Fucking A - the 'peace movement' divide

 

On May 2, 2014 hundreds of Nazis were sent into Odessa, Ukraine and set fire to the Trades Union Hall killing scores of Russian-ethnic activists who were gathering signatures calling for a 'federated' Ukraine where people in the Donbass region could speak Russian and have local autonomy still within the Ukrainian state. This petition effort was not acceptable to the new US imposed puppet regime in Kiev.

 

 

I started work in the 'peace movement' in 1982.

Over the years I've watched many different peace groups - national and local - come and go. I've also noted how some groups follow the Democratic Party line and some are more independent. Some of the reasons for these differences are the funding sources of the particular group. Some of the groups get funding from Dem party-aligned sources - wealthy donors and foundations dressed up to funnel corporate oligarch money and establish control over movement messaging and activities.

Years ago anti-nuclear activist Greg Mello in New Mexico told the story about the Ploughshares Fund based in California. They had sent a memo to potential grantees declaring that the word 'disarmament' would not longer fly. In the future 'arms control' would be the acceptable message. And so disarmament largely died across America. The Dems in Congress (due to their subservience to military industrial donors) wanted to get the pressure off their backs. So they had their funding operations switch the tune so to speak. Today the Congress refuses to support the nuclear ban treaty.

The former president of the Ploughshares Fund, Joseph Cirincione, unsurprisingly recently was quoted in the mainstream media bashing Russia and declaring his support for the US-NATO war using  Ukraine as a hammer. The puzzle all fits together if we just look at reality.  

A  more contemporary example of message control is centered around the war in Ukraine. Some 'leading' groups call for negotiations between the US, Russia and Ukraine. One knowledgeable friend writes: "We need peace talks now. More than that, we need NO more US weapons or military to Ukraine - a central demand of the [mainstream Peace in Ukraine] Coalition that is being forgotten. Has the [Democrat] Progressive Caucus won, with our demands being reduced to theirs, that is, negotiations alone?  US out of Ukraine NOW".

I'd even go so far by saying that many peace groups, nationally and even sometimes locally, are infested with corporate spies and provocateurs. I've had direct experience for years with this - especially when I lived and worked in Florida. The Martin Marietta weapons plant in Orlando was building the Pershing II nuclear missile that Washington deployed in Germany - aimed at the former Soviet Union. This was 1983. Martin Marietta called the local Orange County sheriff's surveillance agency and had them infiltrate our local group that was organizing protests outside the production facility.   

We later learned (from the lawyer who worked for the county spy agency and called me to warn that their infiltration of our group was illegal) that for several years the agency ran different spies thru our group. One of them once tried to sell me drugs, hoping for a sting that would destroy our credibility across the state.

 

 

What we have going on across the US today is a color revolution. Call it the 'Pink color rev'. Blacks are being pitted against whites. Urban vs rural. Men against women. Straight against gay. Environment vs growth. And it is being enabled and directed by the oligarchs through their funding of most social movements.

I recall one leading peace group in America in 2016 receiving a couple hundred thousand dollars from the George Soros foundation. Their task in return for the money? Go protest at Donald Trump rallies which ensured some level of conflict with the people participating in Trump's political event. Grow the divide. 

I closely followed the color revolution in Ukraine 2013-2014. I studied it afterward and say the fingerprints of CIA, USAID, National Endowment for Democracy, and multiple US-EU 'progressive' foundations that funded the training, hiring, and directing of 'activists' in the Maidan Square in Kiev. I learned how some professors at academic institutions across the west were also funded to write about and teach the US-EU line on Ukraine. So-called 'Alternative media' was often funded as well to spit out the western messages. It was an extensive operation.

So it is no surprise now for me to witness the deep divisions over 'messaging' across the western 'peace movements'. A few folks are understanding the correct (fact based) story as to what is truly going on in Ukraine. Some others, long used to the largess bestowed upon them for loyalty to the Dem party line, are either suspiciously silent at the very moment when nuclear war could be triggered in a flash or they are playing the 'middle road' in order to appear studious and impartial. Go along to get along. They are essentially agents in my mind.

Some of these people I've known for years. Some of them I have successfully worked with on occasion. But money and/or social standing talk. 

I saw one comment in social media that I could relate to - it read:  "The Democrats ARE right now the leading Party of war, and it is a good thing that those for peace recognize that fact. No votes in November for those who voted for weapons to Ukraine - no matter the Party".

This is a sad bit for me to write about. Forty years of good faith organizing with anyone willing to work together in a respectful manner are now shot all to hell. It breaks my heart. But being socially accepted for many so-called activists trumps real talk.

But I also feel liberated to share this sordid story. It is a big part of the daily frustration and depression that I carry around. Maybe by naming it the weight will not be so heavy.

Some might also claim that philosophical issues around non-violence make it difficult to reach operational unity. My primary response to that point is to ask a direct question: Where were you since the US orchestrated coup in 2014 in Kiev? Where have you been during these last nine years of Nazi death squads being sent to eastern Ukraine to kill Russian-ethnics who live there? More than 14,000 killed and more than 34,000 wounded. Where was your non-violent concern then? 

Not a whimper of real truth from some of these so-called leaders. Fucking A.

Bruce 

Strong message on Ukraine from a blog reader

 

 

 By David O. (NYC)

Just want to relay how much I appreciate and rely on reading “Organizing Notes.” Especially enjoyed your thoughts in the post, October 16, 2022, entitled: Seasons Change and So Did I. Your call for clear-headed analysis and incisive expression in this crucial moment we find ourselves in — challenging us to get beyond facile peace activism — got me thinking.

As someone who had the opportunity to do anti-war broadcasting on WBAI/Pacifica radio in NYC during the American invasion/full-bore occupation of Iraq, I must say it is shocking to witness — right, left and center — such callous insensitivity and inhumanity towards the major victim of western aggression today: Russia.

In contrast to the USA’s manifest criminal military adventurism of the past, the current conflict in Ukraine is treated as if it does not impose an immediate burden of moral culpability on America. Seemingly relieved — free to blame Russia for the war in Ukraine — it is evident that the present obsession with pointing the finger at Russia for this conflagration is rooted in a childish psychic need to believe that we, in the west, are not the bad guy. Many Americans — willfully incurious of the historical record, oblivious to the geo-strategic forces at work, quite happy to feel righteous and upstanding — have triumphantly glommed onto the notion that Russia is the great evil in the world today.

