NATO's Dark Side

NATO's Dark Side

by Stephen Lendman

US-led NATO reflects pure evil. Threatening world peace. Seeking global dominance through one ravaged country at a time.

Comprised of over 70 members and partners. Over one-third of world nations. On every continent except Antarctica. Doing America's bidding.

Run by its Deputy Secretary-General, Alexander Vershbow. A former Assistant Defense Secretary for International Security Affairs.

Clinton's National Security Council European Affairs director. A former US ambassador to Russia.

Calling Moscow "more an enemy than partner." Diplomacy isn't his long suit. Intends Alliance measures to counter nonexistent Russian aggression.

Claims it "marks a turning point in decades of (NATO) efforts to draw Moscow closer." Intends stepped up US presence close to its borders.

Modernizing its neighbors militarily. "(U)pgrading" joint exercises. "(S)eiz(ing) the opportunity…Creat(ing) the reality on the ground. Accept(ing) membership of aspirant countries."

America's dirty hands run things. NATO is a US-led killing machine. A war-making alliance. A global outlaw.

Ludicrously saying it "promotes democracy. (E)ncourages cooperation." Seeks "to build trust." Prevent conflict.

Settle disputes peacefully. Truth is polar opposite. It bears repeating. Wants world dominance through one ravaged country after another.

Deplores peace. Prioritizes war. Threatens humanity's survival. Outrageously claims Russia wants force replacing the rule of law.

Its lower house State Duma Speaker, Sergey Naryshkin, wants America expelled from NATO. Urges European nations to act.

Calls expulsion "a fantastic proposal." What better way to curtail militarism. Achieve world peace, security and stability, he says.

NATO's collective security commitment is code language for war readiness. Against governments Washington wants ousted. Replaced with ones it controls.

Inventing nonexistent enemies. Turning allies into assets. Bullying them to go along with its imperial project.

Claiming an urgency to defend them. Despite no existing threats. Urging Ukraine to stand firm against Russia. Protect its territory.

Naryshkin believes Ukraine's "forcible European integration" may trigger a continental neo-Nazi upsurge.

Warning Europeans against letting this happen. Not underestimating dangerous Ukrainian radicalization.

"We are told that the role of Ukrainian radicals is exaggerated, but then why their elated attitude to Nazi abettors and an outright aggression against other nationalities are also seen more frequently in the conduct of official Kiev authorities," he asked?

"We in Russia do not want a hotbed of neo-Nazism to appear in Europe." It runs things in Ukraine.

Except where Donbas freedom fighters prevent it. Putting their bodies on the line for democratic rights everyone deserves.

At Sunday's Parliamentary Assembly's Annual Session, NATO's Committee on the Civil Dimension of Security proposed a draft resolution.

Pledging increased political, economic, material and technical support for Ukraine. Increased sanctions on Russia.

Refuse recognition of legitimate Crimean self-determination. Recognized under international law.

Saying the "Alliance's door would remain open for further enlargement." To achieve Washington's goal of global policeman.

Its agenda fosters instability. Permanent wars. Ousting independent governments. Replacing them with pro-Western stooge ones. Puppets America controls.

Institutionalizing hardline rule. Preventing democracy at all costs. Inventing threats to advance its imperial agenda.

Wanting increased military spending for more wars. Calling it collective defense.

Washington intends more covert and overt military aid for Ukraine. For genocidal Donbas war. Ramped up full force. Including against noncombatant men, women and children.

According to a US official, "(o)ur first radars for the detection and suppression of mortar detachments have been already delivered there, with a few more expected soon."

"We are also delivering military equipment and technology surplus, particularly, high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle (Humvees) and other vehicles."

"We have already allocated $100 million for these purposes and hope we will be able to spend tens of millions (more) on training (Ukrainian military personnel). We're discussing the provision of funds with Congress."

Other NATO countries are supplying military aid. Intending greater than ever Donbas area carnage.

Including against ethnic Russians. Allowing Donbas slaughter means Crimea is next, says Paul Craig Roberts.

Threatening Russia's security more than ever. Global wars start this way.

Hitler could have been stopped long before WW II began. Western nations did nothing to prevent his Austrian Anschluss. Sudetenland annexation.

