With the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, militarists have been on a roll, especially in Eastern Europe, People’s Dispatch reports.
From left: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and U.S. Secretary of DefenseLloyd Austin with Czech Defense Minister Jana Cernochová, second from right, on March 16. (NATO)
Progressive sections in the Czech Republic have criticized plans to allow the permanent stationing of U.S. military troops in the country.
With the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, advocates of militarism have been on a roll, especially in Eastern Europe, urging governments to increase military spending, buy and stockpile arms and ammunition, send men and ammunition to Ukraine and even open new military bases across the region for U.S.-led NATO’s military maneuvers.
Earlier this month, Czech Defense Minister Jana Cernochová hinted at opening talks with her U.S. counterpart regarding the permanent deployment of U.S. military troops in the country. Czech Deputy Prime Minister Marian Jurecka suggested places such as Mosnov and Prerov in as suitable locations for a military base.
Czech Peace Movement Chairman Milan Krajca in 2012. (CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons)
Even though Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala did not fully endorse the defense minister’s plan, he said there may be negotiations for a defense agreement with the U.S., which most countries in the region already have.
In response to the government’s plans for further militarization of the country, Czech communists and the peace movement have formed a committee, including personalities like Union of Czech Writers chairman Karel Sýs, spokesperson of the No Bases initiative; Eva Novotná; communist leader Josef Skála; and editor of Haló Noviny newspaper, Monika Horení. The committee has initiated a petition against the presence of foreign troops on the territory of the Czech Republic.
Krajca said in a statement,
“We strongly protest efforts to build and operate a U.S. military base in the Czech Republic, whether it is in Mosnov, Prerov or anywhere else. Such a step would mean a direct threat to the citizens of the Czech Republic and the danger of an even more intense cloudburst of our country into further rounds of arms.”
KSCM leader Katerina Konecná told the media earlier,
“I do not want the Czech Republic to be another place with the base of the USA. I do not want our citizens to be a potential target, especially not while the U.S. does what it wants and raises tensions in the world.”
Earlier in the year, Czech communists and the peace movement organized a major mobilization against the government’s decision to provide Ukraine with armaments and support NATO’s maneuvers.
Groups including the Czech Peace Movement (CMH), Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM), Young Communists (MK), Communist Youth Union (KSM) and others raised strong objection to the statements made by representatives of the incumbent center-right government that favor plans to allow a permanent foreign military base inside the country.
On April 27, communist leader and Czech Peace Movement Chairman Milan Krajca urged the government to reject the deployment of foreign troops, bases and weapons in the country.
This article is from Peoples Dispatch.
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We must reactivate the peace movement in the US to demand a diplomatic end to this war. One can only hope that, as it becomes increasingly apparent the US has lied about its role in fomenting this war, more and more Americans will take to the streets to protest our sociopathic leaders taking us to the brink of Armageddon.
It will be difficult for the progressives to provide enough information to keep the public informed. It is amazing how united and without dissent the Western corporate MSM is. People without computer access have almost no way to get balanced objective information. The government narrative is all they hear and multiplied many times by the corporate MSM.
The NATO issue in Sweden and Finland is only possible with public manipulation. It makes no sense at all, nothing positive for the nations.
Happy to read CN won the battle with Paypal. Congratulation. We need you.
Every human being on earth is a slave of the US government. In that way, we’re all equal. Unless the US is broken up into at least 3 parts, no one will ever be free again.
Sure, the Czech state doesn’t require a well-established Corporate / Media stranglehold to qualify as Fascist, as long as they have the mandatory political whores ready to sell out the interests of the Nation..
Since modern Fascism took root in the Reagan / Thatcher 1980’s, there has been no anti-war movement which has successfully altered the course of the Five-Eyes war machine, and the memory of 1968 will still cause many Czechs to view a current peace movement as being pro-Russian..
Do not let US troops in. They will never leave. See Vietnam, etc, etc, etc.
First thing to happen is 45 McDonald franchises set up…then Crispy Creme, Burger Doodle, after that comes the weight gain of the participants. After that the situation is controlled by the likes of Vicky Nuland, and you saw what happened in the Ukraine….You are probably far more educated about that than we are…and then its downhill from there. It is a wonder that the Vietnamese even talk to us.
US troops come in and the sovereign state goes out.
Germany lost the war some 80 years ago, it is by all appearances an ally of the USA and has a big economy but it is not yet a sovereign state, it is still an occupied country. The US troops are not about to pull out of Germany, NATO is a proxy US military extension to be used as needed.
Who would gain in Finland and Sweden if they become NATO members? How well are the people informed about the costs of such a deal? Would they have a referendum concerning NATO membership?
It is not going to make any difference. European politicians are bought with US money, and elected to do their bidding. Only when the military might of Russia is revealed will this evil stop. I would bet that Russia is stockpiling thousands of missiles for everyone around them, and beyond.
The U.S. doesn’t have to buy European politicians when most European countries are vassal states, as described by Brzezinski.
Good. We must support the antiwar movement in the Czech Republic.
I’m glad to hear there is an antiwar movement in Czech Republic. We hosted a Czech exchange student, and he knew nothing of the world. His mother was the sort of person who demonstrated against the Soviet incursion in ’68, but she knew nothing of anything outside the Czech Republic. Very easy to bamboozle such people.
tobysgirl: i concur! it is scandalous how many Czech citizens were bamboozled into distrusting russia in 1968, after russian tanks invaded and massacred peaceful pro-free-speech demonstrators! cause as we all know, when russia invades a peaceful neighbor [think Finland] it is always the neighbor’s fault!
The Czechs did not resist with weapons but they came out on the streets and -as many knew Russian ( and the invaders included East Germans, Poles, Hungarians and Bulgarians )- argued and protested. The Invaders were bemused. It was not what they had been told to expect. Sounds familiar.
The more liberal rulers of the country were replaced by hard line Communists but Dubcek , the First Secretary with his policy of “socialism with a human face”, was not shot or sent to the gulag. He was found a job with the forestry commissions where he remained until retirement. This East European dissident had an easier time than most South Americans who dissented against US backed regimes in that continent.
It was quite a contrast to the way the 1956 Hungarian uprising was put down-or the present ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine.
I only recently learnt from wikipedia that the first President of post Communist Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Havel , had his writing translated into English by an American artist, Emmet Williams. He was later to marry my cousin whom I have never met in the flesh. Unfortunately, she can add little to the information.