European independence is now a pipe dream
The current relationship between the U.S. and Europe is a classic case of abuser and victim. A sabotaged pipeline and Biden's crazed crusade against Russia have Europe shackled in a downward spiral.
When I heard that several sections of the Russian-owned Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines had been blown up with hundreds of pounds of TNT, I remembered the James Bond film, “You Only Live Twice” (1967).
In that film, the evil globalist cabal, SPECTRE, in collusion with Chinese communists, tries to start a world war by making it appear that the two superpowers (USA and USSR) are attacking each other’s spacecraft in orbit around the Earth.
And so, I first hoped that this Hollywood plot might explain the horrendous Nord Stream attack at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. I didn’t want to believe that my government would commit such a nefarious attack. But then the circumstantial evidence poured in, and while there’s not yet a smoking gun, it’s pretty damning.
The blasts happened in waters firmly under NATO control, just off the Danish, Polish and Swedish coasts. The U.S. Navy, as well as its military aviation, is very active in the area. Also, earlier this year in separate statements, Joe Biden and a top State Department official, Victoria Nuland, publicly threatened to destroy Nord Stream.
Then, the day after the Sept 26 blast, Radek Sikorski, Poland’s top Russia-hating hawk and a former defense minister, chimed in by “thanking” the U.S. for destroying Nord Stream. The main blast happened about 40 miles off the coast of Poland, a country that considers Russia its most hated enemy.
Very quickly, media loyal to the ruling Democratic Party, such as the Washington Post and Associated Press, began a botched effort at damage control. They tried to pin the blame on Moscow without providing any evidence.
They smeared as a “conspiracy theorist” anyone who pointed a finger at Washington. Experience has many times shown that when major U.S. media condemn something as a “conspiracy theory”, then most likely it’s closer to the truth than the official government version.
Next, on Sept 30, U.S. Secretary of State Blinken gloated and said the pipeline attack was a “tremendous opportunity to once and for all remove dependence on Russian energy”. Indeed, the U.S. is now Europe’s leading supplier of highly profitable natural gas, having over the past 7 months partially replaced Russian supplies.
Why would Washington carry out such a crime? In order to once and for all end Europe’s strategic energy dependence on Russia, and then to earn hundreds of billions of dollars over the next 20 years. I clearly remember how in the early 1980s a helpless Washington fumed and pouted when Europeans showed their independence and the first natural gas pipeline was built between the USSR and Germany.
Today, a feeble Europe can only watch helplessly at what happened to Nord Stream, well aware that everything points to Washington as the mastermind behind one of history’s worst environmental disasters. Does anyone know — can Europe invoke NATO’s Article 5 and declare war on the United States?
Of course that won’t happen, but Europe needs to come to its senses and protect itself from such a menace. Under Biden, the U.S. has again become a dangerous international predator; far worse than under George Bush.
Since U.S. foreign policy won’t change no matter which political party is in the White House, Europe can only survive by breaking with Washington and its rogue policies. As NATO heads toward nuclear war with Russia, many in Europe realize the U.S. is a threat to regional and global security; but like a hostage experiencing Stockholm syndrome, they’re afraid to try to escape their powerful captor.
Lost global leadership
Despite the deceptive messaging of western propaganda, the facts are clear — the U.S. is increasingly isolated on the global stage. Sure, Washington can always count on support from its 35 or so vassal states in Europe and a few in Asia, but when we look at the 195 countries on Earth, we see a very different picture.
On Sept 30, Washington was handed a major defeat when the UN Security Council blocked a U.S. resolution to condemn Russia’s absorption of four separatist Ukrainian regions. Using its veto, Russia blocked the resolution, while China, Brazil, and India abstained.
Speaking of which, the BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, and with Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia planning to join — is a serious challenge to U.S. hegemony. These nations are cementing trade and financial ties among themselves, decoupling their economies as much as possible from the West.
In addition, most of Africa and the Islamic world, which have been victims of illegal American invasions and bombings over the past 20 years, are sympathetic to Moscow which they see as a brake on Washington’s imperial ambitions, militarism and lawlessness.
