COMMENT TO A VIDEO BY PAUL MASON IN THE GUARDIAN
Paul Mason makes no sense to any thinking and informed
person, at least one who is not under the influence of some undeclared special
interest, as I feel absolutely confident Mason must be.
Russia is not a threat, indeed quite the opposite is true,
and that’s why the United States is so keen to make trouble between Europe and
Russia these days.
Europe is on the wrong side of history in its recent
treatment of Russia, and putting Europe in that position is deliberate,
undeclared American policy.
Europe’s current group of ineffective leaders are prostrated
before a demanding American colossus, one growing uneasy with a sense of its
relative decline in the world, a colossus whose interests indeed are anything
but Europe's.
The ugly colossus in recent years has engineered trouble
after trouble, contributing to the insecurity and destabilizing of Europe.
There is paid-for coup in Ukraine ($5 billion) with its
ensuing pointless civil war and an effort behind the scenes to bring Ukraine -
an economically backward state with a poor human rights record and right-wing
militias set loose and with a government of almost comic incompetence - into
the EU and NATO.
That is an aim incalculably destructive and dangerous for
Europe's future peace and prosperity, and it is tied in with a second
destructive aim of heading-off better and healthier economic relations with
Russia, especially what had been a growing healthy relationship with Germany.
The US simply saw its current overall, indirect control of
Europe slipping slowly away, and it wanted decisive action to put a stop to it.
At the same time in recent years, America has unleashed an unprecedented
assault on many of the countries of the Middle East. The horror of Syria is a
deliberately calculated effort to destabilize a government and divide a nation,
one conducted largely by proxy armies of thugs attracted from all over the
world. It has seen hundreds of thousands killed in the effort, resulting in
huge destabilizing streams of refugees to Europe.
This ugly march through the Middle East has had nothing to
do with democracy or human rights. The US doesn’t touch absolute regimes like
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, or the new junta in Egypt. It never even
nudges Israel to end its occupations. No, America’s murderous, years-long
effort is aimed at the region’s independent-minded governments who do not toe
the line on American policy. By comparison, Russia is a well-behaved state
which seeks normal and healthy relationships with its neighbors.
Had Europe’s leaders had the courage to say “no” to those
American policies, Europe today would be a far better place, peacefully trading
with Russia – increased trade being a tonic for Europe’s economic malaise - and
not fighting the immense tragedy of floods of refugees from the Middle East,
which event of course includes an unholy agreement with the madman running
Turkey, a man responsible for much of the tragedy in the first place. But
America only sees Turkey as a bulwark against Russia and couldn’t care less
that its leader murders both Kurds and Syrians and suppresses freedom of
speech.
But in the end, what really matters for Britain with Trident
is that you can never own Trident. You can only pay an immense amount of money,
an effective vast and long-term rent, to the Pentagon.
And that is so because you cannot ever use Trident. You can
decide almost nothing concerning it. You can only ride around in it watching
the flag snap in the breeze when it’s on the surface. When the US decides
nuclear war is desirable – and that is not at all inconceivable since as late
as the early 1960s, the Pentagon drew up serious plans for an all-out first
strike against the Soviet Union - you will be directed how to use Trident and just
where to aim your missiles. Of course, if you hesitate in such an event to join
in the nuclear fun, you will also be in extremely deep trouble.
You can only use Trident with the permission and cooperation
of the United States. The deal is much like one with a tech company such as
Apple. If you even open or try to replace anything on some Apple products, they
simply stop working, telling you very forcefully who really owns the phone or
watch you paid good money for.
It is a terrible deal for Britain. Those tens of billions
could do a lot of genuine good instead. As for Paul Mason, he’s about as much a
genuine liberal as Hillary Clinton, bloody Goddess of War.
