Friday, September 26, 2014

Fighting ISIL is a Smokescreen for US Mobilization against Syria and Iran

Mahdi Darius NAZEMROAYA | 26.09.2014 | 00:00
 
The ISIL or IS threat is a smokescreen. The strength of the ISIL has deliberately been inflated to get public support for the Pentagon and to justify the illegal bombing of Syria. It has also been used to justify the mobilization of what is looking more and more like a large-scale US-led military buildup in the Middle East. The firepower and military assets being committed go beyond what is needed for merely fighting the ISIL death squads.
While the US has assured its citizens and the world that troops will not be sent on the ground, this is very unlikely. In the first instance, it is unlikely because boots on the ground are needed to monitor and select targets. Moreover, Washington sees the campaign against the ISIL fighters as something that will take years. This is doublespeak. What is being described is a permanent military deployment or, in the case of Iraq, redeployment. This force could eventually morph into a broader assault force threatening Syria, Iran, and Lebanon. 
US-Syrian and US-Iranian Security Dialogue?
Before the US-led bombings in Syria started there were unverified reports being circulated that Washington had started a dialogue with Damascus through Russian and Iraqi channels to discuss military coordination and the Pentagon bombing campaign in Syria. There was something very off though. Agents of confusion were at work in an attempt to legitimize the bombardment of the Syrian Arab Republic.
The claims of US-Syrian cooperation via Russian and Iraq channels are part of a sinister series of misinformation and disinformation. Before the claims about US cooperation with Syria, similar claims were being made about US-Iranian cooperation in Iraq.
Earlier, Washington and the US media tried to give the impression that an agreement on military cooperation was made between itself and Tehran to fight ISIL and to cooperate inside Iraq. This was widely refuted in the harshest of words by numerous members of the Iranian political establishment and high-ranking Iranian military commanders as disinformation. 
After the Iranians clearly indicated that Washington’s claims were fiction, the US claimed that it would not be appropriate for Iran to join its anti-ISIL coalition. Iran rebutted. Washington was dishonestly misrepresenting the facts, because US officials had asked Tehran to join the anti-ISIL coalition several times.
Before he was discharged from the hospital after a prostate surgery, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the highest ranking official in Iran, told Iranian television on September 9, 2014, that the US had requested that Tehran and Washington cooperate together inside Iraq on three different occasions. He explained that the US ambassador to Iraq had relayed a message to the Iranian ambassador to Iraq to join the US, then, in his own words, «the same [John Kerry] — who had said in front of the camera and in front of the eyes of all the world that they do not want Iran to cooperate with them — requested [from] Dr. Zarif that Iran cooperate with them on this issue, but Dr. Zarif turned this [request] down.» The third request was made by US Undersecretary Wendy Sherman to Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
Khamenei additionally made it clear that he categorically ruled out any cooperation with Washington on the issue. «On this issue, we will not cooperate with America particularly because their hands are dirty», he publicly confirmed while explaining that Washington had ill intentions and nefarious designs in Iraq and Syria.
Like Russia, Iran has been supporting Syria and Iraq against ISIL. Also like Moscow, Tehran is committed to fighting it, but will not join Washington’s anti-ISIL coalition.
New Invasion(s) and Regime Change Project(s) in the Pipeline?
As was pointed out on June 20, 2014, in Washington’s eyes Nouri Al-Malaki’s federal government in Baghdad had to be removed for refusing to join the US siege against the Syrians, being aligned to Iran, selling oil to the Chinese, and buying weapons from the Russian Federation. Iraq’s decision to be part of an Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline also undermined the objectives of the US and its allies to control the flow of energy in the Middle East and to obstruct Eurasian integration. [1]
There were also two other unforgivable cardinal sins that Al-Malaki’s government in Baghdad committed in Washington’s eye. These offenses, however, should be put into geopolitical context first. 
Remember the post-September 11, 2001 (post-9/11) catchphrase of the Bush II Administration during the start of its serial wars? It went like this: «Anyone can go to Baghdad, but real men go to Tehran!» The point of this warmongering catchphrase is that Baghdad and Damascus have been viewed as pathways for the Pentagon towards Tehran. [2] 
Like Syria, Al-Malaki government’s cardinal sins were tied to blocking the pathway to Tehran. Firstly, the Iraqi government evicted the Pentagon from Iraq at the end of 2011, which removed US troops stationed directly on Iran’s western border. Secondly, the Iraqi federal government was working to expel anti-government Iranian militants from Iraq and to close Camp Ashraf, which could be used in a war or regime change operations against Iran.
Ashraf was a base for the military wing of the Iraqi-based Mujahidin-e-Khalq (MEK/MOK/MKO). The MEK is an anti-government Iranian organization that is bent on regime change in Tehran. It has even openly endorsed US-led attacks on Iran and Syria.
Although the US government itself considers the MEK a terrorist organization, Washington began to deepen its ties with the MEK when it and its staunch British allies invaded Iraq. Disingenuously and ironically, the US and Britain used Saddam Hussein’s support for the MEK to justify labeling Iraq as a state-sponsor of terrorism and to also justify the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq. Since then the US has been has been nurturing the MEK.
Since 2003, the US has been has been funding the MEK. Washington has been protecting the MEK, because it wants to keep them on a leash as either leverage against Tehran or to have the option of one day installing the MEK into power in Tehran as part of a regime change operation against Iran. The MEK has literally become incorporated into the Pentagon and CIA toolboxes against Tehran. Even when the US transferred control of Camp Ashraf to Baghdad, the Pentagon kept forces inside the MEK camp.
Eventually the MEK forces would mostly be relocated in 2012 to the former US base known as Camp Liberty. Camp Liberty is now called by an Arabic name, Camp Hurriya.
