EUROPE AS LAND BASE AMERICA, WITH SLOVAKIA AS AIRSTRIP 1?

The current ruling elite of Slovakia, including its president, has acceded to the wish of the USA to have one or two airbases on Slovak soil.

 

This has incensed many Slovaks not included within the elite hierarchy.

Many of these elites have extensive connections to the USA going back decades. This has raised an issue out in the open that was maintained in a well-hidden state before the contract was signed to allow the airbase to go ahead.

There were many reasons why the ruling elite wished to keep their connections to the USA secret, most of them concerned these connections being private, grants given, training courses provided, even work for the Pentagon. Prior to this latest development neither the present government nor the main opposition had any reason to bring all this out into the open. Now however there certainly is.

The main opposition party, Smer ('Direction' in English) led by ex-premier Robert Fico is incensed that Slovak sovereignty has been massively reduced. Demonstrations at the parliament building in Bratislava, Slovakia's capital showed clearly that he was far from alone. A strong support for his position with a great many Slovak flags with a few Russian flags also in the crowd, showed this clearly along with the fiery speeches and patriotic songs played and sung.

This is no small matter, though it is being framed as such by the pro-EU, pro-USA liberal elite who managed to win power in the last parliamentary elections a few years ago. The same goes for Slovakia's pro-EU, pro-USA president. No one knows as yet what the majority opinion is yet across Slovakia, though Fico will organize a petition and he hopes to arrange a referendum on the issue also.

With everything else going on in regard to Russia and Ukraine and with a European press and media continually pressing the fear and threat buttons the Slovak population could be forgiven for thinking that they have good reason to want America's protection. You do have to wonder whether this is a complete coincidence and whether similar contracts across the ex-Warsaw Pact countries are being eased through in the context of the fear-based wall-to-wall, 24/7 mirroring of Washington's narratives on Russia and Ukraine right now. 

 

 

Why is the USA choosing this moment of high tension to persuade eastern Europe to arm up and open their doors to U.S. and NATO troops and weaponry? Just today we hear that the contract with Slovakia which the Slovaks were told was for ten years only has been signed up to for automatic extensions every ten years. Several of the Slovak government's members made a special journey to Washington this week especially so they could sign the document authorizing this.

The Slovak president appears to have also done some strange and somewhat underhand things in the speed with which she signed off after a relatively close vote on the contract in the Slovak parliament. The discussion was meant to continue to other fora but it appears that as soon as the document reached her hands it became signed moments later. This betokens an unseemly rush to many. A desperate need to acquiesce to U.S. demands appears to be the case. One wonders why.

The situation in Ukraine, next door to Slovakia continues to generate myriad headlines and TV discussions. The suspicion cannot be avoided that the airbase acquired by America in Slovakia is yet another chess piece move in the global "game" going on currently where Russia is more and more alluded to not as a rival or adversary but as an outright enemy.

How long can it be before there is a backlash from Slovaks and others for being put on the front line in a war they have little stake in outside of the unimaginable intention of Russia to conquer and occupy all of eastern Europe, the conspiracy theory that is quite prevalent but which is not given much credence by people living in the lands to the east of the great powers of Europe.

What benefit would Russia gain from armed attack upon and occupation of the ex-members of the Warsaw Pact? Putin and his colleagues surely cannot envisage the re-creation of the Soviet Union complete with its satellites. Anyone who has visited Moscow in recent years will not find anything akin to the ambiance of those earlier years. Moscow appears the very epitome of a European city now, as does St. Petersburg and many other cities across the Russian Federation.

Is it really imaginable that Putin and those around him want to end their lives enmeshed in a bloody series of conflicts, armed resistance, NATO attacks, endless sanctions that make those already in existence look puny indeed? Is that at all a realistic prospect? Surely not. Russia is carving a fine niche for itself with expanding trade, including with India and very much so with China. Russia still trades with all the nations of Europe. Why plunge itself and the entirety of Europe into endless war and discord. It makes no sense at all.

 

 

But someone wants the present threat of endless war, invasions and attacks. That someone wants discord on one side and unity on their side. A split world where the leader nation continues to have sway, gain ground, garner allies, make and win contracts and be able to twist arms at will. Of course this someone, this power, this nation is the USA and the prospects otherwise, with China on a perpetual rise don't look as rosy as they were in previous eras. The USA is looking at having progressively less influence, less power to manipulate, reducing reach, a dwindling economy and an ever rising national debt, now at over thirty trillion dollars. Wouldn't the someone we are talking about seek to corral what still exists and ensure sway over that domain?

And wouldn't that someone, power and nation want to create a network of bases across the land mass that was to be his and its fiefdom and domain to hold and to keep in the face of certain eclipse otherwise?

Pity poor Slovakia then. Governed by what Robert Fico has openly been calling traitors, men and women who clapped deliriously as they ceded Slovak sovereignty to a master thousands of kilometres distant apparently convinced (or pretending to be so) that big bad Russia is a good reason to crawl under the skirts of the Statue of Liberty no matter the consequences for the Slovak people and Slovak nation and all that is held dear in terms of national sovereignty, culture and identity...

All for the great guardians of the West, the good shepherds, albeit the vengeful destroyers of Iraq and numerous points east... grateful in supplication to be allowed to be its Airstrip 1 within the U.S. European land base.