Defend the Greek workers! Oppose the diktat of Schäuble and Merkel!

By Partei für Soziale Gleichheit
July 14, 2015
World Socialist Web Site

 

The Partei für Soziale Gleichheit (PSG—Socialist Equality Party) denounces the agreement forced on Greece by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble at Sunday’s euro group summit. We call upon workers in Germany and throughout Europe to declare their solidarity with the workers in Greece and organize mass resistance to the policies of the German government.

The new austerity demands, to which the government of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras capitulated on Monday morning, go far beyond the measures the Greek population rejected, by a large majority, in the referendum held just one week before. For millions of Greeks, the implementation of these measures means poverty, unemployment, disease and even death. Greece will be transformed into a de facto protectorate of Germany and the most powerful European financial interests.

The troika (European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund) is returning to Athens and will dictate government policy. The role of parliament is to be reduced to rubber-stamping austerity measures and signing off on automatic budget cuts. State property valued at €50 billion will be transferred to a fund, to be sold off to the highest bidder, modeled on the Treuhandanstalt, set up in 1990 to liquidate state property in East Germany.

The agreement amounts to a carte blanche for the ruthless exploitation and plundering of the Greek working class.

Even establishment commentators could not overlook the agreement’s undemocratic character. In the Financial Times, Wolfgang Münchau accused Greece’s creditors of reverting to “the nationalist European power struggles of the 19th and early 20th century” and transforming the euro zone into a system “run in the interests of Germany” and “held together by the threat of absolute destitution for those who challenge the prevailing order.”

Paul Krugman in the New York Times accused the euro group of “pure vindictiveness, complete destruction of national sovereignty, and no hope of relief.”

The brutal actions of Schäuble and Merkel recall the darkest chapter in German history. Less than seventy-five years have passed since Hitler’s Wehrmacht occupied Greece, established a brutal regime of terror, and ruthlessly plundered the country. The imposition of high occupation costs, the export of virtually all of Greece’s industrial goods, and the theft of machinery and vehicles led to a famine that took the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

The Wehrmacht responded to resistance from partisan fighters by massacring the inhabitants of numerous villages, including Distomo, Lingiades and Kommeno. At least 30,000 civilians fell victim to these reprisals. Eight thousand Jews were deported and murdered, and the Jewish community in Thessaloniki, one of the world’s oldest, was completely wiped out. None of the victims were ever compensated, and virtually none of the perpetrators were punished.

Schäuble and Merkel are now walking in the footsteps of their predecessors. The German ruling class is spewing forth all the undigested filth of the past. Their arrogance suggests that they see themselves, once again, as Europe’s master race.

The politicians are supported by a spineless press, for which no cliché or prejudice is too cheap to be hurled at the Greek people. The media spread propaganda and do everything in their power to confuse and mislead the public.

The government also relies on historians such as Jörg Baberowski of Humboldt University, who falsifies history to trivialise German crimes in World War II. It is backed by economists, who declare the impoverishment of the Greek working class a historical necessity, and political scientists, such as Herfried Münkler, who formulates the political arguments for German hegemony in Europe.

All of the parties represented in the German parliament support the government. The Social Democratic (SPD) chairman Sigmar Gabriel has led the way, seeking to outdo Schäuble and Merkel from the right.

They are all convinced that history has been forgotten. But they are deceiving themselves. The working class of Greece, Germany and Europe cannot and will not allow them to repeat Germany’s historic crimes.

The German government is pursuing two goals in its aggressive actions in Greece. It intends to set an example to intimidate all resistance to its austerity course in Europe and Germany. And it seeks to strengthen its hegemonic domination of Europe.

By the time of the 2008 financial crisis, the government had decided that Germany could no longer maintain its dominance through compromises and financial assistance. Germany had to become, in the words of Münkler, Europe’s “taskmaster,” instead of its “paymaster.” Early last year, leading government officials demanded that Germany play a role in Europe and the world that corresponded to its actual influence.

This new great power politics was first tested out in Ukraine, where the German government backed the pro-Western coup that has driven the country to civil war and brought NATO to the brink of a military confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia. These same policies are being continued in what amounts to a civilian coup in Athens.

The face of the European Union has been transformed in the process. It is becoming ever more obvious that the EU is not a mechanism for the peaceful coexistence of Europe’s peoples, but rather an instrument for the predominance of the most powerful imperialist powers and the ruthless exploitation of the working class. Masses of people now view the EU with a mixture of disgust and hatred.

The more openly Germany uses the EU to attain the position of a world power, the more intense the national conflicts within Europe become—above all between Germany and France. Prior to Sunday’s summit there were sharp exchanges between Berlin and Paris, which, due to domestic political considerations, was favoring a more conciliatory course towards Greece. The French government eventually submitted to Germany’s dictates because it fears the threat from its own working class much more than it fears German hegemony. These tensions, however, will flare up again, as will the developing conflict between the US and Germany over who will control Europe.

It is the task of the working class in Germany and throughout Europe to oppose these dangerous actions, which threaten to plunge the working class into desperate poverty, and the continent, once again, into war and dictatorship. To this end, it is vital to draw the lessons of the events in Greece and the role played by Syriza.

It is hard to find a parallel in history to the cowardly and shameful betrayal carried out in the past few days by Tsipras and his government. Elected in January on the basis of a promise to end austerity, Tspiras’ party made one concession after another to Berlin and Brussels.

Finally, it organized a referendum, hoping that a majority would favour the EU-backed austerity measures. Confronted, instead, with an overwhelming majority against austerity, it capitulated completely to the German diktat within a week. Even a right-wing bourgeois government would not have gone so far.

This surrender confirms the PSG’s assessment that Syriza is not a left, and certainly not a socialist, party, but rather a pseudo-left organization representing wealthy, selfish middle class layers primarily concerned with their own well-being. They have nothing but contempt for the working class, which they fear. Their capitulation is grist for the mill of far-right extremists such as Golden Dawn, which, from a reactionary, nationalist standpoint, poses as a more determined opponent of the dictates of Brussels and Berlin than does the supposedly “left” Syriza.

What is true for Syriza also applies, as well, to its international co-thinkers, including the Left Party in Germany and Podemos in Spain.

The Left Party bears immense responsibility for the fate of Greece. In February, it voted for the “aid program” for Greece, including the austerity measures attached to it. Occasionally it criticizes the policies of the German government, in order to maintain a shred of credibility, but it has done absolutely nothing to support the Greek workers.

It has refused to organize a single demonstration in their defense. If the Left Party assumes power in Berlin, it will pursue the same course as Syriza. This has already been proven by its record in power at the state level.

The Left Party works closely with the trade unions, which have sought to aid the German government by shutting down and selling out strikes by train drivers, postal and daycare workers, hospital employees and other professionals.

The working class of Germany must rise to the defense of its class brothers and sisters in Greece. The PSG calls upon all workers involved in social struggles, all young people and the entire working population: Support the Greek workers! Organize solidarity strikes against the dictates of Schäuble and Merkel! Break with the Left Party and the SPD and organize independently!

