Some 200 years ago Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz said
"War is a mere continuation of politics by other means." It still holds
truth today.
And...as we all know, politics are very much influenced by the corporate lobby and interest groups.
In the case of the US, the military industrial complex plays a major role in the political decision procress.
Even though the extravagant US military budget was cut according to The Wall Street Journal over the past four years from $721 billion, to "just" $560 billion -- It still provides a huge market for the Pentagon's new weapons systems, and a lot of revenue "up for grabs" by the defense contractors.
If you look, however, at the track record of the US military, which was sent into war by the political establishment, the results, overall have been dismal.
Just this 21st century alone, the US, assisted by a "coalition of the willing" (some have called them willing "lap dogs"), fought three wars, in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.
What these wars had in common is that each time, the US and their "allies" scored what they thought was a stunning victory -- they quickly also found out that victory was a brief mirage on the road to defeat.
Today's results of the disastrous US Middle East policy, which goes way back in time, is really starting to "bear fruit", specially when we watch the recent boatloads of Middle Eastern and North African refugees arriving on the shores of Europe.
When former US President George W. Bush announced in 2003, on the US aircraft carrier SS Abraham Lincoln, that the combat operations in Iraq were over, while he proudly stood under a "Mission accomplished" banner, he could not have been more wrong, specially if we look at the aftermath of that war today.
As someone said at the time of the Bush victory announcement, "confidence is the feeling you have before you fully understand the situation."
And here we go again, as the US announced on Saturday, June 13, that it plans to store heavy military equipment in the Baltics and Eastern European nations to "reassure allies made uneasy by Russian intervention in Ukraine, and to deter further aggression", a senior U.S. official said.
Several questions arise? What is the EU Commission and Parliament saying about this. Are they just sitting back and letting the US steam-role them into another military escapade?
Isn't it time Europe starts to do some serious thinking about the fact that always blindly "following the leader" is maybe not the right way to go forward? Or, that the real issue at stake in Europe is the Ukraine crisis and the future of America’s role as Europe’s security guarantor.
EU-Digest
And...as we all know, politics are very much influenced by the corporate lobby and interest groups.
In the case of the US, the military industrial complex plays a major role in the political decision procress.
Even though the extravagant US military budget was cut according to The Wall Street Journal over the past four years from $721 billion, to "just" $560 billion -- It still provides a huge market for the Pentagon's new weapons systems, and a lot of revenue "up for grabs" by the defense contractors.
If you look, however, at the track record of the US military, which was sent into war by the political establishment, the results, overall have been dismal.
Just this 21st century alone, the US, assisted by a "coalition of the willing" (some have called them willing "lap dogs"), fought three wars, in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.
What these wars had in common is that each time, the US and their "allies" scored what they thought was a stunning victory -- they quickly also found out that victory was a brief mirage on the road to defeat.
Today's results of the disastrous US Middle East policy, which goes way back in time, is really starting to "bear fruit", specially when we watch the recent boatloads of Middle Eastern and North African refugees arriving on the shores of Europe.
When former US President George W. Bush announced in 2003, on the US aircraft carrier SS Abraham Lincoln, that the combat operations in Iraq were over, while he proudly stood under a "Mission accomplished" banner, he could not have been more wrong, specially if we look at the aftermath of that war today.
As someone said at the time of the Bush victory announcement, "confidence is the feeling you have before you fully understand the situation."
And here we go again, as the US announced on Saturday, June 13, that it plans to store heavy military equipment in the Baltics and Eastern European nations to "reassure allies made uneasy by Russian intervention in Ukraine, and to deter further aggression", a senior U.S. official said.
Several questions arise? What is the EU Commission and Parliament saying about this. Are they just sitting back and letting the US steam-role them into another military escapade?
Isn't it time Europe starts to do some serious thinking about the fact that always blindly "following the leader" is maybe not the right way to go forward? Or, that the real issue at stake in Europe is the Ukraine crisis and the future of America’s role as Europe’s security guarantor.
EU-Digest
