Organizing Notes

Bruce Gagnon is coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. He offers his own reflections on organizing and the state of America's declining empire....

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Location: Brunswick, ME, United States

The collapsing US military & economic empire is making Washington & NATO even more dangerous. US could not beat the Taliban but thinks it can take on China-Russia-Iran...a sign of psychopathology for sure. We must all do more to help stop this western corporate arrogance that puts the future generations lives in despair. @BruceKGagnon

Monday, March 18, 2024

NATO's largest military base on Black Sea coast in Romania

 


SouthFront


Amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, NATO is building new military base in Romania. The facility is supposed to become the largest NATO military base in Europe.

The new military base should be based on the old 57th Air Base of the Romanian Air Force “Mikhail Kogalniceanu” near port city of Constanta. The construction of the new large military facility on the Black Sea coast is a clear signal to Moscow.

The new military base has an area of 2.8 thousand hectares. It should host 10,000 NATO soldiers and their family members on a permanent basis.

The construction of the bases reportedly costs about 2.5 billion euros. The project includes new runways, military depots, hangars for aircraft, as well as civilian infrastructure like schools, kindergartens, shops and a hospital.

According to the announced area of the facility, the new base will be almost three times larger than the 99th Deveselu military base in Romania, where the US Aegis Ashore missile defense systems are located. The new base should larger than the base of the US Air Force in Ramstein (Germany).

 



NATO acknowledged that the new military is being built in a “new geopolitical context” and after completion of construction it will become the most important permanent NATO military base in the immediate vicinity of the Russian Federation. All NATO decisions confirm that the Western warmongers are preparing to the long lasting military confrontation with Russia. The new base will pose a great threat to Russian facilities in Crimea and new regions of the Russian Federation.

German missiles could carry nukes

 


By Gilbert Doctorow

I am just a layman as regards military hardware, but I will stick my neck out a bit to mention one aspect of the controversy in Germany over sending Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine that barely is mentioned in our media. We hear time and again that the issue is the range of these missiles, 500 km, which would give the Ukrainians the possibility of destroying the iconic Kerch (Crimea) bridge and attacking other targets way behind Russian lines with devastating effect.  That, presumably, would lead to a further escalation from the Russian side, exposing German military production centers to attack.

However, at least in Russian media there is another issue: the Taurus are said to be nuclear enabled, meaning they could carry tactical nuclear weapons.  If that is true, then incoming Taurus missiles could well prompt the Russians to ‘launch on warning’ a strategic nuclear attack on Germany, or on the USA as they may choose.

There are rumors in Germany that Scholz’s decision against sending the Taurus to Ukraine was advised by none other than Joe Biden. If so, then the possible nuclear boomerang described above could have been the argument which prevailed.

Postscript:
A colleague in Germany has just provided ‘the missing link’ regarding the nuclear capability of the Taurus missile: https://www.sevimdagdelen.de/atomare-bestueckung-von-taurus-marschflugkoerpern/#:~:text=Ist%20der%20Bundesregierung%20bekannt%2C%20dass,dem%20Hintergrund%2C%20dass%20der%20Aufbau

In his words, the German government is not responding directly to the question because that would harm Germany in its possibilities for defense. But they don’t deny that the Taurus can be nuclear armed. As for NATO, they only pledge that they won’t put on nuclear warheads, which means that they could.

~ Gilbert Doctorow writes about International relations and Russian affairs.

Big news - good for Niger

 


 

Richard Medhurst, independent journalist from the United Kingdom reports on the breaking developments from the capital Niamey: Niger has cancelled all military accords with the United States, kicking out the 1,100 troops left in the country. 

Six months ago the new government also evicted all French forces from Niger.

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Putin: '500 years of western colonial terror coming to an end...'

 


 

The West realized that it was impossible to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia! 

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave an interview to a Russian journalist. In particular, they talked about the crisis around Ukraine.

Putin nails the exceptional arrogance of the west as he attempts to help share the growing demands from the Global South for an end to western empire

Sunday song

 




                                                               Click for English subtitles 

Saturday, March 16, 2024

More flour massacres by the barbarians

 


 

Israeli forces have once again fired on Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid near Kuwait roundabout in Gaza City, killing at least 21 people. Thousands of people were gathering at the Kuwait roundabout, an intersection on a major road linking the north and south of the strip. 

Witnesses say Israeli forces used helicopters, tanks and drones to fire on crowds - it's a location that has been repeatedly attacked by Israel’s military. 

Al Jazeera's Aksel Zaimovic reports.

What next in Palestine?

 


 

In this episode of Centre Stage, our guest is Ilan Pappé. 

He’s an Israeli historian and professor at the University of Exeter. Pappé is known for his outspoken views on the Israeli-Palestinian question - drawing both praise and criticism. He’s the author of several books including "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine", in which he challenges the traditional Israeli narrative over the establishment of Israel in 1948. 

Pappé discusses the dangers of the Zionist ideology and its impact on Israel and Palestine, the historical context of October 7, and his vision for a one-state solution. 

Dareen Abughaida is a principal presenter at Al Jazeera English.

Friday, March 15, 2024

Proof of French troops in Ukraine

 

 

Global South

A badge from a dead Frenchman in Novorossiya [Donbass region along Russian border, formerly Ukraine].

Without the Internet, there were a lot of versions of what this means.

