Europe is Turning Into a Warmongering Dictatorship
The illusion of Europe as a democratic peace project is disappearing rapidly.
European countries are being destroyed by war and militarism, and to make the madness even worse, their political class and media are driving this process forward at ever-increasing speed.
The fate of the continent could hardly be more tragic, given the fact that it rose from the ashes of the Second World War with the hope of being an example for international peace, writes the Strategic Culture Foundation .
The divisive elections in Hungary this week, in which Viktor Orbán’s government was ousted, were dominated by political and financial pressure exerted on Budapest by the EU leadership due to Orbán’s steadfast rejection of Brussels’ belligerent actions against Russia. Hungarians cast their votes amidst unrest caused by Brussels and the energy blackmail of the NATO-backed regime in Kyiv. There is concern that other EU countries, such as Slovakia, will face a similar attack on their democratic process if they do not conform to the elite’s agenda to center everything on an existential confrontation with Russia.
European citizens are enduring an economic crisis caused by the NATO and EU proxy war against Russia. Fuel, energy, food, and other costs of living are skyrocketing as a direct result of war and militarism. First, energy supplies from Russia were cut off by government sanctions. Now, Trump’s aggression against Iran has affected energy supplies from the Persian Gulf, making Europe doubly vulnerable.
Instead of changing course, the European NATO countries seem determined to head for a catastrophic crash at full speed. This raises fundamental questions about democratic representation. Does it even still exist in Europe, including Great Britain?
This week, loud calls were heard in Great Britain for massive additional spending on the military budget, to be funded by cutting investments in social services and other public services. The call was led by a former British minister, George Robertson.
“Lord Robertson”, a member of the non-elected British House of Parliament, is also a former head of NATO (1999–2003). He has long urged the British government to expand the military budget, even though figures show that Britain is spending more on so-called defence than at any time since the end of the Cold War.
In a much-discussed public lecture, and with a touch of hysteria, Robertson claimed: “We are insufficiently prepared. We are insufficiently insured. We are under attack. We are not safe… Britain’s national security and security are at stake.”
His conclusion: “We cannot defend Great Britain with a growing welfare budget.”
This is the same toxic delusion propagated by current NATO chief Mark Rutte and other hawkish European leaders like him. Namely, that record-high military spending is insufficient and that social spending must be sacrificed to fund even more expansions of the armed forces and weapons arsenals, a portion of which is transferred to the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv to wage war against Russia.
With his usual Freudian slip, Rutte once made the bizarre but telling remark: “Defense does not fall into the same category as illegal drugs and pornography. Investing in defense is an investment in security. It is a must.”
According to NATO figures, the 30 European member states spend an average of 20 percent more on defense. Last year, total spending amounted to 500 billion dollars. And yet, we are told, that is not enough for “security.” In the coming decade, European countries, including Great Britain, are being urged to double their military budgets. The United States under Trump plans to allocate 1.5 trillion dollars to its military.
Former British diplomat Peter Ford condemned what he saw as “prosperity before warfare”. He warned that this was destroying British society and that of other European countries.
“We should no longer spend on what is misleadingly called ‘defense’,” writes Ford, who is also vice-chairman of the Workers Party of Britain. “We would be safer if we spent less, indulged less in post-imperial displays of power, sought to defuse conflicts rather than exacerbate them, and focused on the homeland, where so much has been neglected and fallen into decay.”
Another sensible voice is that of Professor Richard Murphy, who suggested that Lord Robertson and his warmongering ilk are “the real enemy” of Great Britain and Europe.
“Defense is not just about weapons, budgets, or protecting the interests of the elite abroad,” noted Prof. Murphy. “Defense is about protecting people. It is about ensuring that people are free from fear, including physical threat, poverty, want, and the social instability that erodes the fabric of a nation from within. By that definition, which is the only one that actually serves the majority of British citizens, social security is not the enemy of defense: it is its foundation.”
Poverty in British society is increasing, just as in the rest of Europe. It is estimated that more than 14 million people in Great Britain – more than 20 percent of the population – live in poverty. One in three British children lives in disadvantaged households and suffers from inadequate housing, food, education, and healthcare.
Warmian European elites such as Robertson, Rutte, Kaja Kallas, and Ursula von der Leyen, who personally profit from the arms industry in the form of lucrative careers and lobbying, justify their undemocratic policy choices by constantly inflating irrational threats supposedly emanating from Russia, Iran, China, or another alleged enemy.
Their war psychosis not only impoverishes the majority of workers and citizens but is also self-reinforcing and counterproductive. The international tensions caused by this belligerent behavior lead to even more irrational calls for even more militarism due to the perceived insecurity and threat.
What Great Britain and other European states need to do is stop belligerent behavior. Europe particularly needs governments that are not driven by Russophobia and the paranoia of Cold War-style thinking.
Ignorant European governments and media have allowed themselves to be swept along by the American-led transatlantic military-industrial complex that has fueled illegal wars, which in turn have led to massive migration problems, dangerous international tensions that could spiral out of control, and now, as we see, enormous economic consequences of chaos in the energy trade.
To make the damage even worse and pour fuel on the fire, the elites demand that the fundamental democratic rights of citizens be eroded. The election debacle in Hungary is an ominous sign of the times. A warmongering dictatorship tells the people how to vote for a predetermined result: more war.
The illusion of Europe as a democratic peace project is fading rapidly. It is returning to the historical pattern: a warmongering system driven by the elite in which peace has become a dirty word.
https://www.frontnieuws.com/europa-het-vredesproject-verandert-in-een-oorlogszuchtige-dictatuur