from Mint Press News
Defense Sectary Visits Hawkish Atlantic Council to Announce US Troop Buildup
on Russia Border
US Defense Secretary Mark Esper visited the notorious Atlantic Council,
funded by a who's who of weapons makers and despotic regimes, to announce
that the US would not, indeed, be withdrawing troops from Germany but
sending them to Russia's border instead.
by Alan Macleod
October 21st, 2020
By Alan Macleod
The United States was supposed to be sending thousands of troops home from
Germany. But Secretary of Defense Mark Esper announced yesterday that they
would instead be redeployed eastwards, right on the Russian border in some
cases, supposedly to deter "growing Russian and Chinese threats."
"It's common sense," the senior Trump administration official said. "You
don't need to be Napoleon or MacArthur to look at the map and realize that
the further east you are, the more reassurance you could provide for those
allies and partners on the frontlines-whether it's in the northeast, it's
the Baltic states, Poland, just due east of Germany, or in Bulgaria and
Romania in the southeast along the Black Sea." Thus, for the U.S.
government, the "frontline" against an "aggressive" Russia includes
countries that until recently were a part of the Soviet Union and that sit
directly on Russia's border. In July, Trump announced the impending
withdrawal of thousands of U.S. armed forces from Germany (a country it has
militarily occupied since World War Two).
Esper was speaking at the Atlantic Council, an influential think tank
started as a NATO cutout organization funded by Western governments, Middle
Eastern dictatorships, weapons companies like Raytheon, Northrop Grumman,
and Boeing, as well many of the world's largest corporations such as Goldman
Sachs, BP, and FedEx.
The administration's plan to ramp down the U.S. military presence from
36,000 troops to 24,000 was met with overwhelming hostility in Washington
when it was first announced in July; the Democrat-controlled House of
Representatives even included an amendment to its version of the 2021
National Defense Authorization Act to block funding for any withdrawal. Both
Republican Sen. Mitt Romney and CNN described the idea as Trump's "gift to
Russia," while Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez claimed that "champagne must be
flowing freely this evening at the Kremlin." Thus, the news of a change of
course will likely be greeted warmly in "resistance" circles.
A new arms race
Even during a worldwide pandemic that has destroyed the economy, the U.S.
government is strong-arming its allies, NATO and non-NATO alike, into
rearming for a potential global war against both Russia and China. Esper
presented the United States as a protector nation, unfairly having to pay
for the defense of other countries. "To overcome the increasingly complex
threats in the 21st century and defend our shared values, there can be no
free riders to our common security," he said, adding that it was imperative
that other states "share the burden" and increase their military spending to
at least two percent of their gross domestic product "as the floor." "We
also expect them to be ready, capable, and willing to deploy when trouble
calls. And we expect them to stand shoulder to shoulder with the United
States in confronting Chinese bad behavior and Russian aggression," he
added.
What is this Chinese and Russian aggression? Esper noted an increased
Chinese military presence in the South China Sea, where throughout the
summer, the U.S. has also been expanding its footprint. U.S. warships have
been patrolling as close as 41 nautical miles from the Chinese coast. He
pointed to the Russian presence in Ukraine (a country the U.S. is also
flooding with weapons) as justification for the "defensive" action of
sending thousands of troops mere miles from Russia itself.
Esper also called for a wholescale "modernization" of the military and the
arms industry, which, he claimed, had too many restrictions on it regarding
foreign sales, meaning the West's "asymmetric advantage" was at risk. But,
as many have explored previously, "modernization" is a favorite political
euphemism used when wanting to discuss or promote a new arms race.
Who is the Atlantic Council?
The Atlantic Council is an increasingly influential body whose board of
directors is a who's who of American state power. From war planners like
Henry Kissinger to Bush administration officials like Condoleezza Rice and
Colin Powell, army generals like David Petraeus and Wesley Clark, and former
CIA directors such as Leon Panetta, Michael Chertoff, and Robert Gates, the
organization is as close to a representation of the so-called "deep state"
as is possible to get.
The Council has also been the driving force behind many of the most hawkish
RussiaGate stories in recent years, putting out a series of widely cited
reports claiming that virtually every political party in Europe not
representing the established political center is secretly controlled by
Vladimir Putin. From Labour and UKIP in Britain, Syriza and Golden Dawn in
Greece to the Five Star Movement in Italy, all, according to Atlantic
Council reports, are the "Kremlin's Trojan Horses." These reports have
provided the basis for much of the most breathless stories regarding Russia
since 2016.
The Council is also in charge of curating Facebook's news feed, deciding
which sources are high quality and newsworthy, and which sources are fake
news, and are taken down from the site. Since around 40 percent of Americans
(and similar numbers across the globe) get their news from Facebook, the
partnership with an organization like the Atlantic Council is as close to
worldwide state media censorship as is likely to be achieved in the modern
era. Yet few even know about this connection at all, nor how much of an
influence the group has over modern media.
War drums
Throughout 2020, President Trump has used China as a method of deflecting
attention away from his own response to the coronavirus pandemic, which, as
of October 21, has claimed the lives of over 226,000 Americans. Trump has
constantly condemned China for its response and labeled COVID-19 as the
"Wuhan China Virus" or similar.
Democrats have largely decided to attack Trump on the right on the issue,
however, with both parties claiming the other's leader is in the pocket of
Beijing. As a result, the public's view of China has reached a new low, with
only 22 percent of Americans expressing a positive view of the world's most
populous state, and 73 percent holding a negative opinion.
Polls are currently not looking good for Trump. Yet Joe Biden's campaign
team has strongly hinted at increased conflict with both Russia and China if
their candidate is to win in November, suggesting that, when it comes to
foreign policy, war is a bipartisan issue.
