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Allied Bid for Obama to Remove US European Nuclear Stockpile
BRUSSELS - European NATO allies are to urge President Barack Obama to remove all remaining US nuclear weapons from European soil, as domestic pressure grows to rid its soil of outdated Cold War-era aerial bombs.
Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and Norway will call "in the coming weeks" for more than 200 American warheads, mostly stocked in Italy and Turkey, to be taken back, a spokesman for Prime Minister Yves Leterme, pictured in 2009, told AFP. Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and Norway will call "in the coming weeks" for more than 200 American warheads, mostly stocked in Italy and Turkey, to be taken back, a spokesman for Prime Minister Yves Leterme told AFP.
A joint proposal by the five NATO members will demand "that nuclear arms on European soil belonging to other NATO member states are removed," Dominique Dehaene said.
Only the United States has nuclear arms stored in other NATO member states in Europe, he added. The proposal does not refer to the distinct, and more modern British and French nuclear arsenals.
"It's a question of launching the debate at the heart of NATO," Dehaene stressed, underlining it would form part of broader disarmament talks also focused on conventional weapons.
Former NATO chief Willy Claes and three more senior Belgian political figures urged such a call in Friday's Belgian press, citing "Obama's pledge to work to eliminate all nuclear weapons."
A statement from Leterme stressed that "Belgium is in favour of a world without nuclear weapons and advocates this position at the heart of NATO," in preparation for a New York conference in May on global nuclear arms non-proliferation efforts.
Leterme said an initiative would be launched under a strategic NATO rethink due to be adopted by leaders of NATO countries in Lisbon in November.
Spokesman Dehaene said that plan includes addressing what to do about some 220 aerial atomic bombs held on military bases in Belgium, Germany, Italy and Turkey.
According to experts, Italy and Turkey house about 90 of these nuclear warheads each.
There are about 20 each in Germany, where 130 atomic bombs were withdrawn in 2004, and Belgium.
These bombs are considered by military experts to be outdated because they are essentially dropped by pilots.
"The Cold War is over. It's time to adapt our nuclear policy to the new circumstances," wrote Claes, fellow former Belgian foreign minister Louis Michel and former prime ministers Jean-Luc Dehaene and Guy Verhofstadt.
"The US tactical nuclear weapons in Europe have lost all military importance," the four said in joint statements which appeared in several Belgian daily newspapers
It was agreed at the end of last year, after Germany sought the withdrawal of the warheads there, that all calls for the removal of these weapons be done on a NATO-wide basis, and not unilaterally.
Allied diplomats stressed that the removal of these arms from Europe would neither represent the end of the US nuclear deterrent on behalf of its allies, nor the denuclearisation of NATO.
The call coincides with a new threat by Russia to base missiles in its western exclave Kaliningrad, which borders the European Union, amid growing controversy over a new US missile shield plan.
Moscow in September said it scrapped plans to place short-range Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad after the United States shelved a controversial missile shield plan for central Europe.
But it expressed concern after Romania said this month it would hold talks with Washington on hosting US missile interceptors and Bulgaria showed an interest in taking part in a US missile shield.
64 Comments so far
Show AllThe Europeans have the right idea. Now if they will follow this suggestion up by demanding that Obama remove all U.S. troops from the Middle East along with those of NATO's.
Also, close some of our overseas bases and stop building the monstrous American "embassies" like the one in Iraq and the one to be built in
Afghanistan. Use the saved money for veterans benefits, infrastructure replacement in the countries where the U.S. has staged its "wars", hungry children in America,
other needs in America, and dismantling the Pentagon.
only close "some"?
"The call coincides with a new threat by Russia to base missiles in its western exclave Kaliningrad, which borders the European Union, amid growing controversy over a new US missile shield plan."
What BS Talk we have here! This is NO Russian threat, it is OUR Military Industrial Complex, pulling the "all to obvious strings" here. This is a Russian RESPONSE to OUR threat.