To claim that this is Putin’s war or Russia is the aggressor or Russia invaded Ukraine — or assert that Russia is the perpetrator of unprovoked war or contend that Russian imperialism is driving this conflict — is to ignore the train of lies, broken agreements and subterfuge effected by the West, to shut one’s eyes to the ground truth and, most appallingly, to bolster the very enterprise that lies at the core of this conflict: out-and-out slaughter of the Russian-speaking people of eastern Ukraine.

In fact, an 8+ years long campaign of ethno-fascist state terror waged by a US-backed junta regime targeting the ethnic Russian population of eastern Ukraine — tormenting, persecuting and inflicting mass-murder — has devastated the people of the region and absolutely foreclosed any possibility for the Russian-speaking people of the Donbass (and adjacent regions) to ever re-join the Ukrainian state. How easy it is to disregard the Russian experience and perspective if one never listens to testimony from the people subjected to constant terror, endless shelling and the bloodbaths that come to pass day after day… untold human suffering inflicted by the authorities in Kiev, fully funded by the West.  

 

This US/UK/EU/NATO orchestrated campaign of ethnic cleansing and mass expulsion — a campaign that was sure to finally force Russia to engage, militarily, in a defensive action — is now being waged to draw Russia further into an interminable conflict in which the western powers hope to so de-stabilize the Russian state so as to precipitate its demise, fragmentation and geo-strategic looting.   

It is clear that vacuous calls for peace and a negotiated settlement will not be enough to bring public pressure to bear on the policy-makers in charge. However, if the concerned, peace-loving people of the United States and Europe were to rally behind a call for full international recognition of the liberated territories of eastern Ukraine, re-united with the Russian motherland, as the only acceptable framework for peaceful resolution of this conflict, perhaps public opinion could play a decisive role in ending this war. Otherwise, a vindictive, mean-spirited mentality will hold sway and the criminal impunity enjoyed by the western architects of this war will ensure that either interminable hostilities or the unchecked practice of genocide in the region, perpetrated by Ukraine, will proceed apace.

If one wishes to assign guilt for such a horrific happening as this war in Ukraine today, if one insists on casting blame, then the collective West — both leadership and consenting populaces — must be held responsible for every drop of blood shed. It is our autocratic elites and disempowered people who have masterminded and tolerated this decades long march, step by step, to unchecked militarism… without missing a beat.

Thanks again for all your work.

 

Update: When I posted this article on my Fazebook page I got a message stating I was banned for the next 60 days on the social media platform. So much for freedom and democracy in the USA!

Sunday song

 

 

EU gets sweaters from China before attacking Beijing

 

 

Macron has a new turtleneck to keep his scheming body warm. 

Chinese sweater factories have been humming with activity lately, partly to fulfill increased orders from Europe, as an energy crisis looms.

So looks like the US-NATO are going to stock up on warm weather gear before they go full bore against Russia and China in a futile attempt to take them down.  

Keep your heads down folks.

Nick Turse: My 10 Years of Reporting on AFRICOM

 

Click for better view

By Nick Turse

What’s the U.S. military doing in Africa? It’s an enigma, wrapped in a riddle, straight-jacketed in secrecy, and hogtied by red tape. Or at least it would be if it were up to the Pentagon.

Ten years ago, I embarked on a quest to answer that question at TomDispatch, chronicling a growing American military presence on that continent, a build-up of both logistical capabilities and outposts, and the possibility that far more was occurring out of sight. “Keep your eye on Africa,” I concluded. “The U.S. military is going to make news there for years to come.”

I knew I had a story when U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) failed to answer basic questions honestly. And the command’s reaction to the article told me that I also had a new beat.

Not long after publication, AFRICOM wrote a letter of complaint to my editor, Tom Engelhardt, attempting to discredit my investigation. (I responded point by point in a follow-up piece.) The command claimed the U.S. was doing little on that continent, had one measly base there, and was transparent about its operations. “I would encourage you and those who have interest in what we do to review our Website, www.AFRICOM.mil, and a new Defense Department Special Web Report on U.S. Africa Command at this link http://www.defense.gov/home/features/2012/0712_AFRICOM/,” wrote its director of public affairs Colonel Tom Davis.

A decade later, the link is dead; Davis is a functionary at Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona; and I’m still keeping an eye on AFRICOM.

A few months ago, in fact, I revealed the existence of a previously unknown AFRICOM investigation of an airstrike in Nigeria that killed more than 160 civilians. A formerly secret 2017 Africa Command document I obtained called for an inquiry into that “U.S.-Nigerian” operation that was never disclosed to Congress, much less the public.

Since then, AFRICOM has steadfastly refused to offer a substantive comment on the strike or the investigation that followed and won’t even say if it will release relevant documents to members of Congress. Last month, citing my reporting, a group of lawmakers from the newly formed Protection of Civilians in Conflict Caucus called on Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to turn over the files on, and answer key questions about, the attack. The Pentagon has so far kept mum.

Has AFRICOM then, as Davis contended so long ago, been transparent? Is its website the go-to spot for information about U.S. military missions on that continent? Did its operations there remain few and innocuous? Or was I onto something?

 

A Kinder, Gentler Combatant Command

From its inception, according to its first commander, General William Ward, AFRICOM was intended “to be a different kind of command”: less hardcore, more Peace Corps. “AFRICOM’s focus is on war prevention,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for African Affairs Theresa Whelan said in 2007, “rather than warfighting.”

In 2012, Ward’s successor, General Carter Ham, told the House Armed Services Committee that “small teams” of American personnel were conducting “a wide range of engagements in support of U.S. security interests.”

Years later, retired Army Brigadier General Don Bolduc, who served at AFRICOM from 2013 to 2015 and headed Special Operations Command Africa until 2017, would offer some clarity about those “engagements.” Between 2013 and 2017, he explained, American commandos saw combat in at least 13 African countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Somalia, South Sudan, and Tunisia. U.S. troops, he added, were killed or wounded in action in at least six of them.

