21st Century Wire says…
The real fallout from Washington’s recent withdrawal from its 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia has yet to materialize, but it could be a game changer.
President Trump’s withdrawal from the INF Treaty is based on a spurious claim (such claims seem to be the new norm in his newly revamped Neoconservative administration) Russia is somehow violating it. Russia invited US officials to come and inspect its missiles in order to clear-up the matter but the Washington has flatly refused, opting instead to ramp-up hostilities with Moscow. Trump’s repeated public berating of NATO member states for “not paying up” towards their 2% GDP military spending targets – has been viewed by some German officials as an attempt to humiliate Berlin on the world stage, whilst simultaneously strong-arming Germany into an adversarial position against Russia, as the US attempts to sabotage Germany’s Nordstream 2 joint energy venture with Moscow. Both of these issues are closely intertwined via US grand strategy for Europe.
All of this has prompted Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition partners to reconsider Germany’s Cold War era ‘Nuclear Shield’ agreement which allows the US to park its nuclear weapons on German soil, and which obligates Germany to join in on a nuclear attack against Russia in the event of a conflagration. If this situation plays out to its end, it will be a major development in terms of reconfiguring a 70 year-old US grand strategy which provides for the collective defense of Europe. Germany’s Washington-weary Social Democrats (SPD) have already pledged to block the slated purchase of some 45 Boeing Co.-made nuclear enabled F/A-18 jets recently proposed by the German defense minister. These jets are central to the Nuclear Shield joint strategy moving forward into the coming decade.
Incredibly, as yet there has been no comment from NATO head Jens Stoltenberg on this crucial issue, which could mean a quiet panic has set in in Brussells as eurocrats struggle to find a solution to what appears to be a fundamental break in transatlantic solidarity on an age-old alliance – triggered by what many in Europe regard as an unconventional, if not rogue administration in Washington. Previously, Stoltenberg has been hiding behind the Trump administration’s dubious INF Treaty threats against Russia. At a February meeting of the 29 member NATO-Russia Council in Brussels, Stoltenberg reiterated Washington’s demands to Moscow’s deputy foreign minister to destroy a nuclear-capable cruise missile system before a Feb. 2 deadline. As expected, Moscow did not roll over and comply, leaving euro hawks in a precarious position – stuck between Washignton’s Neocon conclave and a threatened Russia – as well as the very real prospects of a new East-West arms race.
Germany’s center-left SPD have already appointed a new commission to re-evaluate the country’s current strategic security positions. The move indicates that the NATO consensus might be fracturing, as center-left forces across Europe re-evaluate the 21st century relevancy and benefits of the Cold War military alliance.
Initially, in the aftermath of WWII, the US had arranged that German aircraft would be used to launch U.S. nuclear weapons in the event that the Soviet Union ever attacked Western Europe. In addition to this, the US has been allowed to use German as its primary European military staging ground – something which many pundits and analysts believe is akin to Washington using Europe as doormat in its pursuit of unipolar global hegemony.
The fact of the matter is simple: Washington needs Germany to ‘confront’ Russia. Without Germany under Washington’s thumb, the Neocon geopolitical game will quickly fall to pieces.
This development could also be extremely pivotal in the advancement of the emerging policy of European Military Unification aka an ‘EU Army.’
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READ MORE EU ARMY NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire EU Army Files
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