The fundamental question is the necessity of building a revolutionary leadership—in Greece, Germany and throughout the European continent. Join the PSG, the German section of the International Committee of the Fourth International, and build sections of the ICFI all over Europe that will fight for the unity of the European working class and the establishment of the United Socialist States of Europe!

 

 

Planned US Coup in Greece?

By Stephen Lendman
July 08, 2015
Global Research

 

Washington’s geopolitical strategy when bullying fails is either assassinating independent leaders, color revolutions, military coups or naked aggression.

If Moscow-based independent investigative journalist John Helmer is right, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is a marked man and SYRIZA governance on thin ice showing cracks:

 ”(a) putsch in Athens to save allied Greece from enemy Russia is in preparation by the US and Germany, with backing from the non-taxpayers of Greece  – the Greek oligarchs, Anglo-Greek shipowners, and the Greek Church.”

“At the highest and lowest level of Greek government, and from Thessaloniki to Milvorni, all Greeks understand what is happening. (Sunday) they voted overwhelmingly to resist.”

“According to a high political figure in Athens, a 40-year veteran, ‘what is actually happening is a slow process of regime change.’ “

Wherever neocon Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland shows up (Hillary Clinton’s handpicked choice for the job), trouble usually follows.

Helmer says she’s “in charge of warmaking in Europe.” Her notorious involvement in Ukraine’s February 2014 coup is well documented.

According to Helmer, she gave Tsipras two ultimatums in Athens last March – surrender to Troika demands and remain allied with US-dominated NATO’s anti Russian agenda.”

Her spokeman Mark Toner said Washington is “focused on, frankly, the opposite (of Sunday’s referendum), which is finding a path forward that allows Greece to continue to make reforms (more austerity), return to growth (by letting Troika bandits rape its economy and population), and remain in the Eurozone.”

Since the 19th century, Greece had five military coups or attempted ones. Junta dictatorship ruled from 1967 – 1974. Another one can’t be ruled out.

Over five dozen former high-ranking military officials fired a shot across the bow declaring their “oath to the Fatherland and the Flag. By choosing isolation, we place the Fatherland and its future in danger,” they warned.

They publicly called for a “yes” vote ahead of Sunday’s referendum. Will not getting it mobilize them along with other Greek dark forces, Washington and Brussels to oust Tsipras forcibly or otherwise?

Grexit “will make our country weaker,” they claimed – even though Greeks weren’t asked about it and most oppose the idea. “We will lose allies that have stood by our side. We will lose the strength we gain from associations and groupings to which we belong historically and culturally,” the former military officials said.

Ties to Washington and Brussels run counter to what best serves long-suffering Greeks.

Will conditions be made worse than ever by greater austerity if coup rumblings become reality? Is this US/Eurogroup’s Plan B?

Helmer cited political sources in Athens saying Tsipras and other SYRIZA officials acted preemptively to prevent one – replacing military and intelligence leadership with their own “but not radically.”

Moscow remains skeptical about Tsipras withstanding Washington/Brussels pressure – especially given dominant Germany’s hardline position.

He faces enormous pressure. His six months in office shows he promises Greeks one thing and does another.

He agreed to nearly all Troika demands. Not good enough. They want total surrender. Germany’s Merkel and France’s Hollande told him to capitulate fully for further bailout aid.

Greek banks remain closed. They’re close to collapse. The ECB raised the amount of collateral they must post for further emergency loans.

Does Finance Minister Varoufakis’ resignation signal Tsipras’ capitulation to follow – negating popular opposition to austerity he pledged to support?

Hollande spoke for himself and Merkel saying Tsipras must “offer serious, credible proposals” for bailout help – code language for demanding unconditional surrender, a Greek Versailles.

He and new Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos are heading to Brussels for further talks. Hardline Troika officials intend cutting them no slack.

Will Tsipras cave to their demands and betray millions of Greeks in the process? Given his record so far in office, it’s hard imagining otherwise. Hopefully he’ll surprise but don’t bet on it.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@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.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs. 

Octoberfest bombing: German government blocks information on intelligence agency involvement

By Dietmar Henning
April 18, 2015
World Socialist Web Site

 

Almost 35 years after the worst right-wing extremist attack in post-war Germany, the government is blocking attempts to uncover what happened by withholding important documents. The government’s stance can lead to only one conclusion: a state within the state exists in Germany that resists any sort of democratic control.

In the bomb attack at the Octoberfest in Munich on October 26, 1980, 12 bystanders were killed along with the bomber, Gundolf Köhler. Two hundred were seriously injured. Even at the time, authorities sought to cover up the background to the attacks and the individuals behind it. They quickly concluded that Köhler had carried out the attack alone. Evidence and witness statements suggested that state authorities and neo-Nazi terrorist groups were equally involved. Just two years after the attack, on November 23, 1982, the federal state prosecutor brought a halt to the investigation.

It was thanks to journalist Ulrich Chaussy and the lawyer for the victims, Werner Dietrich, that state prosecutor Harald Range was compelled to reopen the investigation last December. Thousands of files are to be re-evaluated, including never before seen material. However, all the files that could prove the involvement of German intelligence agents in the right-wing terrorist groups and the attack are to remain secret.

This is according to a written response by the justice ministry to Green Party parliamentary deputies, cited by the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Parliamentary justice secretary Christian Lange (Social Democrats, SPD) wrote on April 7 that the government had once again come to the conclusion that “questions on the specifics of the source of guidance and the status of people as intelligence agents, even when it concerns events from a long time ago, cannot be answered due to the need to protect the functionality of the intelligence service.”

The justice ministry, led by the SPD’s Heiko Maas, is thereby placing the “functionality of the intelligence services” on a level of greater importance than the uncovering of a mass murder.

According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Lange’s letter noted that the recruitment and maintenance of intelligence agents are elementary methods of intelligence work. “A special secrecy must therefore be maintained when a person was not an active agent or if the event occurred a long time ago.” Parliament’s right to information has its limits “if the disclosure of secret information endangers the wellbeing of the federal republic or a state”, he said.

This claim could be used to justify any form of dictatorship. If the wellbeing of the state is more important than the right to information of parliament, which is supposed to control the executive branch, then democracy is a hollow shell. The justice ministry views the interests of the state and its intelligence services as more important than the rights of parliament and the public interest. The intelligence apparatus acts as a state within a state, rejecting any control on its power.

The opposition parties in parliament, the Greens and Left Party, had requested on several occasions that the German government make the secret files public, without success. Most recently, the government rejected a request from the Green Party fraction for the information in November. The Greens sent a letter of protest. Now, four months later with Lange’s letter, the government has responded. The Green Party fraction now intends to lodge an appeal to the constitutional court in Karlsruhe to gain access to information about the involvement of intelligence agents in the Octoberfest attack.

According to available information, the main state involvement in the Octoberfest attack was through the Hoffmann military sports group and the ranger Heinz Lembke.

The Hoffmann military sports group was founded in 1973 by Carl-Heinz Hoffmann and was able to train neo-Nazis in using arms and fighting as partisans, unhindered, for six years in Bavaria. Köhler, the attacker, participated in the activities of the paramilitary group in 1975 and 1976, according to the government. This was known to the state intelligence agency in Baden-Württemberg.