Between 2015 and 2017, there were at least 10 unreported attacks on American troops in West Africa alone. A month after that January 2017 Nigerian air strike, in fact, U.S. Marines fought Al-Qaeda militants in a battle that AFRICOM still won’t admit took place in Tunisia.

That April, a U.S. commando reportedly killed a member of warlord Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army in the Central African Republic. The next month, during an advise, assist, and accompany mission, 38-year-old Navy SEAL Kyle Milliken was killed and two other Americans were wounded in a raid on a militant camp in Somalia.

That same year, a Navy SEAL reportedly shot and killed a man outside a compound flying an Islamic State (ISIS) flag in Cameroon. And that October, AFRICOM was finally forced to abandon the fiction that U.S. troops weren’t at war on the continent after ISIS militants ambushed American troops in Niger, killing four and wounding two more. “We don’t know exactly where we’re at in the world, militarily, and what we’re doing,” said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, then a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, after meeting with Pentagon officials about the attack.

In the 2010s, I would, in fact, help reveal that the U.S. had conducted at least 36 named operations and activities in Africa — more than anywhere else on earth, including the Middle East. Among them were eight 127e programs, named for the budgetary authority that allows Special Operations forces to use foreign military units as surrogates in counter-terrorism missions.

More recently, I would report on 11 of those proxy programs employed in Africa, including one in Tunisia, code-named Obsidian Tower and never acknowledged by the Pentagon, and another with a notoriously abusive Cameroonian military unit connected to mass atrocities.

Five of those 127e programs were conducted in Somalia by U.S. commandos training, equipping and directing troops from Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Uganda as part of the fight against the Islamist militant group al-Shabaab. In 2018, 26-year-old Alex Conrad of the Army’s Special Forces was killed in an attack on a small U.S. military outpost in Somalia.

Such outposts have long been a point of contention between AFRICOM and me. “The U.S. maintains a surprising number of bases in Africa,” I wrote in that initial TomDispatch article in July 2012. Colonel Davis denied it. “Other than our base at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti,” he claimed, “we do not have military bases in Africa.” I had, he insisted, filed that article before AFRICOM could get me further outpost material. “If he had waited, we would have provided the information requested, which could have better informed his story.”

I had begun requesting information that May, called in additional questions in June and July, and then (as requested) put them in writing. I followed up on the 9th, mentioning my looming deadline and was told that AFRICOM headquarters might have some answers for me on the 10th. That day came and went, as did the 11th. TomDispatch finally published the piece on July 12th. “I respectfully submit that a vigorous free press cannot be held hostage, waiting for information that might never arrive,” I wrote Davis.

When I later followed up, Davis turned out to be on leave, but AFRICOM spokesperson Eric Elliott emailed in August to say: “Let me see what I can give you in response to your request for a complete list of facilities.”

Then, for weeks, AFRICOM went dark. A follow-up email in late October went unanswered. Another in early November elicited a response from spokesperson Dave Hecht, who said that he was handling the request and would provide an update by week’s end. I’m sure you won’t be shocked to learn that he didn’t. So, I followed up yet again. On Nov. 16, he finally responded: “All questions now have answers. I just need the boss to review before I can release. I hope to have them to you by mid next week.” Did I get them? What do you think?

In December, Hecht finally replied: “All questions have been answered but are still being reviewed for release. Hopefully this week I can send everything your way.” Did he? Hah!

In January 2013, I received answers to some questions of mine, but nothing about those bases. By then, Hecht, too, had disappeared and I was left dealing with AFRICOM’s chief of media engagement, Benjamin Benson. When asked about my questions, he replied that public affairs couldn’t provide answers and I should instead file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

To recap, six months later, Benson recommended I start again. And in good faith, I did. In 2016, three and a half years later, I finally received a partial response to that FOIA request: one page of partially redacted — not to mention useless — information about (yep!) Camp Lemonnier and nothing else.

I would spend years investigating the bases Davis claimed didn’t exist. Using leaked secret documents, I shed light on a network of African drone bases integral to U.S. assassination programs on the continent as well as the existence of a secret network of National Security Agency eavesdropping outposts in Ethiopia.

Using formerly secret documents, I revealed an even larger network of U.S. bases across Africa, again and again. I used little-noticed open-source information to highlight activities at those facilities, while helping expose murder and torture by local forces at a drone base in Cameroon built-up and frequented by Americans.

I also spotlighted the construction of a $100 million drone base in Niger; a previously unreported outpost in Mali apparently overrun by militants after a 2012 coup there by a U.S.-trained officer; the expansion of a shadowy drone base in the Horn of Africa and its role in lethal strikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria; hundreds of drone strikes from Libya to Somalia and the resulting civilian casualties; and the flailing, failing U.S. war on terror all across Africa.

You’re on Target When You Get a Lot of Flak(s)

In the years since, a parade of AFRICOM press officials came and went, replying in a by-then-familiar fashion. “Nick, we’re not going to respond to any of your questions,” Lieutenant Commander Anthony Falvo, head of its public affairs branch, told me in October 2017. Did he, I asked, believe AFRICOM needn’t address questions from the press in general or only from me. “No, just you,” he replied. “We don’t consider you a legitimate journalist, really.” Then he hung up.

That same month, I was inadvertently ushered behind the closed doors of the AFRICOM public affairs office. While attempting to hang up on me, a member of the staff accidentally put me on speakerphone and suddenly I found myself listening in to the goings on, from banal banter to shrieking outbursts.

And, believe me, it wasn’t pretty. While the command regularly claimed its personnel had the utmost respect for their local counterparts, I discovered, for example, that at least certain press officers appeared to have a remarkably low opinion of some of their African partners.

At one point, Falvo asked if there was any “new intelligence” regarding military operations in Niger after the 2017 ambush that killed those four American soldiers. “You can’t put Nigeriens and intelligence in the same sentence,” replied someone in the office. Laughter followed and I published the sordid details. That very month, Anthony Falvo shipped off (literally ending up in the public affairs office of the USS Gerald Ford).

Today, a new coterie of AFRICOM public affairs personnel field questions, but Falvo’s successor, Deputy Director of Public Affairs John Manley, a genuine professional, seems to be on call whenever my questions are especially problematic. He swears this isn’t true, but I’m sure you won’t be shocked to learn that he fielded my queries for this article.