On September 30, 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declared "peace for our time."

Fools alone believed it. Wise men knew otherwise. Chamberlain returned from Munich. Waving Hitler's agreement. It wasn't worth the paper it was written on.

Hitler knew it. Chamberlain pretended otherwise. So did others. Foolishly. Hard reality awaited. WW II followed. Tens of millions perished.

America is a much more formidable adversary. Does WW III loom? Will Russia not intervene in time to stop it? Pay too dear a price.

The time to act is now. Later may be too late. Conflicts once begun have a life of their own. The best way to defuse them is intervening before they spin out-of-control.

Given Washington inexorable drive East, its reckless hegemonic agenda, drawing a red line now is key to preventing greater conflict.

Will Russia step up to the plate and act? Will China join it cooperatively? America is a world-class bully.

Beating up on defenseless adversaries. One after another. Russia and China allied match its might. Perhaps enough for an effective deterrent.

If Syria falls, Iran is next. If Kiev crushes Donbas resistance, expect NATO membership to follow.

Putting US bases on Russia's borders. What Moscow categorically won't tolerate. The time to prevent it is now.

It bears repeating. Later may be too late. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine joining NATO depends on fulfilling membership criteria.

"Our policy is the same. The door is open for countries" wishing to join, he said.

"I remember the summit in Bucharest where we decided that Ukraine will become a member, and that decision still stands, of course, providing that Ukraine fulfills the criteria for membership and providing that Ukraine so will," he added.

Its illegitimate oligarch president Petro Poroshenko intends a referendum on accession.

Perhaps rigged like Ukraine's farcical presidential and parliamentary elections. Rubber-stamping regime policy.

Challenging Russia irresponsibly. Risking open conflict if accession plans go forward.

It bears repeating. The time to stop reckless policy is before it spins out-of-control.

Ideally diplomatically. If unsuccessful by whatever it takes. Drawing a red line with teeth may be all that's needed.

Washington may think twice before confronting Russia belligerently. At least at this time.

Kiev's puppet government does nothing without US consent. For sure on war and peace issues.

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov calls Ukraine's drive to join NATO hugely destabilizing.

"I'm sure that what the Ukrainian leadership announced will lead to further aggravation of the situation in Ukraine," he said.

"This will not ensure security in Ukraine and this will not improve the Ukrainian people's life."

"This is the result of illusions, the Ukrainian leaders and many people in the West live in, the illusions that the geopolitical Western game is all of this and people’s life is nothing."

"I regret that these leaders are enthralled by such illusions." They portend bad thing to follow. Fascists operate this way.

Their latest anti-Russian diktat intends removing any mention of Soviet Russia's Great Patriotic War (1941 - 45). Affecting Ukraine greatly.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian National Memory Institute director Volodymy Vyatovich announced the decision, saying:

"…Soviet-era propaganda and primarily (mythology) about the Great Patriotic War" should be removed from textbooks and other educational materials.

No nation paid more dearly in lives lost and mass destruction than Soviet Russia. Its war effort contributed hugely to defeating Nazi Germany.

Things might have turned out differently without it. Russian lower house State Duma International Committee chairman, Ivan Kvitka, denounced Kiev's increasing recklessness, saying:

"They have already denied their Soviet past. Now they are denying the feat of their fathers and grandfathers."

"I don't think attempts to deny their own roots could bring Ukraine closer to Europe."

At "the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Ukraine had a population of about 41 million, whereas by the end of the war there were only 27 million people" left.

"More than ten million Ukrainians died defending their families, their homeland from fascism."

"And Kiev wants its citizens to forget about this irreplaceable loss. No wonder the Nazi ideology is flourishing in the present-day Ukraine on such background."

Council of Europe Secretary-General Thorbjorn Jagland called Kiev's wall under construction on its border with Russia unacceptable.

It "destroys the fate of people and their families," he said. "It is necessary to strengthen an idea of a 'Common European Home.' "

Illegitimate prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk calls the wall project and related facilities a step toward "Ukraine's integration into NATO."

"(B)ecause a state that doesn't control its border can't be a member of a defense bloc," he claims.

Kiev finds new ways to prove its pariah state status. Naked aggression against Donbas civilians explains best.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen [at] sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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