When on January 30, 1980, eight months prior to the Octoberfest attack, the military sports group was banned by interior minister Gerhard Baum (Free Democrats, FDP), it had 400 members. Hoffmann and his closest collaborators fled to Lebanon. Chaussy is convinced that several intelligence agents were in the group. Two of them are known by name: Walter Ulrich Behle and Odfried Hepp.

Behle said shortly after the attack, “It was us.” One bomb had been placed in a rubbish bin, another in a drain pipe. This statement, confirming that two bombs had been planted but only the one in the bin detonated, corresponded with other witness statements.

The government continues to keep quiet on how many agents were actually active in the military group. The details on this were “so sensitive, that even a small risk of such information being made public cannot be accepted under any circumstances,” stated a government letter from February to the Left Party.

Lembke is suspected of having supplied Köhler and his co-conspirators with the explosives for the bomb. In 1959, Lembke fled the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and immediately joined right-wing extremist groups such as the Fatherland Youth League (BVJ), becoming its leader in 1960. The BVJ was banned in 1962.

Lembke maintained contact with a wide variety of right-wing organisations. He monitored at least 33 weapons depots, including anti-tank weapons, hand grenades, explosives, machine guns, pistols, munitions and even chemical weapons, all of which were mostly obtained from German army stock. He also organised military sport exercises and supplied weapons to Nazi terrorist groups.

There is evidence that Lembke was in contact with the Hoffmann group, and was arrested in 1981 for a matter unrelated to the Octoberfest attack. Two days after he told the state prosecutor that he would provide comprehensive testimony, he was found hung in his cell.

The weapons and chemicals found in his weapons depots were immediately destroyed by the German army. A comparison with the explosives used in the Octoberfest attack was never made. Lembke was also portrayed as a lone wolf, and the investigation was quickly shut down.

All that is known about the Munich Octoberfest attack and the response of the authorities to it fits into the pattern of the secret Gladio force, built up by NATO during the Cold War in Europe to carry out terrorist attacks in the event of a Soviet invasion.

It was never officially explained to what extent Lembke or the Hoffmann group worked for the NATO Gladio force. The quantity and quality of the recovered military weaponry pointed to Lembke’s membership in the secret force, according to Swiss historian Daniele Ganser, who has researched the Gladio force.

In the documents relating to the Octoberfest attack, victims’ lawyer Dietrich uncovered the remark that “information on Lembke can only partially be evaluated by the courts.” According to the lawyer, such comments are usually used only in connection with intelligence agents and contractors with the intelligence services.

In the response to the Greens’ request of November 21, 2014, the government contested such a conclusion. “Such an indication of the need to protect information for the intelligence services or police does not suggest that the person named in the evidence is an intelligence agent or secret source for the police.” But in response to the question of whether Lembke worked for intelligence, the government refused to answer on the grounds of endangering state security.

The fact that close ties exist between the intelligence agencies and right-wing extremist terrorists was recently made clear in connection with the racist murders and attacks by the far-right National Socialist Underground (NSU) terrorist group. According to Chaussy, links existed between the Hoffmann group and the intelligence service in Thuringia, from which the NSU emerged.

The government is seeking to bury the true background to the Octoberfest attack in order to cover up the involvement of the state security forces with right-wing terrorist groups. When state prosecutor Range announced he was reopening the investigation into the Octoberfest attack, Justice Minister Maas did not justify it with reference to the need to uncover the full story, but rather that in the wake of the “oversights” surrounding the NSU affair, it was necessary to restore confidence in the activities of the intelligence agencies.

Greeced Lightning! Will Greece Default? Will Athens Cut a Financial Deal with Moscow and Beijing?

By Bill Holter
April 7, 2015
Global Research

 

We seem to have finally arrived at some sort of moment of truth regarding Greece and their inclusion in the EU.  The speculation is they will be out of money by April 9th, this Thursday, unable to make a less than 500 million euro payment.  Please keep in mind they have already been raiding the country’s pension plans to fund day to day services.  How large of a “dent” they have already made remains to be seen but that is not the point.  The point is this, any person, corporation or government who needs to dig into retirement savings for daily operations is like buying a carton of cigarettes with a credit card at 14.99% …and then carrying the balance!

Before laying out their potential options, please keep in mind that Mr. Varoufakis  was in New York this past weekend meeting with Christine Lagarde , Mr. Tsipras plans a trip to Moscow for Tuesday.  Are they pleading for unpaid bailout funds from the IMF?  And if they don’t get them, do they cut a deal and fall into Russia’s arms?  This, just as so many nations have pledged their allegiance to the East and the AIIB bank (topic for tomorrow), Greece may be forced into a pivot toward the rising Sun.  They do however have something left to offer, they stand between Turkey and Eastern Europe, they can provide a route for Russian gas to flow to Europe.

What options does Greece have left?  As I see it, they really only have three, and all with blurry edges.  First, they can cut some sort of deal with Germany (the EU) and the IMF.  They can kick the can down the road by extending maturities of existing debt and restructuring it.  The IMF still owes past monies pledged in bailouts, will they really throw new money away knowing it cannot be paid back?  Obviously this does nothing to face the real problem, Greece simply has too much debt for the size of their economy (this is a global problem but not “admitted yet”).  This option may have been taken off the table on Friday.  As a side note, it was reported Friday by Der Spiegel the IMF evacuated their Athens office.  Why would they do this?  I can only come up with one or two scenarios.  The IMF is giving up and know it is over … or, they are getting out of town while they still can.  Maybe they realize massive social unrest will be unleashed and don’t want to see their employees hanging from lamp posts?  This was denied by Saturday but interesting nonetheless!

Their second option is to just default.  If they cannot make debt payments, they simply don’t pay and thus become classified as a default.  The next question is whether or not they would stay in the EU?  Would they want to?  Or even be allowed to?  Option number three, an offshoot of number two, is Greece defaults and they decide to leave the EU (or are kicked out) and join team Russia.

My guess is we will see Greece default, leave the EU and cut a gas pipeline deal with Russia becoming a stepping stone for China’s “silk road”.  At this point, it’s the only thing that makes any sense …if you are Greek and try to do what is best for Greece.  A story also making the roundson Friday was preparations to re issue the “drachma” .  If this is true, I would say the decision to leave the EU has already been made except for the formalities!  The next question is the biggie, and one which will affect the entire world.  How do the markets and financial systems react to this?

Before exploring this, James Turk proposed a theory the Greek banks will be bailed in as their deposit balances slip down to equal the close to 100 billion Euros that Greece owes the ECB.  He believes this will be done within the next 10 days or so.  In my opinion, there is one big ”IF” in this theory.  I would question whether or not the ECB or even the BIS would have the authority to do Cyprus style bail ins if Greece leaves or has already left the EU.  Wouldn’t this be a sovereign decision?  One made by the Greeks themselves?  If I were a Greek depositor, I wouldn’t however hang around to see how it turns out, I’m just not sure if the authority exists to bail in Greek banks?  Another story out over the weekend is Germany may be preparing to freeze deposits of wealthy Greeks, will the rest of Europe follow?