After Col. Tom Davis — who left AFRICOM to join Special Operations Command (where, in a private email, he called me a “turkey”) — failed to respond to my interview requests, I asked AFRICOM if his defer-and-deny system was the best way to inform the American public. “We are not going to comment on processes and procedures in place a decade ago or provide opinions on personnel who worked in the office at that time,” said Manley.

“Our responsibility is to provide timely, accurate, and transparent responses to queries received from all members of the media,” Manley told me. Yes, me, the reporter who’s been waiting since 2012 for answers about those U.S. bases. And by AFRICOM standards, maybe that’s not really so long, given its endless failures in quelling terrorism and promoting stability in places like Burkina Faso, Libya, and Somalia.

Still, I give Manley a lot of credit. He isn’t thin-skinned or afraid to talk and he does offer answers, although sometimes they seem so far-fetched that I can’t believe he uttered them with a straight face. Though he agreed to discuss his replies further, I doubted that badgering him would get either of us anywhere, so I’ll just let his last one stand as a digital monument to my 10-year relationship with AFRICOM. When I asked if the public affairs office had always been as forthcoming, forthright, and helpful with my queries as possible, he unleashed the perfect capstone to my decade-long dance with U.S. Africa Command by offering up just one lone word: “Yes.”

~ Nick Turse is the managing editor of TomDispatch and a fellow at the Type Media Center. He is the author most recently of Next Time They’ll Come to Count the Dead: War and Survival in South Sudan and of the bestselling Kill Anything That Moves.

U.S. running out of diesel

 

By John Kemp, Senior Market Analyst at Reuters

U.S. diesel supplies are becoming critically low with shortages and price spikes likely to occur in the next six months unless and until the economy and fuel consumption slow.

As a result, retail diesel prices including applicable taxes are now $1.45 per gallon higher than for gasoline, a record premium, up from just 24 cents per gallon a year ago.

Distillate fuel oil is primarily used in freight transport, manufacturing, farming, mining and the oil and gas industry itself, so consumption is strongly influenced by the economic cycle.

Stabilizing then rebuilding inventories to more comfortable levels will require a significant slowdown in freight movements and manufacturing activity.

But a deeper and more prolonged slowdown in the United States and/or in Europe and Asia will be needed to boost inventories significantly.

Challenge the political hacks

 

 

People disrupt house party for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). She only wanted to talk about student debt relief.

The protesters wanted to talk about Warren's support for the war in Ukraine.  

We need more of this.

Ethiopia says 'We are tired of western colonizers'

 

African Diaspora News Channel 

Wongel Zelalem reports on millions of Ethiopians protesting western interference in their country.

Silence is not so golden

 

 

On the street again today

with my sign 'No war with Russia - Stop NATO',

an hour in heart of downtown Brunswick 

seven of us

15-20% of cars gave positive response,

only saw two outright negatives.

Lots of strong honks by truckers

Most people just stare straight ahead

locked in fear, brainwashed,

depressed,

politically ignorant.

Long ago surrendered their 

soul and nation

to the corporate neo-con oligarchs.

 

Cynthia brought her banner along,

great Chomsky quote.

It must be seen more often,

many cars honked as they passed it by.

Clear truth.

My thinking is being on the street

gives permission

to skeptics of US-NATO war mongering,

more confidence to share their doubts

with others.

The US is led by psychopaths,

terrorists, liars, agents of hell.

They are charting a dark course

to endless chaos

and neo-feudalism.

We must be more courageous

and public

with our free-will 

to critique

our sorry-ass 

so-called governments.

 

Keep paddling....

Bruce 

Iran dealt a crushing blow to the EU

  

Declaring economic war on Russia, the European Union could not even imagine the number of countries that would want to take the place of European companies that had left the Russian market. 

Faced with unprecedented Western sanctions on Russia, Moscow began to change the entire structure of further economic cooperation and development. And unfortunately for the collective West, many countries of the world not only refused to join Western sanctions against Russia, but also began active economic cooperation with Moscow. 

In particular, many countries of the world have provided Russia with great support as part of its program to reorient trade routes to more profitable and stable directions. Foreign countries are happy to come to the aid of the Russian Federation and occupy the vacant niches that European companies give away for nearly nothing. 

Iran is one notable example as they take over construction of gas pipeline turbines for Russia - replacing western companies that have lost a huge customer and big profits. 

Coming economic collapse?

 

 

Nouriel Roubini, CEO of Roubini Macro Associates and author of "MegaThreats," discusses the threats facing the global economy, the US dollar shortage and Federal Reserve monetary policy on "Bloomberg Surveillance."  

Media merry-go-round of lies

 

OMG - America is sicker than I even imagined.....

The empire of lies has topped the charts on this one.

This is a must watch video that exposes the absolute slavery and corruption of the corporate owned media.

When you see this range of message coordination it becomes obvious that CIA, Madison Avenue and Hollywood neo-con bought operatives are writing the lines being regurgitated by the media talking heads.

This reveals the total desperation that Washington, London and Brussels are gripped with - fear of losing their global control. They are slipping and turning to outrageously dangerous escalations like the Nordstream pipelines and the Kerch Bridge.

What comes next? Dirty bombs or flooding Kherson region after blowing up a dam?

It's really quite sad and anger making. 

I could not be more ashamed of how this country of my birth has become such an evil, divisive, greedy, killing and thieving place. Capitalism and a misplaced sense entitlement has poisoned our national soul.

There is no other way to see this. It is as it seems.

The United States is a pirate nation. A terrorist nation. Yes, we are #1 for certain.

Bruce 

Col. Macgregor: U.S. moving to enter Ukraine war

 

 

Playing at War in Ukraine 

Congress should signal its readiness to invoke the War Powers Act, while demanding that the Biden administration broker peace.

 https://www.theamericanconservative.c...  

#Ukraine #Putin #Biden

The ‘War of Terror’ may be about to hit Europe

 

The pirates of our time run their global criminal syndicate from Washington, London and Brussels

 


by Pepe Escobar

Never underestimate a wounded and decaying Empire collapsing in real time.

Imperial functionaries, even in a “diplomatic” capacity, continue to brazenly declare that their exceptionalist control over the world is mandatory.

