By SJ Otto
In the area of foreign
affairs we can really see the effects of the end of the Soviet Union.
The US is now the main superpower and there is no real opposition to
it. The US acts as a superpower on steroids, with troops all over the
world, fighting
multiple wars on almost every major continent, accept
Antarctica and Australia. Two countries are now occupied by
the US, Afghanistan and Iraq. Just recently the US military
is building up a
presence in Africa.
Islamic revolt has
been the major challenge to the US superiority and imperialism.
The US has made the destruction of Islamic movements such as ISIS
(Islamic State), a major priority. There are several organizations
the US has targeted, such as al Qaeda and various local versions of
that group throughout the Middle East and Africa. There are also the
independent Islamic groups such as the Taliban in Afghanistan. Many
Marxist anti-imperialist groups have had to adjust to the fact that there are
no more Marxist superpowers to support them. Right now they just don’t have the
numbers of people and support networks of the Islamic groups. ISIS was the one
group that had the audacity to take land that the US had conquered
when it took over Iraq. President Barack Obama decided to go
after ISIS and destroy them as a country. When President Donald
Trump took over he followed the same plan to first destroy the country
that ISIS had set up and then carried on the extermination campaign
to wipe that group off of the face of the Earth, along with all its people and
supporters. No attempt was ever made to negotiate an end to the war
against ISIS. The US was intent on destroying that movement completely.
In Europe and the US, those who are recruited to join ISIS are
considered mentally ill. After all who would oppose US democracy and
the system we all love so well? Any opinion in favor of ISIS in any way is
viewed as a crime in the US and Europe.
And the new modern American
Army takes no prisoners. There is no reason to
expand Guantanamo because the US has allowed the Iraqi Army
to kill all prisoners right after they are caught. Some prisoners have been
thrown off the tops of buildings to save on bullets. This country has made it
clear there is no tolerance for those who dare rebel against the US Empire. The
barbarity of today’s military far surpasses the kinds of war crimes committed
during World War II, at least on the ally’s side. And while
the US continues to commit all kinds of war crimes, the troops are
constantly hailed as heroes here
at home. And the constant lie that gets repeated over and over—“they
are fighting to keep us free.” They are fighting to maintain an empire.
That brings us to the
issues of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The alliance was
supposedly needed to keep out the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact.
So the Soviet Union fell and the Warsaw Pact faded away. But not
NATO. It has expanded. Now many Warsaw Pact nations belong to NATO. So what
does NATO really do? It is a major tool of the empire.
The pro-NATO
argument is that it keeps the peace in Europe and
allows the West to efficiently cooperate on counter-terrorism and
humanitarian military operations……
According to Vox, “Everything
you need to know about the military alliance that's freaking out Russia:”
“The positive spin is
that NATO has adapted to the post-Cold War world, and now helps prevent wars,
protect weak states and peoples, and promote democracy.”
The negative spin is
that NATO allows the wealthiest and most powerful nations to bully the weaker
ones. While it prevents war, it also prevents any kind of change. Revolution is
nearly impossible since an attack on any NATO country is considered an attack
on all. That part of the alliance has allowed the US to pull NATO
allies into wars it started, such as the war in Afghanistan. The US had
demanded and got NATO troops and support from the other NATO nations. It gives
the false illusion that the war in Afghanistan is a war that the
entire world, or most of it, is behind. And how democratic is it to force
nations into a war they never had a chance to debate? While the main enemy of
the Afghanistan puppet regime is the Taliban, there are others in
that country who have opposed the US presence and they have also
taken military action.
NATO and the European Union are
control mechanism to prevent internal changes in European countries. The best
example of how it works can be seen in Greece. By 2010 the Greek
government was in trouble and in debt. In order to pay off its debts the
government put in place severe austerity measures. The people fought the
measures on every front. But the one thing they put a lot of faith in was
elections. They voted in a leftist party known as Συνασπισμός Ριζοσπαστικής
Αριστεράς, (Translated: Synaspismós Rizospastikís Aristerás), mostly
known by the abbreviation SYRIZA. Voters rejected the Eurozone creditors'
bailout terms in a voting referendum, in 2015, only for Alexis Tsipras,
the elected leader, to endorse even tougher terms for a third bailout agreed
the following month. Despite having popular support for turning back the
austerity plans, the European Union was able to force the party and the nation
to keep the austerity measures in place.
The people
of Greece and SYRIZA had to decide if
it was more important to overturn the austerity or to stay in the European Union.
They stayed in the European Union and now the leadership of that body has more
control over Greece than their own political leaders.
For examples of NATO
being used to interfere in a European nation we only have to look
to Ukraine. Nearly every minor superpower (such as Russia) is
interfering in Ukraine and its civil war. Ukraine is actually
considering joining NATO. If it does it will be joining an
organization that has lead to constant meddling in that nation's internal
affairs.
All of this shows us
that it is not the Soviet Union that is interfering in the internal
affairs of individual European nations, but it is NATO and the European Union.
It could be argued that Eastern European countries were more controlled and
lacked more autonomy than countries in the West, back when there was a Warsaw
Pact. But today it is the West (The US and major European powers) that puts
more control over the vary countries that NATO was originally supposed to
defend.
For third world
countries, they are now so dependent on Western powers the fall of
the Soviet Union has been a major disaster. Marxist-Leninists are
nearly gone from Africa. Political experiments
in Nicaragua, Mozambique and Angola were among the
many nations where newer, more democratic examples of Marxism were being tried.
For those of us on the left, these nations held out great promise. Thanks to
the constant meddling of President Ronald Reagan and then the actual collapse
of the Soviet Union all such experiments have been scrapped. The
Sandinistas, FRELIMO and other Marxist parties changed their alliances to the
Democratic Socialists of Europe[1] to get development aid. There was nowhere
else to get it. China has been no help to such countries and no other
nation, other than the US and European nations, have the kind of
development aid such nations need.
Such nations used to
be able to bargain with one of the two super powers to get a good deal on aid
and weapons. Now they have only one superpower and there is no bargaining. Many
nations have learned the hard way as did when Yemen the leaders there
refused to back former President George H. W. Bush in his war against Saddam
Hussein (صدام حسين), in the first Iraq war,
in 1991. Yemen was punished for not supporting the only super power
left in the world.
For now we live in a
stagnant world where one US empire does what it dam well pleases.
Foreign people in the less wealthy countries are little better off than slaves.
There is absolutely nothing to counter the belligerent US military, a force
that acts drunk with power. When they wiped ISIS off the map they
wanted to let other groups and national leaders know they won't tolerate
dissent. We are supposed to support the US because they tolerate a
diversity of views, a trait that is championed as a cultural bastion of the
West. But that is a bold face lie. Until someone can stand up to
the US military machine we are all just the victims of a massive
world-wide bully.
[1]
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