I guess the MIC sees the light at the end of their "terrorism tunnel" and has to, once again, manufacture a new threat to take its place.
Good News
The Dutch government dissovled over troop deployment in Afghanistan!
I doubt Obama will listen. First, of all, he is a warrior.
Second, even if he wasn't, he couldn't do this because in the mainstream media he would be characterized as a wimp.
Obama is a Warrior......
an ARMCHAIR warrior.
he is exactly like the neocons...
a CHICKEN HAWK..ordering war from the safety of his Oval Office , deeply enveloped in his Empire.
put these people out on the real battle fields and see what they do .....
i forget who said it:
"FOREIGN WARS are always hatched, planned and executed by the MONEYED CLASS -- independent of the welfare of the common people"......\
and also:
"THE MONEYED CLass will NEVER support war unless a profit is to be made".
maybe it was Ludwig von Mises.
Obomba is not a warrior, but a wimp and a coward just like Bushwacker ( bring it on while I hold your coat and Osama dead or alive as long I can hide behind my troops) they are both corrupt puppets of the MIC. JFK was a warrior and a very brave man; MLK was a warrior and a very brave man, but Obomba is the house Negro and a wimp that Malcolm X wrote about. The only difference between Bush and Obama is that one is the village idiot and the other is the consummate con man.
Obama is neither a wimp nor a coward. He's a Republican. Can you imagine the cajones it takes to lie so thoroughly to the American people about who you are and what you stand for? And then go ahead and show your hand day by day, as people become hip to your game and call you names and deride you? And all this because you are greedy and immoral, just like GWB and Cheney?
Barry is a lot of things, but a wimp and a coward he's not. That's just an excuse so one can feel better about voting for him, about being fooled by him.
Just don't let it happen again.
Third of all, he could give a $#!t.
Sadam challenged Bush to a one on one personal combat.
Bush refused.
Obama's body language says wimp and wimps send other people to and wage unnecessary wars.
NATO can demand whatever it likes. The Obamanable Snowman will tell them to eff off. I agree with weacguy that Obama is a warrior - but in the same sense that George Wanker Bush was a warrior. Both are what the writer Michael Herr called "closet throatstickers", punks, phony tough guys, drug store assassins, who would run the other way if they heard gunfire five miles away.
Maybe a deal can be struck where Israel takes them for "safe-keeping"?
After all they only have 250 nukes right now which is hardly enough for a world power that, at the very least, is in full control of both US and Canadian foreign policy.
I'm sure our Nobel Peace Prize President will jump right on this opportunity. /snark off
The image of a hydrogen bomb moments after detonation defines the growing intention of power in this world.
I recall that we had removed our missiles from Turkey during the Cuban Missle Crisis in a comprmise agreement between President Kennedy and Nikita Khruchiev. In any case we now have the capabilities to reach other world sites from our own territory, and shouldn't need foreign based launching facilities. The information concerning missile removal is unclear and incomplete.
"The US tactical nuclear weapons in Europe have lost all military importance"
Maybe so, but their military supervision and maintenance requirements serve another imperial purpose. Damn ungrateful Europeans.
Bring America Back !!!!
****Yep, RV, and the word "tactical" is wrong and misused. When used with
the word 'nuclear', the adjective 'strategic' is accurate and proper.
Even in a stockpile, those babies are strategic weapons !! That's what
really makes our ally, Russia, get pissed off !
Bring America Back !!!!
****Isn;t it amazing the French Presse knows exactly how many Nukes there are in Europe and where they are located !
Moreover, they publish it like tomorrow's weather forecast.
****Our little sister nation, Israel admits not to possession of Nukes, nor locations or numbers; it is said the Zionists have killed over issues of disclosure and security of their Nukes==the attack on the USS Liberty
being one example. You recall Israel, the little ally which dictates US Mideast Policies thru its AIPAC, political action agency in the US.
