"El fin del mundo tal como lo conocemos", dicen los chicos del Spiegel alemán, medio en broma, medio en serio. Lo cierto es que en Europa, y en particular en la sede de la NATO, corre cierto sudor frío por las espaldas de los hasta ayer "halcones" europeos. Claro, una cosa es bravuconear alineaditos con el gigante imperial, y otra cosa es tener que bancarse solos la parada. Leemos en el Zero Hedge de hoy:
Título: NATO
Panics As Putin Urges Trump To Force Alliance Withdrawal From Russian Border
Texto: While many
in the media have speculated that the Kremlin had a hand in Wikileaks'
procurement of hacked Podesta emails - something Julian Assange denied last
week - and US intelligence services officially accused Russian
government-supported hackers of interfering with the US election (providing
zero proof for the allegation), the truth is that Vladimir Putin is delighted
with the outcome from the US elections: not so much for Hillary's loss as that
the sharp, neo-con wing in the Pentagon has been muted for the next four years.
And, in the first
test of Trump's willingness to rebuild bridges with Russia, Putin's spokesman
suggested that President-elect Donald Trump should begin rebuilding the
U.S.-Kremlin relationship by urging NATO to withdraw forces from the Russian
border. Dmitry Peskov told the
Associated Press that such a move
"would lead to a kind of detente in Europe." Trump repeatedly
praised Putin during his campaign and suggested the U.S. abandon its commitment
to the NATO alliance.
The request comes
at a time of disturbing, relentless escalations in military tensions between
NATO and Russia: this week we reported that NATO has placed as much as 300,000
troops on "high alert" in preparation for confrontation with Russia.
Peskov said in
the interview that the NATO presence does not make Russia feel
"safe." "Of course, we
have to take measures to counter," he said.
Additionally,
setting the stage for Trump's official position on Crimea, in a separate
interview with the Associated Press on Thursday, Peskov insisted that Crimea
which became part of Russia after the CIA-sponsored Ukraine presidential coup
in 2014, will remain such. "No one
in Russia — never — will be ready to start any kind of discussion about
Crimea," he said, refusing to call it "annexation."
When asked how
Trump could approach the Crimea issue, quoted by The Hill, Peskov said it would
take time. "We understand that it will take time for our partners in
Europe, for our partners here in the United States to understand that. We are
patient enough to wait until this understanding occurs here in Washington, in
the States, in Europe," he said.
* * *
But while the
Crimea issue is largely moot, with the West resigned to its concession to
Moscow, fears that Trump will indeed follow Russia's advice and pressure the
alliance into standing down, or worse, withdraw US support, has resulted in
outright panic, and according to German Spiegel, NATO strategists are planning
for a scenario in which Trump orders US troops out of Europe.
Spiegel adds that
strategists from NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg’s staff have drafted a
secret report which includes a worst-case scenario in which Trump orders US
troops to withdraw from Europe and fulfills his threat to make Washington less
involved in European security.
“For the first
time, the US exit from NATO has become a threat” which would mean the end of
the bloc, a German NATO officer told the magazine. During his campaign, Trump
repeatedly slammed NATO, calling the alliance “obsolete.” He also suggested
that under his administration, the US may refuse to come to the aid of NATO
allies unless they “pay their bills” and “fulfill their obligations to us.”
Of course, this
is the same Spiegel which after Trump's victory has predicted the end of the
world.
“We are
experiencing a moment of the highest and yet unprecedented uncertainty in the
transatlantic relationship,” said Wolfgang Ischinger, former German ambassador
in Washington and head of the prominent Munich Security Conference. By
criticizing the collective defense, Trump has questioned the basic pillar of
NATO as a whole, Ischinger added.
Alternatively, by
putting into question a core support pillar behind NATO's endless provocations
and troop buildup at Russia's border, Trump may prevent World War III.
NATO, however,
demands its way or no other way at all, and it why Ischinger demands that the
president-elect reassure his "European allies" that he remains firm
on the US commitment under Article 5 of the NATO charter prior to his
inauguration.
This wasn't the
only criticism launched at Trump by the military alliance: earlier this week,
Stoltenberg slammed Trump’s agenda, saying: “All allies have made a solemn
commitment to defend each other. This is something absolutely unconditioned.”
Perhaps the commitment was only contingent on having a resident in the Oval
Office who put the interests of the Military Industrial Complex ahead of those
of, for example, the American people?
NATO's panic has
grown so vast that out of fear Trump would not appear in Brussels even after
his inauguration, NATO has re-scheduled its summit – expected to take place in
early 2017 – to next summer, Spiegel said.
The NATO report
likley also reflects current moods within the EU establishment as well, as
Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, has called on the
member states to establish Europe’s own military. Washington “will not ensure
the security of the Europeans in the long term... we have to do this
ourselves,” he argued on Thursday. Because Greek troops just can't wait to give
their lives to defend German citizens and vice versa.
Meanwhile,
Spiegel admits that despite NATO's bluster, Trump has all the leverage, and if
Trump is serious about reducing the number of US troops stationed in Europe,
large NATO countries like Germany have little to offer, Spiegel said. Even
major member states’ militaries lack units able to replace the Americans, which
in turn may trigger debate on strengthening NATO’s nuclear arm, a sensitive
issue in most European countries for domestic reasons.
How will Trump
respond? It is unclear: while in his pre-election rhetoric, Trump pushed for an
anti-interventionist agenda, and certainly made it seem that NATO would be
weakned under his presidency, that remains to be seen as his transition team
currently hammers out the specifics of his rather vague policies. We would not
be surprised at all to find that for all the anti-establishment posturing, the
"shadow government" - now in the hands of the Bush clan - which Ron
Paul warned against earlier, manages to regain dominance, and far from a
detente, Trump's position emboldens NATO to pressure Putin even further. We
would be delighted if our cynicism is proven wrong on this occasion.
Esa sí que es una tapa!!!!
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