Norman Solomon calls for all forms of pushback against a militarized political culture welcoming a NATO chief to Congress this week.
By Norman Solomon
NormanSolomon.com
When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell teamed up to invite NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to address a joint session of Congress, they had every reason to expect the April 3 speech to be a big hit with U.S. media and political elites. The establishment is eager to affirm the sanctity of support for the transatlantic military alliance.
Huge reverence for NATO is matched by how dangerous NATO has become. NATO’s continual expansion — all the way to Russia’s borders — has significantly increased the chances that the world’s two nuclear superpowers will get into direct military conflict.
But in the United States, when anyone challenges the continued expansion of NATO, innuendos or outright smears are likely.
Two years ago, when the Senate debated whether to approve bringing Montenegro into NATO, the mud flew at Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky after he showed up to object. An infuriated Sen. John McCain declared on the Senate floor: “I have no idea why anyone would object to this, except that I will say — if they object, they are now carrying out the desires and ambitions of Vladimir Putin, and I do not say that lightly.”
Moments later, when Paul said “I object,” McCain proclaimed: “The senator from Kentucky is now working for Vladimir Putin.”
Berlin Wall remnant outside NATO’S Brussels headquarters. (DoD/Jim Garamone)
With those words, McCain conveyed the common madness of reverence for NATO — and the common intolerance for anything that might approach a rational debate on whether it’s a good idea to keep expanding an American-led military alliance to, in effect, push Russia into a corner. Doing so is understandably viewed from Russia as a dire threat. (Imagine a Russian-led military alliance expanding to Canada and Mexico, complete with some of the latest missile systems on the planet.)
Closing in on Russia
Ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall — and the quickly broken promises by the U.S. in 1990 that NATO would move “not one inch eastward” — NATO has been closing in on Russia’s borders while bringing one nation after another into full military membership. During the last three decades, NATO has added 13 countries — and it’s not done yet.
NATO members “have clearly stated that Georgia will become a member of NATO,” Stoltenberg asserted days ago while visiting the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. He added: “We will continue working together to prepare for Georgia’s NATO membership.” For good measure, he took to Twitter on March 25:
Delighted to observe the joint NATO-Georgia exercise with PM @BakhtadzeMamuka & honoured to meet veterans & serving soldiers. Georgia is a unique partner for #NATO & we are stepping up our cooperation. pic.twitter.com/RxlZsJaJCl
— Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg) March 25, 2019
Very few members of Congress can be heard raising any concerns about such reckless expansion. The Senate is key, because adding a country to full NATO membership requires Senate approval.
My colleagues at RootsAction.org have just launched a constituent email campaign on this issue. In every state, people are contacting their senators with individual emails urging them to oppose NATO expansion. Such constituent pressure needs to escalate.
Lobbying is only part of what’s needed. As NATO marks its 70th anniversary next week with a range of activities — including a White House welcome for Stoltenberg on Tuesday, his speech to Congress the next day and an official “celebration” on April 4 — counter-actions including forums and protests as part of a “No to NATO” week will be happening in Washington.
A statement from the campaign says:
“NATO and a just, peaceful and sustainable world are incompatible…. It is an unjust, undemocratic, violent and aggressive alliance trying to shape the world for the benefit of a few.”
Such evaluations of NATO in the real world are a far cry from the adulation that will be coming from mass media next week.
President Donald Trump’s decision to roll out the White House red carpet for NATO’s secretary general is consistent with the administration’s actions during the last two years. Media narratives that fixate on occasional warm rhetoric from Trump about Russian President Vladimir Putin have fueled illusions that Trump isn’t pursuing aggressive anti-Russian policies.
NATO expansion map. (CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons)
While many Democratic politicians and U.S. media outlets have portrayed Trump as soft on Russia and uncommitted to Western militarism, such claims don’t hold up to facts. Trump and his top deputies have repeatedly affirmed a commitment to NATO, while his overall policies (if not always his rhetoric) have been dangerously bellicose toward Russia.