The Istanbul bureau chief of the Christian Science Monitor, Scott Peterson described how US officials began to really put its weight behind the MEK during the start of the Arab Spring in 2011. This is tied to Washington’s regime change dreams. Peterson wrote that US officials «rarely mention the MEK’s violent and anti-American past, and portray the group not as terrorists but as freedom fighters with ‘values just like us,’ as democrats-in-waiting ready to serve as a vanguard of regime change in Iran.» [3]
Washington Has Not Abandoned Dreams of Regime Change in Tehran
Washington has not abandoned its dreams for regime change in Tehran. Is it a coincidence that the US and EU support for the MEK is increasing, especially when the ISIL threat in Iraq began to be noticed publicly? 
Six hundred parliamentarians and politicians from mostly NATO countries were flown in for a large MEK gathering in the Parisian northeastern suburb of Villepinte that called for regime change in Iran on June 27, 2014. Warmongers and morally bankrupt figures like former US senator Joseph Lieberman, Israeli mouthpiece and apologist Alan Dershowhitz, former Bush II official and Fox News pundit John Bolton, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, and former French Minister and United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNIMIK) chief Bernard Kouchner all met the MEK to promote regime change and war. According to the MEK, over 80, 000 people attended the regime change rally. Supporters of the insurgencies in Iraq and Syria were also present at the Villepinte gathering calling for regime change in Iraq, Syria, and Iran.
The irony is that the money most probably came from the US government itself. US allies probably contributed too. This money has gone to the MEK’s lobbying initiatives with the US Congress and US Department of State, which in effect is recycling the money. People like Ruddy Giuliani — probably one of the most hated mayors in the history of New York City until he took advantage of the tragic events of 9/11 — are now effectively lobbyists for the MEK. «Many of these former high-ranking US officials — who represent the full political spectrum — have been paid tens of thousands of dollars to speak in support of the MEK», according to the Christian Science Monitor. [4]
Giuliani has been speaking at MEK events at least as far back as 2010. In 2011, he publicly pushed for regime change in Tehran and Damascus at a MEK gathering. «How about we follow an Arab Spring with a Persian Summer?» he rhetorically declared. [5] Giuliani’s next sentence revealed just how much of a scion of US foreign policy the initiative to support the MEK truly is: «We need regime change in Iran, more than we do in Egypt or Libya, and just as we need it in Syria.» [6]
Joseph Lieberman friend and fellow war advocate Senator John McCain was unable to make the trip to the Parisian suburb in Seine-Saint-Denis, but addressed the regime change gathering via video. Congressman Edward Royce Hello, the chair of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, also showed his support for regime change in Iran through a video message. So did Senator Carl Levin and Senator Robert Menendez.
Large delegations from the US, France, Spain, Canada, and Albania were present. Aside from the aforementioned individuals, other notable American attendees to the June 27, 2014 event included the following:
1. Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the lower chamber (House of Representatives) in the bicameral US Congress;
2. John Dennis Hastert; another former speaker of the House of Representatives;
3. George William Casey Jr., who commanded the multinational military force that invaded and occupied Iraq;
4. Hugh Shelton, a computer software executive and former chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff;
5. James Conway, the former chief of the US Marine Corps
6. Louis Freeh, the former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI);
7. Lloyd Poe, the US Representative who sits on (1) the US House Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats and chairs (2) the US House Subcommittee on Terrorism, Non‐proliferation and Trade;
8. Daniel Davis, a US Representative from Illinois;
9. Loretta Sánchez, a US Representative from California;
10. Michael B. Mukasey, a former attorney-general of the US;
11. Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont;
12. William Richardson, the former secretary of the US Department of Energy;
13. Robert Torricelli, a former legislator in the US House of Representatives and the US Senate senator who is the legally representative of the MEK in Iraq;
14. Francis Townsend, former Homeland Security advisor to George W. Bush Jr.;
15. Linda Chavez, a former chief White House director;
16. Robert Joseph, the former US undersecretary that ran the (1) Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance, (2) the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, and the (3) Bureau of Political-Military Affairs;
17. Philip Crowley, the former assistant-secretary of state responsible for public affairs;
18. David Phillips, the military police commander who restructured the Iraqi police and was responsible for guarding Camp Ashraf and Saddam Hussein as a prisoner;
19. Marc Ginsberg, the senior vice-president of the public relations firm APCO Worldwide and former US ambassador and US presidential advisor for Middle East policy
Like the US presence, the French presence included officials. Aside from Bernard Kouchner, from France some of the notable attendees were the following individuals:
1. Michèle Alliot-Marie, a French politician who among her cabinet portfolios was responsible for the military and foreign affairs at different times; 
2. Rama Yade, vice president of the conservative Radical Party of France;
3. Gilbert Mitterrand, the president of the human rights foundation France Libertés, which has focused on ethnic groups such as Kurds, Chechens, and Tibetans;
4. Martin Vallton, the mayor of Villepinte.
From Spain the notable attendees were the following:
1. Pedro Agramunt Font de Mora, the Spanish chair of the European People’s Party (EPP) and its allies in the Council of Europe;
2. Jordi Xucla, the Spanish chair of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Group in the Council of Europe;
3. Alejo Vidal-Quadras, a Spanish politician and one of the fourteen vice-presidents of the European Union’s European Parliament;
4. José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the former prime minister of Spain (who was also visibly accompanied by his wife Sonsoles Espinosa Díaz)/
Other notable attendees from other Euro-Atlantic countries included:
1. Pandli Majko, the former prime minster of Albania;
2. Kim Campbell, the former prime minister of Canada
3. Geir Haarde, the former prime minister of Iceland;
4. Ingrid Betancourt, a former Colombian senator;
5. Alexander Carile, a member of the British House of Lords, the upper house of the British Parliament 
6. Giulio Maria Terzi, the former foreign minister of Italy;
7. Adrianus Melkert, a former Dutch cabinet minister, a former World Bank executive, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s former special envoy to Iraq.
