by Oui
Sun Dec 29th, 2019 at 10:40:27 AM EST
I had not been aware of this manifesto by the European Parliament ... putting the final nail in revisionism of the events leading up to Nazi Germany invading and conquering most of continental Europe and the Second World War. It were the Communists and the Soviet Union that need to undergo a modern Nuremburg Trial for war crimes during Stalin's reign.
I'm aware of a long campaign to propagandize the evils of Russia and white-wash the role played by the Allied Nations. Russia and Putin weren't invited to commemorate the soldiers who fell on D-Day in Normandy as other leaders were proud to be seen as victors in the defeat of Nazi Germany. There has been a revival in commemorating the end of that Great War. Instead, Europe should be celebrating the fact that we have lived in an age without a major outbreak of hostilities. We should be thankful to the founding of the EEC of six nations and the expansion of the European Union on the principles of Four Freedoms.
More below the fold ...
After the 1990s, the aftermath of the fall of the old Soviet Union, the attacks of 9/11 set in motion an opportunity to wage a global War on Terror where the European NATO partners had to play a role in Afghanistan due to America invoking article 5 of the Charter. Ever since, U.S. Congress, Pentagon and think-tanks filled with war hawks have led the way for military confrontation with the old nemesis of the West, the smaller Russian Federation. No opportunity was left to rethink the methods and propaganda to renew a Cold War 2.0 scenario. Mostly the efforts were helped by expanding the War on Terror into a Clash of Civilizations: Iraq and the Arab Uprising of 2011 with the military engagement of America, United Kingdom, France and NATO partners in the greater Middle East. A "passive" role by Israel cannot be neglected and a role of the EU expanding into Eastern Europe contravening promises made to Gorbachov by the Reagan/Bush administration in 1989.
Under Bush II and the neocon agenda, the Afghan campaign was cut short to expand the war into Iraq which opened Pandora's Boz as the warning of Arab leaders had foretold. The multiple proxy wars that ensued with support from western states, caused the spread of jihadists across North Africa, the Sahel and in the Levant. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States were witness to the illfated invasion and occupation of Iraq. As a result, the Saudis funded and supplied arms to the Sunni population living in Anbar province. The US and Rumsfeld spread another million AK-47s under the fighters present inside Iraq. In addition billions in cash were used for buying favors of numerous war lords. In the end, it was the majority Shia population who took a major stake in the process of "democracy" with well-willing support of close neighbor the Islamic state of Iran.
As terror knows no borders in that part of the Middle East, it was a matter of time that the upheaval spread along the Euphrates river into Syria and up to the border of Turkey. The next phase we witnessed a two-pronged effort by Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait versus the Muslim Brotherhood states of Egypt, Turkey, Qatar and the affiliated Hezbollah in Lebanon. As the Obama administration continued the ill-fated neocon policy under leadership of Hillary Clinton, the Middles East and North Africa was left in great turmoil, chaos and a opportunity for extremists to spread their reign of terror further and deeper into society.
The ensuing refugee crisis across Libya and later Syria made the European Union a victim of its own policy of military intervention, on the coattails of America and especially the United Kingdom.
In the meantime, the expansion of the EU into Eastern Europe opened the way for NATO expansion to the frontier of the Russian Federation. The NATO observer status of Russia was aborted and the Orange-Rose-Colour Revolutions were sufficient to effect regime change in key states where corruption still flourishes. The oligarchs change alliances just as easy as a reptile or chameleon changes colour. Presently, the Ukraine as prime example.
As the leaders in the Baltic States, Poland and Ukraine revise their part in the Nazi past and the role played in the deaths of minorities during the Second World War, we see that the influence of New Europe is setting the stage for more conflict and less diplomacy to deal with events more than 80 years ago. I would imagine this has become part of a revival of Nationalism in many states and the populist notion that Europe is white with a Judeo-Christian culture. I'm more than puzzled how this has come to pass and succeed in western democratic states.
The attack on the EU has succeeded by rightwing and conservative alliance with the British referendum and a hard Brexit looming for 2020. I do fear for a disunited Europe on how Brussels and the EU go forward to deal with the major challenges ahead. The EU needs to disengage in warmongering and a military policy of confrontation. The EU should hold their founding principles
There is more to this resolution than meets the eye ...
EU-Commission: Statement ahead of the Europe-Wide Day of Remembrance for the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes
"Every 23 August, we honour the memory of the millions of victims of all totalitarian regimes. [#BlackRibbonDay]
The signature of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union on this day in 1939 opened a dark chapter in European history. A time during which citizens were neither free to make their own decisions nor had a say on political choices. A Europe in which freedom and democracy were not more than a dream.
Tens of millions of victims were deported, tortured and murdered under totalitarian regimes in Europe. Because of this cruelty, lack of freedom and disrespect for fundamental rights, in parts of Europe several generations never had the chance to enjoy freedom and democracy.