If that’s not the case, competitors may emerge and steal the limelight – monopolized by US oligarchies. That, of course, is absolute anathema.

The imperial modus operandi against geopolitical and geoeconomic competitors remains the same: avalanche of sanctions, embargos, economic blockades, protectionist measures, cancel culture, military uptick in neighboring nations, and assorted threats. But most of all, warmongering rhetoric – currently elevated to fever pitch.

The hegemon may be “transparent” at least in this domain because it still controls a massive international network of institutions, financial bodies, politicos, CEOs, propaganda agencies and the pop culture industry. Hence this supposed invulnerability breeding insolence.

Panic in the “garden”

The blowing up of Nord Stream (NS) and Nord Stream 2 (NS2) – everybody knows who did it, but the suspect cannot be named – took to the next level the two-pronged imperial project of cutting off cheap Russian energy from Europe and destroying the German economy.

From the imperial perspective, the ideal subplot is the emergence of a US-controlled Intermarium – from the Baltic and the Adriatic to the Black Sea – led by Poland, exercising some sort of new hegemony in Europe, on the heels of the Three Seas Initiative.

But as it stands, that remains a wet dream.

On the dodgy “investigation” of what really happened to NS and NS2, Sweden was cast as The Cleaner, as if this was a sequel of Quentin Tarantino’s crime thriller Pulp Fiction.

That’s why the results of the “investigation” cannot be shared with Russia. The Cleaner was there to erase any incriminating evidence.

As for the Germans, they willingly accepted the role of patsies. Berlin claimed it was sabotage, but would not dare to say by whom.

This is actually as sinister as it gets, because Sweden, Denmark and Germany, and the whole EU, know that if you really confront the Empire, in public, the Empire will strike back, manufacturing a war on European soil. This is about fear – and not fear of Russia.

The Empire simply cannot afford to lose the “garden.” And the “garden” elites with an IQ over room temperature know they are dealing with a psychopathic serial killer entity which simply cannot be appeased.

Meanwhile, the arrival of General Winter in Europe portends a socio-economic descent into a maelstrom of darkness – unimaginable only a few months ago in the supposedly “garden” of humanity, so far away from the rumbles across the “jungle.”

Well, from now on barbarism begins at home. And Europeans should thank the American “ally” for it, skillfully manipulating fearful, vassalized EU elites.

Way more dangerous though is a specter that very few are able to identify: the imminent Syrianization of Europe. That will be a direct consequence of the NATO debacle in Ukraine.

From an imperial perspective, the prospects in the Ukrainian battlefield are gloomy. Russia’s Special Military Operation (SMO) has seamlessly morphed into a Counter-Terror Operation (CTO): Moscow now openly characterizes Kiev as a terrorist regime.

The pain dial is incrementally going up, with surgical strikes against Ukrainian power/electricity infrastructure about to totally cripple Kiev’s economy and its military. And by December, there’s the arrival on the front lines and in the rear of a properly trained and highly motivated partial mobilization contingent.

The only question concerns the timetable. Moscow is now in the process of slowly but surely decapitating the Kiev proxy, and ultimately smashing NATO “unity.”

The process of torturing the EU economy is relentless. And the real world outside of the collective West – the Global South – is with Russia, from Africa and Latin America to West Asia and even sections of the EU.

It is Moscow – and significantly not Beijing – that is tearing apart the hegemon-coined “rules-based international order,” supported by its natural resources, the provision of food and reliable security.

And in coordination with China, Iran and major Eurasian players, Russia is working to eventually decommission all those US-controlled international organizations – as the Global South becomes virtually immune to the spread of NATO psyops.

Korean War 1950-1953

The Syrianization of Europe

In the Ukrainian battlefield, NATO’s crusade against Russia is doomed – even as in several nodes as much as 80 percent of the fighting forces feature NATO personnel. Wunderwaffen such as HIMARS are few and far between. And depending on the result of the US mid-term elections, weaponization will dry out in 2023.

Ukraine, by the spring of 2023, may be reduced to no more than an impoverished, rump black hole. The imperial Plan A remains  Afghanization: to operate an army of mercenaries capable of targeted destabilization and or/terrorist incursions into the Russian Federation.

In parallel, Europe is peppered with American military bases.

All those bases may play the role of major terror bases – very much like in Syria, in al-Tanf and the Eastern Euphrates. The US lost the long proxy war in Syria – where it instrumentalized jihadis – but still has not been expelled.

In this process of Syrianization of Europe, US military bases may become ideal centers to regiment and/or “train” squads of Eastern Europe émigrés, whose only job opportunity, apart from the drug business and organ trafficking, will be as – what else – imperial mercenaries, fighting whatever focus of civil disobedience emerges across an impoverished EU.

It goes without saying that this New Model Army will be fully sanctioned by the Brussels EUrocracy – which is merely the public relations arm of NATO.

A de-industrialized EU enmeshed into several layers of toxic intra-war, where NATO plays its time-tested role of Robocop, is the perfect Mad Max scenario juxtaposed to what would be, at least in the reveries of American Straussians/neo-cons, an island of prosperity: the US economy, the ideal destination for Global Capital, including European Capital.

The Empire will “lose” its pet project, Ukraine. But it will never accept losing the European “garden.”

Why is Washington poking the panda?

 

Former Singapore Foreign Minister and long-time Hong Kong resident George Yeo has been called a “China whisperer” for his ability to explain Beijing’s ambitions and perspective to the rest of the world. 

In this episode of Talking Post, Yeo sits down with SCMP chief news editor Yonden Lhatoo to discuss rising tensions between Beijing and Washington, Singapore’s role in the region and what the Singapore-Hong Kong rivalry means for the two financial hubs. 

The City of London elects Sunak as next British Prime Minister!

By Gilbert Doctorow

Aside from the United Kingdom itself, there may be no single country taking a greater interest in the ongoing competition to replace Liz Truss as British Prime Minister than in India. After all, the leading contender for the post, Rishi Sunak, is of Indian descent and is married to the daughter of one of India’s richest men.