Not only regime change was talked about, but the cross-border crisis in Iraq and Syria was a major subject. Fox News gave the event special coverage. Just in July, the MEK’s leadership had condemned Iranian support to the Iraqi federal government in its fight against ISIL, yet since the US has began to fight the ISIL it has begun to hold its tongue.
Before the regime change gathering, the MEK’s leader Maryam Rajavi — who the MEK has designated as the president of Iran since 1993 — even meet with the puppet Syrian National Council’s leader Ahmed Jarba in Paris to discuss cooperation on May 23, 2014.
Regime Change in Damascus through Mission Creep in Syria
The bombing campaign that the US has started in Syria is illegal and a violation of the UN Charter. This is why the Pentagon took the step of claiming that the US-led bombing campaign was prompted by the threat of an «imminent» attack that was being planned against the territory of the US. This allegation was made to give legal cover to bombardment of Syrian territory through a warped argument under Article 51 of the UN Charter that allows a UN member to legally attack another country if an imminent attack by the said country is about to take place on the UN member.
Barack Obama and the US government have done their best to confuse and blur reality through a series of different steps they have taken to claim legitimacy for violating international law by bombing Syria without the authorization of Damascus. Although the US Ambassador Samantha Powers informed Syria’s permanent representative to the UN that US-led attacks would be launched on Al-Raqqa Governate, informing Bashar Al-Jaafari through a formal unilateral notification does not amount to being given the legal consent of Syria.
The US-led attacks on Syria do not have the backing of the UN Security Council either. The US government, however, as tried to spin the September 19, 2014, meeting of the UN Security Council that John Kerry chaired as a sign that the UN Security Council and international community are backing its bombing campaign.
Nor is it a coincidence that just when the US assembled its multinational coalition to fight the ISIL and its pseudo-caliphate, that John Kerry conveniently mentions that Syria has violated the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). While admitting that Syria did not use any material prohibited by the CWC, Kerry told US legislators that Damascus had breached its commitments to the CWC on September 18, 2014. In other words, Washington intends to go after Syria and pursue regime change in Damascus. If this does not make it clear, then the fact that the US will use Saudi Arabia to train more anti-government forces should. [7]
A US brinkmanship strategy to justify a US-led bombing campaign against Syria has been put into action with the intent of creating a pretext for expanding the illegal US-led airstrikes in Syria that started on September 22, 2014.
What the US envisions is a long-term bombing campaign, which also threatens Lebanon and Iran. According to Ali Khamenei, the US wants to bomb both Iraq and Syria using ISIL as a smokescreen on the basis of the model in Pakistan. More correctly, situation should be called the AfPak (Af-Pak) model. The US has used the spillover of instability from Afghanistan into Pakistan and the spread of the Taliban as pretext for bombing Pakistan. Iraq and Syria have been merged as one conflict zone, which Ibrahim Al-Marashi, using a neologism, has described as the rise of «Syraq.»
The Broader Objective: Disrupting Eurasian Integration
While the US has been pretending to fight the same terrorist and death squads that it has created, the Chinese and their partners have been busy working to integrate Eurasia. America’s «Global War on Terror» has been paralleled with the rebuilding of the Silk Road. This is the real story and motivation for Washington’s insistence to fight and remobilize in the Middle East. It is also the reason why the US has been pushing Ukraine to confront Russia and the EU to sanction the Russian Federation. 
America wants to disrupt the reemerging Silk Road and its expanding trade network. While Kerry has been busy frightening audiences about the ISIL and its atrocities, the Chinese have been busy sweeping the map by making deals across Asia and the Indian Ocean. This is part of the westward march of the Chinese dragon.
Parallel to Kerry’s travels, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Sri Lanka and went to the Maldives. Sri Lanka is already part of China’s Maritime Silk Road project. The Maldivians are newer entries; agreements have been reached to include the island-nation into the Maritime Silk Road network and infrastructure that China is busy constructing to expand maritime trade between East Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. Nor is it a coincidence that two Chinese destroyers docked at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas in the Persian Gulf to conduct joint drills with Iranian warships in the Persian Gulf.
Parallel to east-west trade, a north-south trade and transport network is being developed. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was in Kazakhstan recently where he and his Kazakhstani counterpart, President Nursultan Nazarbayev, confirmed that trade was due to see manifold increases. The completion of the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway, which will create a north-south transit route, is being awaited. Cooperation between Tehran and the Eurasian Union was also discussed by the two presidents. On the other western side of the Caspian Sea, a parallel north-south corridor running from Russia to Iran through the Republic of Azerbaijan has been in the works.
The anti-Russia sanctions are beginning to cause uneasiness in the European Union. The real losers in the sanctions in Russia are the members of the European Union. Russia has demonstrated that it has options. Moscow has already launched the construction of its mega natural gas Yakutia – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok pipeline (also known as the Power of Siberia pipeline) to deliver gas to China while BRICS partner South Africa has signed a historic deal on nuclear energy with Rosatom.
Moscow’s influence on the world stage is very clear. Its influence has been on the rise in the Middle East and Latin America. Even in NATO-garrisoned Afghanistan, Russian influence is on the rise. The Russian government has recently compiled a list of over one hundred old Soviet construction projects that it would like to recuperate.
An alternative to US and EU sanctions is beginning to emerge in Eurasia. Aside from the oil-for-goods deal that Tehran and Moscow signed, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak announced that Iran and Russia had made several new agreements worth seventy billion euro. Sanctions will soon merely isolate the US and the EU. The Iranians have also announced that they are working with their Chinese and Russian partners to overcome the US and EU sanctions regime.
