The personal is political. So you be counted: Warmongering profits no one, only the greedy bloodstained, polluting corporations who confuse rampant liberalism with democracy. We are part of the non-violent confrontation between what is and how the world should be. To make better lives for all of us, we need to work together, where ever we come from.
Part 3:
On NATO members territory there has hardly been outright war. That is true. Yet Europe was the pivotal for wars in other parts of the world. Recent figures prove this. American military personnel are stationed in European bases. 54 000 of them were deployed in Iraq. In 2006 two thirds of all in Europe stationed American military personnel was involved in missions in Afghanistan or Iraq. The American Army was deployed from Germany and Italy. The fighter planes took of from British bases and from airplane carriers in the Mediterranean. Without Europe the invasion of Iraq would have been impossible. Just as the ensuing occupation. Iraq was attacked because they were believed to have had weapons of mass destruction. Iran is threatened because they might produce them. In the meantime NATO holds 350 atomic weapons ready in Germany, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands, The United Kingdom and Turkey. According to international humanitarian rights these weapons are as illegal and forbidden as wherever else in the world. Why aren’t these weapons dismantled? This is a direct consequence of NATO membership. If a country is member of NATO it has to cooperate in operations any place outside of its own territory, by sending troops, offering infrastructure, or logistic support. What the population thinks is immaterial. NATO’s military strategy takes precedence.
This unhealthy situation risks to become even graver.
Clowns from Amsterdam
11 years ago
I see it's happening again, on schedule. Every generation, the colonies' extremists protest the beneficial oversight by the Motherland, the US. Dissidents in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, throughout Europe, and yes, even in France, gather to march and hold little demonstrations outside US military facilities and nuclear repositories. After all this time of occupation, one would think they'd realize that the US is there to stay, that the world empire, of which each of them is a rather insignificant part, is necessary for the ego gratification and financial well-being of the oligarchs and neo-con zionists who rule the US, and, through it, the world (except for the far east, the now-revolting southern and middle american continent, and troublesome parts of arabia and the muslim countries). But so far as Old Europe goes, those colonies are settled, and the peaceful reign of the US should be accepted.
ReplyDeletePoëzie, liefde en revolutie.
ReplyDeletePoetry, love and revolution.
In memoriam Hugo Claus
The US acts like a rabid puppy with sharp teeth, and claims every fire hydrant as it's own. And the rest of the world is supposed to live with it, smile, coo, and offer gold plated dog biscuits ?
ReplyDeleteTry that on US territory, and see what happens. It's a sick country sometimes. j