Talking about the results of the poll, Atkinson said, “I am not surprised at all, although perhaps a little bit that the Europeans don’t see their own contribution to that failure. I suppose it all began with the German illegal recognition of Croatia and the beginning of the long planned breakup of Yugoslavia. It changed NATO from what it should have been, a defensive organization, into an aggressor organization.”
He further spoke about the 1992 Maastricht Treaty which turned the European Union from an economic association into a state.
“It [NATO] started expanding its regime further eastwards into former Soviet influenced territory turning what Russia was willing to regard as independent states into part of the new European super state. So it was not just an American failure to preserve a balance in Europe, it was a deliberate policy of the European Union as well,” the economist said.
Talking about various conglomerates and multi-million dollar corporations that control countries and people’s choices and opinions, the economist said, “We have to promote freedoms of individuals, of peoples, of nations and not concentrate power in the hands of collectors of parties or collectors of big business or capitals.”
Atkinson further spoke about the economic collapse of 2007 and how the US became very weak financially after the crisis.
“If you become weak financially you often start pretending you are not weak at all and you start using military power to show that. It is the same in the European Union, as the euro has been disastrous, unemployment has reached 50 to 60% among the youth of Europe, and nevertheless we have seen expansion of the EU influence in Eastern countries. It is one of the paradoxes that as the economic policies fail they get more aggressive politically,” Atkinson said.
Looking at the current political failures of the US, Atkinson said, “Now it is a matter of choice as to what is the biggest blunder, either its Ukraine or the Middle East and Arab Spring. Both of them were disastrous and attempts to marginalize Russia have only pushed Russia towards traditional enemies of the United States and Europe, and that was the worst geopolitical bungling.”
The economist further spoke about neo-cons in the US and their equivalent in Europe and how due to them various lobbies get promoted and all that results in political and economic crises like the 2008 financial meltdown and Brexit.
“The whole thing has been a catastrophe and it is like you are watching a bomb coming towards you in slow motion and the European federalists, the euro fanatics in Brussels and Berlin are watching this bomb coming towards them and they refuse to do anything about it. They know it is inevitable and it’s all going to break up but they are just grotesquely outside the reality of everyday life for everyone else and they keep denying that the bomb is coming,” the economist said, adding that “excess power, brings excess problems.”
The recent poll took into account 3,006 people from Germany, Italy and France who took part in the poll. When asked if the United States had succeeded as a global leader after the collapse of the Soviet Union, only 24% of Germans, 35% of French people and 42% of Italians gave a positive response. Some 10% of French and 7% of German and 7% of Italian respondents were uncertain about their answer.