Against this background, a couple of hours ago I was delighted to participate alongside a half dozen other talking heads on a featured live broadcast hosted by Republic TV of India.  My fellow panelists, mostly Indians plus one Brit, examined the prospects of a Sunak premiership from various angles:  What will this mean for Indian-UK relations?  Whether an Indian can win not merely within the closed circle of Tory parliamentarians but in the next general election in two years time, when the people of Britain decide at the ballot box if they are content to be led by a man of color? What will a Sunak premiership mean for the pound sterling?  What does a Sunak premiership imply for British foreign policy generally?

As the last speaker, I was given the opportunity to upend the playing board and to suggest that Mr. Sunak, if he wins, will have been elected by ….the City of London.  This is not merely because he worked for Goldman Sachs before entering the House of Commons six years ago. It is because the City of London, aka Capital or The Markets effectively removed Liz Truss from office by facilitating the dramatic crash of gilts and the slide of the pound. The markets were responding to one stimulus: the evident incompetence, particularly the ignorance of economic laws demonstrated by the PM and her Chancellor of the Exchequer when they rolled out their mini-Budget shortly after taking office. The City was not interested in ideological convictions of the PM; they were interested in what works and what does not work in the real world.

Now what is extraordinary about that, you may ask? It is extraordinary that in the UK Capital still speaks, still decides who runs the country and how.  That raw fact alone may be the best justification for Brexit, because it sets Britain apart from every country on the Continent. Here in Europe we see incompetence in the premiers, in the cabinets of country after country. For the most part, it is not because the individuals in power are stupid, but because they have assumed portfolios for which they have had no grounding in their education or in their professional careers.  They receive their portfolios or leadership batons strictly through political horse-trading among coalition partners who have different agendas and agree only on the desirability of sharing out the spoils of electoral victory within the proportional representation schemes in place. And the same applies to the European Commission which sits atop all of the member states and barks orders. What is the quality of economic or defense decisions that you can expect to come from the desk of one Ursula von der Leyen, whose professional education was as a gynecologist and who was kicked upstairs to Brussels after she failed, as minister, to keep the German Defense Ministry free of corruption scandals.

 Here across Europe, and particularly in what is considered to be the locomotive of the European Union’s economy, Germany, Capital is silent.  Silent in the face of economic incompetence in high places no less egregious than that displayed by Liz Truss.  German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is destroying the German economy by his stubborn, asinine insistence on denying Russian hydrocarbons access to the German and EU markets.

German companies are announcing their transfer of production to the United States and Asian countries where the cost of energy is vastly lower and where their end products can be competitive on global markets.  In fertilizers and glass and metals, industry is already shutting down capacity due to excessive energy costs, while Mr. Scholz beams before the television cameras as he announces that Germany will not run short of gas this winter because of his purchases from every imaginable supplier except Russia, damn the price.  Nonetheless, Industry and Capital are silent here about the political leadership responsible for the pending catastrophe. Only workers come out on the streets to complain about inflation and unsupportable energy costs at the household level.

The question which the moderator on Republic TV tossed to me was what to expect by way of foreign policy from a Sunak premiership.  My answer took no time to formulate:  it is likely to be a foreign policy dictated by The City of London. I expect this policy to be more moderate, less strident and hostile towards Russia and China than the policy of Boris Johnson or Liz Truss.  Not friendly, you understand, but not vicious either. Sunak is unlikely to speak about his readiness to press the nuclear button. At some point Realism has to trump Ideology and the Bubble.

©Gilbert Doctorow, 2022 

What is a "dirty bomb"?

 

 

 Scott Ritter News

 

A "dirty bomb" is a container with radioactive isotopes and an explosive charge. When the charge is detonated, the container is destroyed, and the radioactive substance is sprayed by a shock wave, while creating radioactive contamination of the area over large areas, and can also lead to radiation sickness. 

 

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has information about the Kiev regime planning a provocation related to the detonation of the so-called "dirty bomb" or low-yield nuclear weapons. 

 

The purpose of the provocation is to accuse Russia of using weapons of mass destruction in the Ukrainian theater of operations and thereby launch a powerful anti-Russian campaign in the world aimed at undermining confidence in Moscow. According to available information, two organizations in Ukraine have specific instructions to create the so-called "dirty bomb". The works are at the final stage. 

 

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has put its forces and means on standby in the event of a "dirty nuclear bomb" being detonated in Ukraine. There is also a threat of a nuclear catastrophe at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, which will affect most of Europe.    

Protests in Korea

 

 

By NoDutDol

Hundreds of thousands of Koreans called for recently elected President Yoon's resignation this past Saturday.

Those on the street protested Yoon's peace threatening policies, pro-Japan stance, political retaliation, as well as difficulties making a living.   

 

EU's Borrell is a pure racist

 

Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, holds a speech in Bruges to inaugurate the European Diplomatic Academy. 

"Europe is a garden," he says, praising the "combination of political freedom, economic prosperity and social cohesion". 

He urges European leaders, whom he compares to "gardeners", to help prevent the invasion of the "jungle".  

Borrell calls for the EU "gardeners to go to the jungle" - clearly calling for preemptive attacks on the jungle.

This is incredibly sick stuff. 

EU states are Washington's primary allies in the US-NATO war on Russia - using Ukraine as a hammer. 

101st Airborne Deployed to Ukraine’s Border ‘Ready To Fight Tonight’

 

A commander said, "this is not a training deployment, this is a combat deployment"

by Kyle Anzalone 

The White House has deployed thousands of American soldiers just miles from Ukraine to prepare for war, according to CBS News. Officers speaking with the outlet revealed they were there for combat against Russia.

Brigadier General John Lubas confirmed nearly 5,000 troops from the 101st Airborne recently joined the 100,000 American soldiers already deployed to Europe. Lubas described his troops as being on “full deployment,” and they are preparing to fight Russian soldiers in Ukraine. “This is not a training deployment, this is a combat deployment for us. We understand we need to be ready to fight tonight,” he said.

CBS Reporter Charlie D’Agata was embedded with the American forces as they conducted military drills – at a forward operating base – within four miles of Ukraine’s border. The 101st Airborne is engaged in joint exercises with Romanian forces, simulating Ukrainian soldiers’ combat against Russian troops. 

Colonel Edwin Matthaidess said his forces have been “closely watching” the Russian soldiers, “building objectives to practice against” and conducting war games that “replicate exactly what’s going on” in Ukraine.