As for market reactions, if Greece does end up cutting a deal with Russia/China and in fact does default, the first and most obvious reaction will be a further crash in the Euro itself.  Participants will then turn their attention to Spain, Portugal and Italy and ask “who’s next”?  The thought process will be frenzied with investors wanting out first and asking questions later.

A Greek exit will be extremely complicated.  They owe 350 billion euros, much of this debt was held inside under collateralized German and French bank portfolios, much of this was “swapped” out with the ECB.  A default by Greece would “un swap” these bonds and thus bring the question of solvency to the heart of the Eurozone.  Even more complicated is how the money will be handled for the “Target2″ amounts owed to other Euro nations?  This is a running balance of payments accounting for countries running trade deficits versus surplus nations.  Greece obviously cannot pay for their already accumulated deficits, the question is, who eats the loss?  Then of course there are derivatives at maybe 10 times the amount of debt outstanding, now we are talking big money and in the trillions.

Hedges will be broken, losers busted and winners not paid.  The derivatives chain will be shaken by massive valuation swings and then broken by losing counterparties becoming insolvent.  As I have said many times before, we live in an “instant information” age where computers (programmed algorithms) will all move in the same direction and all at once.  In my opinion, a true Greek default has the potential of shutting down global markets within 48 hours of an announcement.

As I wrote last week, Greece is just one of three or more potential flash points which have the ability to tip our world upside down,  The U.S. has sent 50 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, specifically defying Russia’s warnings.  The Austrian banking system is experiencing a systemic margin call and one that will reach the German banks themselves.  We also have the U.S. throwing political matches all around a very dry Middle East.  We fight against the Iranians in Yemen and alongside them in Iraq.  We back the Saudis who just joined the Asian infrastructure bank against U.S. wishes.  It is not even known if we still back the Israelis who also joined the AIIB.  I have no idea what history will exactly point to as the spark, I do know “Greeced lightning” will be a good description as to the speed of the collapse once started.

French press expresses concerns over German re-militarization

By Kumaran Ira and Alex Lantier
April 6, 2015
World Socialist Web Site

 

Sections of the French press are breaking the silence that has prevailed in France over the resurgence of German militarism, exposing rising tensions between the major European powers. Within the French bourgeoisie there are deep concerns that German rearmament is a fundamental threat to the interests of French imperialism.

After European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called for the creation of an “EU joint army” in a March 8 interview with Germany’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper, Le Monde published an article titled “Germans in uniform.”

The French media and political establishment are for the most part remaining silent on Juncker’s proposal for an EU army, which would be dominated by Germany. Le Monde wrote, “The proposal, which has largely gone unnoticed in France, has become very popular on the other side of the Rhine.” Le Monde went on to cite German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen, who welcomed Juncker’s proposal, saying, “Our future, as Europeans, will one day depend on a European army.”

Le Monde drew a parallel with the situation after World War II, when Washington forced Paris to acquiesce to the rearmament of West Germany, which was directed against the USSR. The newspaper wrote: “The French had to submit to what they wanted to avoid: the rearming of Germany and its integration into NATO. Sixty-five years later, History seems to be repeating itself. Europe again wants Germans in uniform, as it is threatened by the Islamic State (IS) and Vladimir Putin.” However, as Le Monde bluntly added, “The French… are not in a hurry to see Germans in uniform.”

The newspaper summarily dismissed Berlin’s attempts to mask the reassertion of its imperialist interests under the veneer of an all-European project. It explained Berlin’s calculations as follows: “We cannot scare our neighbors as we re-arm. It is better to give a European gloss to our re-militarization.”

Fundamental contradictions of European capitalism are reasserting themselves. Berlin and Paris are planning joint projects, such as combat drones, and have sought to work together to negotiate a cease-fire in Ukraine to prevent the US from precipitating outright war with Russia. However, the policy of rearmament across Europe is sharpening deeply rooted tensions between Germany and France, who fought wars three times in the last century-and-a-half: the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871 and the two world wars of the 20th century.

On Otto von Bismarck’s two hundredth birthday on April 1, the “Iron Chancellor” was hailed by political and media circles in Germany. Bismarck led a series of wars that unified the German states and established a powerful German Empire led by Prussia. Having defeated France in the Franco-Prussian war, he established Germany as the leading power in continental Europe.

Berlin’s decision to applaud Bismarck as a model for today–even through his policy in continental Europe was largely based on a strategy of crushing and then diplomatically isolating France–has been met mainly with stony silence, but there have been some criticisms in the French media.

In an April 2 article entitled “Germany gives itself over to the cult of Bismarck,” French business daily Les Echos wrote: “Paying homage to Otto is inevitably complicated, as the Prussian had multiple facets. In France, his name and pointed helmet remain associated with the Franco-Prussian war and the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine. And some Greek ministers could see their views on Germany confirmed by reading his principle of realpolitik: ‘Great crises form a climate beneficial to Prussia’s growth, as we exploit them without fear and possibly without scruples.’”

Under the surface of rhetoric about European integration and solidarity, unresolved conflicts embedded in the bloody history of European and world capitalism threaten the international working class. Now, as in the war-torn twentieth century, the only progressive way forward is a united struggle of the international working class against war.

French imperialism is just as reactionary as its German counterpart. While it raises concerns about German rearmament, it does not object to a policy of aggressive war. It reacts out of fear of its more powerful competitors.

In its article on the European army, Le Monde pointed to a broad crisis of US-European relations as a driving force for German rearmament. “Germany distrusts America, as Merkel has not forgiven Obama for bugging her personal telephone,” the newspaper wrote, adding, “America is playing a dangerous game in Russia, pushing the Europeans in the back and inciting them to take a harsher line and accentuate tensions with Putin.”

Since a fascist-led coup ousted the pro-Russian Ukrainian government of Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014, Washington has escalated the conflict with Russia. Although Paris and Berlin backed the coup in Kiev, they have opposed sharp economic sanctions against Russia as well as US moves to arm the Kiev regime against Russia.

After press reports emerged this February of a push by factions within the Obama administration and the military/intelligence establishment for Washington to directly arm Kiev, Germany and France rushed to propose a diplomatic solution to the fighting in Ukraine. Before negotiating a cease-fire in Ukraine, French President Hollande warned that with Russia, “We have gone in the space of a few months from having differences, to conflict, to war…We are in a state of war, and a war that could be total.”

For now, fears of a world war provoked by Washington are bringing Berlin and Paris closer together. However, under the surface of joint attempts to de-escalate tensions with Russia and plan for a common European defense, an arms race is developing between the European imperialist powers.

A major factor in this is the reckless policy of French imperialism itself. France pushed aggressively, in the face of German opposition, for a US-led war in Libya in 2011 and a subsequent war drive against Syria. Berlin refused to participate in the Libyan war and opposed Paris’ plans for a Mediterranean sphere of influence in its former colonial empire, under the rubric of a “Union of the Mediterranean.”

In the months leading up to the Libyan war, France signed a military alliance with Britain that pointedly excluded Germany. Paris clearly hoped to rely on its greater military strength, including its possession of nuclear weapons, to offset the economic dominance of Berlin. This strategy has blown up in France’s face.