In an email message to the D.C. area encouraging participation in “No to NATO” events next week, RootsAction points out:
“Trump has evicted Russian diplomats, sanctioned Russian officials, put missiles practically on Russia’s border, sent weapons into Ukraine, lobbied European nations to drop Russian energy deals, left the Iran agreement, torn up the INF Treaty, rejected Russia’s offers on banning weapons in space and banning cyberwar, expanded NATO eastward, added a NATO partner in Colombia, proposed adding Brazil, demanded and successfully moved most NATO members to buy significantly more weapons, splurged on more nukes, bombed Russians in Syria, overseen the largest war rehearsals in Europe in half a century, condemned all proposals for a European military and insisted that Europe stick with NATO.”
When NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg gives his speech to the assembled members of Congress next Wednesday, you can count on the House speaker and Senate majority leader to be right behind him. The bipartisan enthusiasm will be obvious — in tribute to a militarized political culture that is vastly profitable for a few, while vastly destructive in countless ways. Only public education, activism, protests and a wide range of political organizing have the potential to disrupt and end the reflexive support for NATO in Washington.
Norman Solomon is cofounder and national coordinator of RootsAction.org. He was a Bernie Sanders delegate from California to the 2016 Democratic National Convention and is currently a coordinator of the relaunched Bernie Delegates Network. Solomon is the author of a dozen books, including “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.” He is the executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy.
Now that 1945-1975, the favored, post WW2 decades are over, now that sweet premium crude is phasing out, now that, of necessity, global climate change should displace oil; now, in a time when political leadership should be urging sacrifice from ALL PARTIES, rich and most others, to make the transition to what could be a worthy 21st century United States political culture, Nancy Pelosi old style Democrats, and neoconservative Republicans will use the violence of war to “make things right.”
Shakespeare is the key political commentator here, these constitute the facts of TRAGEDY.
In a few words, we are in a situation pretty similar to the Cuban crisis, where the Soviets answered tac for tac to the US provocation – which had placed missile batteries in Turkey, at the border with the Soviet Union.
Tony @ April 1, 2019:
Thanks for the link to the Scott Ritter Article.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/what-facts-how-politics-trumped-intel-in-nuke-treaty-pullout/
Norman Solomon’s analysis is correct: NATO expansion presents a dangerous threat to peace. In fairness, it is also correct to say a Russian expansion west presents a similar danger. But the email campaign is an attempt to highlight the danger of the current crisis. The chances of avoiding nuclear are slim. The pattern of history suggests we are on course for another world war.
https://www.ghostsofhistory.wordpress.com/
Nicely written article but if you look at the map included it shows very few countries actually have a border with Russia: Turkey which has been a member of NATO and the three tiny Baltic states. Russia’s concern about being surrounded seems like paranoia, and I asked a diplomat friend about NATO’s agreement not to expand eastwards and she could find no mention of such a deal.
This analysis fails to take into account some important factors: East European countries want to join NATO as they value their liberty and have long and bitter experienced of being occupied by Russian troops and having a dictatorial political regime forced on them. Also, Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine would surely drive that country, as well as many others, into the arms of NATO.
Also, the article suggests that NATO is actively seeking those countries join NATO. The actual situation is that those nations have been clamouring to join NATO since the early 1990s, and most of them have failed to enter due to their dodgy democratic systems. NATO could have had another dozen members by now if it was so keen on the aggressive expansionism you so wrongly describe.
Have you visited Montenegro? I assume your opinions are derived from fact based analysis from either FOX’s Wall Street Journal, the New York Times or the Washington Post because the people of Montenegro voted against joining NATO , twice, The Pro Russians have a majority there . The courts threw out the dominant party on the eve of the election which led to what amounted to a pro NATO coup by an illegitimate government. There has been impressive bribery going on for years , not only from US Intelligence but the EU as well, throughout the region. Ukraine most explicitly. A fact that was stated publicly by then Assistant US Secretary of State Victoria Nuland who said $10 Billion had been directed to Pro Democratic Individuals and (Fascist) forces in Ukraine in the run up to the Maidan Coup. .. Your point is absurd. Going back a little bit, were you aware that the United States of America paid the salaries of Civil Servants in the Republic of Georgia under President (Harvard University Graduate) Mikheil Saakashvili? Maybe you should do a little research . I will give you a hint. In places like Montenegro, Donetsk, Luhansk, Ossetia, Crimea, etc. the people do not want to join NATO Period. NATO exists to demonize Russia. There is no actual threat from Russia which makes it all the more important that the “Russian Threat ” be hyped to the point of absurdity. It is in this way that people in the employ of NATO, American NGOs, State Department lackeys , Spooks and Private Contractors for Intelligence can have jobs and a reason to exist. Then, US Military Hardware sales and income from Military bases , like the largest in Europe , Camp Bondsteel, going back to the first Regime Change in Yugoslavia, will continue to flow. This is important. Study Hard.
