{"id":344,"date":"2014-11-15T23:00:37","date_gmt":"2014-11-15T23:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/?p=344"},"modified":"2014-11-16T13:21:15","modified_gmt":"2014-11-16T13:21:15","slug":"the-us-provoked-conflict-in-europe-to-restore-its-leadership-glory-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2014\/11\/the-us-provoked-conflict-in-europe-to-restore-its-leadership-glory-days.html","title":{"rendered":"The US provoked conflict in Europe to restore its “leadership” glory days"},"content":{"rendered":"

On parle toujours mal quand on n’a rien \u00e0 dire.<\/i><\/p>\n

One always speaks badly when one has nothing to say.<\/p>\n

Voltaire<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

As the G20 summit takes place in Australia, the agenda is meant to be economic growth, but the conflict in\u00a0Ukraine is on many observers’ minds.<\/p>\n

One of the most overlooked and yet important bits of information about current world politics is the geopolitical relationship between the United States and key European powers like Germany, France and Britain. Most commentators would like to tell us the\u00a0Cold War-model alliance\u00a0has returned or has been enhanced\u00a0as a result of the Ukraine crisis. That\u00a0makes it likely that the US is the\u00a0main beneficiary of that crisis, and the primary actor covertly ensuring\u00a0it continues. Russia gains nothing from prolonging the Ukraine crisis. The US gains everything.<\/p>\n

The Americans\u00a0most responsible for the Ukraine crisis, such as Victoria Nuland and other neoconservatives still influencing the US administration, have no friendly plans for Europe.<\/p>\n

Europe does not gain from the anti-Russian sanctions, as I have already argued in a previous article\u00a0at my column on Press TV<\/a>. In that article, I rely partly on a candid analysis by Stratfor’s George Friedman talking about European energy dependence on Russia and a commentary from US social scientist Immanual Wallerstein<\/a>. The latter explained how the US Republican war-hawks and neoconservative ideologues (who have recently enjoyed a triumph over the Democrats in the Senate) disapprove of the assertiveness of key European powers Germany and France. I would argue that Britain too has become less of a slave to the US in recent times, as shown by its unprecedented refusal to join the failed US coalition against the Syrian government in 2013 and the decreased\u00a0appetite Brits have for wars – especially wars led by the US.<\/p>\n

Before the Ukraine crisis, the US was doing very badly in the eyes of European powers. It had suffered a serious injury to its relations with the European powers over its spying on Germany and other states it claims to be allies.\u00a0Snowden’s disclosures\u00a0showed the US to be the primary enemy of freedom and democracy in the world – the very same values the US now\u00a0pretends\u00a0to be defending\u00a0in its new Cold War\u00a0with Russia. How ironic that the US regime’s\u00a0exposure and public humiliation as barbaric unilateralists\u00a0violating all of our rights on a truly global scale is the motivator\u00a0of their new Cold\u00a0crusade of “democracy” against Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n

The US spying on Germany, the seriousness of which is in no way reduced by the distraction of the\u00a0Ukraine crisis,\u00a0provoked outrage in what was\u00a0called an unprecedented breach<\/a>. The US wants\u00a0to sustain its “leadership” of the Europeans for its global primacy, so\u00a0it incessantly\u00a0poked and provoked\u00a0the Ukrainian crisis of 2014 and the entire specter of Russian “aggression” to diminish the role of the European Union and restore\u00a0the old-fashioned\u00a0role of NATO, led by the United States. It is the crisis caused by Edward Snowden’s revelations of the US betrayal of its allies\u00a0through unilateral spying (Snowden’s asylum in Russia simply\u00a0adds insult to that injury) that has led the desperate and dwindling United States regime to restore Cold War-style relations.<\/p>\n

There is nothing alarming or aggressive\u00a0about Russia’s concerned engagement in\u00a0the Ukrainian crisis\u00a0–\u00a0a crisis started by the US regime as part of an anti-Russian crusade\u00a0ever since the beginning of the so-called Euromaidan nationalist movement. The regime that pushed Ukraine to geopolitical crisis, and is seeking external threats and wars to hide its internal crisis<\/a>, is the United States. We have reached a point at which the United States and its primacy in the world can only be preserved by creating and justifying armed conflict and perceived “threats” to keep people from examining the imperfection of their own society. This\u00a0conflict started in Washington, DC, and there it will end.<\/p>\n

I hope to write another article on the subject of the schism between US and European interests, and how that schism could deepen even more as a result of Republican war-hawks regaining much influence in the Senate.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If you are quick, you might still be able to download my fiction collection Red Skies<\/em><\/a> while it is being offered free today.<\/p>\n

\n

By Harry J. Bentham <\/a> \"HJB<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On parle toujours mal quand on n’a rien \u00e0 dire. One always speaks badly when one has nothing to say. Voltaire As the G20 summit takes place in Australia, the agenda is meant to be economic growth, but the conflict in\u00a0Ukraine is on many observers’ minds. One of the most overlooked and yet important bits…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":577,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,71,17,72,18,66,16,15,89],"tags":[1483,161,216,215,211,31,213,212,84,214],"class_list":["post-344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conflict-2","category-conflict-resolution","category-edward-snowden","category-international-relations","category-nsa","category-politics-2","category-press-tv","category-us","category-wikileaks","tag-edward-snowden","tag-eu","tag-g20","tag-g20-summit","tag-germany","tag-new-cold-war","tag-second-cold-war","tag-snowden","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraine-crisis"],"yoast_head":"\nThe US provoked conflict in Europe to restore its "leadership" glory days - L'Ordre<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2014\/11\/the-us-provoked-conflict-in-europe-to-restore-its-leadership-glory-days.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The US provoked conflict in Europe to restore its "leadership" glory days - L'Ordre\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On parle toujours mal quand on n’a rien \u00e0 dire. One always speaks badly when one has nothing to say. Voltaire As the G20 summit takes place in Australia, the agenda is meant to be economic growth, but the conflict in\u00a0Ukraine is on many observers’ minds. One of the most overlooked and yet important bits…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2014\/11\/the-us-provoked-conflict-in-europe-to-restore-its-leadership-glory-days.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"L'Ordre\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-11-15T23:00:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-11-16T13:21:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/B2BDILCIIAALUjc.jpg:large\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Harry J. 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