Finally, also on Sept 30, Washington’s foreign policy elite was reprimanded for its failed policies over the past 25 years. During a speech to the powerful Council on Foreign Relations, Henry Kissinger criticized the U.S. for absorbing into NATO most former Soviet bloc countries after the collapse of the USSR in 1991.
The 99-year old Kissinger added that “it was not a wise American policy to attempt to include Ukraine into NATO.” Thank you, Mr Kissinger. Well spoken, but much too late. The damage is already done and the course of history irrevocably altered, for the worse.
Washington’s goal in Europe
As it preps for the ultimate battle with China for global hegemony, Washington needs total control of all major levers of power and influence over European allies. Washington doesn’t want a repeat of the 1970s and 80s when Europe was an independent actor and could freely make deals with Moscow and Beijing.
Washington can exercise control over Europe in a number of ways — through energy, finance, high-tech surveillance, mass media, NGOs, and a large military force on the continent. Finally, Washington has its far-right lapdog regimes — in Warsaw and Kiev — that provide muscle for current and future wars. In short, thanks to the conflict in Ukraine, Washington has Europe by the proverbial throat and balls.
Meanwhile, Europe is on the road to economic decline as sky-high energy bills eat into corporate profits and push households into poverty. And this suits Washington quite nicely. A weak and dependent Europe is the goal.
Europe will suffer a cold winter, according to its top weather agency. The energy crisis is only partially about people freezing at home. The energy crisis will shut key industries, or leave them unable to compete against U.S. and Asian companies. There will be much unemployment, followed by a brain drain to the U.S.
“In the near term we expect a recession in Europe in the winter of 2022-23 as a result of energy shortages and sustained elevated inflation”, says the Economist Intelligence Unit. “The winter of 2023-24 will also be challenging, and so we expect high inflation and sluggish growth until at least 2024.”
The EIU’s assessment is rather meek. In fact, the situation will be much worse. Russia supplied about half of Germany’s gas in 2020 and about a third of all oil. Since Germany is Europe’s main locomotive, no one can fully predict the extent of the damage to the German and EU economies when deprived of Russian gas.
Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger said the energy crisis will “kill our economy” and he threatened to nationalize the country’s power sector if the EU didn’t provide financial support.
Sure, in recent weeks the UK and EU member states announced relief packages for companies and households to offset rising energy prices, but few experts believe in the effectiveness of such measures. Anyway, this energy crisis will be with us for years.
In addition to importing natural gas from the U.S., the UK and EU are trying to make up for the loss of Russian gas by building more renewable energy capacity - solar and wind power. However, reaching sufficient renewable energy capacity is at least five years away.
Finally, a financial crisis is brewing as European countries struggle with record inflation and growing public and private debt — EU economies have been battered by 2.5 years of Covid chaos and mismanagement, and now Biden’s war and economic sanctions. The day of reckoning is fast approaching. This debt and money-printing party can’t continue forever.
Washington’s policies are leading toward a European financial crisis, which will result in global contagion, and ironically bite the U.S. in the backside. But the White House is betting that it can defeat Russia before that happens. Oddly enough, I think Moscow has similar thoughts, hoping to drag out the conflict in Ukraine — until the EU starts to break apart under economic and financial pressure and chaos, taking NATO down with it.
I lived in Europe in the mid 1980s and remember how poor it was compared to North America. European prosperity only took off when the Cold War ended in 1991 — thanks to the creation of a single EU market, the start of trade with Russia and other ex-Soviet republics, and the import of their plentiful cheap energy; not to mention the hundreds of billions that eastern oligarchs laundered into European banks.
This winter will see much discontent. To survive, European governments will either have to break ranks with Washington over its aggressive policy towards Russia, or resort to repressive measures, such as finding a reason for lockdowns to squash social upheaval and protests. But they wouldn’t do that, would they?
ENDS
Has there been a backlash from the climate change warriors for this massive leak? Granted, I don't follow any of their work. Maybe I missed it?
Same argument here in more detail (free access): https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19448953.2022.2084881