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Pompeo On Tour Sowing Division

by Oui Fri Nov 8th, 2019 at 03:58:15 PM EST

Just like his boss, Mike Pompeo is a loyal executioner of extreme rightwing policy. Pompeo has dismantled the art of diplomacy in the State Department and is converting foreign policy to Trump's bullying tactics ..

    It was Mr. Pompeo who helped Mr. Trump and Mr. Giuliani oust the respected American ambassador to Ukraine, Marie L. Yovanovitch, in April. Both Michael McKinley, a senior adviser to Mr. Pompeo and a four-time ambassador, and Philip T. Reeker, the acting assistant secretary for Europe, testified that they asked State Department leadership to defend Ms. Yovanovitch from false accusations, only to be rejected.

h/t Bernard

Macron referred to NATO as experiencing 'brain death' and the Atlanticist world goes apeshit crazy. Not that anyone has declared NATO obsolete before.

    I hope Macron's remarks do not lead to repair work in NATO HQ.  

    In the 1990s NATO was a walking dead man ... was saved by Article 5 plea from the USA after 9/11 ... fighting a full blown war and never ending "War on Terror" ... NATO regrouped to become proxy to fight wars for American Capitalism and expansion ... creating adversaries to increase weaponry and spending ... not heeding Eisenhower's Cold War warning of the military establishment. Time to rethink priorities to save the planet ... not increasing capacity to destroy our planet. Fortunately nr. 1 world power USA is exposing itself by electing a mad man as president ... the planet on precipice of destruction .. time to rethink European defense and Europe's interest. 😖🍀😄

More below the fold ...


From my diary ...

President Donald J. Trump Hosts NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg At The White House - May 17, 2018

   

    "In the nearly seven decades since Harry Truman
        spoke those words, the NATO Alliance has been
        the bulwark of international peace and security"

        President Donald J. Trump

A LASTING COMMITMENT: President Trump is continuing the legacy of transatlantic unity and is working with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg toward a successful July 11-12, 2018, NATO Summit.
...

REVITALIZING NATO: NATO countries are undertaking the most significant reinforcement of collective defense since the end of the Cold War to enhance the Alliance's ability to deter Russia, fight terrorism, and defend NATO territory.

In 2017, NATO deployed a new, Enhanced Forward Presence to improve the collective defense of our NATO Allies ...

Making An Enemy - Demonizing Putin Endangers America's Security by Oui @BooMan on March 22, 2014

China, Russia concerns top Pompeo agenda in Central Europe | AP News - Feb. 10, 2019 |

U.S. fears about China and Russia's growing influence in Central Europe will top Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's agenda as he heads to the region this week, Trump administration officials say.

Pompeo leaves Sunday on a five-nation tour of Europe that will begin in Hungary and Slovakia where he will raise those concerns and the importance of promoting democracy and the rule of law to counter Beijing and Moscow's efforts to pull the countries away from the West and sow divisions in the European Union and NATO.

The centerpiece of the trip will be a Conference on the Future of the Middle East in Poland that is expected to focus on Iran and will also be attended by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Vice President Mike Pence and President Donald Trump's Mideast peace team of senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy for international negotiations Jason Greenblatt.


US to Ask NATO to Pay More to Protect Saudi Arabia From Iran

U.S. under Trump destroyed the Iranian nuclear deal ...

Iran's nuclear rollback `legitimate' response to US hypocrisy | PressTV Iran |

Mike Pompeo says U.S. must confront China's Communist Party | JPost - Oct. 31,2019 |

Pompeo said the United States had long cherished its friendship with the Chinese people, adding the Communist government was not the same thing as the people of China.

"They are reaching for and using methods that have created challenges for the United States and for the world and we collectively, all of us, need to confront these challenges ... head on," Pompeo said in an address to a gala dinner in New York of the conservative Hudson Institute think tank. [Introduction by Rupert Murdoch]

"It is no longer realistic to ignore the fundamental differences between our two systems, and the impact that ... the differences in those systems have on American national security."

Last week in a major policy speech, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence attacked China's record on human rights, trade and methods used to expand its global influence.

Nord Stream 2: Go-ahead for Russian gas pipeline angers Ukraine | BBC News |

Denmark's approval for a controversial pipeline to pump more Russian gas into Europe will strengthen Russia's influence in the region, Ukraine warns.

"This is not only a matter of energy security, it is a geopolitical issue," Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said of the Nord Stream 2 gas project.

The Danish permit was the last major hurdle. The pipeline will run under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany.

The Russian-led Nord Stream 2 project has also infuriated the US, which fears the pipeline will tighten Russia's grip over the region's energy supply and reduce its own share of the lucrative European market for American liquefied natural gas.