**But I guess the issue is why keep the nukes in Europe when Team Obama has perfectly good new toys==Drones==and just hook the warheads up to them instead. You recall the Drones, just about the size of the hole in the Pentagon wall on 9/11===that Hole not being nearly large enough for a 757 Jumbo Jet, and no jet engines, fusilage, wings or human remains having been found==yep remember the Drones.
there is online a French Film ...sometimes you can catch it ...free... on streaming from Channelsurfing.net...but they never announce what films are scheduled..i caught it twice already.
a very funny, but also quite engrossing movie...about a "near future" french situation of a squalid , "outsider" neighborhood in paris that even police won't go in normally..with its criminals, immigrants, outcasts..etc...
and a guy joins up with his boyhood friend who's a police man - to find out and fight against certain government folks and a corporation (named "HARRIBurton"....hehe)
that connive to destroy by missile the entire neighborhood and remake it for the "proper citizens"...
very fun, but very DARING. in the end...the different gangs in the neighborhood, fighting for their survival and had been frustrated from the neglect of good government) convince the President of France - after saving him and his government from the corporate and traitorious officials and secret service - about what the "outcasts" really hungered for -- just to be treated with decency like everyone else. ..and they all - in PURE FRENCH cinema style -- sit around the President's long table and have a drink and having laughgs as they discuss the "better future" of "egalite, fraternite, liberte".
the movie's SUPERB action scenes show these guys literally jumping from buildings, using only their bodies and athletic jumps to escape the "cops" ...i think the actor in the movie invented that "urban movement" style,,,whcih is so dangerous.
the film is
BANLIEU 13.
or "BARRIO 13".
Don't count on Obama to bring our warheads home.
The EU does not have the destructive capabilities of the US, but it is economically stronger. China would have little reason to support American interests in this, and Russia will support any European move to get rid of these.
Europeans have considerable interest in getting rid of these. They only serve as targets and as excuses for an increasingly hostile and opaque American presence.
I think 0 will see fit to move on this one.
Finally!
The Europeans are finally growing some balls and telling the U.S. to take their damn nukes off their continent.
I have been waiting for something like this to happen for a while already. It is the only way our WAR Government is ever going to do something like this, by demand.
The United States WAR Government really has no choice in the matter, it is their land.
Either they comply,
OR
The United States is going to Invade and Occupy Europe. But if that were to happen, which it isn't, I'm just saying, Everyone around the world would wake up to the fact that this is a Fascist Dictatorship trying to Build its Military Empire around the World.
Well I look forward and very eager to watch this one play out.
Now all they have to do is start telling the United States WAR Government to get ALL the Military weapons, bases and personal in total out of their countries.
Then we might be heading on the right path.
peace. love. anarchy
I wouldn't depend too strongly on the growth of European balls, but I've always thought that the U.S. might ultimately pay a price for dragging its NATO allies into an aggressive venture outside their legitimate North Atlantic area of operations.
This may only be the symptomatic thin edge of the NATO blowback against U.S. "leadership." Even Harperite Canada is increasingly uncomfortable with its role in the so-called "International Security Assistance Force" which was allegedly to provide "Emergency International Assistance for the Reconstruction of War-Stricken Afghanistan." I'm not looking for any testicular growth there either, but so far it seems likely that Canada will stick to its declared intention to get out by 2011.
In any case, it seems pretty clear that U.S. geopolitical influence is on the wane globally. Too bad. So sad. ;-)
I don't like the expression "growing some balls" because it implys that having balls is preferable to not having big enough ones. 'Balls' is a slang expression for the male genatalia. Males are often more agressive and violent than women. I think Anarchy it is really expressing some growth of back bone and that is good. Enough back bone and wealth to withstand the pressure of the United States. Pity poor Romania and Bulgaria. They are considering 'hosting' our nuclear weapons. I wonder how much of our tax funds (so badly needed at home) are going instead to buy the leadership of these poor nations.