This year we also mark the 30 years of events in 1989 when citizens of Central and Eastern Europe stood up and broke through the Iron Curtain and accelerated its fall. The courageous actions of citizens brought back freedom and democracy to all of Europe.
They helped overcome divisions and unify Europe. This then is a collective European legacy that we all must cherish, nourish, and defend.
EU parliament passed a resolution condemning Ribbentrop-Molotov pact
○ Vladimir Putin condemns EU stance on Nazi-Soviet WWII pact | DW - Dec. 11, 2019 |
○ Poland summons Russian ambassador over WWII spat | DW - Dec. 28, 2019 |
Reply from Russia, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and an angry Putin ...
Putin uninvited to join WWII Allies at Normandy ...
○ Russia lost the most lives during WW2. So why wasn't Putin invited to D-Day event? | CNN News |
○ His grandfather's war: David Eisenhower on the general and D-Day | CBS News | with 90 min. interview Gen. Eisenhower (1964)
Related reading ...
○ Bermuda Conference: Dwight D. Eisenhower and Winston Churchill
○ Ike, Winston and the Russians | NY Times - Feb. 1991 |
"In 1944-45 Eisenhower opposed Churchill's strategic advocacies, which he regarded as controversial and dangerously anti-Russian. Eight years later Eisenhower's view of the world had become the very opposite: he regarded Churchill's proposals as too controversial and dangerously pro-Russian.
Most of Eisenhower's recent biographers argue that in 1945 Eisenhower opposed Churchill because of military calculations (including the extraordinary episode when, at the end of March 1945, Eisenhower took it upon himself to bypass Churchill and wrote a direct letter to Josef Stalin, telling the Soviet leader that the Allied armies, rushing forward within Germany, would not advance toward Berlin and Prague). I believe that there was more than military prudence in Eisenhower's calculations. In 1945 he was in complete conformity with what he saw as the prevalent climate of opinion in Washington -- as he would be, in 1952 and after, in complete conformity with a very different climate of opinion prevalent in Washington then. That, I would contend, was the reason for his distrust of Churchill's advocacies."
○ Eisenhower and McCarthy: How the President Toppled a Reckless Senator
McCarthy Uses Committee To Investigate "Ike's Army"
Then, on August 31, 1953, McCarthy launched hearings into communist infiltration into the United States Army—Ike’s Army. While Eisenhower did not respond in public, it was only a matter of time. Joe McCarthy had signed his own political death warrant by assaulting the service to which the general had devoted his adult life.
The controversy involved McCarthy's chief counsel, Roy Cohn, and his frantic attempts to keep Pvt. G. David Schine with him on the subcommittee. Schine had been an unpaid consultant to the subcommittee until he was drafted into the Army. These men were, in the words of Attorney General Herbert Brownell, "inseparable." Cohn's rage over his inability to obtain a special commission for Schine apparently pushed McCarthy into investigating the Army. The attorney's efforts to secure special privileges for Schine, often involving the senator, was what the Army-McCarthy hearings in mid-1954 were ostensibly about.
○ FBI releases files on President Trump's late lawyer, Roy Cohn | CNBC - Sept. 2019 |
Today's struggle on a sovereign Europe ...
THE OUTRAGEOUS END ...
Dividing East and West ...
○ Three Seas Initiative: the Baltic, Adriatic and Black Seas
○ Minister Szczerski: Three Seas initiative to boost European unity
From my diaries ...
○ G W F and McCarthyism In A Digital Age - Part 2
○ McCain: Russians Deserve Better Than Putin ‖ Op-ed
○ British Spooks Exploiting Populist Insurgency for Anti-Russia Campaign
[Update-1]
Initiators of the EP resolution – Radislaw Sikorski (Chrześcijańscy Demokraci - Polska)
Has this former CIA agent, UK citizen, war correspondent in Afghanistan and Angola, not caused enough hostility inside and outside of Poland? A former Foreign Minister of Poland, and married to Anne Appelbaum, the American warmonger journalist in employ by radical rightwing think-tanks in London (Legatum Institute), etc., etc.
Do I detect even a whiff of an anti-American attitude by Anne – the once upon a time First Lady in waiting in Warsaw?
My diaries about Radek and Anne … don’t they just love their American president Trump and his allegiance to Putin, Lavrov and Russia? Perhaps their views have adapted to Trump’s hatred for Zelenski and the Ukraine? Applebaum and Brexit – disillusionment.
○ Anne Sikorski-Applebaum the Raving War Lunatic
○ MH-17 report: Dutch Media Uses Anne [Neocon] Applebaum as Putin Expert
○ Radek Sikorski Returns to Ukraine’s Headlines: Putin’s Coup