It faces a resurgence of German militarism that has been prepared for some time and was clearly articulated in a speech by German President Joachim Gauck on the Day of German Unity in 2013. Gauck declared that Germany was “not an island” that could abstain “from political, economic and military conflicts.” At the Munich Security Conference in early 2014, he announced an end to “the policy of military abstention” by Germany.

After major increases in its military budget, Germany has finally overtaken France in military spending, reaching €32.4 billion per year, while French defense spending fell slightly to €31.4 billion. With France now poised to increase its military spending, and an arms race set to erupt within Europe, the initial expressions of concern over German militarism are being raised in the French media.

Attack on democratic rights in Germany follows Blockupy protest

By Christoph Dreier
March 20, 2015
World Socialist Web Site

Police line in front of the ECB

The German media and politicians have responded to the Blockupy protests against the ECB on Wednesday by denouncing the protesters and demanding restrictions on the freedom of assembly. They seized on clashes prior to the demonstration, involving a few small autonomous and anarchist groups, as a pretext. The protest organisers explicitly distanced themselves from these fringe elements.

On Thursday, a debate in the German parliament was immediately called on the protest in Frankfurt. Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière opened with an aggressive attack on the demonstration organisers, which included trade unions, the Attac anti-globalisation movement, and the Left Party.

“The organisers of the Blockupy alliance are jointly responsible for what happened yesterday,” said de Maizière. “Even the name Blockupy indicates nothing peaceful. It is a combination from blocking and occupying. I don’t think that has much to do with peaceful demonstration.”

In addition, the minister declared that those criticising the massive police intervention were downplaying the violence on the fringe of the protest. De Maizière exaggerated the events, calling them a “swath of destruction,” which were the expression of “blind destructive rage.”

Johannes Kahrs from the Social Democrats (SPD) declared the organisers and the Left Party fraction in parliament to be “supporters” of violence. “What happened there in the morning, the violence that took place, which is unacceptable and occurred with the support of Blockupy and the Left Party, cannot be tolerated,” he said.

In an interview on Thursday morning on RBB Inforadio, Green Party chair Simone Peter declared the organisers were responsible for checking who comes to the protest. The Blockupy alliance had thus damaged Frankfurt’s reputation, said Peter.

The arguments of the political parties’ representatives, repeated in numerous media outlets, are absurd. They are aimed at banning protests and doing away with the basic democratic right of freedom of assembly. If protest organisers are made responsible for every participant’s actions, the door is left wide open for political provocations against any protest or political organisation.

The so-called Black Block, which was responsible for the violence in Frankfurt, is heavily infiltrated by the police and intelligence services, and often functions as provocateurs.

At the same time, the Christian Democrats (CDU), SPD and Greens praised the mass police crackdown in Frankfurt to the skies. “The police are protecting the public good of the freedom of assembly. They deserve our thanks and respect,” said Irene Mihalic from the Green parliamentary fraction. Burckhard Lischka (SPD) said that the police had “defended all of us and our values.” De Maizière referred to a “democracy on guard” that has to defend itself.

In fact, the police did everything to escalate the situation. They transformed the city into a fortress that resembled a police state. 8,000 police and 28 water cannons were assembled from across the country. On the day of the protest, officers repeatedly took brutal measures against demonstrators on their way to the protest or who peacefully blocked roads. They used water cannon, tear gas and batons.

Police marching near the ECB

The hailing of this police violence and the criminalising of the protesters by the political parties is aimed at suppressing all opposition to their social attacks and building up the structures of the state.

In parliament, Mihalic demanded a “debate about the equipment and personnel in the police.” Stefan Mayer from the CDU also called for a “better equipping of our police officers.” In addition, he advocated the strengthening of the criminal offence of “resisting state power.”

The police trade union (DpolG) also demanded stronger laws. DpolG chair Rainer Wendt called in Handelsblatt for “those who refuse to remove themselves from a violent crowd after being ordered to do so to also be prosecuted.” In this way, even participating in a demonstration could be declared a criminal offence.

In its key points for the 2016 federal budget, which were leaked to the media, the government plans to increase police and intelligence services budgets by €328 million by 2019. A total of 750 new posts are to be created. The interior ministry budget will rise 6.7 percent next year.

The buildup of the state and the aggressive support of bourgeois politicians of all stripes for attacks on democratic rights are the direct response to growing social inequality in Europe.

The policy of social cuts, for which the ECB bears considerable responsibility, has led to mass poverty, unemployment and desperation, particularly in the countries of southern Europe. In their negotiations with Greece, it is clear that the European elites are preparing for a new round of social attacks that are to be expanded throughout the whole continent.

Such policies are incompatible with democratic rights for the population. They lead to ever more dictatorial forms of rule, in which all forms of protest are to be suppressed and the population intimidated.

Massive police mobilization against anti-austerity protest in Frankfurt, Germany

By Christoph Dreier and Alex Lantier
March 19, 2015
World Socialist Web Site

 

German police launched a massive crackdown on protests against austerity in Europe on Wednesday. Between 10,000 and 20,000 people in Frankfurt participated in a demonstration that coincided with the opening of the new headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB).

Sixty buses from 39 European cities came to Frankfurt for the rally. A special train from Berlin brought almost 900 demonstrators.

Police responded with a massive deployment of 8,000 officers, the largest mobilization in the history of the Frankfurt security forces. They completely blocked off the new, €1.3 billion ($1.4 billion) ECB building, ringed it with barbed ware and transformed the entire city into a high-security area.

Police ran identity checks throughout the city the night before the protest, and numerous buses carrying demonstrators were stopped and searched by police.

Police fired tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets against groups of protesters on the way to the central demonstration locations. Clashes broke out as protesters set police cars alight. According to organizers, at least 130 demonstrators were injured, while police reported that 15 officers were injured in scuffles or by stones thrown by protesters.

Police carried out mass arrests—350 people by noon, according to a police spokeswoman. On Uhlandstraße, police surrounded about 200 demonstrators, mostly Italians, and checked their papers. Police repeatedly attacked the surrounded demonstrators with pepper spray.

At 2:00 pm, the Frankfurt Fire Department reported that there were 47 fires. It was reported that there were attacks on fire trucks.

Protesters held up signs that read “European Monetary Fascism” or “Caviar for All,” protesting the leading role of the ECB in imposing austerity in Europe, particularly in the indebted euro zone countries of southern Europe such as Greece, Spain and Italy. The ECB has cut credit to these countries’ banks and governments, citing the global economic crisis and their high indebtedness, causing a credit crunch and forcing them to apply for bailouts. The bailouts have been made conditional on deep cuts in social programs that have reduced tens of millions of people to poverty.

The organizations designing these cuts—the so-called “troika” consisting of the ECB, the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)—are widely hated across Europe.

“It’s important to be here and show that the troika’s policies are not being done in our name,” said Judith, a 30-year-old protester. “We can’t always make cuts at poor people’s expense and call them lazy Greeks, but we need to stand by in solidarity with them.”

The opening of the bank itself appears to have been a debacle, with ECB chief Mario Draghi speaking to only 19 invited guests. The Hessen state’s economy minister, Tarek Al-Wazir of the Green Party, and Frankfurt’s Social Democratic Party Mayor Peter Feldmann spoke, while media representatives were largely excluded.

