Russia Britain’s Greatest Threat?
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
A longstanding Western way of getting lawmakers to increase military spending is by inventing nonexistent threats – Russia usually named, how militarists get what they want.
It works in Britain like America, despite neither country threatened by any others.
Russia seeks cooperative relations with all other countries, threatening none. No “Russian aggression” exists in Ukraine or anywhere else.
Fear-mongering threats otherwise are phony. Washington invents them to justify outrageous military spending, endless imperial wars, and its global empire of bases in scores of countries on every continent – policies benefitting Wall Street, war-profiteers and other corporate predators at the expense of humanity.
Britain plays the same dirty game, allied with America, both countries partnering in endless wars of aggression.
Both are implacably hostile to Russia – for its sovereign independence and opposition to US-led imperial wars, not for any threat it poses to their national security.
On Monday, Britain’s military chief General Nick Carter lied, calling Russia Britain’s “most complex and capable security challenge we have faced since the Cold War” – in an address to the Royal United Services Institute.
“The time to address these threats is now. We cannot afford to sit back,” he roared, adding:
“Our ability to preempt or respond to threats will be eroded if we don’t keep up with our adversaries” – failing to explain Britain has none.
“We must take notice of what is going on around us or our ability to take action will be massively constrained,” Carter blustered.
“Speed of decision-making, speed of deployment and modern capability are essential if we wish to provide a realistic deterrence.”
Most of Carter’s address focused on a nonexistent Russian threat at a time Britain’s new defense minister Gavin Williamson and other UK militarists called for increased defense spending – solely for offense, nothing to defend against.
In December, Britain’s air chief marshal Stuart Peach absurdly warned that Russian submarines could cut ocean floor Internet cables, doing “catastrophic” damage to Western economies.
According to Carter, Russia built an aggressive military force Britain “would struggle to match.”
Russian military spending is a small fraction of America’s, far less than combined NATO spending.
Carter described what he called stages between war and peace, claiming “(t)he risk we run in not defining this clearly, and acting accordingly, is that rather like a chronic contagious disease it will creep up on us, and our ability to act will be markedly constrained – and we’ll be the losers of this competition.”
In the 1930s when an increasing NAZI menace threatened Europe, Britain remained woefully unprepared when military preparedness was urgently needed.
Today, the only threats Britain, America and other Western nations face are phony invented ones – none from Russia, China, North Korea, Iran or any other countries.
Yet militarism dominates the thinking and actions of NATO countries. Throughout its post-Soviet history, Russia never attacked or threatened other nations.
It threatens none now – not America, Britain, other NATO countries or any others anywhere.
Carter turned truth on its head, claiming “Russia could initiate hostilities sooner than we expect, and a lot earlier than we would in similar circumstances,” adding:
“Most likely they will use nefarious sub-(NATO’s) Article 5 actions to erode the credibility of NATO and threaten the very structure that provides our own defense and security.”
“This is the divide and rule which the international order is designed to prevent.”
“It won’t start with little green men. It will start with something we don’t expect. We should not take what we’ve seen so far as a template for the future.”
Carter ignored US military bases menacingly surrounding Russia, NATO military exercises provocatively close to its borders, its warships in the Black Sea close to its territory, its warplanes close to or entering its airspace.
Russia is threatened by US-led Western hostility toward its sovereign government – not the other way around.
It poses no threat to any other countries. The notion of a surprise Russian attack in any form against any nation is nil.
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My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."