America is being rolled back. It cannot pivot to the Asia-Pacific until matters are settled in the Middle East and Eastern Europe against the Russian, Iranians, Syrians, and their allies. That is why Washington is doing its best to disrupt, divide, redraw, bargain and co-opt. When it comes down to it, the US is not concerned about fighting the ISIL, which has been serving Washington’s interests in the Middle East. America’s main concern is about preserving its crumbling empire and preventing Eurasian integration.
NOTES
[1] Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, «America pursuing regime change in Iraq again», RT, June 20, 2014.
[2] Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, «The Syria Endgame: Strategic Stage in the Pentagon’s Covert War on Iran», Global Research, January 07, 2013.
[3] Scott Peterson, «Iranian group’s big-money push to get off US terrorist list», Christian Science Monitor, August 8, 2011.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Matt Spetalnick, Jeff Mason and Julia Edwards, «Saudi Arabia agrees to host training of moderate Syria rebels», Caren Bohan, Grant McCool, and Eric Walsh eds. Reuters, September 10, 2014.
 
Tags: Al Qaeda Iran ISIS Middle East Syria US

War on ISIL Is Not What It Seems


News | 26.09.2014 | 00:49
 
The covert US-led war on Syria, under the guise of fighting terrorism, is now well underway despite its flagrant criminality and fraudulence. Thanks to the Western and Arab-sponsored terror networks, as well as Zionist-controlled Western media, the military aggression is being conducted with a grotesque image of humanitarianism and lawfulness.
US military leaders say their aerial bombardment, backed by five Arab allies and not the original 40-nation coalition, is the beginning of a prolonged campaign that could continue intermittently for years. They also warn that airstrikes against their own creation, ISIL, will not have a serious impact on the terrorist group’s overall operations – just like in Iraq.
These comments seem to suggest that the strikes are just about the US administration going through the motions, with no real expectation and strategy. But they do have expectation, and certainly, they do have strategy. They are doing what they can to add to the neocons’ call for boots on the ground in the second phase of the war on Syria, which among other things, is clearly intended to:
1. Expand US military presence in the region
2. Train/arm new “moderate” militants (the old ones became ISIL)
3. Push for regime change in Damascus
4. Wrest control of the oil from ISIL
5. Arm the Kurds so they can separate from Iraq and Syria
6. Partition Iraq and Syria.
So the US-led war on ISIL is not what it seems. Even the political class in Washington has made clear that “the bombing campaign is in no way aimed at helping the Syrian government to fight ISIL and/or gain ground.”
This could only mean one thing: Preventing the Syrian government reclaiming its own sovereign territory against the newly trained so-called “moderate” extremists. It further anticipates that the next move would be the targeting of Syrian government forces to prevent them reclaiming territory. And the nefarious logical conclusion: Saudi, Qatari, and Jordanian warplanes striking Damascus, alongside American Tomahawks/drones, and Israeli missiles.
At this point, the hysteria in Washington over the illicit campaign seems a pitch or two higher than anything experienced in the al-Qaeda years. Yet one clear sign of the farcical nature of this moment is Washington’s inability to understand that they have plunged into the swamp of yet another war that is destined to fail to create an American client state in Iraq, Syria or the Levant – tragically and completely.
President Obama hardly can be blamed for all of this, but he has done his part to make it worse - and worse it will surely get as his administration assumes ownership of this doomed military adventure that is destined to bleed into many things with disastrous consequences.
In any case, on a 36-month schedule, Obama is ceding his war to the next president, as was done to him by George W. Bush. That next president may well be Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state as Iraq War 2.0 sputtered to its sour conclusion. Notably, it was her husband whose administration kept the original Iraq War of 1990 alive via no-fly zones and sanctions!
The echoes could go back even further as similarities are telling. If there is a summary lesson here, perhaps it is this: In Syria, just like the covert/overt wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya and Somalia, a clear-cut success for the War Party is beyond reach. That’s because Syria’s Shia, Christians, Kurds, Druze, and other religious and ethnic minorities, along with a sizable number of Sunni Arabs, continue to back their elected government in Damascus - the only force still standing between them and a good beheading at the hands of “moderate” rebels.
In effect, the new war of deceit against Syria has no UN resolution authorizing force; is not part of a NATO operation; has no Arab League resolution in favor of military action; lacks any specific US congressional authorization; and enjoys no invitation of the host country to conduct military operations. The only way to win is not to play the game. At least, this much is certain.

Will France and Germany challenge NATO? Interview with l’Humanité.fr with former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas


Published On: Mon, Sep 22nd, 2014

Angela Merkel, Francois HollandeChristof Lehmann (NEO) : In an interview with l’Humanité.fr, former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas stressed that France had become the vanguard dog of NATO, criticizing the presidencies of Sarkozy and Hollande for selling out on French sovereignty. The statement came in response to NATO’s summit in Newport, Wales, September 4 – 5, 2014 and the decision to expand NATO’s ambitions in Ukraine. Dumas argues, NATO outlived its purpose and has become an instrument of aggression. 
Dumas_France_NEORoland Dumas, born in 1922, belongs to the last generation of great French Statesman who experienced the French – German war that prompted the creation of NATO. Can France and Germany overcome their grievances and lead a new, continental European diplomacy for peace and prosperity for Europe and beyond? The question is tabled by a German who belongs to the first generation of continental Europeans who have not experienced a major conflict on the continent; not yet. The article suggests problems and possible solutions for  a French – German initiated partnership for peace in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and beyond. It is a bold proposal that necessarily has to deal with “red herrings” and  touch keystones which would have to be put in place by a new diplomacy of fellow travelers for peace.
The Middle East – Ukraine and NATO. Two Key Statements by Dumas.