Good rebuttal LJ. It amazes me that people come to this site and spout MSM propaganda. I suppose they are not used to being “out gunned”.
Thank you!
Die Vierte Reich
wonderful This was among the best posts from your team it let me learn many new things.
It is unfortunate, but few in the U.S., or anywhere in the West for that matter, know much if anything about NATO’s Operation Gladio. Swiss historian Daniel Ganser’s book on the subject is critical reading (below I link to the free pdf version online as the book is now out of print). NATO, with CIA input, operated right wing cells during the cold war that were used to conduct false flag terror operations in Western Europe. These terror attacks purposefully targeted and killed civilians to cause maximum fear in the population.
The purpose of these operations was to blame them on communists and radical youth groups in order to turn the population away from socialism and away from support for communist politicians, and into the waiting arms of pro-U.S. social democrats or conservatives. Bombings were a favored means to inflict mayhem and of course the MSM of the time would dutifully repeat the reports of police and intelligence services who had members connected to Operation Gladio. The truth didn’t see the light of day until 1990 but of course was ignored completely by MSM for the obvious reasons.
Understanding this history goes a long way toward shedding light on more recent false flag terror events in the West, where “jihadist suspects” are conveniently killed somewhere away from the attack scene, but repeatedly have managed to leave their passport and some incriminating jihadist literature to be found to cement their evidence free guilt. The fact that in multiple such events these “suspects” had connections to the State intelligence agencies manages not to be mentioned in MSM accounts. Ganser’s history is a very worthwhile read.
https://libcom.org/files/NATOs_secret_armies.pdf
GW …
… thank you very much for the link. Appreciate the info. Had a vague outline of OP Gladio, however, never really did the research. Again, thanks.
Thank you, I’d heard about Gladio. Not surprising any longer.
Now that 1945-1975, the favored, post WW2 decades are over, now that sweet premium crude is phasing out, now that, of necessity, global climate change should displace oil; now, in a time when political leadership should be urging sacrifice from ALL PARTIES, rich and most others, to make the transition to what could be a worthy 21st century United States political culture, Nancy Pelosi old style Democrats, and neoconservative Republicans will use the violence of war to “make things right.”
Shakespeare is the key political commentator here, these constitute the facts of TRAGEDY.
I remember the rallies and demonstrations “Fifty Years is Enough” in 1999, when NATO shamefully attacked Yugoslavia for 78 days just to show it was needed ,years after the “Communist enemy” had broken up.
Now twenty years later the NATO menace is much expanded and the “enemy” is still Russia, sanctioned and blamed as it overcomes the disgraceful destruction by the USA/IMF/West in the 1990s.
Peace, anyone????? STOP NATO.
Your site is undergoing some kind of interference at this moment.4/1/2019 PST 12:30 AM. Don’t know why or by whom but it shouldn’t be hard to find out. The picture I loaded was of Pelosi and Rahm Emmanuel doing their love bird act on stage in public. Quite unseemly for a Grandmother , everyone knows Emmanuel is a pig.
NancyPelosi, our sexy poster girl and Mitch McConnell , Alpha Male of the Gerontocracy. Could anything be less relevant and more effete. Like NATO Generals in search of testosterone, they are walking, talking & , collaborating anachronisms .
Photo op follows (Unfortunate though it was): REmember this?
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2018/11/21/rahm-emanuel-endorses-pelosi-rookies-need-not-apply/elosi Poster
As stated previously the link to an article ( Unfortunately Breibart) with ready picture of Nancy and Rahm Emmanuel (back in his heady days ruining the Obama Administration singlehandedly) was blocked . Search it for yourself , with Pepto-Bismol in hand if you’ve the nerve..
Surprise surprise Colombia & Brazil
RE cliche’ location (3x(
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delian_League
no one in that period of history ever refereed to Athens as an -empire-. Typical Wikipedia sloppiness.
