NATO Expands, Responding to War Caused by NATO Expansion

At the same NATO summit, President Biden announced plans to ramp up U.S. military presence in Europe in response to the Ukraine war, writes Caitlin Johnstone.

By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com

Turkey’s President Erdogan has officially withdrawn Ankara’s objection to the addition of Finland and Sweden to NATO membership, with the three countries signing a trilateral memorandum at a NATO summit in Madrid.

The removal of Erdogan’s objection was reportedly obtained via significant natsec concessions from the other two nations largely geared toward facilitating Turkey’s ongoing conflict with regional Kurdish factions, and it removes the final obstacle to Finland and Sweden beginning the process of becoming NATO members. Finland’s addition will more than double the size of NATO’s direct border with Russia, a major national security concern for Moscow.

“Sweden and Finland moved rapidly to apply to NATO in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, reversing decades of security policy and opening the door to the alliance’s ninth expansion since 1949,” Axios reports.

So the western empire will be expanding NATO again in response to a war that was predominantly caused by NATO expansion. Brilliant. 

At the same NATO summit, President Joe Biden announced plans to ramp up U.S. military presence in Europe in response to the Ukraine war.

“Speaking with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Biden said the U.S. will increase the number of U.S. Navy Destroyers stationed at a naval base in Rota, Spain, from four to six,” Antiwar’s Dave DeCamp reports. “The president said that this was the first of multiple announcements the U.S. and NATO will make at the summit on increasing their forces in Europe, steps being taken in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

This news comes out as a new CNN report tells us that the Biden administration does not believe Ukraine has any chance of winning this war, yet still won’t encourage any kind of negotiated settlement to end the bloodshed.

From CNN:

White House officials are losing confidence that Ukraine will ever be able to take back all of the land it has lost to Russia over the past four months of war, U.S. officials told CNN, even with the heavier and more sophisticated weaponry the U.S. and its allies plan to send.

Advisers to President Joe Biden have begun debating internally how and whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should shift his definition of a Ukrainian “victory” — adjusting for the possibility that his country has shrunk irreversibly. U.S. officials emphasized to CNN that this more pessimistic assessment does not mean the U.S. plans to pressure Ukraine into making any formal territorial concessions to Russia in order to end the war.

This would confirm what I and many others have been saying since Russia invaded: that this proxy war is being waged not with the intention of saving Ukrainian lives by delivering a swift defeat to Moscow but with the intention of creating a costly, gruelling military quagmire to weaken Russia on the world stage.

This is further confirmed by a new Politico report that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has discouraged France’s President Macron from facilitating a negotiated peace settlement between Moscow and Kyiv, which would support an earlier Ukrainian media report that Johnson had discouraged President Zelensky from such a settlement during his visit to Kyiv in April. 

These revelations emerge in the wake of western officials admitting that Ukraine is crawling with C.I.A. personnel and special forces operatives from the U.S. and other NATO countries.

“As usual it appears that the administration wants to have it both ways: assure the American people that it is being ‘restrained’ and that we are not ‘at war’ with the Russians, but doing everything but planting a U.S. soldier and a flag inside Ukraine,” writes Responsible Statecraft’s Kelley Beaucar Vlahos of this admission. “The Russians may not see the distinction and consider this news as further evidence that their war is more with Washington and NATO than with Ukraine.”

The empire is guided by so little wisdom in its escalations against Russia that the U.S. congress is now pushing expensive ship-launched nuclear cruise missiles on its naval forces even as the U.S. Navy tells them it doesn’t want those weapons and has no use for them.

Like hey, just take the nukes anyway. What’s the worst that could happen? 

We need to really start taking seriously the possibility that a nuclear weapon could detonate as a result of misunderstanding or malfunction amid the chaos and confusion of all these frenzied, foolish escalations and lead to an exchange which ends our entire world. This nearly happened on multiple occasions in the last cold war, and there’s no rational reason to believe we’ll get lucky again.

The only sane course of action here is de-escalation and detente, and all the major players in these escalations are pointed in the exact opposite direction.

This is so much more dangerous than most people are letting themselves consider. It’s being sustained by psychological compartmentalization, emotional avoidance, and a profound lack of wisdom.

