Dissolve this NATO!

by Willy Wimmer*

(20 September 2021) We have actually been warned since NATO’s war of aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the spring of 1999, which was contrary to international law and vulgar. If the United States wants to wage war for its own interests, then neither the NATO Treaty nor the Charter of the United Nations with its outlawing of war are of any interest.

Then self-authorisations are made and the corresponding texts are submitted to the so-called allies for decision-making. It was no different before the war in Yugoslavia, because the United Nations Charter – the only binding basis under international law – and the NATO Treaty both did not authorise war. So, a self-authorisation in the form of a strategic concept was needed. Since then, there have been further examples of these American self-authorisations and now another “new strategic concept of NATO” is on the agenda. Apparently, they want to wait for the German parliamentary elections on 26 September 2021.

It would not be convenient to see German sensitivities formulated in the election campaign. Yet, German allegiance is boundless, as the disregard for the basic law and international law in the interest of American wars by the respective German federal government or the top politicians of the actual or future governing parties show day in and day out. The basic law has degenerated into a pawn and shares the fate of international law. Although this goes back to Münster and Osnabrück in 1648, it is to be replaced by an American system of international law.

This path was taken with Germany’s participation in the NATO war against Yugoslavia in 1999, because by means of this war the United States had suspended the applicable rules of international law and postulated the “US right of fist”. Are there lessons to be learnt from the most costly war in Afghanistan? This is not to be considered, as the cascade of speeches by US President Joe Biden on the Afghanistan disaster these days makes abundantly clear. No sooner has the last US plane left Kabul than President Biden is talking about future wars, namely those that one believes can be afforded. Trillions of dollars and euros have been ditched in the valleys of the Hindu Kush. Trillions that have caused bankruptcy not only in the American national budgets. But in the future it will be against Russia and China and “the metastases of the international terrorist network”, which President Biden has already defined regionally as a precaution.

The former British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, spoke these days of the prospect of a “forever war”, the fate of the West as an eternal war machinery. Ostensibly, President Biden rejected this when he spoke at every speech these days about all good reasons to end the longest war in US history. That was and is throwing sand in the eyes of his compatriots and the rest of the world.

Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, after whom Kabul airport was named, pointed out in 2007 that the now victorious Taliban had offered the United States in 2004 to lay down its arms forever and submit to the United States. The USA did not take up this offer, with the well-known consequences. What made them turn down this offer? Why did they not inform the international coalition and the allies coerced by the NATO treaty? Even to their own people they did not tell the truth. And this behaviour is now to continue with “wars they think can be afforded”?

Here and there, President Biden’s speeches on the Afghanistan disaster give the impression that it was possible to do some soul-searching and change American policy in order to serve peace in the world. The reference to the ditched trillions of dollars suggests that. But then there would have to be more coming from Washington than just the state’s tight financial situation.

What President Biden is saying seems to be a breathing space. Yet, it is the very character of the United States that is under scrutiny. Looking at the history of the last almost two centuries makes it clear that no country in the world had fought as many wars as the USA. President Trump had given the impression that there was more than a breathing space possible because he did not start the almost customary “presidential wars”.

If he had been allowed to have his say in matters of Russia, the world would probably look different today. Even if the German Chancellor, Dr. Merkel, had done everything to embrace his alliance-policies in order to be able to lead Europe back into a “Cold War 2.0”. Now it is almost officially against Russia as before and, more recently, against China. In this way, under President Biden, the USA is resuming its disastrous “hurricane policy”, reminiscent of the recurring phenomena of tropical hurricanes. In the course of the USA’s short history, it has gone from being a manageable storm on the global political stage to being filled, as it were, over water with the energy derived from dominating or destroying foreign states in its war campaigns.

With the First and Second World Wars in Europe and the war in the Far East, they struck land, as it were, and have since been blazing a trail of blood across the globe under their own steam and by means of their alliance systems. The unbridled energy for war can be stopped – by the allies’ refusal to go to war and by their own actions.

In the context of the reunification, the world-renowned Russian diplomat, Mr Valentin Falin, has pointed out a basic problem of states in a Cold War. According to him, the USSR failed because more than 60 per cent of the national budget was spent on the military. Japan and the Federal Republic had developed their societies as lessons from the Second World War and made them fit for the future. There is no question that this fatal budget situation applies to the United States today. The profiteers of this situation will be prepared to fight for their coffers until doom. Will we too?

Source: https://apolut.net/loest-diese-nato-auf/, 2 September 2021

(Translation “Swiss Standpoint”)

* Willy Wimmer is a German lawyer and politician. From 1976 to 2009 he was a member of the Bundestag. In 1985 and 1992 he was spokesman for the CDU/CSU and subsequently Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Defence. From 1994 to 2000, he was Vice-President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Willy Wimmer regularly takes independent and staunch positions on issues related to Germany and international politics. He frequently publishes articles and books.