Trump picks corporate war criminal 'Mad Dog' Mattis for Secretary of Defense [Archive]

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ckaihatsu

5th December 2016, 14:07

Trump picks corporate war criminal 'Mad Dog' Mattis for Secretary of Defense (http://fightbacknews.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=a29530af96a02fc55d345e735&id=9a4b2088b0&e=d323598fe4)

http://www.fightbacknews.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/article-lead-photo/matthiswdit.jpg

By Dave Schneider

Jacksonville, FL - On Dec. 1, president-elect Donald Trump announced that he plans to appoint retired Marine General James “Mad Dog” Mattis for Secretary of Defense. Trump made the announcement at a ‘victory rally’ in Cincinnati, Ohio, celebrating his election last month.

If confirmed by the Senate, Mattis will lead the Department of Defense, which is headquartered at the Pentagon in Washington D.C. Second only to the president, the secretary of defense commands the entire U.S. military and its operations.

Sharp aggression and enthusiasm for violent combat marks Mattis' 47-year military career. After leading an assault battalion during the 1991 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Mattis became head of the Marines under George W. Bush. He led the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and later the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which killed an estimated 1 million Iraqis and over 4000 U.S. soldiers.

During the 2004 siege of the Iraqi city of Fallujah - the bloodiest battle of the war on Iraq - Mattis received the nickname “Mad Dog” by troops and reporters for his relentless and unhinged style of war. The siege left an estimated 1500 Iraqis and 95 U.S. soldiers dead. Mattis boasted in a 2005 interview that "it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot" people in Afghanistan, adding that if Iraqis "fuck with me, I'll kill you all." Former soldiers serving under Mattis have also noted his enthusiasm for brutality.

Mattis encouraged a general tolerance of war crimes in the Marines, and he insulated killers from scrutiny or prosecution. In 2007, a group of U.S. Marines massacred 24 unarmed Iraqi women, men and children in the city of Haditha. The incident, which drew comparisons to the My Lai massacre by U.S. troops during the Vietnam War, promoted an investigation by military authorities. Mattis, head of the Marines' parent unit, cleared most of the accused soldiers and dismissed charges on several others. The only soldier to face consequences, Sergeant Frank Wuterich, received a small fine and no jail time after pleading guilty to a lesser charge of "dereliction of duty."

Picking Mattis signals Trump's intent to escalate military aggression towards Iran. During his tenure as head of Central Command from 2010 to 2013, Mattis pushed for the U.S. to take a more belligerent stance towards Iran. He proposed greater covert operations against the Iranian government and vocally opposed diplomatic efforts. When the Obama administration began negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program in 2013, they removed Mattis, an outspoken critic of the negotiations, from Central Command.

During his presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly called for overturning the Obama administration's nuclear deal with Iran, which received approval from all five members of the UN Security Council in 2015. While the billionaire real estate mogul occasionally spoke against U.S. military involvement in the Middle East, Trump's selection of Mattis for Defense Secretary shows where his actual priorities lie: moves toward war with Iran and more U.S. involvement in the region.

Like the rest of Trump's cabinet picks, Mattis also possesses deep ties to corporate America. Theranos, a giant biotech company worth an estimated $9 billion, picked up multimillion dollar contracts with the U.S. military under Mattis. They still face federal investigations into their questionable blood testing technology, which caused health problems in soldiers and produced wildly inaccurate results. Mattis joined their board of directors in 2013 after being relieved of his post at Central Command. Far from the populist rhetoric he used on the campaign trail, Trump's cabinet picks give the green light for the 1% to essentially raid the public treasury for their own profit.

Beyond the Senate appointment vote, Mattis faces another obstacle to taking the top spot at the Pentagon. U.S. law requires Defense Secretary appointees with prior military experience to spend a minimum of seven years as civilians. Mattis only retired from the military a little over three years ago, meaning the Senate must vote to exempt him from this legal requirement prior to confirmation.

Trump paid lip service to anti-war sentiment during the election because he knows how unpopular war is with most Americans. A Quinnipiac University poll from 2015 found that only 13% of people support military action against Iran, with 77% preferring diplomacy between the two countries. For years, a majority of people in the U.S. have opposed war with Iran and the disastrous occupation of Afghanistan. The vast majority of working people in the U.S. will suffer from another war in the Middle East and have no interest in the military aggression pushed by Trump and Mattis.

Anti-war activists and all people opposed to U.S. wars need to mobilize against Mattis. All of Trump's cabinet appointments thus far point to a far right-wing government for the 1% on the horizon. Now is the time for organizers, activists, revolutionaries and freedom fighters to mobilize against Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20 and his anti-people policies to come.

Read more News and Views from the Peoples Struggle at http://www.fightbacknews.org. You can write to us at [email protected]

ckaihatsu

23rd December 2016, 12:56

Congress, Obama: Don't Start an Arms Race in Space

Just Foreign Policy

Dear Chris,

Tell Obama and Congress not to start an arms race in space between the superpowers.

