How US is Twisting Germany's Arm, Sacrificing Ukraine to Bleed Russia
16:12 GMT, 30 September 2022
The Pentagon is going to put a new US-led command in Wiesbaden, Germany, to streamline training and arms to Ukraine, according to the New York Times. Still, the new arrangement would not be in the best interests of Germany or Ukraine, international observers told Sputnik.
Sputnik"The plan to set up a new command center in Germany to arm Ukraine is by no means there to help Ukraine or to somehow prevent this disastrous conflict," explained Adriel Kasonta, a London-based foreign affairs analyst, founder of AK Consultancy and former chairman of the International Affairs Committee at the Bow Group, the oldest conservative think-tank in the UK.
"This is an attempt by the United States to prolong the conflict, or I would even say to perpetuate this conflict, because the best interests for Washington, DC, lie in splitting Germany from Russia and Russia from Europe, otherwise they would be a strong competitor for the US. We know that the United States doesn't tolerate competition," he said.
Even though the US has already spent billions on military equipment and training for Ukraine, US officials are pushing for more aid, claiming that the "threat from Russia to Ukraine and its neighbors will persist for many years,"
according to the NYT.
The newspaper revealed that 300 people would be dedicated to the mission, which will be located in Wiesbaden, Germany - the US Army’s headquarters in Europe. "Much of the training of Ukrainian soldiers on US weapons systems is already taking place there or nearby," the NYT revealed.
The new command would report to General Christopher Cavoli, the top American officer in Europe. The deployment would carry out instructions from the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a coalition of 40 countries that the Pentagon created after the beginning of the Russian special operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine. Earlier, on 28 September, the contact group gathered at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels to discuss how to increase production of arms and ammunition for Ukraine.
30 September 2022, 11:49 GMT
"The United States apparently has a feeling that Ukraine, using the advanced American weapons previously given it, has already achieved cardinal successes," said Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at the People's University of China. "However, finally to seize the initiative in the theater of operations, it is necessary to change the command model. To this end, the US wants to be directly in command, whereas previously it waged this war through its proxies. The US is obviously tempted to take what they think is a historic chance to bleed Russia dry and force it to retreat."
However, this does not mean that Ukraine could benefit in any way from Washington's grand design, Kasonta says. "This is not in the best interests of the Ukrainian people or Ukraine," he said. "Ukraine is being used as a scapegoat ... the United States is willing and it will prolong the conflict for years, for decades, if it's necessary."
30 September 2022, 12:28 GMT
Likewise, Germany has also been thrown under the bus by the US with the euro plummeting against the greenback and European manufacturers increasingly relocating to the United States as the energy crisis and recession bite. Nonetheless, Berlin continues to follow Washington's diktat to the detriment of its own economy and people, Kasonta reckons. The analyst described the recent sabotage attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines as "mafia-like signals" sent by Washington to Berlin to discourage the latter from thinking about mending fences with Russia.
"The United States wants to deprive Russia of the opportunity to influence European affairs and also to stop Europe from thinking about Russia," Wang echoed. "Before, many European countries thought that after bringing an end to the conflict in Ukraine,
it would be possible to launch Nord Stream 2 immediately, but now many US actions are simply aimed at threatening the European states. They have already been drawn into a military confrontation with Russia."
However, the US leadership is avoiding engaging in full-scale conflict against Russia, especially ahead of the November mid-terms. According to Kasonta, the American people have grown weary of overseas wars, inflation and crime being what worries average Americans most in the run-up to the forthcoming elections. "[Biden] can't risk putting American boots on the ground, but he's willing to sacrifice others and other people and use Ukrainian soldiers and fight until the last Ukrainian," the analyst said.
At the same time, however, there is no doubt that Russia "is fighting the entire West, the entire US-led NATO, including the United States" in Ukraine, according to Kasonta.
22 September 2022, 16:17 GMT
Global NATO: Germany & Japan as US Tools
The US' overhaul of some of its military structure is not limited to Europe, Wang says: the US has recently begun to transform its military alliances elsewhere, including in the Asia-Pacific region.
"[The US] stepped up intelligence exchanges under military treaties with Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand," says Wang. "The US constantly conducts military exercises with them, attracting other countries, such as Germany. In this way, the US is promoting the concept of NATO's globalization and wants to build a global security architecture subordinated to them."
NATO is shifting into the Asia-Pacific region with the UK, Germany and France starting to expand their influence there, including in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, as Chen Xiangmiao, expert of the China Institute of the South China Sea, told Sputnik on Wednesday. Thus, the British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, the German destroyer Bayern and the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle have already been deployed to the Asia-Pacific region.
Since Washington cannot take on Russia and China simultaneously on its own, it is eager to use its NATO allies and partners to do the job, according to Wang. To that end, the US is now turning Germany into an outpost of its confrontation with Russia. For its part, Germany is seeking to beef up its own military forces and get rid of the restrictions imposed on its military after its defeat in the Second World War, the Chinese expert noted. Japan is doing the same by amending its constitution to enhance its army, Wang highlights.
"The US is exerting pressure on Germany and Japan through a system of military alliances, while supporting them in every possible way by changing their post-war [military] structure. Thus, the US wants to put these countries on the frontline of confrontation with Russia."
The name of this game is "perpetual conflict" with Russia either to orchestrate regime change there or try to bankrupt the country, according to Kasonta. However, Russia has every chance to withstand the pressure whereas most European countries ceded their sovereignty to Washington, he concluded.