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Trump’s Cat
Among European Pigeons
By Finian
Cunningham
January 17, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- "Sputnik"
-
Incoming US President Donald Trump threw a cat among the
European pigeons this week after he said that the EU was
heading for breakup and that he didn’t care much if that
were to happen.
In interviews
with British and German newspapers, Trump said a whole
lot more too. He
described Britain’s decision to split from the EU
as a “great” move, and that more countries would follow
the Brexit; he called German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s
open-door immigration policy a “disaster”; and on the
NATO military alliance, the new president said
it was “obsolete”.
The
following day, EU leaders were huffing and puffing
with rage and exasperation that Trump should dare be so
disrespectful.
“Trump’s NATO,
EU comments spark fury, fear across Europe,” reported
the Washington Times.
Germany’s
Merkel and French President Francois Hollande told Trump
to mind his own business. EU foreign policy chief
Federica Morgherini claimed that European states
followed their own independent course and did not need
Washington anyway. Former French prime minister Manuel
Valls, always prone to histrionics, even went as far
as decrying Trump for “declaring war on Europe”.
The hilarious
thing is that Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, and the
EU leaders have been for months claiming that Russian
President Vladimir Putin is the one who is secretly
plotting the breakup of the European bloc and the
transatlantic alliance.
But after all
this rabid scaremongering against Russia, it is an
American president, Donald Trump, who is publicly
declaring that the days are numbered for the
transatlantic status quo.
Russia did indeed
welcome Trump’s comments about NATO being
“obsolete”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “NATO
is truly a relic of the past… its entire structure is
dedicated to the idea of confrontation; of course, it
can hardly be called a modern structure that meets the
ideas of stability, sustainable development and
security.”
Moscow also
said that it welcomed the opportunity to normalize
relations with Washington as Trump has indicated. He has
intimated that he is prepared to lift economic sanctions
that Washington imposed on Russia since 2014 over the
Ukraine conflict.
Despite their
pretentious bluster, the truth is that European leaders
of all political shades have been absolute lackeys
to Washington for the past several decades. Not one
European state has dared to stand up to American foreign
policy misconduct.
In reaction
to Trump’s latest broadsides, European leaders are
piously claiming to be independent from Washington.
Nothing could be further from the truth about the
current and past crop of European politicians.
Germany’s deputy
Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel hit back at Trump’s savaging
of Merkel’s “disastrous” immigration policies. He said
that the real cause of the refugee crisis in Europe was
America’s military interventions in the Middle East and
Central Asia. Well, yes, that is true. But if Sigmar
Gabriel knew that was the real cause, then why hasn’t
Germany – the most powerful EU member – stood up to
Washington to oppose its relentless warmongering.
The fact is
that the EU has gone along with each and every US-led
war around the world over the past 25 years. Iraq,
Afghanistan, Libya among others.
Look at Syria,
for instance. The EU has imposed economic sanctions
on that forsaken country, in line with Washington’s
agenda for regime change, thus exacerbating the exodus
of refugees. If the EU had some independent backbone,
as it likes to pretend, then it should have firmly
opposed the US-led covert intervention in Syria. But it
didn’t. The EU is fully complicit.
The pernicious
role of Britain has to be acknowledged here. No other
member of the EU has been such an avid cheerleader
for NATO and American atlanticist sway over European
affairs. Britain has loyally followed the US
into foreign wars, thereby dragging Europe into such
follies. If Britain had not been a member of the EU,
perhaps the bloc might have had more critical foreign
policy, one that was more critical of Washington’s
lawless depredations.
Ironically now,
Britain is leaving the EU after 43 years of membership.
But it bequeaths a legacy of subservience to Washington
that all remaining EU members find themselves bound by.
Perhaps the
clearest example of European servility to US foreign
policy is its acquiescence to Russophobia and the
hostile expansion of US-led military forces
along Russia’s borders.
European
governments have colluded with Washington to meddle
in the affairs of Georgia and Ukraine and then seek
to cover up the tracks of conflict by blaming Russia
for the unrest. Moreover, the EU slavishly followed
Washington’s lead to slap economic sanctions on Russia.
Those sanctions have caused minimal disruption
to America’s economy, but they have wreaked havoc
on European farmers, workers and businesses.
The incumbent
European governments are pathetic. Special mention must
be given to French President Hollande, the most
unpopular leader ever. To illustrate the puppet status,
recall the Mistral helicopter-ship deal worth about $2
billion with Russia. Hollande axed the contract and
hence hundreds of French jobs because the Americans
instructed him to do so, allegedly to maintain a unified
sanctions policy on Moscow.
Europe is facing
several key national elections this year, in the
Netherlands, France and Germany. As with other EU
countries there is a popular revolt against the status
quo. The mainstream media paint the opposition parties
as extremist and racist. The media also claim that
Russia is covertly subverting European democracies. This
is just scapegoating. Closer to the truth is that
ordinary EU citizens are fed up with governments that
are in hock to a foreign power – Washington.
The atlanticist
“alliance” has been nothing but a euphemism
for Washington to dominate politically, financially and
militarily over Europe. To the point where Europe has
trashed its historic links and natural relations
with Russia.
After decades
of kowtowing to Washington, there is now a new US
president who is snubbing the “loyal Europeans” and
showing disregard for atlanticism.
Trump’s
comment that he trusts Vladimir Putin equally
with Angela Merkel is surely a sharp putdown
to Europeans who have allowed his predecessors
to dictate disastrous policies for the EU.
Under Trump, the
US may well move to cancel its sanctions on Russia. What
will European lackeys do then? Keep their own futile
anti-Russian sanctions that are wrecking their
economies, or sheepishly repeal the sanctions because
the Americans have done so?
But by then it
will be too late for the EU. The European Union is
already teetering on implosion because for decades its
leaders had no courage or vision to serve the interests
of their citizens instead of Uncle Sam’s atlanticist
designs.
Trump’s
indifference towards European subservience and the NATO
project is a potentially promising new direction to a
more balanced international configuration, especially
with regard to restoring relations with Russia.
It may not work
out, of course. Trump has plenty of enemies at home
among the Washington establishment who see atlanticist
domination of Europe and antagonism towards Russia as a
cornerstone of US global hegemonic ambitions.
Nevertheless,
Trump’s skepticism towards the EU and NATO is setting
the cat among the European pigeons. Because it is
exposing them as impotent flunkies who have ruined their
countries by prostrating themselves as pathetic
dependents on American patronage. |