As commentator David S. D’Amato recently remarked, “If our species does find a way to survive into the distant future, our descendants will look at right now as the near miss; they’ll think, ‘Wow, that was close.’ How do we convince people in power to preserve that future?”

Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet and utopia prepper who publishes regularly at Medium and Substack. Her work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking her on Facebook, following her antics on Twitter, checking out her podcast on either YoutubesoundcloudApple podcasts or Spotify, following her on Steemit, throwing some money into her tip jar onPatreon or Paypal, purchasing some of her sweet merchandise, buying her books Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative MatrixRogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone andWoke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers.

This article was re-published with permission.

The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.

18 comments for “NATO Expands, Responding to War Caused by NATO Expansion

  1. LeoSun
    July 1, 2022 at 10:54

    WHO is the Keeper of the Nuclear Codes? Surely, NOT POTUS aka “The Big Guy,” who is in a state of extreme decline. For good reason, POTUS isn’t even the keeper of the family’s Car Keys!!! HIS days of ‘avid’ bike riding, kaput!!! “The Big Guy” f/CRASHED!!! NO brakes. NO Reverse. Doom & Gloom abound. I digress……

    “Our only, slim hope is that a bunch of Hollow Men obsessed by the Second Coming won’t turn Cold War 2.0 into Armageddon.” PEPE ESCOBAR

    “The Eagle, The Bear; and, The Dragon”

    “A “reset” between The EAGLE and The BEAR was always a myth. It took some time – and much financial distress – for The BEAR to realize there won’t be any reset, while The DRAGON only saw a reset towards open confrontation.”

    “NO WONDER THE EAGLE, under an all-enveloping paranoid cloud of cognitive dissonance, feeding state propaganda 24/7 to its subjects and minions, keeps spewing out lava like a raging volcano – dispensing sanctions to a great deal of the planet, entertaining regime change wet dreams, launching a total energy embargo against the Persians, resurrecting the “war on terra”, and aiming to punish like a Bat Out Of Intel Hell any journalist, publisher or whistleblower revealing its inner machinations.”

    “After establishing itself, slowly but surely, as the most advanced military power on the planet, with hypersonic know-how, The BEAR came to a startling conclusion: we don’t care anymore about what The EAGLE says – or does.” (The PEOPLE, “ are NOT exactly impressed anymore with an EAGLE empire armed to its teeth. Especially after The EAGLE’s crest was severely damaged by failure upon hunting failure in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria).”

    “The DRAGON, “is firmly assured that, if cornered to the point of resorting to a nuclear option, it holds the power to make the eagle’s staggering deficit explode, degrade its credit rating to junk, and wreak havoc in the global financial system.”

    “As the EAGLE got more and more threatening, the BEAR and the DRAGON got closer and closer in their strategic partnership. Now both BEAR and DRAGON have too many strategic links across the planet to be intimidated by the eagle’s massive Empire of Bases or those periodic coalitions of the (somewhat reluctant) willing.”

    “THIS IS where we stand now. And once again, we reach the end – though not the endgame. There’s still no moral to this revamped fable. We continue to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Our only, slim hope is that a bunch of Hollow Men obsessed by the Second Coming won’t turn Cold War 2.0 into Armageddon.” (PEPE ESCOBAR)

    hxxps://thealtworld.com/pepe_escobar/the-eagle-the-bear-and-the-dragon

  2. BB
    June 30, 2022 at 12:19

    How do we convince people in power to preserve that future?

    I don’t know. Ordinary people support people in power. See article – hxxps://www.pewresearch.org/global/2022/04/06/seven-in-ten-americans-now-see-russia-as-an-enemy/#h-amid-russia-ukraine-war-americans-positive-on-nato-though-partisan-divides-persist
    It reads: Seven-in-Ten Americans Now See Russia as an Enemy. Amid Russia-Ukraine war, Americans positive on NATO.

  3. DavidH
    June 30, 2022 at 09:09

    The 2016 bull jive. The Mueller/Schiff worship. Now this. These episodes are like strokes?