People should be aware that NATO’s charter does not bind members to support a war of aggression. If a NATO member acts aggressively to another country and that country makes a counter-attack, other NATO members are not obliged to support the aggressive member.
This is how I would interpret Article 7 which states: “This Treaty does not affect, and shall not be interpreted as affecting in any way the rights and obligations under the Charter of the Parties which are members of the United Nations, or the primary responsibility of the Security Council for the maintenance of international peace and security.” It is important that people show their awareness of this provision so that people like John Bolton don’t overestimate the amount of support that would come from NATO countries that, unlike Mr. Bolton, show a deep-seated respect for the United Nations. People should be on the lookout for false flag attacks where a shooting war can start with the identity of the true aggressor concealed. Passions could be such that it becomes is too late to stop a war that is already unleashed. Just remember Iraq 2003 with the WMD and other claims that were shown to be false after the damage was done.
If a potential aggressor knows about Article 7, and that other NATO members are fully conscious of it, maybe that will act as a deterrent.
We will be at war very soon because Russia has said many times that Georgia and Ukraine will not be allowed to join NATO. They will swoop in and take both countries back into their orbit.
Bob, nothing personal but I just don’t see Russia falling for that, besides they can function perfectly well punishing Georgia and Ukraine by just being obstinate over their energy policy which is perfectly within their right not to mention the asymmetric war that they and their allies could wage. This would be almost the perfect revenge to these rent seeking Eastern European dingbats that are currently going down on all fours for US welfare dollars, this should be entertaining. Mind you by the time this is all done the US dollar will be Best used for wallpaper but perhaps this will be the impetus to finally get away from the Fed.
To protest the abuse of NATO by the US MIC and bribed politicians, contact:
Your Senators:
https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?OrderBy=state&Sort=ASC
Your House Reps:
https://www.house.gov/representatives#state-maine
The US should either reject NATO as pointless, or strictly limit participation to defense against active aggression. The US needs an amendment to the Constitution to prohibit foreign military action except under UN auspices, and to prohibit direct or indirect influence upon the UN.
Yep. Agree wholeheartedly.
Of course the criminals that occupy Congress line up in support of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) that is now recruiting nations in the Western Hemisphere. The war profiteers in the defense (sic) industries pay big donations to the fossilized leadership and their toadies in the two-party dictatorship. So it is unsurprising that these zombies in the US government are all cheering.
NATO art 5 is often repeated incorrectly. There’s zero “automatic” about article 5, which is explicitly subject to the domestic laws and judgements of each member and also subject to the UN Charter.
see> The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.
Any such armed attack and all measures taken as a result thereof shall immediately be reported to the Security Council. Such measures shall be terminated when the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security .
See also the entire Treaty> https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/official_texts_17120.htm
Art 1 forbids threats…”to refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force in any manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.”
Quick! Send Bolton a copy!
Walter you are absolutely right about Article 5 of the NATO Treaty. The key word in article 5 for me is “it.” The nato treaty is not the suicide pact the warmongers would have us believe. It acknowledges the unalienable right of member countries to decline war or material support for it whenever they please. Otherwise the NATO countries will be ruled by the dead politicians who made the treaty, rendering the current legislative bodies useless on matters of life and death. A treaty is not a contract.
NATO has served its purpose and should be dissolved.
It is quite obvious, at least to me, that the more members NATO has, the more the military/industrial complex makes money. Is there no limit to hypocrisy?
This knee jerk reliance – without any thought whatsoever – on opting for military power to avoid , it seems, facing a more thoughtful understanding of reality reminds me of the scene in Animal House of the marching band redirected down the alley to crash into the wall trombones and all ….. (available on youtube)
Even some retired U.S. 4 star generals interviewed on public radio recently are saying that costly military “solutions” have failed and diplomacy is far cheaper and more effective in coping with the nuanced international issues we face.
To stand up and suggest this brings out the attacks on patriotism from mindless supporters of this knee jerk behavior. That propaganda serves the powerful financial interests which benefit from the redirection of tax dollars to the military machine…
we’ll either take responsibility to demand better representation at the ballot box or reconcile ourselves to the inevitable bad ending of blowing up the world and ourselves with it….
