Thursday, October 25, 2018

Pepe Escobar — Who profits from the end of the mid-range nuclear treaty?

The INF Treaty limits missiles with a range from 500 km to 5,000 km. China, Iran and North Korea simply cannot pose a “threat” to the United States by deploying such missiles. The INF is all about the European theater of war.
So, it’s no wonder the reaction in Brussels and major European capitals has been of barely disguised horror.
EU diplomats have told Asia Times the US decision was a “shock”, and “the last straw for the EU as it jeopardizes our very existence, subjecting us to nuclear destruction by short-range missiles”, which would never be able to reach the US heartland.
The “China” reason – that Russia is selling Beijing advanced missile technology – simply does not cut it in Europe, as the absolute priority is European security. EU diplomats are establishing a parallel to the possibility – which was more than real last year – that Washington could nuclear-bomb North Korea unilaterally. South Korea and Japan, in that case, would be nuclear “collateral damage”. The same might happen to Europe in the event of a US-Russia nuclear shoot-out....
The takeaway for Europe (and that includes the British Isles and Scandinavia) —
So, it’s no wonder that EU diplomats, trying to ease their discomfort, recognize that this, in the end, is all about the Full Spectrum Dominance doctrine and the necessity of keeping the massive US military-industrial-surveillance complex running.
Asia Times
Who profits from the end of the mid-range nuclear treaty?
Pepe Escobar

See also
Let’s face it: profits and power should be classified as perennial reasons why U.S. leaders persist in waging such conflicts. War may be a racket, as General Smedley Butler claimed long ago, but who cares these days since business is booming? And let’s add to such profits a few other all-American motivations. Start with the fact that, in some curious sense, war is in the American bloodstream. As former New York Times war correspondent Chris Hedges once put it, "War is a force that gives us meaning." Historically, we Americans are a violent people who have invested much in a self-image of toughness now being displayed across the “global battlespace.” (Hence all the talk in this country not about our soldiers but about our “warriors.”) As the bumper stickers I see regularly where I live say: “God, guns, & guts made America free.” To make the world freer, why not export all three?
Tom Dispatch
Tomgram: William Astore, The Pentagon Has Won the War that Matters

See also
'European countries... must understand that they are putting their own territory at risk of a possible counterstrike,' says Russian president
Warning or threat? Does it matter?

The Independent
Putin says Russia will target nations who host US nuclear weapons
Oliver Carroll

If “areas with critically dangerous geophysical conditions in the US (like the Yellowstone Supervolcano or the San Andreas Fault)” are targeted by those warheads, “such an attack guarantees the destruction of the US as a state and the entire transnational elite,” he said.
The production of around 40 or 50 such mega-warheads for ICBMs or extra-long-range torpedoes would make sure that at least a few of them reach their target no matter how a nuclear conflict between the US and Russia develops, the expert said.
Such scenario “again makes a large-scale nuclear war irrational and reduces the chances of its breakout to zero,” Sivkov said....
RT
‘US would be history if Russia nukes Yellowstone volcano with mega-bombs’ – expert

2 comments:

Kaivey said...

I'm glad the Europeans are starting to wake up. What a way to make money, hey?

People are crazy. All the wars are over money. The world could be sorted out, the climate repaired, the populating growth stemmed, people could be living in harmony with nature, animals not being mistreated on farms, more cures for illnesses, happier people, but money trumps all that.

We love money! I love money. We can have a lot of fun if we have money, and have somewhere awesome to live. And it might help us find the person of our dreams. But does it make you happy? I've read about rich people who are always worrying about losing their money in the next stock market crash.

Personally, I would sooner be a scientist, or a mathematician, or a top musician than be rich. It must be incredible to have a mind like Bill Binney. But I've never cared for being very rich, anyway. Stately homes and mansions just seem to be a pain in the a*rse to me. A nice cottage at the seaside would do me.

Matt Franko said...

“the possibility – which was more than real last year – that Washington could nuclear-bomb North Korea unilaterally”

Yes... I think it is not generally understood how close we came there...

Trump in his recent U.N. press conference mentioned the deaths of “millions of people, not thousands, but millions” there in Korea which we avoided ... said China would have been effected (not good)....

I think we might have dodged a big one there...,

“Unilaterally “

It would not have been unilateral they would have had to have sent a missile at Guam or Hawaii first which they were threatening to do.... then when that one was in the air we would have launched all of ours... a “counterpunch”..

Which even honest libertarians shouldn’t have a problem with as we would have not “initiated violence” ...

“Counter punching “ is allowed even by non aggressive libertarians...