Damn!! I wish I lived in a democracy. I don't want to move but I sure want to change our government.
Don't be fooled. Nato and the U.S. are in bed with each other! They are currently working together in Afghanistan.
They share the same ideology of greed, the same view that the rich should have control of most of the world's resources, that the U.S. should lead the world, that perpetual war is a good thing.
This view is ridiculous. Peace can't be achieved using war! Don't be taken in! Become a thinker! While you still can visit:
www.dangerouscreation.com
Greed is hardly unique to the NATO alliance, David. Nor, unfortunately, is the mistaken notion that wars (fought by alliances or otherwise) can end war somehow. The latter alleged motivation is usually pure propaganda. The former is very real.
RV, most people in the world have been indoctrinated to think that war is a natural part of life. What nonsense! People who engage in endless war are barbaric,immoral and unintelligent.
The U.S. is at the top of the list of obsessive warmongers. 300 million Americans are to blame.
No, not all three hundred million Americans are to blame for endless war. Many of us are opposed to Empire and large numbers (including me) were confused by Obama's fast talking and by our desire to have a black man attain the highest office in the land. But no, not all Americans are to blame for American foreign policy.
All right then, folks. Let's suppose that 160 million Americans support the status quo and 140 million don't.
What exactly are 140 million Americans doing to fight against the endless warmongering, the greed, the control of most resources by the Robber Barons, the electoral tampering, the inequality that exists right across America, the rampant imperialism?
140 million is a lot of people. Surely they'd make a lot of noise with their protests, have a lot of power and influence. Where are they hiding? Why are they so silent, so passive, so impotent?
Even if there were 20 million Americans who opposed the status quo, they could still make a lot of noise, have a big impact.
Perhaps 290 million American sheeple is closer to the mark?
www.dangerouscreation.com
Patience, my friend. Patience.
Ordinary Americans of all stripes are only beginning to shake off their collective brainwashing and awaken to the fact that their exceptionally superior politico-economic system doesn't actually live up to its advertising and certainly doesn't operate in the best interests of their commonweal either globally or domestically. And even those who have thus far achieved that unpleasant awakening are still a long way from reaching any consensus on how to deal with it.
Whether they ever will and, if so, whether they'll ultimately summon up the intestinal fortitude to take the neccessary actions remains an open question. In the meantime, they're approaching the very difficult struggle in the best ways they know, and you'll achieve far more with calm sympathetic reason and support than with blanket condemnations and disdain.
RV, decade by decade I have shown patience as American imperialism has led the world closer and closer to nuclear annihilation.
Now, on the verge of an attack on Iran, I'm supposed to demonstrate calm, sympathetic reason and support for not only the world's biggest warmonger but also for the American people (who make up 5% of the world's people) who may or may not take the necessary actions to prevent their country bringing about WW3.
Talk about fiddling while Rome burns!
You're smarter than that, David. You understand the distinction I was making between "the world's biggest warmonger" and your blanket condemnation of 300 million American human beings. And you also know very well that I was NOT suggesting patience with U.S. imperialism, but with ordinary folks just like you and me. Don't pretend to be obtuse.
Ah, RV, I don't think that Americans are ordinary folk just like me and you are probably smart enough to realize that.
The people of my country are not trying to take over the world and they do not think that they were born to rule the world either. And they are not arrogant enough to believe that their nation is some exalted Beacon on the Hill or the Greatest Nation in the History of the World. Only Americans entertain such bizarre fantasies about themselves.
If Americans could wake up to the fact that they are badly out of step with most of the world's people and are almost universally disliked because they are then they might be able to change their selfish, destructive ways before it's too late.
Okay. You win. If you really think that all 300 million Americans, presumably including the babies and little children, are not ordinary folk, I give up.
RV, there are no winners in this situation. When the world becomes like the moon, which may happen sooner than you think, who would you suggest that we blame?
