The late Dr. Walter Rodney accurately described the early foundation of colonial Africa’s relationship with NATO in How Europe Underdeveloped Africa: ”... in the 1950’s when most Africans were still colonial subjects, they had absolutely no control over the utilization of their soil for militaristic ends. Virtually the whole of North Africa was turned into a sphere of operations for NATO, with bases aimed at the Soviet Union. The colonial powers actually held military conferences in African cities like Dakar and Nairobi in the early 1950’s, inviting the whites of South Africa and Rhodesia and the government of the USA.

Just last week the New York Times reported of a Russian strike ‘on civilians’ in Chasiv Yar even as its own reporter at the location acknowledged in a detailed separate report that the apartment complex that was hit was mostly housing military forces.  Yesterday a Russian missile strike hit the town of Vinnytsia in western Ukraine.  The New York Times is again lamenting about a damage to civilian buildings even as the main target was obviously a military one.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the arms industry that depends on it for billions in profits, has become the most aggressive and dangerous military alliance on the planet. Created in 1949 to thwart Soviet expansion, it has evolved into a global war machine in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and Asia.  NATO expanded its footprint, violating promises to Moscow, once the Cold War ended, to incorporate 14 countries in Eastern and Central Europe. It bombed Bosnia, Serbia and Kosovo.

NATO’s 2022 “strategic concept,” its first new plan since 2010, declares Russia a “threat” and China “systemic challenge.”  It demonizes the Eurasian powers as “authoritarian actors” and “strategic competitors,” essentially declaring a second cold war to maintain Western hegemony.  The US-led NATO military alliance has published the 2022 “Strategic Concept,” the first such blueprint NATO has released since 2010.  The Strategic Concept was adopted unanimously by the in a summit in Madrid, Spain in late June... Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand – all of which are very far from the North Atlantic region – attended the NATO summit for the first time... The US-led cartel announced more common funding, and said member states agreed to increase their national military spending to 2% or more of GDP.

Biden’s campaign promises included vows to reverse Trump’s harsh immigration policies, but these words have proven to be performative and frail. On the first day of his presidency, he moved to end the “Remain in Mexico” program through a termination memo. Biden expanded eligibility for deportation to include anyone from countries in he Western Hemisphere other than Mexico. Under Trump, only people from Spanish-speaking countries and Brazilians were eligible to be sent to Mexico. Under Biden’s expanded reinstatement, however, U.S. border officials could send back Haitian migrants, something that generally did not happen in years prior. In September and October alone, the Biden administration sent back or detained thousands of Haitians through Title 42... 

Many of the CIA’s traditional responsibilities and activities [are] being farmed out to ... the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).  NED’s expurgation of records exposing its role in fomenting and precipitating the horror now unfolding in southeast Ukraine not only protects de facto CIA agents on the ground. It also reinforces and legitimizes the Biden administration’s sprawling, fraudulent narrative, endlessly and uncritically reiterated in Western media, that Russia’s invasion was entirely unprovoked and groundless.

On June 23, 2022, an organization funded by the US Congress, the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe – also known as the Helsinki Commission – held a virtual conference calling for the “decolonizing of Russia.”  This is, of course, tantamount to calling upon the US to relinquish nearly all of its territory from the Atlantic to Pacific, not to mention more recent holdings such as Hawaii.

The importance of NATO and Ukraine

With the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact, many people in the West believed NATO was no longer needed. NATO claimed to be strictly a defensive alliance and its only rival had disbanded.