Roland Dumas is not without controversy, which is exactly what one would expect from a senior statesman who has escaped the pressures of running for and holding office; who has more time to reflect and reason. In June 2013, Dumas floated a message in a bottle when he “outed” British interests behind the war in Syria, and now Iraq. Appearing on the French TV channel LPC, Dumas said: (audio)
“I am going to tell you something. I was in England two years before the violence in Syria on other business. I met with top British officials, who confessed to me, that they were preparing something in Syria. … This was in Britain not in America. Britain was organizing an invasion of rebels into Syria. They even asked me, although I was no longer Minister of Foreign Affairs, if I would like to participate. Naturally, I refused, I said I am French, that does not interest me. … This operation goes way back. It was prepared, preconceived and planned… in the region it is important to know that this Syrian regime has a very anti-Israeli stance. … Consequently, everything that moves in the region…- and I have this from a former Israeli Prime Minister who told me ´we will try to get on with our neighbors but those who don´t agree with us will be destroyed. It is a type of politics, a view of history, why not after all. But one should  know about it”.
Dumas’ decision was bold, even though he stopped short of naming the names of those “British officials”. Dumas wasn’t any longer holding office at that time but he is, understandably, subject to the limitations which are implied in politics and diplomacy. What would be more important, anyway, would be to identify those “stakeholders” behind the approach.
On September 5, during NATO’s summit in Newport, Wales, Dumas prompted controversy again, when he described France as having become “the vanguard dog of NATO”.  Speaking with a journalist from the French lHumanité.fr, Dumas commented on the summit that focused on the current Ukrainian regime’s plans to accede into the Alliance. Dumas shared his concerns about the direction of the current NATO policy and its impact on French diplomacy. Asked whether NATO still has a purpose, he replied:
“It may, for those who manage it! Historically, the Atlantic Alliance was a military alliance which had very limited geographical jurisdiction, the North Atlantic, and one goal: to end the war against Germany”. 
After a peace with Germany had been reached, Dumas noted, we decided to expand the scope to include the removal of the two covenants: the Atlantic Alliance and the Warsaw Pact. Dumas stressed that NATO instead had expanded and evolved into an instrument for warfare instead, saying:
“The Warsaw Pact has been dissolved but NATO, no …it has even expanded and reinforced. Just listen to Mr. Rasmussen, the secretary-general, to realize that NATO has become an instrument for warfare”.
The Essence of a European and Global Peace vs. NATO’s obsessive eastward Expansion
NATO_expansionDumas commented on NATO’s interventionism and stressed a continental European perspective when he warned against using a politico-military instrument that was created to end a war with Germany and with jurisdiction over the Atlantic, for something as important as the situation in Ukraine. Dumas recalled disarmament negotiations with his former Soviet counterpart who insisted that NATO would not arm any of the countries which had formerly been part of the Warsaw Pact. He stressed that
“This was the essence of peace. Everyone was in agreement… Well, the Americans do not heed. They transported weapons to the Baltic countries and Poland. Hence the controversy when Putin came to power”.
Dumas quoted Putin as noting that NATO hadn’t kept its word and noted that there really is no point in waving a red flag in front of the nose of the Russians which will scare them or cause them to stall. He stressed that Russia didn’t pose any threat to Europe, and that this was no way to treat a great power, which was, alongside the Americans, one of the victors of WWII. Dumas added that the balance that had been established has been broken but noted that those who opposed this NATO policy had been diminished to dwarfs. It is necessary at this point, to interject that today’s U.S. and NATO policy is dominated by grand policy architects like Obama administration adviser Zbigniev Brzezinski. “Z-Big” as Brzezinski loves to be referred to, is literally, and in the opinion of several professional psychologists “clinically obsessed” with encircling Russia, dividing Russia into six or more, smaller states, to then force Moscow into a U.S/U.K.-dominated hegemony. Reading Z-Big’s latest book Strategic Vision will put Dumas’ warning that “this is no way to treat a great power” , his concern about “waving red flags”, and his warning that NATO is not the appropriate instrument for solving as important a problem into an appropriate context.
The book is essential literature for anyone who has not fully comprehended this new scope of NATO’s policy and the fact that it aims at establishing a U.S./U.K. hegemony over continental Europe,  Eurasia and the Middle East. This necessarily implies that continental European powers, including France, Germany and Russia have to be subjugated by this U.S./U.K.-dominated hegemony. It also implies that geopolitical instruments will be applied to achieve the objective.
Note that “geopolitics” suggests: If you are the second-largest power, for example, play the first and the third-largest powers against each other to be become the tertius gaudens. The laughing third, who will laugh with unalloyed joy. For the U.S./U.K or Atlantic Axis, this implies playing China against Russia as much as this implies playing France and Germany against each other in NATO, the EU, and so forth. Transnational, non-state and deep-state-actors are of course both mitigating and adding complexity.
In terms of “Realpolitik” note: The U.S./U.K . as well as largely U.K.-aligned E.U.-actors are the primary powers behind the engineering of the crisis in Ukraine. Note that there is a massive amount of evidence that suggests that NATO’s Gladio networks have been let loose on/in Ukraine. Note that a substantially weakened, economically unfeasible, IMF indebted Ukraine is loaded upon the European Union in a Faustian Pact, using NATO as politico-military instrument. Meanwhile, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron announces preparations for the U.K. to possibly leave the European Union. Cameron prepares the U.K. for its unalloyed joy while it continues to succeed at playing France, Germany and others in continental Europe, including Turkey, against each other.
On the point of the French re-entry into NATO as full member, Dumas noted that Chirac already wanted to re-enter NATO but he demanded compensations. “The Americans laughed at him” Dumas added, saying:
“Then Sarkozy followed suit, but this time without asking for compensation! As for Hollande, he has not challenged this decision, and to my dismay”.