Take Action (http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=tdYQjUhDR9puNM%2B0slsS%2FFfAJB3%2Bhth%2F)

By removing the word "limited" from in front of the phrase "missile defense" in the National Defense Authorization Act [NDAA], Congress is laying the groundwork for a costly effort to field space-based weaponry, the Los Angeles Times reports (http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=Aqt9mFifNFUvDvYAIU%2BsE1fAJB3%2Bhth%2F). Experts say the changes could aggravate tensions with Russia and China and prompt a renewed nuclear arms race. The bill awaits action by President Obama, who has not said what he will do. Leading defense scientists say the idea that a space-based system could provide security against nuclear attack is fantasy.

Press President Obama and Congress to oppose a new arms race in space by signing our petition at MoveOn (http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=9n%2BXktuMA8hnkdrkNiP6DflG%2FoNvWHiF).

“It defies the laws of physics and is not based on science of any kind,” says David Montague, retired president of missile systems for Lockheed and co-chair of a National Academy of Sciences panel that studied missile defense technologies. “Even if we darken the sky with hundreds or thousands of satellites and interceptors, there’s no way to ensure against a dedicated attack. So it’s an opportunity to waste a prodigious amount of money (http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=sAdRmUBLAK66PJM0vIkxd%2FlG%2FoNvWHiF).” He calls the provisions passed by Congress “insanity, pure and simple.”

Philip Coyle, former assistant secretary of Defense who headed the Pentagon office responsible for testing and evaluating weapon systems, describes the notion of a space-based nuclear shield as a sham. “To do this would cost just gazillions and gazillions,” Coyle says. “The technology isn’t at hand - nor is the money…Both Russia and China will use it as an excuse to do something that they want to do.” [3]

Demand President Obama and Congress oppose a new arms race in space by signing and sharing our petition (http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=eq88c1ZguSviBXefub23PFfAJB3%2Bhth%2F).

Thanks for all you do to help make U.S. foreign policy more just,

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Just Foreign Policy

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ckaihatsu

31st December 2016, 14:11

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/12/31/nato-d31.html

NATO forces menace Russia

US Army, German Bundeswehr dispatch thousands of troops to Eastern Europe

By Johannes Stern

31 December 2016

A massive deployment of US and NATO troops to Poland and the Baltic states is underway. According to a December 30 statement by the German Bundeswehr (Armed Forces) Press and Information Centre, “As part of the NATO operation ‘Atlantic Resolve,’ three US transport ships are expected in Bremerhaven in the first week of January.”

The statement noted that in early November, “Soldiers of the 3rd Brigade of the 4th US Infantry Division began loading the ships with vehicles and containers.” Overall, “more than 2,500 pieces of cargo (trucks, combat vehicles, trailers, containers) [were] initially shipped to Germany and then transported to Poland and other countries in Central and Eastern Europe.” The materiel is to “arrive in the period January 6-8 by maritime transport in Bremerhaven, and will then be transported to Poland by rail and military convoys by approximately January 20.”

Earlier this month, the newspaper Kieler Nachrichten called the arms build-up “the greatest redeployment operation of the US Army to Germany since 1990.” More than 2,000 tanks, howitzers, jeeps and trucks are being deployed for NATO exercises in Eastern Europe that will continue for nine months.

According to statements by the US Army Europe, 4,000 additional troops and 2,000 tanks will “contribute to and strengthen the alliance’s deterrence and defense.” Colonel Todd Bertulis, deputy head of logistics of the Stuttgart-based US Command in Europe (EUCOM), said the operation will ensure that “the necessary combat power is brought to the right place in Europe at the right time.”

Lieutenant General Frederick “Ben” Hodges, commander of US forces in Europe, said, “Three years after the last American tanks left the continent, we need to get them back.” He made the statement during a visit to the Logistics School of the Bundeswehr in Lower Saxony Garlstedt. He told journalists that the measures were a “response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the illegal annexation of Crimea.”

Russia was preparing for war, the general claimed. All Russian ministries would, he declared, “prepare accordingly—mobilize, if you will.” He continued, “This does not mean that there necessarily has to be a war, none of this is inevitable, but Moscow is preparing for the possibility.”

This presentation turns reality on its head. The deployment of US combat troops is part of NATO preparations for war against Russia, the culmination of a continual eastward expansion of NATO since the dissolution of the Soviet Union 25 years ago.

In Ukraine, it is not Russia that is the aggressor, but the US and NATO. Washington and Berlin, in close collaboration with fascist forces, organised a coup against the pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, in early 2014, installing a rabidly anti-Russian, nationalist regime in Kiev. That move sparked a separatist rebellion by Russian-speaking regions in the country’s east, which Moscow has supported and the Kiev government, backed by Western arms and money, has sought, unsuccessfully, to violently suppress.

The events in Ukraine were seized on by the US, the European Union and NATO to impose economic and diplomatic sanctions and dramatically expand NATO military forces along Russia’s western border.

