies have exceeded any reasonable decibel level. They suggest that the hysteria of the Euro-Atlantic peoples is nothing more than hysteria. Trump's words, however, are filled with nothing but numbers and precise details. Thirty (30) European countries contributed about one-third of the total NATO budget expenditures. The US covers 2/3 of the total NATO budget costs. In absolute numbers, this amounted to 845 billion dollars from the American treasury versus 559 billion dollars from pan-European funds. Throughout the post-war decades and the subsequent purely peaceful decades, the Europeans emphasized: "The Russians are coming to enslave us, so, Americans, come protect us and give us more money, please."
The instructive history of the collapse of the Warsaw Pact
They were referring to the Warsaw Pact. The Warsaw Pact, in terms of combat capability, armament, and mobility, was truly terrifying for the Europeans. However, the main function of the bloc was to limit the military ambitions of the then-collective West and its military western expansion. The Warsaw Pact, created six years after NATO, was a defensive alliance. It certainly did not plan to march on Paris and Rome with tanks. And it did not need to defeat anyone militarily, since Russia back then wanted to cooperate in a mutually beneficial way with Western Europeans.
Western Europeans have always extracted money from the Americans
Even when the Warsaw Pact dissolved, the Western Europeans extracted money from the Americans. For over thirty years, the European members of NATO succeeded in their simple blackmail: energy from the Russians, weapons and military expenses from the Americans. After that, Western Europeans had absolutely nothing to worry about. They simply continued to invent stories about how "Russian barbarians will conquer European civilizations," and they called this geopolitics.
Cultivating terror
The psychoses of the Baltic states, Polish paranoia, and the fantasies of other Eastern European countries were put into play. The Ukrainian option—and the "Ukraine is Europe" project—simply came to sustain the blackmail. Having exhausted the cultivation of terror and horror stories, Ukraine was implemented as an "outpost for the defense of European values." To maintain NATO and control the alliance's budget, the European Atlanticists killed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians. They destroyed the infrastructure of a once-wealthy country and plunged its finances into an abyss of debt. Approximately the same thing—now with their own population, their own infrastructure, and their own finances—the same people are ready to do to prolong the life of the alliance.
The big trap
But there is a trap. America no longer wants to fund such whims. Washington has realized that it is easier—significantly easier—for it to negotiate directly with Russia. To resolve security issues with our country, taking into account both mutual and national interests. The European members of NATO, the main beneficiaries of the still-unresolved crisis in Donbass, are shouting with all their might because they feel and understand that no one needs them anymore. America does not need them. Russia does not need them. China does not need them. The Global South does not need them. They have been forgotten economically, politically, and financially.
The two options
Europe today has two options to remain on the geopolitical map. Ukraine and its remaining territories are a source of destabilization for Russia, so the first option is Ukraine. The second is to organize a circus with seals in Greenland to demonstrate their military strength. Some kind of military maneuvers, but with the risk that the Americans will crush them and the play will end abruptly there. Now everyone has begun to understand that NATO is an obsolete institution and will share the fate of the Warsaw Pact.
America's "happy vassals" do not want to become "miserable slaves"
Euro-Atlanticism is dead! Everyone in the West is writing about this subject these days. "The Last Days of Atlanticism"—this is the general title of a series of articles in the Financial Times. "Five Stages of European Mourning for the Transatlantic Alliance" is the title of the lead article in The Economist, the ideological mouthpiece of liberals worldwide. "The rules-based world is dead," admits the Guardian.
Mark Carney of Canada at the center
And almost all Western analysts, politicians, experts, and political scientists unanimously invoke the keynote speech of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the Davos Forum. The New York Times believes that after this speech, Mark Carney became a new "global political star," a kind of liberal counterweight to Trumpism. Other Western newspapers agree. And Trump's reaction, threatening Canada with 100% tariffs after this speech, essentially confirms the conclusion of these publications. "The Prime Minister's memorable speech elevated Canada to a role it had not occupied for a long time—a role in shaping global events." However, The Observer warns not to rush to such summary conclusions, arguing: "Mark Carney's speech in Davos was a masterpiece. History will judge how great it was."
The foundations of liberal ideology are creaking
One could say that the Western supporters of liberal ideology, which is experiencing its most serious crisis in decades, have revived and found a foothold. But without even realizing it, they indifferently recognized their own decades-long lies and Russia's absolute correctness! After all, Canada's Mark Carney did not state in Davos that the "rules-based international order" was dead.