Many key members of the French Socialist Party were dismayed about Hollande and not only about NATO, but also with regard to French Africa policy, for example with regard to the case of Ivory Coast and former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo. In part the dismay was shared by key German power-brokers in Germany’s Conservative, Socialist, and Liberal parties alike as well as by German EU politicians. Dumas notes that the French voice, today, has been totally obscured. He added:
“We follow American diplomacy while trying to give the illusion that we exist in the international arena. …. France became the vanguard dog of the Alliance at the risk at appearing as a war-faring nation. We have totally turned our backs on the ´traditional`position adopted soon after the war (WWII). Whenever I went to NATO, President Mitterrand told me …´´Especially Dumas, remember we are not part of the integrated command. Understand: Do not obey all decisions that will be taken! (Not) Before the voice of France has been heard, and she was often heard”.
Asked whether he thought that France still could get out of NATO, Dumas stressed that he though “yes, it can”. However, he added two necessary preconditions which are; a French leader of unquestionable world authority of the caliber like a Charles De Gaulle; Circumstances that would make everyone understand the decision. We will return to these “circumstances”  and the question of “leadership” below.
Developing a French – German Perspective a Question of Sovereignty, Survival, Peace and Prosperity. 
Considering the current crisis in the Middle East and Ukraine, let us explore the hypothesis that the development of a French – German and a continental European perspective is a prerequisite for maintaining national sovereignty and for preventing a third European war of global reach. This perspective necessarily implies considerations about the Middle East and Africa. Any French or German will realize that both France and Germany will table non-issues, red herrings and issues, which are tied to decades, in fact centuries of distrust and disaster.
A brief Assessment of the Middle East: As Dumas stated, top-British officials approached him in 2009, years before the first protests in Libya and Syria, asking him whether he wanted to subvert Syria with “rebels”. We know now that the project” to subvert a number of nations with the help of the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda and similar brigades was launched in 2007. The key factors behind the decision were:
The discovery of the largest-known natural gas reserves in the Persian Gulf, shared by Qatar and Iran, in 2007 and new surveys which revealed that the Eastern Mediterranean gas fields contained about 70% more gas than had been previously known. The completion of a pipeline from Iran, via Iraq and Syria alone could have secured Europe’s gas requirements for 100 – 110 years. Between 50% – 70 % of Europe’s gas requirements could be covered by Iranian and Russian gas, if not more. This development would be unacceptable for Israel, considering the arguably increased Iranian influence with regard to the EU’s Middle East policy in general and Palestine in particular. The development would not only render large U.S. and British energy projects like the Nabucco project unprofitable or obsolete, it threatens declared ambitions to establish the U.S./U.K.-hegemony in Europe with all what that implies.
The development would also threaten the position of the U.S. dollar, weaken it, and ultimately accelerate its collapse. Needless to say that the U.S. will do anything it needs to prevent the collapse as long as possible. The problem is that it does so by usurping others instead of adjusting a flawd system. The E.U. has, arguably, been co-opted or forced into playing along by e.g. importing oil from “rebel-held territories” in Syria. The primary actors behind the “Balkanization” of Syria, however, are the U.S/U.K. via e.g. the Atlantic Council. The far-reaching implications, and how “Realpolitik” coincides with e.g. Brzezinski’s “Strategic Vision” becomes evident when one reads the words Atlantic Council President Frederick Kempe said prior to the Atlantic Council’s Energy Summit in Turkey, in November 2013:
“We view the current period as a turning point, just like 1918 and 1945. Turkey is in every way a central country, as a creator of regional stability. However much the USA and Turkey can work in unison, that is how effective they will be.”
One should not forget that reaching the 1918 and 1945 turning points requires the beginning of the wars in 1914 and 1939 first. Understandably, this form of political thinking does not render many possibilities for making the French or the German, the Czech, the Slovakian, and other’s opinions count. Earlier this year a person from the inner circle around the former Lebanese PM Saad Hariri, who was seriously concerned about the threat of a wider war, noted that the final decision to launch the attack on Iraq via ISIL/ISIS/IS fell on the sidelines of the Atlantic Council’s Energy Summit in Istanbul, November 22-23, 2013. The “sovereignty” of the people of France, Germany, and other continental European nations with regard to Iraq has, in other words, been reduced to the possibility to respond to policy that is being implemented by rogue networks who are embedded within both foreign governments, their own governments, the E.U. and NATO. Note that this statement is consistent with the words of Dumas, who noted that the French voice is not heard any more and that it has been reduced to a dwarf.
A brief Assessment of the Situation in Africa and French – German Differences in Opinion.
Dumas noted that Sarkozy went along with NATO and that Hollande, much to his and many French Socialists dismay, followed suit. French – German differences in opinion with regard to French Africa policy may indeed have been part of Sarkozy’s deliberations. In 2010 France was instrumental in ousting the Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo. Gbagbo and the Libyan head of State Muammar Qaddafi were actively and successfully lobbying for the creation of a gold-backed, pan-African currency. The Sarkozy administration was also instrumental in the implementation of the Arab Spring” in Libya in 2011. A compendium of articles which are a good starting point for further studies on French involvement is the book The Illegal War on Libya, edited by the former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. One can conclude that Sarkozy went along with Libya because he was a) given U.S./U.K cover for Ivory Coast, b) because France has Mediterranean ambitions which were compatible with ousting Qaddafi. What is interesting with regard to this discussion is the question “why” there are French – German differences in opinion, and why France, almost like a knee-jerk response felt that it “had to” get both Gbagbo and Qaddafi out of the equation.
French Africa Policy and French – German Differences in Opinion. Analyzing the situation from Ivory Coast over Libya to Syria and Iraq shows that France, in so many words, went along with a war on Syria and Iraq even though they could be potentially catastrophic for European energy-security. In exchange, France received the support of the U.S./U.K. in Ivory Coast and Libya. So far, the failed project in Syria caused the crisis in Ukraine. The following will demonstrate how a more functional French – African cooperation could have mitigated many of the risks which Europe currently faces. To understand why, it is necessary to understand French Africa policy, and the fact that it would not take much lobbying in Germany and at the European Council for them to go along with a radical and bold course change, – if only France dared.
