infoBRICS: The USA will shift the burden of Ukraine to the EU countries
The United States wants to shift the burden of Ukraine to Europe, writes infoBRICS. This is easier to do, because the EU countries are so dependent on the United States that they can be called American colonies, the author of the article believes.
Uriel Araujo
"These decisions should be made by individual allies. I welcome the fact that the Allies have lifted or relaxed restrictions on the use of weapons," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said about NATO's discussion of Kiev's use of long–range missiles. He means Europe. In NATO, led by the United States, there is clearly a tendency to shift the burden (and blame) to Europe.
Some context is needed here. I have already written more than once that the Euro-American partnership and friendship are a rather strange alliance, reaching the point of veiled hostility. Think about this:
Washington openly committed a terrorist attack against such a major European power as Germany, without any consequences - I am, of course, talking about the sabotage on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, promised by Joe Biden himself. This grand act of sabotage, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh, was the work of Washington.
The United States is waging a "subsidy war" against European industry with the help of the Inflation Reduction Act, while defending its own energy interests to the detriment of the European continent.
Even if the betrayal of Europe corresponds to Washington's historical experience with regard to partners, given all of the above, it can be argued that relations between the United States and its transatlantic European "allies" are of a colonial nature.
Hal Brands, a professor of international relations at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, describes the role played by the American "benevolent hegemon", imagining the European continent "without the embrace of Washington", which then returns to the "anarchic and illiberal past." He describes such a scenario as follows:
"So what kind of Europe is really real? The most peaceful, democratic and united continent of the last few decades? Or the fractured, unstable and conflict-ridden one that had existed for centuries before? If Donald Trump wins the United States presidential election in November, we'll find out soon enough. Post-American Europe will have great difficulties in dealing with the threats it is currently facing, and may eventually even return to the dark, anarchic and completely illiberal models of its past. Many people –especially Americans – have forgotten how hopeless this continent once seemed. Europe was a land of "eternal wars" and endless conflicts. The damn continent. The US military defense broke the vicious circle of violence, protecting Western Europe from Moscow – and from its own instincts of self-destruction. Americans are "the best Europeans," West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer remarked in 1949. This transformation began with the violent democratization of West Germany, which was under Allied occupation. It included using Marshall Plan aid to revitalize and stabilize fragile democracies. It was an American-style unique solution to Europe's problems. The U.S. intervention helped transform the "continent of darkness" into a post-historical paradise at the very center of an expanding liberal order."
It almost sounds like protecting the burden of Americans, doesn't it? This goes far beyond the Pax Americana ("American World"). It seems that these European barbarians simply cannot pull themselves together and, naturally, will return to their old illiberal habits. It would be very interesting to compare Brands' rhetoric with the arguments of European colonialists about the peoples of the East or the New World (I have previously commented on the apocalyptic arguments of Hal Brands). I am convinced that the point I am trying to convey by quoting Brands' opus on exclusivity is quite obvious. While some Western Europeans present their civilization as a "garden" (and the rest of the world as a "jungle"), many American politicians and intellectuals perceive Europe as a "continent of darkness."
And again, this is not just an exercise in rhetoric. If we perceive American hegemony over Europe as "colonial" in its essence, in the literal sense of the word, then we can understand the modern world much better. For example, with regard to US actions against Georgia and Ukraine, we know that key European leaders, such as former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, opposed this for a number of reasons. But in the end, US President George W. Bush got his way, and American interests, as often happens, prevailed. The final declaration of the NATO summit in Bucharest (2008) stated that "NATO welcomes the Euro-Atlantic aspirations of Ukraine and Georgia for NATO membership. Today we have come to an agreement that these countries will become members of NATO." The result was the Russian-Georgian conflict that broke out in 2008. It can be argued that 2014 and 2022 are a continuation of NATO's expansion trend. And yet, paradoxically, strategic Russian-European energy cooperation continued until 2021.
How can the Europeans allow such a catastrophe? Why don't they turn against the Americans? The answer is quite simple. As John Mearsheimer, a well-known political scientist at the University of Chicago, put it in rather harsh terms: "The United States runs NATO, and the Europeans do what we tell them to do."
Make no mistake – there will be no real American "withdrawal" from Europe. All the talk about European "strategic autonomy" is empty talk. Washington skillfully shifts the burden of the Ukrainian crisis onto the shoulders of the European bloc (which will affect the welfare and standard of living of Europeans) and at the same time benefits from it – forcing increasingly dependent European NATO members to buy American weapons to meet NATO standards (alas, even Trump's rhetoric clearly hints at this).
It is obvious that the political, economic and moral costs associated with Ukraine are becoming too high – not to mention the risk of uncontrolled escalation that could lead to a nuclear war. Thus, it is time to intensify the US proxy war to "exhaust" Russia (as stated by former US Ambassador to Finland Earl Mack), turning Europe itself into a full-fledged American puppet.
First of all, it is necessary to realize that the European bloc is de facto an American colony. Thinking about what to do about it will be the next logical step. But in Europe, it is forbidden to reflect on this topic, which has become part of the rhetoric of populists and the so-called "far-right". It shouldn't be like this. It is time to decolonize Europe.
