All's Disquiet on the Western Front (News, Switzerland)
"In 2014, a sober westward glance from the beaches of Normandy would make clear that it has been a long time since a savior and assister came from that direction. The financial crises of 2001 and 2008, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and now the dismantling of civil rights by the NSA and the planned TTIP, show that Europeans, rather than benefitting, are far more likely to choke on genetically modified corn soup served up by powerful U.S, financial and economic lobbies."
A crowd in Warsaw's Zamkowy Square, where President Obama spoke on Polish Freedom Day, certainly appreciated his comments. Obama announced the European Reassurance Initiative, promising $1 billion in military aid to Eastern Europe: Is America torn between its stated ideals, and the interests of its national security state and corporate sector?
Barack
Obama promises to protect the countries of Eastern Europe and demands $5
billion from Congress to pay for it. What a relief this must be for the American arms industry! After the withdrawal from Afghanistan, there is new business on the horizon, this time again, in Europe.
June
6 is the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landing [D-Day]. With solemn words, European heads of state and government, and those of the United States and Russia, will celebrate - once again - victory over Nazi Germany. In the American
perception, Europe as we know it today is entirely the result of resolute
Yankee action on behalf of democracy and human rights ... hmm.
Barack
Obama seems to welcome any occasion as an excuse for saber rattling. Hence,
yesterday's boastful promise of providing Europe with the status of a U.S.
“protectorate.” NSA eavesdropping on all of Europe?Almost forgotten. European citizens balking at
handing their constitutional access to the courts to a
handful of U.S. and E.U. lobbyists (TTIP)?
Not an issue. If war comes close enough to Europe, Uncle Sam will be there
straightaway. That is why we're already being infiltrated by anti-Russia
propaganda, and why our media play along so uncritically.No one has noticed that Obama, like his
predecessors, is only interested in wiping out the last remaining functional
model of the social welfare state we call "Europe."
The
U.S. tactic has been the same for 70 years. Are you familiar with the 11
neoliberal campaign bullet points? No? Allow me to reiterate them again, because they comprise the Enabling Act of the 21st century. The TTIP documents show how things stand:
-- The newly-coined
notion of “balanced government budgets” with corresponding programs for
privatization
-- Market-determined
interest rates
-- The
diminution of all trade barriers
-- The bailout
of large banks with state funds
-- The abolition
of minimum environmental protections
-- The abolition
of consumer protections
-- The
unshackling of international capital
-- Tax exemption
for multinational corporations
-- The
privatization of goods, services, people, and capital
-- Uniformity in
university education through rating methods
-- An “expertocracy” that serves to disseminate an ideology to the
public
For
decades, the United States has been gazing with suspicion at E.U. efforts
toward greater economic autonomy. In a recent interview, former
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice [watch below] expressed it succinctly, “[In the long
run] you want to change the structure of energy dependence].” She continued,
“You want to depend more on the North American energy platform.”
You
can't really get much clearer than that. The Americans are in the process of
exploiting and destroying their country on a massive scale - through fracking
and oil shale mining - and now we Europeans are supposed to pay for it, pretty
please.
Post-war
Europe has been nurtured on the image of Coca Cola, rock-n-roll, shiny chrome
street cruisers, Hollywood, and then Apple and Google, for so long, that it
finds it difficult to detach from the picture of the “protector” - and clearly
identify the aggressor.
Posted
By Worldmeets.US
In
2014, a sober westward glance from the beaches of Normandy would make clear that
it has been a long time since a savior and assister came from that direction.
The financial crises of 2001 and 2008, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and
now the dismantling of civil rights by the NSA and the planned TTIP, show that Europeans, rather than benefitting, are far more likely to choke on
genetically modified corn soup served up by powerful U.S. financial and
economic lobbies.
From
a U.S. perspective, the trade flows of the future look like this: American gas
and oil flow from west to east, while data collected by eavesdropping on
European citizens as well as capital in the multibillions gleaned from the
privatization of European public goods cross the Atlantic from east to west. In
the long term, this American style "balance of trade" will cost us
all the achievements that made Europe the only serious competitor to America's
unfettered capitalist market.
So
when Obama now says:“Our commitment to
the security of our allies is sacrosanct,” which would have delighted my grandparents, it only serves to sicken me. Because
in reality, this just means: If necessary, we will defend our financial
interests around the world by force of arms. At the D-Day celebrations, things
will no doubt sound very different.
Leaders gather for D-Day 2014: President Obama, front left,
and French
President Francois Hollande, front center, with Queen Elizabeth
II, 2nd left,
President Vladimir Putin, front right, and others, in Normandy.
