{"id":610,"date":"2015-04-04T23:00:05","date_gmt":"2015-04-04T23:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/?p=610"},"modified":"2015-04-05T10:32:52","modified_gmt":"2015-04-05T10:32:52","slug":"the-us-and-nato-are-like-withering-vampires-hovering-over-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2015\/04\/the-us-and-nato-are-like-withering-vampires-hovering-over-europe.html","title":{"rendered":"The US and NATO are like withering vampires hovering over Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Renoncer \u00e0 sa libert\u00e9, c’est renoncer \u00e0 sa qualit\u00e9 d’homme.<\/em><\/p>\n

To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man.<\/p>\n

Jean-Jacques Rousseau<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

A very shrewd analysis at Counterpunch<\/em>\u00a0titled “NATO Lies and Provocations”<\/a> responded to a Der Spiegel<\/em> article, criticizing\u00a0NATO top general Breedlove and his assertions of a Russian invasion in Ukraine. I was surprised at how well it\u00a0confirms the validity of\u00a0the same argument I made here at the L’Ordre<\/em> blog, “The US provoked conflict in Europe to restore its “leadership” glory days”<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Killing people is\u00a0the only talent that propelled the United States to its “superpower” status, and the US government and military are\u00a0convinced that they\u00a0need to kill a lot more\u00a0people to prevent declining US power and relevance in the world. This is why the US constantly talks about enemies and openly supports the massacre of the people of Ukraine, Yemen and other countries where it sides with\u00a0savage\u00a0dictators.<\/em><\/p>\n

It is also consistent with Immanuel Wallerstein<\/a>‘s account\u00a0of US hegemony, which informs my own view on the matter. Wallerstein argues that the United States was the single global superpower – the hegemon<\/em> – in 1945, being the only power in possession of a nuclear weapon and the premier cultural and ideological master of the world-system. It was also accepted as the guarantor of global security after the Second World War, being the primary power that came out on top of the global conflict. As\u00a0the traditional European powers were reduced to rubble and rendered unimportant, they became reliant on the American Marshall Plan to reconstruct Europe –\u00a0be they Germany, France or Britain. They also needed America as a military and economic guarantor against any possible\u00a0plans of the Soviet Union to turn Western Europe to socialism.<\/p>\n

As stated in the Counterpunch<\/em> article, Russian government advisers\u00a0are well aware of the US’s internal problems and its reminiscence about the Second World War, and they know that Russia is\u00a0only\u00a0being used as a bogeyman in a US effort to start a new war in Europe\u00a0with the sole aim to restore the superpower status America enjoyed\u00a0in 1945 and reverse\u00a0the rise of the EU.<\/p>\n

American power has been in a state of continuous decline since 1945, and it became a “precipitate decline” because of the 2003 Iraq War. The Iraq War divorced the United States from Europe, violating international law, forever damaging the credibility of the international system to prevent aggression, and bypassing the cautions made by European countries against such aggression. The US has been desperately trying to reverse its decline as a world power.<\/p>\n

The US political establishment is in panic about the\u00a0country’s dwindling\u00a0“superpower” status. Their armies have failed them in Iraq and Afghanistan,\u00a0and the experience has rendered\u00a0them impotent, a sham, an inept parody of the global policemen that the Neoconservatives hoped the country to serve as. America’s\u00a0supposed destiny to spread democracy throughout the globe has been a sordid, disgusting parade of arrogance\u00a0and failure\u00a0that has killed millions of people and only served to inspire revulsion and hatred of the American flag as these false patriots\u00a0drag it through the soil.\u00a0As argued in\u00a0the analysis\u00a0at Counterpunch<\/em>, the US’s malevolent and hateful ideology has killed so many people and destroyed so many nations that few regimes other than Nazi Germany can be compared with it.<\/p>\n

Opinions on the “Russian threat” aside, the Europeans are clearly not interested in saving the US status as a superpower, and are ready to accept the US’s resignation as their protector. We don’t want to be cannon fodder so\u00a0the US can reenact World War 2 and regain its mission\u00a0as global hegemon. The suggestion of Jean-Claude Juncker\u00a0to establish a European Army, doing away with the redundant NATO, is a positive move that will allow Europe to aspire to be better\u00a0than mindless cannon fodder or some\u00a0nuclear hellscape\u00a0where America’s vampire imperialists plan to resurrect their power in Europe’s ruins again.<\/p>\n

To alert readers, I have published a new feature article at We Are Change, titled “Does the British state fear dissidents more than terrorists?”<\/a> I encourage my readers to take a look at that feature piece, which goes off my usual script in criticizing the US government and instead looks at some of the disturbing trends in my own country of Britain.<\/p>\n

\n

By\u00a0Harry J. Bentham<\/a><\/p>\n

\"HJB<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Renoncer \u00e0 sa libert\u00e9, c’est renoncer \u00e0 sa qualit\u00e9 d’homme. To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man. Jean-Jacques Rousseau A very shrewd analysis at Counterpunch\u00a0titled “NATO Lies and Provocations” responded to a Der Spiegel article, criticizing\u00a0NATO top general Breedlove and his assertions of a Russian invasion in Ukraine. I was surprised at how…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":577,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,71,37,72,66,15,69],"tags":[622,621,630,161,627,629,625,236,469,628,623,624,229,620,84,1481,626],"class_list":["post-610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conflict-2","category-conflict-resolution","category-history","category-international-relations","category-politics-2","category-us","category-violence","tag-breedlove","tag-breedlove-russia","tag-counterpunch","tag-eu","tag-european-army","tag-european-union","tag-hegemon","tag-immanuel-wallerstein","tag-iraq-war","tag-jean-claude-junker","tag-nato-lies","tag-provocations","tag-russia","tag-russian-invasion-of-ukraine","tag-ukraine","tag-us","tag-us-hegemony"],"yoast_head":"\nThe US and NATO are like withering vampires hovering over Europe - 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\/2015\/04\/the-us-and-nato-are-like-withering-vampires-hovering-over-europe.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The US and NATO are like withering vampires hovering over Europe - L'Ordre\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Renoncer \u00e0 sa libert\u00e9, c’est renoncer \u00e0 sa qualit\u00e9 d’homme. To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man. Jean-Jacques Rousseau A very shrewd analysis at Counterpunch\u00a0titled “NATO Lies and Provocations” responded to a Der Spiegel article, criticizing\u00a0NATO top general Breedlove and his assertions of a Russian invasion in Ukraine. I was surprised at how…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2015\/04\/the-us-and-nato-are-like-withering-vampires-hovering-over-europe.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"L'Ordre\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-04-04T23:00:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-04-05T10:32:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_Ml_Yj8KBM7A\/S_f2HUM6k1I\/AAAAAAAAE60\/GP_p1KlFTXQ\/s1600\/OSPAAAL-power1971.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Harry J. 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