France succeeded at maintaining virtually absolute control over the national economies of its former colonies in Africa when these colonies gained their “independence”. One touchy point in French – German discussions is that Charles De Gaulle, whom Dumas described as man with unquestionable world authority, literally copied the blueprint for usurpation that Germany used to usurp the economies of German occupied France and other German occupied nations during WWII.
The former French Africa colonies are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, the Republic of Congo, Senegal and Togo. Their money, the CFA Franc, is printed by the French National Bank in Chemalier, France.  The 15 former colonies, plus France formed the Monetary and Economic Union of West Africa (U.M.E.O.A.).
Franc_CFAThe Council of Presidents of the fifteen U.M.O.A. member states constitutes the highest authority of the union. Decisions of the Presidential Council are made unanimously. The Ministerial Council of the U.M.O.A. defines the monetary and credit policy of the union and it is responsible for the economic development of the region. According to the constitutions of all fifteen member states the creation of their currency, the regulation of its value, as well as the regulation of parities and modalities, is the exclusive privilege of the nation and its people and decisions about it are made by the parliament. That much to nominal independence. The placement of French commissars within the heart of the nations and the union’s banking system creates an obvious dichotomy between the nominal sovereignty of the union, its constituents, and the direct control of their national and regional economies by the former colonial power.
Ivory Coat_France_CoupThe region has three central banks. Three of the thirteen of the Directors of the B.E.A.C. are French and four of the eight Directors of the B.C.C. are French. The Board of Directors of the B.C.E.A.O. is constituted by sixteen Directors; two from each country plus two additional Directors from France who take part in the management of the bank under the same conditions and with the same privileges as the other Directors. The number and placement of the commissars gives them a Veto right at the board of each of the Central Banks. No decision can be made without their approval. France can enforce its policy by threatening to deadlock the economies unless decisions are made in compliance with French suggestions. The veto right also extends to the nomination of the Governor of the B.E.A.C.. The Governor is elected with the unanimous vote of the Board of Directors, on suggestion of the government of Gabon, and after the approval of the other member states as well as France. This Central Bank does not only have the privilege to create the currency. It also has the privilege to grant credit for the current accounts of the national treasuries at its discount rate. The Board of Directors is making the decisions about the temporalities and about the total amount that is granted for financing the economies of each of the member states.
Sixty-five percent of the U.M.E.O.A. members’ foreign currency reserves as well as all of their gold reserves have to be placed at the French National Bank at zero interest. In return, France guarantees the value of the CFA Franc, which it devalues at leisure. On 3 Mai 2010 the website of Jeune Afrique quotes the former French Minister of Finance and Commerce, now IMF Director Christine Lagarde: “The Bank of the States of Central Africa, for instance, places an almost 90 per cent of their reserves in the French National Bank”.  In an interview for Le Liberation in 1996 the late President of Gabon, Omar Bongo said:
“We are in the Franc Zone. Our operations accounts are managed by the French National Bank in Paris. Who profits from the interests that our money generates ? France.”
Large parts of the French national economy are literally based on this usurpation. French economists, generally agree that the French national economy would collapse without this “infusion” while many also are aware that the usurpation with the help of oppression is an extreme security gamble. France enforces its position with a destructive policy that has left the region shattered by coup d’état, instability and war. To mention some; In January 1963 the President of Togo, the late Sylvanus Olympio was murdered three days before the issuing of a new currency. On 19. November 1968 the late President of Mali Modibo Kéita was ousted in a coup and arrested. In 1977 Modibo Kéita died in prison. Kéita was poisoned. On 27. January 1996 the President of Mali was ousted in a military coup d´état. On 15. March 2003 the late President of the Central African Republic Angè Félix Patassé was ousted by the “rebel leader” Francois Bozizé. In 2010 the Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo was ousted in a coup d’état. Gbagbo was imprisoned at the ICC. The UN still has all ballot boxes which could prove whether the alleged election fraud had taken place or not, but the UN has so far failed to investigate appropriately. In all cases the monetary union and France have played a role.
The result  is that one of the richest and most productive region is hopelessly impoverished, indebted and lagging behind in even basic development indexes. Naturally, the development of a stable middle class which could give the region a lift is impossible. It goes without saying; the development of the region as potential trading partner for a European market, a market that could yield far greater economic and humanitarian potential than the one that one could achieve by oppression and usurpation is made impossible too. Hence France is keeping on “fixing” Africa problems to barely hang on to a Nazi method of usurpation.
The French – German differences in opinion about Africa, German Sovereignty, and distrust between France and Germany can be reduced to this.
Hollande_Merkel_France_GermanyFrance has a knee jerk reaction every time the European Council or German lobbyists challenge France to redirect its Africa policy. A German analyst and Africa expert once said to the author that France reminds him of a man who stands at an abyss. He is so transfixed by staring into that abyss that he cannot even conceive of the idea that he could turn around to look whether there is terra firma behind him. When German lobbyists approach France, they are often trying to calmly call on France and to reach out with a helping hand so France could take a step back and reassess its situation. One must add to this, that France and Germany share the fate of literally centuries of wars against each other. One should note that Germany was the aggressor in the last two wars. In fairness and to understand the dynamics, one must admit that there often was a tertium gaudens, a laughing third who could laugh with unalloyed joy, who played a role in French – German confrontations.