CBS News reported, "[Russia’s] goal is to cut off all Ukrainian access to the sea, leaving the country and its military forces landlocked." CBS News did not provide a source for that assertion. The Kremlin has publicly said its war goal is limited to eastern Ukraine.

Lubas declared the division was "ready to defend every inch of NATO soil." However, Moscow has never threatened to invade a NATO country. Ukraine is not a NATO member. When President Zelensky said Ukraine should be allowed into the North Atlantic alliance last month, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg rejected Kiev’s proposal.

The 101st Airborne is a light infantry division. It carries the nickname the "Screaming Eagles" as the Pentagon utilizes the 101st as a force that can deploy around the world within hours. Lubas described his division as bringing a "unique capability, from our air assault capability… We’re a light infantry force, but again, we bring that mobility with us, for our aircraft and air assaults.”

Romanian Major General Lulian Berdila told CBS News that the presence of American troops was reminiscent of WWII, "The real meaning for me, to have the American troops here, is like if you were to have allies in Normandy before any enemy was there." The 101st has not deployed to Europe since the last world war.

~ Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.

Congested & Contested: Space Wars Are Upon Us

 

 

 By Lisa Savage

When the Pentagon’s think tank, the RAND corporation, publishes a study it’s worth paying attention. Remarkable in their prescience, RAND reports accurately predicted the Ukraine war and the Iraq war. 

Consider, for instance, their recent study of what Chinese and Russian primary sources had to say about 10 key events in the U.S. space program 1985-2011. The authors described how the U.S. had others on the planet riled up by

the establishment of the U.S. Space Force in 2019, and multiple policy and warfighting documents have rapidly followed. Given this activity and the concerns raised in domestic and international fora[sic] regarding the increasingly congested and contested nature of space, there has been surprisingly little open-source analysis of Chinese and Russian perceptions of these developments.

Findings included that neither Russia nor China appears to believe U.S. space programs are not military in nature (no kidding), and that the U.S. unilateral withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty in 2002 was viewed by both as a turning point after which a more aggressive stance was evident.

Here’s the list of all the events for which reactions were collected:

• Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) (1983) and U.S. Space Command creation (1985) 

• President Bill Clinton’s National Space Policy (1996) 

• Mid-Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser (MIRACL) test (1997) 

• Commission to Assess United States National Security Space Management and 

Organization (“Rumsfeld Commission”) (2001) 

• U.S. withdrawal from Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty (2002) 

• U.S. Air Force (USAF) Counterspace Operations doctrine (2004) 

• President George W. Bush’s National Space Policy (2006) 

• Operation Burnt Frost (2008) 

• President Barack Obama’s National Security Space Policy (2011) 

RAND also observed that Russia had more national pride invested in space technology and achievements, while China appeared to study Western space tech mostly with an eye to understanding it. They did not necessarily want to build something better themselves. However, China did successfully shoot down their own satellite recently after the U.S. did so in 2008 [Operation Burnt Frost].

The authors appeared to believe it was harder for Americans to understand Chinese nuance and societal expectations than Russian attitudes. For instance, some of the events on their list of 10 were little noted at all in Chinese publications they surveyed, while other events not on the list received significant attention in “native-language primary sources, such as..government publications, military journals, academic reports, and domestic media.”

RAND also appeared to be setting up conditions for further curtailments of free speech in the U.S. and Europe as there were multiple references to China and Russia taking note of Western voices critical of their own countrys’ space programs. 

Draconian anti-protest laws  just passed in the UK are a harbinger, no doubt, as the declining West struggles to manage the narrative.

From the What’s Happening feed on my Twitter account this morning:

A report from 2000 may be of interest too. With it looking like Taiwan could become the next Ukraine, maybe I’ll find time to read RAND’s Dire Strait: Military Aspects of the China-Taiwan Confrontation and Options for U.S. Policy.

Sunday song

 

Stop US nukes coming to Lakenheath in the UK!

 

 

CND condemns the return of US nuclear weapons to RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk: join our campaign to stop this extremely dangerous and destabilising development!

NOVEMBER 19TH: JOIN OUR DEMONSTRATION AT RAF LAKENHEATH

Tell the Government: no US nukes on UK soil

US nuclear weapons look set to return to RAF Lakenheath, a base in the UK that is run by the US. Their return will only increase global tensions and put Britain on the frontline in a NATO/Russia war.

The UK government can stop this from happening. If we show enough public resistance we can pressure them in rejecting these plans and prevent these terrible weapons from making us a target.

The US Department of Defense has added the UK to a list of NATO nuclear weapons storage locations in Europe being upgraded under a multi-million dollar infrastructure programme. This means that US nuclear weapons will be coming to RAF Lakenheath. Find out more.

110 nuclear bombs were stored at the airbase until they were removed in 2008 following persistent popular protest. Without public opposition, led by CND, they would still be here today. We stopped these weapons before – will you help us stop them again?

On Saturday, May 21st, 300 CND supporters from across the UK and beyond gathered at RAF Lakenheath to protest this possible return. Our message to the government was made loud and clear: US nuclear weapons are not welcome back in Britain, and we will campaign with all our might to prevent their return.  Speakers also condemned the  government’s failure to come clean to MPs about what is going on – the Ministry of Defence initially told Parliamentary CND that they could neither confirm or deny the reports: that it was US Department of Defense business. CND made it clear that we will show the same persistence in opposing US nuclear weapons sited at the base as we did before 2008 – until they are removed from Britain.

ACTION: 

•     Tell the Government no US nukes on UK soil
•     Join our demonstration on November 19th at RAF Lakenheath
•     Contact your MP asking them to oppose the stationing of US nuclear weapons in Britain
•     Order materials such as leaflets and petitions to raise awareness
•     Download a poster for display on a stall or in your window

The return of US nuclear weapons to Britain – along with the upgrading of its nuclear weapons across Europe – constitutes a further undermining of prospects for global peace. The US is the only country to locate its nuclear weapons outside its own borders and this major increase in NATO’s capacity to wage nuclear war in Europe is dangerously destabilising and must be opposed. 

Who trains Ukie troops?

 

 

Sputnik

Since Russia started its special military operation in Ukraine, the West has not only imposed a series of unprecedented sanctions on Moscow but also provided military and technical assistance to Kiev. 