Someone said that this was a badge of some French mercenaries. Or the foreign legion.

But the life-giving Internet put everything in its place. This is the badge of the 13th Parachute Dragons. Special reconnaissance unit of the French army.

The regiment belongs to the French Army Special Forces Command and the Special Operations Command. The killed man wore the badge proudly and wasn’t even trying to conceal it.

This means we are on the threshold of global events.

 

My note:

It is beyond obvious that the west has completely infiltrated the 'Ukraine military' with US, UK, French, Polish, German, Romanian and other EU nations regular military troops - now called 'mercenaries'. 

They've even brought ISIS terrorists to Ukraine that had been previously sent to topple the legitimate government in Syria. 

The US-UK-NATO are freaking out as their war project in Ukraine is collapsing. Thus their big decision time - do we send in our formal armies to vainly try to rescue this failed war on Russia or let it just fall? 

Their huge egos and even larger embarrassment does not allow them to back off gracefully. Instead they divert to 'chaos theory' which essentially means changing from full war footing to creating as much terror as possible by sending more long-rang missiles/drones that can reach deep inside of Russia.

(A reminder of Hitler's desperate strategy near the end of WW2 when he used the V-1 and V-2 rockets to bomb European cities. It caused alot of damage but had no real impact on the war.)

And if they take that dangerous and provocative step then Russia will be forced to respond to those who have provided these weapons - France, UK, Germany and US. That of course would mean the west is pushing the door open to WW3.

Let's hope that soon the citizens across the west wake up and see the writing on the wall before it is too late.

Already western economies are suffering badly largely due to the loss of cheap Russian natural gas (Nordstream pipelines) and their continual spending to help Ukraine wage this ill-fated war trying to create the impossible dream of regime change in Moscow.

Bruce

War Games in Arctic: What's Driving the West’s New Passion?



Sputnik


Two unprecedented military exercises are being conducted by the US and its NATO allies simultaneously in various parts of the Arctic, signaling a new aggressive stance by the West in the region. 

Thirteen NATO countries participated this week in the Nordic Response 2024 exercise held in Finland and Sweden, near the border with Russia. Additionally, the US Army recently conducted a training event near Fairbanks, Alaska, also close to Russia's borders. 

The US exercise was conducted within the framework of the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center (JPMRC) and involved 8,000 American servicemen from the 11th Airborne Division and an unspecified smaller number of “foreign allies.” 

The Nordic Response exercises in Finland and Sweden are even bigger in scope, since they involve 20,000 service members from 13 NATO member countries, 50 warships and 100 military aircraft. The United States and Norway contributed their F-35 fifth-generation fighter jets to the organizers of the Nordic Response drills. Additionally, the UK agreed to send several of its own F-35s from the Royal Air Force, stationed on the British aircraft carrier, Prince of Wales. 

“We just want to beef up our presence in the Far North,” said German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who came to inspect the Nordic Response 2024 war games. “This is the biggest and the most important NATO exercise in 40 years,” he contended.

 


 

German submarines, along with troops from new NATO members Finland and Sweden, also participated in the military exercises. However, the majority of the fighting force consisted of Americans, who openly expressed their intention to "rebuild their capacity to fight in the Arctic”, a capability that had somewhat weakened since the end of the Cold War.

The presumed adversary in both Alaska and the Finnish forests was the same: Russia and its possible ally China. The American newspaper Business Insider reported that the new “Arctic Strategy” of the US Army is pivoted towards “regaining Arctic dominance.” The new strategy has been operational since 2021. 

However, Business Insider noted that the rivalry with Russia now is not limited to the military sphere, as it was during the Cold War era. The economy has a role to play, too. “Rapidly melting sea ice in the Arctic Circle, warming twice as fast as the rest of the world is opening up new opportunities for natural resource extraction, shipping routes, and commercial fishing, as the Arctic becomes navigable,” the publication wrote. 

Vladimir Vasilyev, the chief research associate at the Institute of the US and Canada at the Russian Academy of Sciences, suggests that the Americans may be interested in gaining control over the North Sea Route. This route is considered the shortest maritime connection between the growing economies of Southeast Asia and Europe. Russia has extensive experience in utilizing the North Sea Route, which goes along the country's northern shores. As the ice continues to melt, this sea route is becoming increasingly accessible to commercial vessels. 

 

 

“The United States is striving to ‘rediscover’ the Arctic region militarily,” a member of the Russian Academy of Military Sciences Alexander Bartosh told Sputnik. “Now, that Finland and Sweden are becoming active NATO members, this opens the possibility for the US to deploy nuclear weapons in the Far North.” 

The goal of the US beefing up its military force in the region, in Bartosh’s opinion, is two-fold. The first is to leverage their superiority at sea and in the air for potential strikes against Russia. And secondly, they seek to exploit the region's untapped natural resources, primarily focusing on oil and gas.

Vladimir Vasilyev notes the historic roots of the 'military side' of American interest in the Arctic. “The Arctic region plays an indispensable role in the long-time US strategy of encircling Russia,” Vasilyev highlighted. He also did not exclude the deployment of American nuclear weapons in the region. “In the Arctic, nuclear accidents are easier to cover up,” Vasilyev noted and added: “Also, for a very long time Americans had an illusion that because of the Arctic’s sparsely located population, collateral damage from the use of nuclear weapons there will be less noticeable.” 


The proof is in the footage