Masterful comment evelync. NATO is a criminal and terrorist organization that have betrayed its own purpose and objective from it was founded. The reason of NATO was to stop the expansion of Soviet Union, so now is not justification the existence of NATO which is acting now in a unshackle fascist style.
What Mr Solomon’s RootsAction points out in that paragraph ought to be a superimposed disclaimer stretched in front of Russiagate story there ever was;
“Trump has evicted Russian diplomats, sanctioned Russian officials, put missiles practically on Russia’s border, sent weapons into Ukraine, lobbied European nations to drop Russian energy deals, left the Iran agreement, torn up the INF Treaty, rejected Russia’s offers on banning weapons in space and banning cyberwar, expanded NATO eastward, added a NATO partner in Colombia, proposed adding Brazil, demanded and successfully moved most NATO members to buy significantly more weapons, splurged on more nukes, bombed Russians in Syria, overseen the largest war rehearsals in Europe in half a century, condemned all proposals for a European military and insisted that Europe stick with NATO.”
Hard to imagine why the Democrats don’t just adore him. But @metoo has to be served. Moving the Embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing Israeli annexation of Golan Heights has wrong footed them . They are floundering. In short, the Democrats are confused. Thank God they have Health Care as a talking point. Good thing they blocked Nixon from creating it in 1974. No doubt our country and most probably the world would be a better place. Then what would we have to bitch about?
NATO stands for North American Terrorist Organization.
Nato has outlived and overshot it reason for being.
Military and militarism are not synonymous.
Militarism is the enemy of equality and corporatism’s friend.
Protest Nato and militarism while we are yet able.
It did not take Stoltenberg long to swallow the Trump administration’s unproven claims that Russia is violating the INF treaty.
I think that the countries of Europe should now seriously question whether it is a good idea to remain in NATO.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/what-facts-how-politics-trumped-intel-in-nuke-treaty-pullout/
McCain was pure evil right up until his last breath. I think Putin was right that he lost his mind in the Hanoi Hilton as a POW. Of course, there are plenty of others to take his place.
BTW, Caitlin has a great April fool’s piece this morning:
https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/leaked-mueller-report-proves-barr-lied-collusion-theorists-vindicated-2a9f52fda492
I’ve been hitting the “moderation lottery” yesterday and this morning (even “test” posts) so who knows when this will get posted.
Christopher Steele just bought the Dallas Cowboys.
In 2012, when the NATO meeting was held in Chicago, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel invited its then Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen to throw out the first pitch at the annual Cubs vs White Sox baseball game. The protesters that were in town to protest the meeting mostly missed the opportunity to call attention to this politicization of the intracity game. A shame.
Here is a more detailed look at the American weapon that concerns Russia:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-russian-response-to-washingtons.html
Unfortunately, those of us that live in the West rarely get a clear understanding of both sides of the looming nuclear nightmare.
The madness of US War Culture is a runaway train that will be difficult to stop. When the increasingly likely all out nuclear war signaling the end of human life on Earth takes place, no one in the United States will admit to any responsibility for causing it, but will blame it on “Russian aggression”. That is if anyone will remain to cast blame on anyone.
This problem cant be solved by sanctions or by Stoltenberg, war will destroy all of it!
“What for should Moscow hold on to the US dollar if the US Treasury Department can ban the use of the US currency at any time? All stocks of US bonds would then be useless, since in the case of US fiscal sanctions (such as against Iran, North Korea or Venezuela), no-one should do business with Russia on a dollar basis. Given Washington’s continued hostility towards Moscow, this is a logical and rational step.
This also applies to the purchase of Yuan. After all, China is now Russia’s most important trading partner and more and more bilateral business is being conducted on the basis of the respective national currencies. This also means that the US dollar plays a much smaller role for the two countries when it comes to the exchange of goods.
Russia has largely made the jump from the dollar in terms of currency reserves. And more and more central banks follow the example. The question that arises here is: when will the tipping point be reached where the total US dollar sell-off begins and the American currency collapses? And more: will China initiate this crash?”