  4. Art
    June 30, 2022 at 00:52

    NATO as the Tyrant

    “Tyranny is a habit which may be developed until at last it becomes a disease. I declare that the noblest nature can become so hardened and bestial that nothing distinguishes it from that of a wild animal. Blood and power intoxicate; they help to develop callousness and debauchery. The mind then becomes capable of the most abnormal cruelty, which it regards pleasure; the man and the citizen are swallowed up in the tyrant; and the return to human dignity, repentance, moral resurrection, becomes almost impossible.”

    Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The House of the Dead

    • Zeliha
      June 30, 2022 at 23:24

      “Tyranny is a habit which may be developed until at last it becomes a disease.”

      The same can be said of insanity, whether it’s the insanity of the corrupt nation of Amerika, or the insanity of human beings who live in it. We are better able to judge our own insanity than that of others, but I think both can be known in time. I do not know if there is a cure. It may grow worse until the disease can’t be reversed.

  5. RS
    June 29, 2022 at 19:09

    One must look at the dark side. NATO has a trillion $ budget. That means salaries and working conditions. I’m not sure what Mr. Stoltenberg makes but I’m fairly sure he doesn’t dumpster dive. NATO was formed as a bulwark against communism and Russia’s ostensible desire to its spread that philosophy. True or not it has sustained the organization to this point. And as long as there are no challenges, NATO can consider itself successful. If Ukraine/US/NATO loses against Russia this will be a sign of failure and their existence will be brought into question. They have brought out all the stops to be successful with tons of military equipment. Their only option is to extend the war in hopes of grinding the Russians down. They will not be successful in this endeavor from all reports. Ukraine is facing an unconditional surrender. Russia can hasten NATOs departure by selling all NATOs captured equipment and using the proceeds by re-building Ukraine.

  6. June 29, 2022 at 18:16

    Biden is putting nuclear weapons in ships, despite the fact that the Navy does not want them????? WHO is whispering into our senile President’s ear????? Who is running this quick dash to armageddon? Does anyone know? If you’re not thoroughly terrified by now you need to wake up.

    • S.P. Korolev
      July 1, 2022 at 03:26

      I assume these nuclear cruise missiles will fit into the the vertical launch system (VLS) of the Aegis Ashore missile “defence” systems on NATO’s eastern border (they were adapted from a shipboard system). If a target pops up on Russian radar then disappears, they will have no way to tell if it is a failed launch of a missile interceptor or a nuclear cruise missile flying at tree top level. Very dangerous.

  7. Richard L
    June 29, 2022 at 14:47

    The sequence of actions taken by Moscow since 2014 and the US/NATO actions in the area show clearly both sides are prepared for a major clash. Putin will use the necessary force and he will turn up the pain dial until his opponents get the message. They still don’t get it. Putin and Lavrov have sent a simple and clear text already to Washington. Now both sides are getting ready for the war that is just beginning. Good luck.

  8. Em
    June 29, 2022 at 13:38

    “If our species does find a way to survive into the distant future…”
    The distant future is but a delusional fantasy of the current regressing state of mind of man, apparently derivative of the only mind he is capable of knowing right now!
    Continuing to behave as he does today, ‘right now’ is all the future there is.
    So far, tragically, history has repetitively unfolded like this, and will continue in this manner, into infinity, with or without the human species; as infallible as we think we are, as unconscious of the immediate necessity to avoid the nuclear apocalypse at the doorstep, by radically changing the systemic heart.

  9. TrompeL'Oeil
    June 29, 2022 at 11:10

    “NATO Expands, Responding to War Caused by NATO Expansion”

    In the words of Holland/Dozier/Holland – “It’s the same old song, just a different meaning since you’ve been gone”.

  10. bjd
    June 29, 2022 at 10:13

    “NATO Expands, Responding to War Caused by NATO Expansion”

    That’s how it goes with these criminals, Caitlin.

  11. BOSTONIAN
    June 29, 2022 at 08:38

    Well good old Jo is thoughtfully providing more easy targets for Sarmats and Kalibris to destroy in the first hour of the war that an empire no less senescent than himself seems so desperate to provoke. The War to End All Wars, delivered a century later than advertised. It somehow seems so sadly congruent with all that’s gone before that it may end with both a bang and a whimper.

