Memorial Day: NATO Continues to Inflict Powerful Negative Memories of Betrayal on Russia
“You can just image the uproar if Russia or China were doing exercises like this (by invitation) on the Canadian or Mexican border as part of a “defense exercise,” said Jim Dean about the NATO exercises in Eastern Europe this weekend. http://www.veteranstoday.com/2016/05/28/nato-parades-through-europe-on-memorial-day/
We are absolutely stupid that we allow this. It is in violation of the 1990 agreement we made with Russia.
“According to the German record of the conversation, which was only recently declassified, Genscher said: ‘We are aware that NATO membership for a unified Germany raises complicated questions. For us, however, one thing is certain: NATO will not expand to the east.’ And because the conversion revolved mainly around East Germany, Genscher added explicitly: ‘As far as the non-expansion of NATO is concerned, this also applies in general.’ http://www.spiegel.de/…/nato-s-eastward-expansion-did-the-w…
Why do they always try to provoke Russia? How many agreements do we violate? Have we ever tried the policy of honoring our agreements and making ourselves stronger internally, seeking to build up the positive, rather than tear down and smash so that we can “win?” We always loose with that stance anyway, as has been seen in all of the wars we have fought since Korea. We loose when we become the aggressor. In Korea we were succeeding at defending the South and then when we over stepped into Chinese protected territory, we started loosing.
I am grateful to Russia for not acting against us. What does our leadership think? This idea of Western Exceptionalism and violating our agreements with one of the major powers in the world is wrong. It endangers us. Russia is smart. They can just sit on the sidelines as we violate agreements, integrity and loose over and over again in wars we manufactured and fomented. Then when we are nearing bankruptcy because of the wars, Russia, China and all those we attacked can insure financially that it takes a long time for America and Europe to get back up. Trump is part of their plan, potentially, as he claims to want to negotiate with Russia but will do many things to harm America internally and further weaken us from inside out. I wonder if Putin would be as open to a President Sanders should he win? I cannot see Sanders sponsoring this type of exercise through NATO.
One thing is interesting that I had not thought about before, if the Russians feel, “the West broke its word and short-changed Russia when it was weak,” this could explain why they would support Trump. We are weak now, financially and ideologically as corruption can be found in most foreign policy decisions. The decisions are not made for values, but for corporate financial interests and quid pro quo is commonplace. Look at the French government in Libya. Their 5 point plan was focused on gold and oil. Our military should be used for defensive purposes only, not to pillage the world and soften targets to make them easier to destroy for financial interests and vultures looming in the background.
On Memorial Day, we should remember the millions of civilians killed, thousands of our soldiers killed, trillions of dollars spent and probably one billion people who have suffered because of our current wars in the Middle East. Why do we egg this on? Our leaders are too stupid, and we have little recourse to stop them.