Time is running out, friend. The time for action was yesterday!
there is plenty of blame to go around.
people of countries are of course responsible for their countries' fate, but that also depends on how much power they have to resist FOREIGN influences that overwhelm their own abilities to order their own countries in THEIR way - to the extent that , should things fail, THEY are to be blamed MORe than the powerful interests from outside.
if a country is so poor or weak compared to a foreign power that has installed itself as an influence .. SHOULD the weaker country's people be MORE to blame than the people of the powerful one that had MORE of a choice to REJECT the overcoming of the weaker country so as to DENY its people the right to order their country independently - and therefore, whether in failure or success, BE responsible for it MORe than the foreign powerful country's people?
should a CHILD who is after all, far weaker and more vulnerable than his father - be BLAMED , if by the influence and even threats of the father to become like himself, the child grows up to become a thief and a cruel person?
when he is an adult - he will be blamed for the crimes he commits - of course, but ISN"T the father also even more guilty for using HIS POWER over the child when the child was weak and vulnerable to BECOME a criminal when he grows up?
the question here is of POWER.
a country that has great power whose people, whoever they are, however MANY of them participate or not or are INDIFFERENT, but MISUSES that power BECOMES guilty of that misuse -- and more so, if it EXTENDS that misuse TOWARDS other countries ESPECIALLY because they are weaker...because it is the act of a BULLY.
it is the same as a Bodybuilder who uses his size and big power and muscles to elbow everyone around. ..rather than to PROTECT and HELP the weaker ones around.
but the USA has demonstrated far more that it is a BULLY rather than what it claims:
a "helper and protector" of the weak, whatever the merits of THAT is in this world.
it would be BETTER if the USA did NOT claim such things while actually being the biggest bully around under guise of "protector"...because it just sounds like a Protection RACKET..not unlike that of the Mafia.
at least - such people, even with their internal subculture's own ideas of "law" - in society DO NOT pretend to be LEGITIMATE...as they practice their terror.
but the USA CLAIMS legitimacy BY practicing Terror.
and in this - the question is:
TO WHAT EXTENT is the American Populace at large RESPONSIBLE for this behavior?
sure - children can not be blamed for they do not yet have the fully-formed capacity to decide on all the crucial and significant things that "order" a society...
but what about their PARENTS and the SOCIETY at large in which these parents function - in which they BRING UP their children to think a CERTAIN way that holds UP the American "exceptionalism", whether it's in the devotion to sports that they broadly claim as "WORLD" series baseball, or
"FOOTBALL" where the rest of the world -- while the only time they really ever FOOT the ball is when they begin a "play" , the great majority , calls the more proper form AS soccer ?
to what extent is the american population's responsibility in this, since it is their participation towards the 'american dream' that DOES give life and sustenance to this very idea of American Exceptionalism?.
YET - we do have to be careful to not just declare ALL and EVERY american "guilty" .
that is wrong because there are also millions of conscientuous americans who DO try to live as decently as they can but are ALSO trapped inside the exploitative system even if they call it "freedom" relative to other societies.
AND in other societies that is also similar.
not ALL iranians are "theocratic" ...not ALL pakistanis or afghanis are "taliban" . and FEWER even are "terrorists" - just as not ALL americans are happy or satisfied and devoted to 'capitalism'.
i really like that statement by the "UNCLE" character in that VERY american movie : SPIDERMAN?
where the uncle that was dying reminded his nephew (Spiderman) :
"remember--- with GREAT power, comes GREAT responsibility".
the question ABOUT americans is not so much about "how manY" this or that -- but as a NATION with GREAT power - what
have "you done" with it?
because to the WORLD that america affects because of its presence IN their lives..whether they wanted it or not, or agreed with it or not -- america HAS great influence -- for the good or the bad.
and IN america - IS the HEART and ROOT of what america DOES abroad.
what it DOES abroad is only a manifestation of what is INSIDE america even if TO americans that is NOT the case because it presents itself to THEM as an altogether DIFFERENT reality - a more benevolent one "at home" but it manifests itself - translated as foreign policy in something far more ruthless than waht americans see bck home or
as some americans have pointed out "we are WILLING to admit".
as an american poet said (I fear I will never remember his name - i came across his statement so long ago) :
"WE AMERICANS - carefully nurture an attitude of detached indifference to the suffering of others........EVEN if WE are the cause of it".