  12. Henry Smith
    June 29, 2022 at 08:20

    “our descendants will look at right now as the near miss; they’ll think, ‘Wow, that was close.’ “. Deja Vu !
    We’ve been here before haven’t we ? with the Cuban Missile Crisis in Oct ’62 (AKA. US Missiles in Europe Crisis !).
    In The sixty years since, it appears the USA has learnt nothing. At least in the early 60s we had the rational JFK to head off worldwide nuclear annihilation at the hands of the US military. The CIA stopped that dead. Now we have Biden.
    Could Trump inject some rationality into the proceedings ?
    Russia is cornered, if this isn’t stopped the next flare up will be in the Arctic.
    Alternatively, if Russia can wait this out then, like Vietnam, Afghanistan, etc., the USA will lose interest and slink off or maybe insurrection at home, because of the costs and empire failure, will cause a rethink.

  13. DMcP
    June 29, 2022 at 07:44

    The Ukraine conflict is shaping up to be a major contest between the US and Russia/China. The US empire (there’s no other way to describe it) is increasing its military presence in Europe, even adding new bases (e.g., in Poland). This can only increase the likelihood of a direct military confrontation between the US and Russia. My interpretation is that the US believes Russia will back down. It feels like a desperate gambit by a dwindling empire.

    • TrompeL'Oeil
      June 29, 2022 at 19:07

      “The Ukraine conflict…”

      “This can only increase the likelihood of a direct military confrontation between the US and Russia.”

      Functions of interpreting two notices of intent as two ultimata, with an admixture of reliance in absolutes ?

  14. Mike
    June 29, 2022 at 07:22

    There is pure Madness in Madrid.
    They’ve just ‘realised’ that “We are SURROUNDED by threats”.
    Instead of a paltry 40,ooo combat-ready troops lining Russia’s borders with ‘defensive’ missiles that can reach Moscow, Stoltenberg is demanding 300,000.
    And guess what?! Russia turns out to be the main threat (surrounding us? – you are joking) now. So all that weaponry – way back – in Poland etc “Don’t worry, it’s just advance defences against possible attack on USA from Iran or N Korea” can now be repurposed.
    To get us to this sorry state of affairs, the new empire of OTANia had to sacrifice Ukraine and its citizens with von der Leyen declaring that Ukrainians are ‘happy’ to die for their country (and for the new empire, presumably).
    As for any new member, the future in the club will be set as checking into a famous hotel: “You can check out at any time – but you can never leave”. Any future would-be remotely left leaning leader who thinks otherwise will find voters whipped into fear of the Bogeyman waiting to pounce when there is no longer the protection of Big Brother.

    • TrompeL'Oeil
      June 30, 2022 at 05:37

      “There is pure Madness in Madrid.”

      The perception of madness is simultaneously a tool to engender fear facilitating contingent instability in those immersed in Mr. Rove’s we are an Empire routine, and obfuscations facilitating the continuation of the social interactions which facilitate and predicate such interpretations.

      This was used by the Kissinger/Nixon double act in the early 1970’s to gain aquiescience in the alchemy of rendering gold into paper, and by the table sitters in Madrid hoping that The Russian Federation will become scared, see the errors of their ways, and seek absolution/forgiveness.

      There is desperation, doubt and ineptitude in Madrid hoping that a “new iteration” of warfare, which in comparison with their opponents they continue to be inept, in co-ordination of “pre-existing types of warfare” in hope that their desperations, doubt and ineptitude can continue to be obfuscutated through the continuing belief of some in “The power of US propaganda, the power of “The United States of America and that “The United States of America” always acts with the best of intentions but fail sometimes since they are not perfect, merely exceptional ” in fervent hope that maybe this time we’ll be lucky, since when we had our charade, we were like children posing.

      A short and incomplete synopsis of this can be accessed through:

      hxxps://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/06/28/cognitive-warfare-israel-targets-journalists-who-threaten-its-reality-creation-tactics/

      the title of which was possibly written by some “journalist” incapable of perceiving the scopes of such applications/implementations than say a collective of strategist in co-operation with others can perceive, and there upon develop co-ordinated strategies to facilitate the continuing ineptitude of others hoping maybe this time we’ll be lucky in a “new iteration” of warfare, which is not new.

      The Eagles and the management of Hotel California were/are misguided – You can check out at any time, and you can leave with the co-operation of others since that’s what it’s all about Alfie, not just for the moment we live.

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