CHICAGO BOUND

I am on a bus heading for Boston where I take plane to Chicago.  On Friday and Saturday I will be involved in the anti-NATO Counter Summit that is being held to promote alternatives to U.S. and NATO expanding militarism.  On Sunday a mass rally and march will be held.  The cops will be out in full battle gear.  The people are now the enemy.

One key aspect of NATO expansion is the surrounding of Russia.  After the break up of the former Soviet Union, U.S. Secretary of State Jim Baker promised Russia that NATO would not expand "one inch" into the former Warsaw Pact territories.  When Bill Clinton came into office he tossed that promise aside and NATO has been like a cancerous growth on steroids ever since.

U.S./NATO now has bases and/or military operations in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Estonia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan.  At the same time NATO partnerships are expanding into the Asia-Pacific region to include the likes of Australia, Japan, South Korea, and very likely India.  NATO expansion throughout Eastern Europe and into Asia-Pacific will further Chinese and Russian fears of containment and force them to militarily respond.

 

The fact that Russia has the world’s largest supply of natural gas, and significant supplies of oil, indicates one likely reason the U.S. and NATO are military surrounding her.

 

Climate change and the melting of the Arctic regions makes it possible for oil and gas corporations to drill there.  The U.S. is already lining up Canada, Norway and other Arctic allies to stand against Russia in this push-and-shove for control of these resources. (Note how much of Russia borders the Arctic.)

All of this spells T-R-O-U-B-L-E for peace in the world.  It also means that the attacks on social spending here at home will continue as the Pentagon's voracious appetite for scarce tax dollars only gets worse.

The protests against NATO in Chicago are important because this is the military arm of corporate globalization.  Capitalism must control and devour the shrinking natural resource base of the planet to keep growing.  It needs a military machine to secure those resources.  Welcome to NATO!