So kids are responsible for their government's actions? The extreme elderly? The rural poor as well as immigrants who don't speak the language well? Not to mention those who were taken in by the omnipresent government propaganda, people who, unlike you, did buy a pig in a poke? You are being too judgmental.
Drosera, who else can you blame for the mess that America is in other than the American people? It is supposed to be a democracy after all, you know the routine: government by the people, for the people.
If Americans are not to blame for their country's warmongering and greed, who is? The Russians? The Chinese? The weather?
Put the blame on the shoulders of those that created the problems: the oligarchs that have controlled this country's politics for the last two hundred (or more) years. You need to have a sense of history: the people that immigrated to this country were poor, mainly uneducated, and fed up with the aristocracies of Europe. Then there were the blacks who were compelled to come. You want to blame those people--most of whom came here to get away from the vicious class-based societies of Europe? Maybe they were manipulated, but what do you expect, given the set of values they came with? Government, for the most part, is evil and always has been--at least as far as the ordinary person is concerned. Too bad that it also can provide the only check to the excesses of the privileged class. Americans missed that detail, though they are now in the process of figuring it out. Hope that understanding comes sooner, not later.
I can accept that characterization of the U.S. role generally, but 300 million Americans may be casting the net just a bit too widely. We don't want to fall into the trap of condemning entire populations for the sins of a country's regime. That's exactly what the warmongers and their dehumanizing military programmers do.
What is quite remarkable to note the wide cross section of Belgian politicians calling for this, with the notable exception of the neo-fascist, neo-con & right wing American think tanks allied, nuke loving douche bags, Vlaams Belang.
my country 'tis of thee...
..;Yes, Obama did denounce the dangers of nuclear power on the campaign trail. And yes, he has always been in receipt of hefty campaign funds from the nuclear industry. The huge nuke corporation Exelon donated $US200,000 to Obama's 2008 election campaign and his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, and prime political advisor David Axelrod, have links to the company. And yes, on February 1, the Obama administration unveiled a budget in which both of the University of California’s s weapons labs would receive huge boosts in government funding. The proposed funding increase of 23 per cent at Los Alamos would be the facility's largest since 1944. Much of that funding is for a new factory to produce plutonium bomb cores, the explosive triggers of modern thermo-nuclear warheads, for the purpose of outfitting the first new nukes to be developed since the end of the Cold War...
...alexander cockburn
If the European NATO officials are feeling and listening (Unlike US officials) to their constituents -- presuming only that the majority of Europeans indeed have grown tired of US militarism on their soil -- then my own understanding from what people I know that are from Europe intimate has indeed been correct:
that - despite their tendency to NOT really to openly say what they think or feel about politics , being, apparently, conscious that they have too much at stake having put down roots in the USA - the "undercurrent" of what i often hear from those of european origin is that their compatriots in europe indeed reflect this sentiment.
1) my observation of their reaction to conversations regarding the USA - in europe or elsewhere - is that they want to just "keep their heads down" and not make waves, being in the USA , and to just concentrate on making a living..but that there also seems to an undercurrent that they are NOT quite as "convinced" as american-born are about "democracy" or that people are really "free" to discuss "certain things" in the USA...so they tend to keep a "low profile"..
