By Bill Wilson
Over the last week there have been two specific acts by the British and the EU designed to provoke Russia into a war. There is no sneaking around or fuzzy diplomatic wording. These so-called allies of the United States are openly pushing the Russians in a way that most definitely could led to war, a war they cannot hope to win unless they can drag the United States into their fight.
These moves are not the actions of a friend, they are the overt moves designed to force the United States into a conflict with potentially devastating outcomes. It is not friendship or any alleged “special relationship,” it is a hostile act that needs to be rebuked in the strongest way possible. And, for those inside the United States pushing for this, an act of treason that should be prosecuted as such.
Last week it was reported that Britain and France were preparing troops to be stationed at the border of Ukraine to be deployed in the country in the event of a cease-fire that could lead to a negotiated end to the war between Ukraine and Russia. These forces were dubbed a “peace keeping” force.
But according to the British government plan, thousands of European troops would be deployed to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire agreement, even though there is no such agreement on the table at the moment. The troops would be expressly authorized to fire on Russian military forces if attacked by the Russians. But, of course, there is no way to know if such an attack actually happens or if it is just the word of some nervous junior officer. So, under the highly dubious plan of the British, whatever they say is an attack by any Russian would justify and authorize “return fire.”
And that return fire is highly likely to be the trigger for full on war, a war that neither the UK nor France nor a combination of the two would have a prayer in hell of winning. Having poked the bear and being about to be mauled to death, they would run to Uncle Sam and beg for assistance. The whole thing is kabuki theater.
Not content with this action, this week we learned that the Council of the European Union announced they are sending EU military personnel directly inside Ukraine. The stated mission is “training,” but that training has been taking place outside of Ukraine for well over a year. No reason is stated as to why it is now so imperative to perform the training inside the country of Ukraine and directly in the field of combat.
There are several reasons for this highly reckless action.
First, the announcement is sure to make reaching an agreement for peace going on now in Abu Dhabi more difficult. Undercutting the ongoing U.S.-led peace negotiations has become the EU and British go-to move from the very beginning. They do not want a peace deal, they want war. Why? Because their economies are in the toilet because of the lunacy of green policies, high welfare costs and the open border policy couple with high welfare that Milton Friedman termed “national suicide.” They need the war to cover the mess of their energy policies.
Second, a peace deal would open the way for the U.S. to lift sanctions, thereby developing economic ties with Russia on energy, minerals, and the vast resources of the Russian arctic that would leave Europe in the dust for a generation or more. They do not want anything that allows the U.S. and the Russian Federation to find common ground.
Finally, the grand imperial plan of the global elites requires the U.S. to continue subsidizing Europe. For 80 years, ever since the end of World War II, it has been the U.S. that has supported Europe. The truth is they cannot defend themselves. They cannot fund their insane welfare policies without trade arrangements with the U.S. that subsidize their entire economy. And they cannot feed or heat themselves without U.S. intervention.
When NATO was formed in 1949, its first Secretary General Hastings Lionel Ismay summed up the European policy very concisely when he is reputed to have said the purpose of NATIO was “to keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down”. It is well past time for the Americans to go home, or to Asia or to the Western Hemisphere. But our time propping up the decaying ghost of empires past is done.
The neo-con warmongers in the U.S. and UK are quick to assert that should NATO troops be attacked by Russia it would constitute the rationale for implementing Article 5 of the NATO treaty requiring the United States to come to their aid and enter into war with Russia.
This a sleight of hand, a falsehood wrapped in legalistic language to conceal the truth. While Article 5 would require the U.S. to come to the aid of Britian or France or other European member if attacked by Russia, it does so only if those nations are themselves directly attacked. There is a geographic limit on the requirement, Article 6 of the same treaty that includes “an armed attack… on the territory of any of the Parties in Europe or North America…”
President Donald Trump should immediately short circuit this blatant aggression against American interests by announcing that if UK or NATO counties want to send their young men and women to Ukraine they are free to do so. But if the Russians attack, it is their problem, not ours. They need to know from the very first that if they do this they are poking the bear on their own.
Bill Wilson is the former president of Americans for Limited Government.