“People are going through very hard times,” Draghi noted blandly in his official remarks, saying that the ECB had become a “focal point” for public anger. “That may not be a fair charge—our action has been aimed precisely at cushioning the shocks suffered by the economy,” Draghi claimed.

“We must listen very carefully to what all our citizens are saying,” he added.

Draghi’s democratic posturing is a pack of lies. In fact, European officials have repeatedly stressed that they intend to continue ruthlessly imposing austerity in complete defiance of popular opposition. After the election of a government led by the pseudo-left Syriza party in Greece, which campaigned on the basis of promises to end EU austerity policies in that country, EU officials have said that they intend to continue with austerity demands in defiance of election results.

German Foreign Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, one of the leaders in the European austerity drive, bluntly stated: “Elections change nothing… There can be no democratic choice against European treaties.”

The only way forward to fight the EU austerity diktat is to mobilize the working class internationally in a struggle for socialism. The bankruptcy of attempts to resolve the crisis on a capitalist basis has been exposed by the abject capitulation of Syriza to the EU’s austerity demands.

Shortly after its election victory in January, having campaigned on the basis of pledges to end austerity, Syriza declared its readiness to negotiate new social cuts in Greece with the ECB and the other European institutions.

While the Frankfurt protest reflects broader opposition to austerity in Germany and throughout Europe, the perspective of the protest organizers themselves offers no way forward and is not, in fact, opposed to austerity.

The demonstration was organized by the “Blockupy Alliance,” founded in 2012, which includes unions, pseudo-left groups such as the Attac antiglobalisation movement, and the German Left Party. It was also supported by Syriza in Greece and its Spanish ally, the Podemos Party.

Podemos and the Left Party have both hailed Syriza’s agreements with the EU to continue imposing austerity measures against the working class. On February 27, for the first time, the German Left Party voted in favor of an extension of the EU-led financial bailout for Greece, which is responsible for the social devastation of the country and will allow the ECB to continue imposing austerity measures.

The deputy president of the Left Party fraction in parliament, Sahra Wagenknecht, summed up the perspective of the organizers of the demonstration. “The ECB could put the whole of Europe on a sustainable course of growth and combat deflation without using up the savings of the middle class, producing new speculative bubbles or fueling a global currency war,” said Wagenknecht, who spoke at the demonstration.

The Left Party and its allies across Europe, including Syriza, are seeking only to secure tactical shifts in the policy of the EU and euro zone institutions such as the ECB. As Syriza’s sudden repudiation of its pledges to end austerity makes clear, this is a dead end for the working class.

Breedlove Promulgating “Dangerous Propaganda”; German-US Split Deepens

By Steven MacMillan
March 18, 2015
New Eastern Outlook

 

The split between Berlin and Washington is becoming more pronounced by the week, as German patience seems to be running out for the war-hungry and belligerent US. This is leading to NATO becoming more fragmented, as many in Europe now see certain factions in the US as impeding any chance of reaching an enduring peace deal in Eastern Ukraine.

The latest episode in this deteriorating relationship was when the four-star General in the US Air Force and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Philip Breedlove, stunned German leaders by giving a ludicrous and inaccurate statement claiming that Russia had “upped the ante” in Eastern Ukraine.  Breedlove’s comments were viewed by many in the German Chancellery as “dangerous propaganda”, as he frequently exaggerates the number of Russian troops and tanks close to the Ukrainian border in a bid to increase tension between East and West.

Straight from the Western propagandist’s songbook, hyperbole and hyping the threat of “Russian aggression” is the song that Breedlove is signing along with many other Western military leaders and politicians. Total demonization of the Russian Federation is the order of the day in the West; as facts play an increasingly limited role in public discourse regarding Moscow.

Individuals in the top echelons of the German government and intelligence services are repeatedly seeing their attempts at diplomatically reaching a peaceful solution in Ukraine torpedoed by “hawks in Washington”, hawks that Breedlove seems to represent. As Sputnik reported in an article titled, Washington’s War Agenda Toward Russia Unnerves German Leaders:

“Hawks in Washington seem determined to torpedo Berlin’s [diplomatic] approach” over the Ukraine conflict, reported German media. The German government feels that Americans are trying to undermine its recent efforts to arbitrate a political solution to the Ukrainian conflict, which has caused at least 6,000 deaths. Germany also expressed discontent that the violence between the ultranationalist regime in Kiev and the independence supporters in the east is threatening to spill over into a wider war that could involve Russia and the rest of Europe. Berlin has also lately expressed the view that General Breedlove and US State Department official Victoria Nuland are working together to destabilize the Minsk ceasefire.”

Many in Europe are growing increasingly tired of Washington’s obsessive desire for global hegemony and their attempted subjugation of the Russian state. The sooner European states turn their back on US pressure, the safer the world will become. Crazed neocon hawks have been directing US foreign policy for far too long, in what US four-star General and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Wesley Clark calls a “policy coup”.

Berlin has taken a more rational stance than the more extreme factions in the West in respect to the situation in Eastern Ukraine. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, stated at the beginning of February that she was opposed to NATO countries supplying the Ukrainian government with lethal military aid, despite many in Washington pushing for such an escalation in the crisis. Other nations in the West perhaps didn’t heed her sound advice however, as Russian President Vladimir Putin recently said after a meeting in Hungary that Western nations are already supplying weapons to Kiev. German Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, also spoke out at the end of last year against Ukraine joining NATO, although he did believe a partnership was possible. Steinmeier told Der Spiegel “that it is possible for NATO to have a partnership with Ukraine, but not membership.”

Cohesion and consensus on policy among member states is essential to any alliance; and the deepening split between the US and Germany illustrates the growing fractures within NATO. Europe should emancipate itself from US pressure and pursue independent foreign policies devoid of imperial aspirations. Disbanding NATO is a key step towards this, and one that is long overdue!

Steven MacMillan is an independent writer, researcher, geopolitical analyst and editor of  The Analyst Report, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

Global Shift in the Balance of Power Is Moving from West to East

By Joachim Hagopian
March 18, 2015
Global Research

 

A major recent event last week largely went unnoticed by both MSM and independent news sources alike. The British are apparently jumping ship away from the US dollar/petrodollar in an overt effort to align itself more closely with the BRICS alliance as it seeks a new standard international currency. For several years Russia, China, Brazil, India and South Africa (BRICS) have been preparing the world for its transition from USD standard international currency to its own alternative-in-the-making. America’s so called mother country England has seen the writing on the wall and knows the global balance of power is rapidly tilting in favor of where the sun always rises in the emerging East. 

The European central banking cabal from the City of London, a separate and private political and financial entity apart from the rest of both London and England, sent British royalty Prince William to China to quietly sign a deal to become a founding member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). This surprising new development is a clear indication that the royal Bank of England is placing its financial bet and future on China and the East as its rock solid anchor. Much of the world has been looking to move away from and abandon the longtime global financial stronghold of the US Federal Reserve, its World Bank and US dollar standard. A US official feebly chastised UK in the Financial Times:

We are wary about a trend toward constant accommodation of China, which is not the best way to engage a rising power.