Although countries which have sanctioned Russia have repeatedly stated that they have no intention to send troops to Ukraine and become a part to the conflict, their contribution to what they describe as Ukraine's defense cannot be left unnoticed. 

 

They send their instructors to Ukraine and also assist Ukrainian soldiers in traveling to other countries to undergo military training. 

 

Ukraine's western overseers are increasingly directing the war against Russia. The sheer volume of mercenaries sent to Ukraine by NATO members is also exponentially growing.

UNAC protest in Brunswick opposing Washington war policies

 

Seventeen folks turned out today in cold and windy Brunswick, Maine as part of the UNAC (United National Anti-War Coalition) week of protest against US-NATO war on Russia and Ukraine. 

(Click on photos for better view)  

Playing poker on the Titanic

 

Blinken

ain't so wise,

no matter what NPR says.

Same goes for Brandon

who has trouble

just reading his

CIA approved lines.

 

Elections looming,

dark days expected

for the Dems,

the Repubs are nothing

to cheer about either.

 

We ain't got

many choices here

in the land of the free

and home of the exceptionals.

 

White House pushes

Russia blame

into virtually every conversation...

 

Tuesday I attended a public discussion with US, Denmark, and Greenland government representatives about 'cooperative relations' in the Arctic region. 

Was held at Bowdoin College.

Three of our local activists were there, two of us spoke up during Open Mic time.

Former US Senator from Alabama (Doug Jones), Rep. Chellie Pingree from Maine, the Greenlandic Permanent Secretary, a 30-year US AID Senior Deputy (civilian side of the CIA) , and Danish Arctic Ambassador were on the panel.

 

They met privately before the public meeting. They were talking about resource extraction in Greenland - especially now that the west is recognizing they can't 'regime change' Moscow - though the nasty effort will continue for some time. One Bowdoin geology student confirmed the real agenda after an innocent comment about having been in Greenland last summer digging around and recording locations of rare earth mineral deposits.

US AID is involved to quietly dig into the Greenland population - find out which decision makers need to be paid off and which ones need to be neutralized or eliminated. 

Former Sen. Doug Jones (US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs) bragged about having been a Bowdoin College student 20 years ago. His job was to glad-hand the crowd with appeals for the students to join the foreign service and for 'everyone to vote' in November.

In my brief 'non-question' I stated that Russia has the world's largest border with the Arctic. Due to melting ice the fossil fuel masters want to drill-baby-drill in that region. But Russia must be regime changed first, before being broken up into smaller nations. 

I also stated that Russia being removed from the international 'Arctic Council' made no sense because of its huge border with the region. And I said, when the US invaded Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria nobody kicked Washington out of international organizations.

The RAND Corporation, I said, did a study in 2019 calling for Overextending and Unbalancing Russia. RAND, I said, is predominately funded by the Pentagon. The study essentially says the US will use Ukraine as a tool to destabilize Russia.

I also reported to the audience of 75-100 people (mix of community elders, students, bureaucrats, and active military) that on the same day that Russia launched its 'Special Military Operation' (SMO) the US-NATO began a war game called 'Cold Response' on the Russian and Norwegian border.

After I spoke Doug Jones responded by saying that the US does not want regime change in Russia. I guess he was flying high when Joe Biden declared that Putin was going, going, gone. Jones also said that Russia must respect the rule of law and 'not attack others borders'. Had to restrain myself after that bit of blarney.

Our own Congresswoman Pingree did her usual pandering to liberals by saying nice things about her climate change concerns but then gleefully expounded on the joys of Maine's future role being 'on the front lines' of the western operation to control the Arctic Sea. 

So Washington
tries to stay relevant
appearing fair and
friendly,
when necessary,

but willing to bust skulls
with spiked baseball bats
if needed to enforce
collapsing empire.

Bruce   

No to NATO nuclear exercises

  

Press statement by Belgian Coalition Against Nuclear Weapons


Today, October the 19th, the Belgian Coalition Against Nuclear Weapons demonstrated against the military nuclear exercise 'Steadfast Noon' that is taking place on Belgian territory. The coalition went to the NATO headquarters in Brussels to express their outrage.

NATO is currently conducting a nuclear air strike simulation exercise. This exercise is organised annually by some NATO member states to train pilots, including Belgians, in transporting and delivering nuclear bombs. Several NATO countries take part, including Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium. These are the same countries that house US nuclear bombs on their territory as part of NATO's "nuclear sharing". The presence of these weapons in Belgium, their imminent replacement with more modern B61-12 bombs and the holding of such exercises are explicit violations of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

This year's nuclear exercise is being organised in Belgium, at the military base of Kleine-Brogel, where US nuclear weapons have been stationed since 1963. It is only since 2020 that NATO has publicly announced the Steadfast Noon exercise. Emphasising its annual nature makes it sound like a routine event. This is how NATO normalises the existence of such an exercise, while also downplaying the use and danger of nuclear weapons.

The countries of the transatlantic alliance are participating in an exercise that prepares them for the use of a weapon that kills hundreds of thousands of people at a time and has consequences that no state can face. The whole discourse around nuclear weapons aims to minimise their consequences and normalise their use (e.g. they talk about so-called "tactical" nuclear weapons, a "limited" nuclear strike, or in this case a "nuclear exercise"). This discourse contributes to making their use more and more plausibel.

The updated "tactical" nuclear weapons which in the near future will replace the current nuclear weapons on Belgian soil, have a destructive power of between 0.3 and 50kt TNT. By comparison, the nuclear bomb that the United States dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people, had a force of 15kt! Given the humanitarian consequences of its use on humans, the ecosystem and the environment, and its illegal and utterly immoral nature, nuclear weapons should never be part of any arsenal.

At a time of rising international tensions, with in recent weeks repeated threats to use nuclear weapons, conducting a military nuclear exercise is irresponsible and only increases the risk of a confrontation with Russia.

The question should not be how to win a nuclear confrontation, but how to avoid it. It is time for Belgium to honour its own commitments and comply with the Non-Proliferation Treaty by getting rid of the nuclear weapons on its territory and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

By opposing the continuation of the Steadfast Noon nuclear exercise and rejecting NATO's "nuclear sharing", Belgium could set an example and pave the way for de-escalation and global disarmament.