The US gas journey, from rigs to riches  

The Future of the Ukrainian Oligarchs - 2018

Pompeo stresses NATO's importance during Germany visit; meets with troops at Grafenwoehr

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his German counterpart stressed the close ties between their two countries Thursday, batting away talk of trans-Atlantic friction and insisting that the NATO alliance that both are part of remains relevant today.

Their strong defense of the alliance -- 30 years after the end of the Cold War -- came after French President Emmanuel Macron claimed in an interview that a lack of U.S. leadership is causing the "brain death" of NATO.

Speaking after visiting the German village of Moedlareuth, which was divided into two during the Cold War, Pompeo told reporters it was the "remarkable work" of democratic nations that "created freedom and brought millions of people out of very, very difficult situations."

"I think NATO remains an important, critical, perhaps historically one of the most critical, strategic partnerships in all of recorded history," Pompeo told reporters in Leipzig.

Leipzig awaits 100,000 PEGIDA and counter movement demonstrators | DW - Jan. 2015 |

Pompeo urges West to unite against 'unfree nations' | DW - 55 min ago |

Since World War II, Germany has previously pursued, and been held to, a policy of military restraint in reaction to the aggressive expansionism of the Nazi era.

Kramp-Karrenbauer has been supportive of US demands for Germany to increase military spending, with US President Donald Trump frequently chastizing Berlin for not doing enough as a NATO member.

Criticism of China, Russia

During a later speech given near Berlin's landmark Brandenburg Gate, Pompeo continued in the vein of his recent criticisms of China, saying the country had suppressed people with tactics that would have been "horrifyingly familiar" to residents of former communist East Germany.

Pompeo also criticized Russia as a country that "invades its neighbors and slays political opponents."

He then called for Western unity in the face of the threat posed by "unfree nations," saying, "Let's stand together as allies."  

Berlin gets unwanted Ronald Reagan statue

Related reading ...

Digital Media and the Rise of Populist Right-Wing
EU/NATO Propaganda It's About Daesh and Russia

Display:
Europe looking to China as global partner, shunning Donald Trump's US | SCMP |

NATO experiencing "brain death," says Macron | Power & Politics |

French President Emmanuel Macron claimed that a lack of U.S. leadership is causing the "brain death" of the NATO military alliance, insisting in an interview published Thursday that the European Union must step up and start acting as a strategic world power.

Macron's public criticism of the state of the world's biggest military alliance was rejected by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, setting the scene for a possible showdown in London next month when U.S. President Donald Trump joins his counterparts.

"What we are currently experiencing is the brain death of NATO," Macron told The Economist magazine. He said Trump appears to be "turning its back on us," notably by pulling troops out of northeast Syria without notice.

"So as soon as you have a member who feels they have a right to head off on their own, granted by the United States of America, they do it. And that's what happened."



Hasbara is a dead language
by Oui (Oui) on Fri Nov 8th, 2019 at 10:55:59 PM EST
The video reminded me of this:

The difference between this original plan for the pipeline and the result is that the pipeline now avoids Swedish waters (both territorial waters and exclusive economic zone). It would be impractical, but probably possible to also avoid Danish waters.

by fjallstrom on Thu Nov 14th, 2019 at 12:22:20 PM EST
Trump has just declared peace in the Middle East - suspends International Law - Palestinian cause for land of no value. When will nations take a stand and show courage to stop the American bullying.

Hasbara is a dead language
by Oui (Oui) on Mon Nov 18th, 2019 at 08:42:50 PM EST
USA Today | Bombs, missiles falling at record pace in long-running Afghanistan war
WASHINGTON - The spike in firepower coincides with a Trump administration policy, dating to 2016 [sic], that gives military commanders greater authority to attack Taliban and Islamic State militants in Afghanistan.

"The logic [sic] is that the Taliban may be more likely to agree to a peace deal [sic] acceptable to the United States and the Afghan government if the Taliban believe they can't win the war in Afghanistan," said Seth Jones, a defense [sic] analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and former adviser to the special operations commander in Afghanistan. ...



Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Mon Nov 18th, 2019 at 11:47:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Warren On Turning Up The Dial

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Tue Nov 19th, 2019 at 12:48:10 AM EST
She knows about consumer protection rights ... on foreign policy, give me Bernie Sanders. 🍀

Hasbara is a dead language
by Oui (Oui) on Tue Nov 19th, 2019 at 12:58:56 AM EST
[ Parent ]


Hasbara is a dead language
by Oui (Oui) on Wed Nov 20th, 2019 at 07:42:35 PM EST


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