French policy makers will recall French President Mitterrand’s knee jerk situation and united British – French lobbying against the reunification of Germany. The result is that: Germany may be nominally “reunited” but that the 2+4 treaty is no peace treaty; That Germany still is classified as enemy state to the United Nations; That Germany still has no constitution and cannot adopt a constitution before it has a peace treaty; That its basic law has no territory on which it is valid; That Germany according to the analysis of qualified historians like Peter Feist still is subject to a “letter of submission to Washington” signed by former German Chancellor Willy Brand; That Brandt only signed because Washington threatened to sabotage the inner-German dialog; And that Germany, politically, economically, as well as militarily remains under the direct control of the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Command Europe (SHAPE).
German governments and media attempt to suppress these facts for the simple reason that they are aware how “explosive” this information would become if a German government, a major opposition party, or the major German media ever would make “an issue” out of them. The consequences could be disastrous, if the people of Germany ever would realize how badly they have been deceived before there was established a secure way of turning this frustration into a positive development. Many analysts suggest that German governments, for their part, are in a similar situation to that of France.
They are standing at the abyss, fearing that the German populace discovers the deception. To compensate, German governments are pushing for a seat at the U.N. Security Council, trying to force the hands of those who still capture German sovereignty as enemy state to the U.N.. Germany’s problem is, that France so far only has whispered slight whispers which were insufficient to wake up Germany. Germany is waiting to see the hand of France, not pushing it into the abyss but to offer its hand for a partnership that aims at a new, continental European consensus for national sovereignty, peace and prosperity. Consequently, both the government of Hollande and the government of Merkel are staring into the abyss while a laughing third is about to unleash the terrors of yet another great war on the European continent.
Former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas stressed that a French break with NATO would not only require a statesman at the helm but a situation that would allow others to understand why – France needs a good explanation if you will. The same could be said about Germany. It would require a situation that could help Germany’s partners to understand that keeping Germany as a “colony” in a Brzezinskian hegemony is unacceptable. Considering that both France and Germany still are, at least nominally, and to some degree functional democracies, the operand question is whether Hollande and Merkel would dare to exercise the sovereignty of the French and German people. Arguably, it is more a question of  - good management – than a question about “one glorious statesman”. Dumas, and others in France and Germany who are lobbying for greater sovereignty, and in particular Socialists should recognize that a great statesman can only be born out of a political moment, which can be created by intense campaigning from the base. So, would Hollande and Merkel live up to their challenges? The answer is that nobody, probably not even Hollande nor Merkel know. What is certain is, that the political moment is possible, because the potential for it exists within the continental European, especially in the French and German populations.
Indicators in favor of a Continental European Consensus for Sovereignty, Prosperity and Peace.
2014 survey in Germany shows that the majority of Germans is against the presence of NATO troops in eastern Europe. The survey, conducted by Deutschlandpoll, also suggested that 49 percent of Germans would rather see Germany take a position of a bridge between the East and the West. Only 45 percent of those who were polled considered Germany as a solidly anchored part of the West. It is noteworthy that this poll was conducted in the presence of a relentless, anti-Russian campaign in most, if not all German mainstream media.
Angela Merkel, Francois HollandeIn May 2014, Hollande and Merkel held a joint press conference in Berlin. The two statesmen called for a prompt and full investigation into the massacre in Odessa, where some 150 protesters who had sought refuge in a Trade Union House were murdered in cold blood. A detailed photo study of the massacre shows that the massacre was pre-meditated mass murder, involving Ukraine’s Pravy Sector which is known for its ties to NATO’s Gladio network. Besides that, Hollande and Merkel jointly criticized Kiev’s unbridled use of military force against Ukrainian citizens, stressing that any use of military force in Ukraine is allowed exclusively for the protection of human lives and infrastructure. The two added that even then, it must be used with proportionality. They urged Kiev to begin a dialog with the rebelling regions before elections and to cease armed hostilities.
In respectively June and July 2014, the governments of the Czech Republic and Slovakia stressed that they did not want to accept NATO troops in their countries and saw no need for any NATO bases in their countries either. The rejection came in response to direct “proposals” from U.S. President Barack Obama. The proposals came after Poland, in April, called on the U.S. to deploy additional troops to Poland. It is noteworthy that historical research documents that Poland played the role of provocateur against Germany up to WWII, in collusion with the government of the U.K., the laughing third.
In September 2014, after U.K. PM David Cameron outed the possibility that the UK may reconsider its EU-membership, a French survey showed that over 50 percent of the polled Frenchmen opted for “letting them leave” and do what they want. Understandably, only a minority in France and Germany would want to be helpful with regard to the U.K.’s dilemma about Scottish independence. There are literally hundreds of other, political, social, and economic indicators which suggest that there is a growing continental European consensus against the Atlantic Alliance and against bellicose Atlantic Axis-launched wars from Africa over Syria and Iraq to Ukraine. It would be beyond the scope of this article to analyze them all. The one that tells most is that it was negotiations without the presence of the U.S. and U.K. that led to a dialog and a ceasefire in Ukraine.
In conclusion, the voice of France with regard to NATO can be heard and a break with NATO is possible; A Germany that regains its sovereignty and assumes a role as bridge between the East and the West, which it already has geographically, culturally and economically is possible; A continental European consensus for peace in Africa, the Middle East and in Europe, opposed to an Atlantic Axis fire starter policy is possible and would lead to greater prosperity on a global scale. None of the above, however, would be possible as long as France and Germany perceive each others hands as threats, fearing to be plunged into the abyss. Who is the tertuim gaudens, who laughs with unalloyed joy? What would it take for a Hollande or for a Merkel to take one step back from the abyss? The answer is: I don’t know. Merkel probably doesn’t know it either, and neither does Hollande. What is certain, is that they probably have more support for a continental European peace and partnership with Russia from the people of France and Germany than they would dare to hope for. It is the question whether or not one lives up to the moment that makes the difference between a politician and a statesman, between war and peace.
Dr. Christof Lehmann an independent political consultant on conflict and conflict resolution and the founder and editor in chief of nsnbc, exclusively for the online magazine New Eastern Outlook.