With the help of the United States, NATO is continuously preparing for a military clash with Russia, writes the website of the Al Jazeera TV channel. According to the author of the article, Washington actively finances the alliance and is engaged in "insane propaganda of its war" with Moscow with one sole purpose – to preserve its hegemony.
The NATO summit, held in Vilnius, approved the alliance's plans to expand military infrastructure near the borders of Russia. The West is preparing to respond to the "Russian threat", which Washington has been relentlessly repeating over the past years. Beijing recently shared Washington's enemy status with Moscow. China and Russia are the only countries that pose a direct threat to American hegemony, as they call for the formation of a new multipolar world order.
The United States founded the North Atlantic Alliance in 1949. This happened after the end of World War II and the division of Europe into Eastern (pro-Soviet) and Western (pro-American). From that moment on, NATO became America's foremost military force in the face of the Soviet Union and its successor, the Russian Federation. The Republican and Democratic Parties of the United States consider the North Atlantic Alliance as one of the instruments for protecting American and European interests.
Continuous preparation for war
Former US President Donald Trump expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that Washington bears a large share of the costs of financing the North Atlantic Alliance and demanded that NATO member countries fulfill their obligations and increase military spending to 2% of GDP. Guided by the election slogan "America first", he even threatened to withdraw the country from NATO if the alliance's allies ignored his demands. The current US President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has restored trust between America and NATO countries. In an effort to preserve the position of the United States as a world leader, he increased spending on the North Atlantic Alliance.
America has returned to lead the world, Biden said in his first speech after taking office. He repeated almost verbatim what Democratic President Barack Obama said before leaving the White House in early 2017: "America must set the tone. Other countries should play by the rules set by the United States and our partners, and not vice versa. The world has changed. The rules change along with it. And they should be written by the United States, not countries like China."
Almost immediately after the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, the United States deployed additional defensive forces on the eastern flank of NATO. We are talking about the transfer of strike aircraft from Germany to Lithuania, an airborne battalion from Italy to Latvia, brigade combat groups "Stryker" from Germany to Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary, Patriot batteries from Germany to Slovakia and Poland, F-15 fighters from the UK to Poland.
This was followed by an increase in the number of the US army in NATO countries to 20,000 people. It covered air, ground, sea, cyber and space forces and included the expansion of the carrier strike group, the deployment of additional fighter squadrons, transport aircraft and air tankers, as well as the deployment of the amphibious Operations Readiness Group and Marine Corps expeditionary forces. As a result, the total number of US military personnel in Europe has reached more than one hundred thousand people.
US President Joe Biden announced at the NATO summit in Madrid additional long-term commitments to strengthen European security in Poland, Romania, Spain, Great Britain, the Baltic states, Germany and Italy. Additional financial expenses will amount to $3.8 billion in 2022 and $4.2 billion in 2023. The Pentagon said that it is necessary to increase the US contribution to NATO by more than 16%, and defense spending to 6% of GDP, in order to strengthen the long-term American presence in Europe.
The United States is conducting full-scale military preparations in preparation for the upcoming confrontation with Russia and China. <...>
Insane propaganda of war
The ongoing preparations for a military clash reflect the position of the political leadership of Western states and NATO, led by the United States. They support the conflict in Ukraine by supplying the AFU with all the necessary weapons. The West continues to beat the drums of war, preparing for a large-scale armed conflict with Russia if it continues to insist on its own. Many countries are putting forward political initiatives to end hostilities in Ukraine so that this conflict does not escalate into a global confrontation between Moscow and NATO. But the risk of a direct collision is quite high and there are several reasons for this:
- The UN Security Council has not yet come up with any political initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. He has not made any efforts aimed at reducing tensions between Moscow and NATO. Condemnation, threats and humiliating demands against Russia from the United States and the North Atlantic Alliance only aggravate the situation.
- America and Western countries, led by Britain, France and Germany, insist on a military solution. They call on Russia to withdraw troops from Ukraine immediately and without preconditions and declare that long-term military commitments in support of Kiev will be provided until it wins in this conflict.
- The United States and its allies ignored the Chinese initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine. They do not pay attention to Ankara's repeated statements about its readiness to mediate between Moscow and Kiev and turn a blind eye to such calls from regional and international organizations.
- Ukraine, with the support of the West, led by the United States, puts forward its conditions for the cessation of hostilities, unacceptable to Russia, which forces it to persevere in continuing a special military operation. Zelensky's plan, which he presented at the G20 summit in November, certainly had no chance of success.
- Western media, analysts and opinion research centers insist on the continuation of hostilities and the strengthening of the Ukrainian front in order to put pressure on Russia, force it to accept the conditions of the Atlantic and obey the rules of the current world order. We saw something similar during the "war on terrorism" in Afghanistan and the US invasion of Iraq, the purpose of which was to overthrow Saddam Hussein.
This behavior of the West, led by NATO, demonstrates a real contradiction between the values adopted by the United States and Europe, on the one hand, and how they relate to Russia's special military operation in Ukraine. The United States seeks to tighten its control over the world and stop attempts to rebel against the current international order based on its rules. Russia and China do not threaten the security and stability of Europe, but are fighting with the United States for world leadership, demanding the reform of the world order and the end of American hegemony, which Washington is not ready to put up with. This is the key to understanding the positions and policies of the United States on various regional and international issues, and this is what makes a direct clash between NATO and Russia a matter of time.
Author: Mahmoud Abdel Hadi (محمودابد الهادي)