Wolfgang Bittner: Cold War has been reigning for several years now. Europe is again divided from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea – I find that a century-old tragedy. It started with the expansion of NATO to the east, contrary to the promises made by Gorbachev in 1990. With the Ukraine crisis in 2014, the rearmament of the Russian riparian states began and at the same time a malignant propaganda campaign against Russia.
This has led to today’s fire-threatening situation, which, according to my research, is clearly blamed on the Western alliance of the US, NATO and the EU. For one thing, the regime change in Ukraine was subversively prepared for years. Former EU Commissioner Victoria Nuland has boasted that the US has invested more than $ 5 billion in the Change regime. On the other hand, the strategy of the Western alliance was designed from the outset to incorporate Ukraine as a bridge country of great geostrategic importance and also as an economic space and gateway to Russia’s resources.
With the secession of the Crimea after the coup in Kiev and the war against the Eastern Ukrainians begun by Poroshenko, the West found a reason for the sanctions policy. The goal was and is to drive Russia to ruin through economic sanctions, influence on the capital and energy markets, and the imposed retrofitting expenses. This is not a conspiracy theory, but former US Vice President Joe Biden has admitted in a speech in Cambridge that they want to ruin Russia. He even bragged that President Obama had made European politicians forcefully resist initial sanctions. Russia should open to Western capital interests. That would be beneficial for the West, but not for the Russian people. And because Russia does not submit, it is isolated and fought.
Thirteen million Russians died in WW2 to save these European Countries from Nazi Germany & the only thanks that Russia has received from these ungrateful, spineless Countries is open hostility, indifference & having their huge contribution to the war effort downplayed & excised from the History books! Now these corrupt European Nations with their American European Vassal army called NATO, a totally useless organisation trying to justify its irrelevant existence by searching for a enemy & who else but the Russian bear as a target? Europe has a lot to answer for, when it cones to warmongering & starting Wars that everyone else gets dragged into to save their useless hides?? Every major conflict & World Wars was started by a European Nation, Germany being the main antagonist! And now a coalition of European Nations who are nothing short of suckers & cannon fodder for the American Empire, want to provoke & start another conflict with Russia? Good luck with that NATO, you couldn’t beat Russia during WW2 & you”ll be reduced to ashes, again, if you ever dared to attack Russia & start WW3!
You may be correct regarding “…reduced to ashes”, however I see the fight between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia as two socialist vying for supremacy.
the name Nazi is a misnomer designed to deceive the German populace.
Nazi is a fascist as it comes.
National Socialist Workers Party was not fascism. That belongs to Italy with their ancient Roman symbol. The Nazis did not incorporate anything -fascist-. Read the literature of the time. It helps.
What? Nazi Germany socialist? State protected capitalism. Massive Kenseyan[sic] spending and no more depression. The workers unions recorporated all looks socialistic. But for that very reason Hitler’s Night of the Long Knives made sure the Revolution from below would never manifest.
While Germany’s conduct in both world wars was definitely contemptible in of itself, however, let’s not ignore the role of the American and British elites and bankers in starting both world wars.
The Industrial Revolution allowed other countries to compete in the worldwide economy that the British controlled through their “Free Market” slave labor in India and their control of the shipping industry. Germany was producing products that were superior in quality and cheaper due to changes and innovation in the manufacturing process. The British, seeing this as a threat to their monopoly, had to do something about the “Huns” before they got richer and more powerful. And then all hell broke loose when Franz Ferdinand (Austria-Hungary) got assassinated by Serbian terrorists, and in response Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. After WWI ended, Germany got raped by Britain, the effects of which were perfect breeding grounds for WWII which Britain would also start.
Also, most Germans see relations with US as negative, while less than 2% see Russia as a threat. The poll is over two months old now, but it might still be promising.
Much easier just to blame Trump, and urge the media misled children of America into the streets to riot.
What did H. Clinton call “them” the “deplorables”… “Children” kinder.
Solomon is apparently unaware that Trump expelled the Russian “diplomats” under the pressure of the deep state media who are most enthusiastically expanding the military presence toward the Russian border. As a Sanders supporter, one would suppose he has realized this, but would rather continue the effort to have a Democrat of Hillary or a Republican like McCain in the White House, since those are the ones that have urged the expansion, beginning with the support for NATO.
The task Trump has been assigned by Deep State is to distract from their own daring and greedy machinations. It seems to work!