More consternation arose when Germany, France and Italy have additionally made overtures in the same direction. This worldwide trend spells utter defeat for Obama and his disastrous foreign policy. After Washington’s been exerting strong-armed pressure on Australia as its key allied partner supporting its failing Asian pivot designed to check China’s growing regional and global dominance in the Pacific Asian market, Australia is now also looking to follow suit accepting and embracing China’s lead.

According to international investor and entrepreneur Simon Black, the US is experiencing major economic blowback after two plus decades of aggression as the only global superpower:

     … After years of endless wars, spying, debt, money printing, bailouts, and insane regulations, the

rest of the world has had enough. And they’re looking for an alternative.

Enter the China led BRICS alliance and its New Development Bank and now China’s other investment bank entry AIIB. Simon takes liberty in his interpretation of Britain and Europe’s bold rebellion after decades relegated to being a mere puppet of the US Empire:

Look, you have $18.1 trillion in official debt, you have $42 trillion in unfunded liabilities, and you’re kind of a dick. I’m dumping you.

Perhaps some Americans may feel a bit betrayed and unsettled by our longtime strongest global allies one by one seemingly abandoning the US dollar and American Empire in its reckoning time of need. If these geopolitical and economic trends are examined beyond their face value though, the changes occurring now may reflect much more significant, deeper changes than a mere alteration of standard international currency (as impactful as that will likely be for the US). These deep rooted fundamental changes have everything to do with the major global shift now taking place where the West’s ruling power elite itself is losing to the emerging global power rising in the East.

The latest act of bold economic defiance breaking rank with US Empire interests mirrors last month’s bucking trend that Europe exercised when putting the skids on the US campaign for sending heavy armaments to Ukraine and pushing for war against Russia. The fact is Europe and especially Germany depend on natural gas from Russia and the US imposed sanctions on Russia hurt Europe even more than Russia. That along with wanting to avoid war in their own backyard has nations like Germany and France softening their hardline, US pushed anti-Russian posturing.

Several weeks ago German and French leaders attended meetings in Mink, Belarus to negotiate a peaceful way out of the escalating violence in Eastern Ukraine between the government forces in Kiev and the ethnic Russian separatists seeking autonomy in the Donetsk and Lugansk region. In the same way Netanyahu attempted to fan the war flames against Iran, the same day Germany and France were gathering in Minsk to meet with Putin and Ukraine leaders, Secretary of State Kerry showed up in Kiev mouthing the same worn out lie of “Russian aggression” in a transparent feeble attempt to sabotage the Minsk talks. Again, the tie-in is the Israeli-US crime cabal constantly at work every chance they get peddling and promoting more global violence, death and war.

For over a year now Washington’s war drums have been beating louder for NATO to join forces with Ukraine, pressuring Europe to submit as it always has in going along with its permanent war agenda, all the while falsely demonizing Russia’s President Putin with outrageous propaganda lies and nonstop false flags not unlike the WMD lies against Hussein in 2002-3 Iraq. But in a rare gesture of independence, unwilling to start a war so close to home against nuclear powered Russia that Europe relies heavily as a critical source for its natural gas consumption, the powers of Europe are seeking a non-violent resolution to its regional conflict that carries the devastating potential of triggering World War III.

Meanwhile, NATO Supreme Commander US Air Force General Philip Breedlove fashions himself to be a Dr. Strangelove incarnate, making repeated bogus claims and lies of Russian army presence inside Eastern Ukraine in a vain yet persistent attempt to foment war. Having such a deluded and deceitful warmonger in charge of the NATO nuclear arsenal poses a calamitous threat to the entire world. Yet his commander-in-chief Obama has chosen not to relieve him of command. Instead German leaders have openly criticized Breedlove and the European Union wants to replace NATO with its own continental army. This very public geopolitical conflict over such widely differing Western approaches toward Ukraine seriously undermine American Empire’s global influence and power, again underscoring simultaneous developments around the world that indicate consistent across the boards US foreign policy failures and from the broader context, a rapid US decline as the sole global hegemonic superpower.

Putin advisor Sergei Glazyev nailed it when he said:

The war has been provoked to destroy the Russian World, to draw Europe into it, and to surround Russia with hostile countries. Unleashing this world war, America is trying to deal with its own internal problems.

Current economic turmoil reverberating in Japan is in large part due to the notorious corruption of the Abe government that may soon have additional problems to contend with once accusations over a fraudulent past elections get fully exposed. Abe has been a subservient tool used by the same international crime syndicate controlled by subversive Israeli-American forces. As such, Japan will also be moving away from the USD/West geopolitics and very likely pivoting toward China and a Pacific alliance that excludes the US Empire finding itself increasingly isolated on the outs.

Though incumbent Prime Minister Netanyahu is the apparent winner in today’s Israeli election, the despot had to claw and fight for his political life to survive another day. Recent revelations that he’s been a Russian spy surfaced right after his disgraceful debacle in front of the Israeli captured US congressional audience on Capitol Hill two weeks ago and then came the despicable treasonous display of 47 Republican senators threatening letter to Iran. Bibi’s days of hate, war and paranoia are numbered as the ugly truth about his evildoing will continue to unfold that will soon bring him down. Showing his true evil colors right to the end, the day before the election Netanyahu once again reminded the world that an autonomous Palestinian state will never come to pass while on his watch.

Within the last couple weeks other mysterious events suggesting some cataclysmic, behind-the-scenes development included the apparent disappearance of Vladimir Putin for 11 consecutive days, fueling speculation from an internal political coup to possible sickness and/or death to witnessing the birth of his child at the bedside of his girlfriend in Switzerland. Because so many monumental breaking stories and developments seem to abound every week, Putin’s normally high profile lifestyle would naturally generate even higher profile speculation over his abrupt, extended disappearance. Of course it begs the question asking if it’s merely coincidental with these other earth-shaking events or very much related.

For years the CIA and US Empire have been hard at work in nations from Eastern Europe through the Caucasus to Central Asia all the way to China courting the favor of corrupt dictators and supporting coups promoting anti-Russo-Sino US puppet governments along the entire corridor bordering Russia and China. Despite such Obama’s plan after the 2008 Russian-Georgia conflict was to a reset relations with Russia. But with last year’s US-induced Ukrainian coup and Russia’s annexation by consensual vote of Crimea that “reset” plan went out the window. In 2011 Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan signed the economic alliance of the Eurasian Union. Meanwhile, recognizing the strategic importance of the land bridge between Europe, the Middle East and Asia, Putin has made inroads strengthening ties with the three South Caucasus nations. Putin enticed Armenia to also join the Eurasian Union and has mediated hostilities between Armenia and oil rich Azerbaijan while seeking to repair and realign with Georgia that previously leaned toward the West. US Empire has largely failed to gain a foothold in this part of the world.

