Europe Is Staging Ground For U.S. Power Projection: Top NATO Commander

Voice of Russia
October 30, 2013

Europe a proxy for projecting US force – General Breedlove
John Robles

The NATO Supreme Allied Commander for Europe and commander of US European Command, US Air Force General Philip Breedlove recently spoke with reporters from the American mass media in the Pentagon in what appears to be an attempt to assuage fears spreading in the US military industrial complex over a loss of US influence in Europe.

Not only the language of the speech but the timing give very clear signals that the US and Europe are seeing a rift that has been caused by the US’ own actions in the region and their almost “imperialistic” relationship with European leaders and governments. The almost synchronized timing of the statements by Breedlove with visits to the US by European Union leaders and officials, including top intelligence and foreign ministry representatives of key NATO member Germany clearly show that not everything is going according to plan and the backlash for revelations about NSA spying may cause a further chilling in European/US relations.

In his speech Breedlove attempts to paint a picture of “cohesiveness” and “interconnectedness” between “these nations”, as he refers to Europe, and says the US military is at the “pinnacle” of their “absolutely connected” relationship with the military structures of European nations. He cites the over 12 year quagmire in Afghanistan and the dismal failure in that country as the driving force behind this “interconnectedness”.

Such rhetoric clearly runs contrary to the current negative turn of events that is now plaguing the multi-faceted relationship between the EU and the US. Of course for the US military might is tantamount to everything else and the absolute “end to the means” but with the recent events in Syria and the Middle East, the growing economic inequalities among EU citizens and the discovery of the massive spying that the US military industrial complex has been engaged in on European citizens and leaders, it is extremely questionable whether the EU, its leaders and it citizenry will continue to assist the US in their self-serving plan for global domination and hegemony through brute force and military might.

Painting a picture for the media of how Europe is completely connected to the US, and in fact just a proxy, according to the US Command’s site General Breedlove said: “Our ability to work together, our tactics, techniques and procedures, are all the same and forged around what is NATO-standard. And therefore, it is very easy for us to take the field together and do those missions that our nations want them to do.”

He told his audience that “… between 2007 and 2011, United States European Command (EUCOM) trained 42,000 NATO and NATO-partner troops to deploy to Afghanistan. That’s 42,000 Americans that didn’t have to go to Afghanistan,” he said. “Our ability to remain connected to these armies and these air forces [is] directly related to our force structure in Europe.”

Clearly this is an attempt to show Americans that they do not have to worry about US boots on the ground and US casualties as they have their proxy armies all set up and ready to go for the next military adventure. This is against the growing backdrop of growing discontent among the US populace with the paradigm of endless war that the US military industrial complex wishes to continue to force on the population.

That population is increasingly growing weary of the hyper-security state that their country has become and the militarization of their police forces and the way their own government has begun to treat them as if they are the enemy. The people are not the problem in America, the overbearing police state is the problem, and that has been brought home to Europe by the recent revelations of Edward Snowden, who even revealed that of 34 leaders on a long term surveillance list German Chancellor Angel Merkel was among them.

Will Europe and its citizenry do what the American people have not been able to do and say no to the US military industrial complex and their invasive and tyrannical controls? That is a question which must surely be worrying Washington.

With the current climate one might also ask the question whether intelligent, cultured and forward thinking Europeans and their leaders continue to embrace a country with nothing to offer but a mindless culture, military might, endless war and total surveillance, or whether they will look elsewhere?

Now that the US’ favorite bogeyman of “terrorism” has proven to be a self-fabricated one used to strip the world of its sovereignty and the citizenry of their freedom, it is time for the world to take a long hard look at where the future truly lies and what is sustainable for all of us.

With Russia continuing to increase cooperation with its European partners in the cultural, economic, technological, educational, scientific, energy and other spheres on an above board and mutually beneficial basis and with mutual respect and an open adherence to the rule of law and respect for sovereignty, the policies of brutal-in-your-face-domination and clear scoffing at the sovereignty of nations and their leaders by the US are clearly unsustainable if the “special friends” from across the Ocean wish to continue their hegemony over Europe.

Clearly the US will continue to demonize Russia in any way it can, after all the “bogeyman” of Communism is gone, as its geopolitical goal of hegemony and total control over Europe is not one that it will give up easily, but what they US can not understand, and I think the record has shown, refuses to understand is that there are people in Europe and those people think and have opinions and like the people of Afghanistan and Iraq and Libya and Syria, their opinions do matter. And they will never, not in a million years, be able to win the minds and hearts of the people using the end of a gun, or Hellfire Missiles fired from drones, or massive invasive surveillance, these are signs of a tyrannical power desperately trying to hold on to illegitimate power.

The world has other problems, far more important than US military domination, the world has to guarantee the sustainability of our planet and the advancement of the human race.

General Breedlove (no comment on his name) stated: “I think Europe is incredibly important to America, and I think that…the long-standing trust relationships in Europe that allow us to project force into Africa and that allow us to project force into the Middle East are absolutely key to the future.” But will Europe agree and continue to allow the US military to invade their sovereignty and to play the role of US proxy? Perhaps.

Or perhaps they will look a little closer to a country and a leader who are fighting for peace, mutual respect, rule of law and the well being of all of the citizens.