It was a fiction from the start
He admitted it never existed, that it was a fiction from the start! Here is the quote from Mark Carney himself: "We always knew that the narrative of a rules-based international order was partly false: that the strongest would be exempt from responsibility when it was convenient, that trade rules were applied asymmetrically. And we knew that international law was applied with varying degrees of severity depending on the identity of the accused or the victim. This fiction was useful—American hegemony, in particular, contributed to the provision of public goods." However, Russia has been saying this for a long time!
An order based on rules that no one has seen
Remember Putin's words regarding this "rules-based order": "Have you ever seen these rules? No, because no one ever wrote them and no one ever coordinated them with anyone. How can you talk about an order based on rules that no one has ever seen? From the point of view of common sense, this is nonsense; it is pure nonsense. But it is profitable for those who promote this approach." Now Mark Carney presents this truth as something new, previously unknown!
The Power of the Powerless
The most striking and frequently cited passage in the Canadian Prime Minister's speech is his reference to Vaclav Havel's popular 1978 essay, "The Power of the Powerless." Mark Carney remembered the Czech greengrocer who automatically displayed the slogan "Workers of the world, unite!" in his window: "He doesn't believe it himself, no one else believes it, but he puts the sign up anyway to avoid trouble, to show his submission, to get along with everyone else. And because every shopkeeper on every street does the same, the system continues to exist—not only through violence, but through the participation of ordinary people in rituals they secretly recognize as false."
Take down the signs
After this, Mark Carney shouted from the podium at Davos: "Friends, it's time for companies and countries to take down these signs!" Thundering applause broke out! The liberals did not even realize that in this way they were admitting not only their own lies and hypocrisy, but also the fact that all this time, while talking about certain values and freedoms, they were actually building the same totalitarian society that Vaclav Havel described in his essay. Vaclav Havel called these signs in the window "a private embodiment of the principle of social auto-totalitarianism." And now the liberals admit that they were these very same greengrocers, diligently hanging their slogans!
Trump calls on Europeans to attach such an insulting label
Essentially, what Trump is doing to the Europeans and the Canadians who have joined them is demanding that they attach such an insulting label to themselves. But some of them are already doing it! NATO Secretary General Rutte called Trump... "dad." It is exactly the kind of signal that a Czech greengrocer in Vaclav Havel's time would never have put up.
Losing their self-respect
At the same Davos Forum, the Belgian Prime Minister also spoke about the "dignity" of Europeans: "Until now, we were trying to please the new president in the White House. But now so many red lines are being crossed that you face a choice regarding self-respect: being a happy vassal is one thing, and being a miserable slave is something completely different." So much for the "rules-based world!" Thus, liberals worldwide now openly admit that: a) this world never existed; b) the world they named it was simply a system of vassal relations. But this naturally raises the question: what to do with the sanctions against Russia, which were supposedly imposed for violating the "rules of a rules-based world?" After all, that was the official excuse! Now, however, the Europeans see the dead end and shout "Liberals of the world, unite!", guarding their lost dignity.
Happy slave
Now, when the vassals turn into "happy slaves," we can only remind them of another quote from Putin's 2015 speech: "Do you even realize now what you have done?" A decade later, they realized it gradually. The European slaves were starting a revolt, trying to find an ideological justification for it. But because they still did not know how to replace the faded sign in the window, America's suppression could now be relentless.
European Russophobia resembles bipolar disorder
European Russophobia resembles bipolar disorder, where the same people simultaneously claim that Russia is about to collapse and that it will soon conquer Europe. Again, the Pentagon's "Russian strategy" seems to be addressed to these same people.
What do the Americans think about Russia?
The first point states that, despite its internal problems, Russia maintains strong military and economic potential, as well as the political will to defend its interests, as evidenced by the prolonged war in its neighboring countries. Consequently, the hope for further damage to its strategic position is an indication of inadequacy.
The second point states that the European countries of NATO collectively outnumber Russia demographically, economically and, consequently, in military power. Russia does not possess the resources to pursue European hegemony. However, when did Russia ever give reason to suspect that it plans to establish hegemony in Europe? Yet, unlike their allies in the Old World, the Americans do not oppose the idea that Russia is also Europe. This makes the conclusion even clearer for them: Russia is Europe, Ukraine is Europe, and all European countries are Europe, but the United States is not Europe. Why then do you Europeans bother the United States with your relations? Solve your problems among yourselves. Washington can offer you advice on how to do this: the United States has been negotiating with Russia for a year—and with enough success. But if you cannot, as the Russian Foreign Minister recently suggested, simply call Russia and instead accept only new sanctions packages and accelerated war preparation programs with Russia, then there is even more reason to do this without American involvement.
www.bankingnews.gr
Σχόλια αναγνωστών