Other key geopolitical developments that have been ongoing for some time center in such remote places as western China’s mineral and oil-rich Xinjiang Province. With the powerful US Navy patrolling and to a great extent controlling Pacific waters in conjunction with Obama’s flop of an Asian Pacific pivot, the geopolitics chessboard strategy to hem the two adversarial giants in with hostile neighbors has generally backfired. Furthermore, the US was not prepared for Russia and China to suddenly renew an ultra-close economic, political and military bond that would effectively counter US Empire’s hegemonic aggression. They promptly signed a $400 billion oil-gas pipeline deal that will span a landlocked pathway, thereby foiling the US plan to seal off the China’s energy access via the Pacific. Hence, Moslem populated Xinjiang Province that is the proposed pipeline passage route has become a highly contentious target where the West and CIA in particular have been funding and supporting a separatist movement and acts of terrorism as a disruptive interdiction tactic. Overall this covert strategy has failed.

The Western cabal controlled crime syndicate led by the likes of kingpin Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu financed and supported by the likes of multibillionaire Sheldon Adelson and the Saudi royal family along with congressional henchman and ISIS friend Senator John McCain and the rest of his treasonous Republicans, the rogue US intelligence agency the CIA and NATO’s General Breedlove are all bent on plunging the US Empire-NATO forces into World War III on multiple warfronts at every global hotspot – Ukraine, Syria, Iran, the Caucasus all the way eastward to China’s Xinjiang Province and northward to the oil-rich Arctic against the forces of the two most powerful nations of the East – Russia and China. As a desperate last ditch attempt to retain its many centuries of Rothschild-Rockefeller power and dominance, these evil-minded, megalomaniacal psychopaths know that their hitherto unchallenged global control and strength that have bankrupted and nearly destroyed the planet is fast slipping away. So they seem all the more erratically resolute in seeking revenge by taking the entire earth down with them.

The truth about the horror and destruction these Western oligarchs have conspired and caused worldwide for centuries cannot even be fathomed. They have ensured a permanent state of war (in the US alone 93% of its 239 years) right up to the present Bush crime family-neocon fabrication of the “war on terror,” then under Obama this last year alone wrongly plunging America into another dangerous cold war with Putin’s Russia, and dozens of tragic false flag events like 9/11 designed to demonize Moslems into becoming the instantaneous post-Communist designated enemy of the twenty-first century with the US-Saudi-Israeli creation of al Qaeda/ISIS. These dark malevolent forces of evil that have propagated so much misery and suffering on humanity for so long are finally at last being exposed like never before.

The Western oligarch agenda to inflict a globalized system of absolute totalitarian fascist police state NWO control on every nation and people on earth trapped in hopeless debtor bondage may just be running into a brick Eastern wall as clear losers in the ongoing economic/currency war. Despite the constant jabbing of Putin and his Russian bear in vain attempts to manipulate him to react with military force in eastern Ukraine and despite the failed overt assault in the form of US Empire’s Asian pivot designed to close in and isolate China from the rest of Pacific Asia, ironically it’s the United States that finds itself increasingly alone as the longtime global village bully that’s finally met its match about to get its comeuppance. The smarter, economically stronger forces emerging from the East are winning the power war potentially without even firing a single shot against Western oppressors. Hopefully peace will prevail and the international crime syndicate that has long controlled the West will be deposed of as the murderous traitors to both peace and humankind.

As a necessary qualifier, actual real life tends toward shades of gray far more than black and white. Undoubtedly elements of corruption and evil lurk behind all the most powerful nations in both the West and the East. But the forces of China and Russia appear to be seeking a far more rational, humane and even peaceful resolution to the West-instigated West vs. East geopolitical military showdown sinisterly orchestrated by the international crime cabal’s global agenda of polarization, militarization, privatization and unsustainable, insurmountable debt-driven feudalism based on pure theft, deception, exploitation, impoverishment and pervasive planetary destruction.

Seeking to avoid the inevitable bloodbath that would result from world war and possible nuclear annihilation of all life forms on earth, the East appears to be seeking to avert such global disaster by ensuring that this ongoing war is won by successfully transitioning to an international currency backed once again by the gold standard. The Western central banking cabal consisting of the Bank of England and other European central banks, America’s Federal Reserve Board, its World Bank and International Monetary Fund along with the Israeli-US government crime cabal all stand to ultimately be stripped of their absolute power that have the entire world drowning in debt, crushing destabilization and impoverished despair. But now a light at the end of the tunnel at least is shining a little brighter.

Joachim Hagopian is a West Point graduate and former US Army officer. He has written a manuscript based on his unique military experience entitled “Don’t Let The Bastards Getcha Down.” It examines and focuses on US international relations, leadership and national security issues. After the military, Joachim earned a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and worked as a licensed therapist in the mental health field for more than a quarter century. He now concentrates on his writing and has a blog site at http://empireexposed. blogspot. com/.

“Stratfor [VIDEO]: US aims to prevent a German-Russian Alliance”

By Eric Zuesse
March 17, 2015
Washington’s Blog

 

http://deutsche-wirtschafts-nachrichten.de/2015/03/17/stratfor-usa-wollen-deutsch-russische-allianz-verhindern/

Stratfor [VIDEO]: US aims to prevent a German-Russian alliance

German Economic News  |  Published: 03/17/15 00:02 clock [translation and notes by Eric Zuesse]

http://deutsche-wirtschafts-nachrichten.de/2015/03/17/stratfor-usa-wollen-deutsch-russische-allianz-verhindern/

The head of the private intelligence agency Stratfor has for the first time publicly said that the US government considers to be its overriding strategic objective the prevention of a German-Russian alliance. Blocking that alliance is the only way to prevent an alternative world power capable of challenging extension of the American position of being the world’s lone superpower. [In this video, he says that the U.S. will fail in that overriding objective; German technology and capital will combine with Russian natural resources and “land-power,” to produce a truly bipolar world: U.S. v. Eurasia. So: he sees the U.S. strategy as being to block that, by weakening both Germany and Russia. That strategy would explain what Obama is doing in Ukraine, and the sanctions that are hurting both Russia and Germany, but Friedman thinks that nothing can work.]

Background:

The American political scientist George Friedman is chief of intelligence think tank “Stratfor Global Intelligence”, which he founded in 1996. The headquarters of Stratfor is located in Texas. Stratfor advises 4,000 companies, individuals and governments around the world, reports the New York Times. These include Bank of America, the US State Department, Apple, Microsoft and Lockheed Martin, Monsanto and Cisco, on security issues.

In December 2011 there was a hacker attack on the computer system of Stratfor.Then 90,000 names, addresses, credit card numbers, passwords Stratfor clients were published. The attack was by the hacker Jeremy Hammond. But later it turned out that an FBI employee Hammond had instigated the attack on the Stratfor system. The FBI was involved in all phases of the attack.

Friedman published in 2009 a book titled “The Next 100 Years”, in which he discussed security policy issues for the 21st century. He said that between 2020 and 2030, Turkey, Poland and Japan, with US support, will be regional powers. In the same period, a pro-American block of several States will be formed in Eastern Europe. [The latter has already happened. Furthermore, on page 66, he said: “Europe may yet have to deal with the resurgence of Russia, the bullying of the United States, or internal tensions.” All three of those things have also already happened.]

———-

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of  They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010,  and of CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity, and of Feudalism, Fascism, Libertarianism and Economics.