2) but when sometimes i press them...they generally tend to let out a sentiment which says that the USA is more troublesome IN europe than their home countries really need.
it is then, probably true that the majority of populations do NOT want the USA to continue its militaristic presence in their countries - but that it is often the LEADERS who get coerced by the USA leaders to "follow the leader" -- which is the USA's self-appointed role.
at least, from previous readings of news FROM the countries in europe that i recall...an example :
in Poland - the majority of people seem to NOT want the US Missile system next door to RUSSIA - EVEN with the Poles' experience of being under communism decades ago. I remember a remark , probably reflective of most poles , in some article last year that poles consider the US missiles
"more trouble than they are worth".
and this seems to be a general sentiment across europe, except probably some wanna-be- US poodle governments like that of Georgia's Shaakashviili, or former regime in Ukraine.
Western Europe, if not ALL of europe to include the former Soviet Republics (although the latter is also arguable)..probably has a generally HIGHER level of education than the general US population...one critical difference being that most europeans that go to some secondary or vocational level of schooling seem to have a good grasp of at least 3 languages including their native languages, which by itself is a good stepping stone to having a "wider" world view than most americans would seem to imbibe.
and for this -- it also seems to be a part of the general European skepticism , in addition to their own centuries of experience in wars, terrorism from within their own region, and other conflicts and upheavals - it can mean that europeans are generally less devoted to the American "idea" of "security" where it MUST include ITS military presence everywhere the USA thinks its presence is "required and necessary".
I think the way to sum it is:
Europeans, far more than Americans, would NATURALLY see the american militaristic presence on their soils - as MORE problematic than it is worth....which only causes unnecessary tension and escalation of any problems there are or creating MORE problems than there ARE.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
Most EU countries still value the foundational reasons for international law and still abide by it far better than the U.S. which has been acting, with respect to many of the key points of international law regarding war crimes, as an almost completely rogue nation for nearly a decade. I think the EU is making a political point about how nervous they are about persistent U.S. bellicosity and lawlessness and these warheads were chosen to make that point because they are probably obsolete technology whose shelf life is exhausted anyway.
If, in coming decades, parts of the EU go to war with each other or with Russia or other former Soviet bloc countries, don't be surprised if EU countries once again seek U.S. military help. Then again, if you had the choice of seeking help from an FDR or a George W. Bush in the White House you'd weigh the risks accordingly. No telling how awful our presidents will be by then.
President Palin with her trigger on the finger, er-um, finger on the nuclear trigger would give any EU leader pause.
Although I really dislike him and his economic conservatism... .
PATRICK BUCHANAN makes a VERY good point:
"WE didn't like it when the Soviet Union was in our neighborhood in cuba...so....what are WE doing in RUSSIA's neighborhood?
"If Putin doesn't like our putting our military surrounding russia...doesn'T HE have a point?
"we should get out of those lands before they kick us out of there...we should get out of this business of Empire".
"
Terrific comment, Teddy! Great to see an American who has the ability to see his country's failings and is brave enough to spell them out!
www.dangerouscreation.com
as i opined, I still don't like his politicis and economics - being basically the same "free-marketer" or capitalist that many are. BUT in at least one thing, on "empire" and these military installations and the stupidity of the rationales...
we have to give credit where it's due. he has written quite a number of correct articles on american imperial policies ...often emphasising that they have nothing to do with "national interests" or national "security. i will never agree with his economic and capitalist "faith"..all the more reason that he should be given credit for THIS particular sentiment ..although in his other pronouncements "made for TV" with his other conservative ilk - he also often shows a "two-faced" position advocating many of the things that are the tactical part of the empire..perhaps because they are already "bogged down".
but on the whole - what he says, if he means them - is right and he should be credited for it, i think.
for one thing - he often emphasises in his articles:
"no matter how we dislike it...WHAT BUSINESS is it of OURS how other countries order themselves?"
Pat Buchanan makes a good and obvious point. The cold war is over. Why are we trying to revive it.
The monster does not approve of its tentacles being severed.