In advance of the January 20 inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, who has called for a ratcheting down of tensions with Russia in order to focus US aggression more directly on China, opposed forces within the US military-intelligence and political establishment are seeking to escalate the confrontation with Moscow.

This week, Republican Senator John McCain toured the Baltic States to assure them of the continued support of the United States. In an interview broadcast by Estonian radio, McCain called for a further build-up of NATO forces against Russia and declared that every “credible member” of the US Congress viewed Russian President Vladimir Putin “for what he is: a thug and a bully and a KGB agent.”

In the dangerous escalation against nuclear-armed Russia, which poses the danger of a third world war, the Bundeswehr is playing a central role. “Without the support of the [German] Army, we can go nowhere,” Lieutenant General Hodges said during an appearance at the Joint Support Service of the Bundeswehr.

Lieutenant General Peter Bohrer, deputy chief of the Joint Support Service, agreed. “In the past,” he said, “Germany was a frontline state. Today we are a transit zone, and one of our key tasks is to undertake common support… We are open to carrying out these tasks together with our American partners.”

After arriving in Germany, the American soldiers and their heavy equipment will be moved from Bremerhaven by rail through northern Germany to Eastern Europe. The Bundeswehr press office announced: “Some 900 cars with military materiel will be transported by train from Bremerhaven to Poland. There are also about 600 pieces of freight that will be transported by train to Poland from the military training ground at Bergen-Hohne. Nearly 40 vehicles will travel directly by road from Bremerhaven to Poland.”

Germany, which rolled over Eastern Europe in its war of extermination 75 years ago, is preparing to send combat troops to the Baltics. In January, 26 tanks, 100 other vehicles and 120 containers will be transported by train to Lithuania.

In an interview with the military newspaper Bundeswehr aktuell, General Volker Wieker confirmed that Germany had agreed with the United States, Canada and the UK at the NATO summit in Warsaw “to take the lead, with each establishing a battle group.” Germany will send the 122nd Infantry Battalion. He added that other supplies would follow, “so that we will achieve a so-called Full Operational Capability by mid-year.”

What is meant by “full operational capability” was underlined by a public Bundeswehr exercise in Grafenwöhr, where the German battalion prepared for deployment. According to a video report by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the manoeuvres involved “an enemy attack on the Lithuanian-Russian border.”

The future commander of the NATO Battle Group in Lithuania, Lieutenant-Colonel Christoph Huber, explained the “tactical purpose” of the manoeuvres as follows: “The comrades of the Second Company successfully carried out the battle here…winning time for their comrades and thereby destroying the enemy forces. This is high-intensity combat training.”

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ckaihatsu

12th January 2017, 14:10

SHARE: Military leaders agree Trump Administration must reject torture

Human Rights First - American Ideals. Universal Values.

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http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/sites/default/files/176-RMLs-letter-560px.jpg

Yesterday you called on the Senate to hold cabinet appointees accountable to rejecting torture during confirmation hearings. 176 of America’s most respected retired military leaders—including 33 four star generals and admirals—agree.

Share on Facebook (http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=guOmBInuapp2Efl7%2FDVbDS9TZx%2FVuU2g)

As the New York Times reports, they sent a letter urging President-elect Trump to disavow the use of torture and stand for American ideals. Their combined 6,000 years of expertise show that torture is not only against our values, but ineffective and counterproductive.

Spread the word on Facebook (http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=3qrKW1lmwBSgmERQnHzzyi9TZx%2FVuU2g) and Twitter (http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=LBwsKDtFSDmVThR%2Br%2FSR%2Fy9TZx%2FVuU2g) that Americans and our military leaders are united against torture.

Sincerely,

Raha Wala
Director, National Security Advocacy

--- Forwarded Message ---

From: Raha Wala, Human Rights First
Subject: Tell your Senator: Keep torture off the table in confirmation hearings

Dear Chris,

As the Senate begins confirmation hearings for key cabinet posts in the new administration this week, tell your senators to hold all appointees to a high standard. We must never return to torture.

Tell your Senator: Keep torture off the table in confirmation hearings.

Take Action (http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=B1N64LxVhb%2FGXDNdW3kqMS9TZx%2FVuU2g)

President-elect Trump made pro-torture statements on the campaign trail that threaten to unravel the absolute ban on cruel and inhumane treatment of detainees. What nominees say during the confirmation hearings will set the stage for national security policy in the new administration.

In each confirmation hearing, the Senate should hold appointees accountable to upholding the prohibition on torture and cruel treatment. Sign this petition (http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=qC0mfG5hV%2FyX%2F9ipRIE89y9TZx%2FVuU2g) to contact your senator. We’re not going back to the dark side.

Sincerely,

Raha Wala
Director, National Security Advocacy

On human rights, the United States must be a beacon. America is strongest when our policies and actions match our values.

Human Rights First - American Ideals. Universal Values.

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Human Rights First is an independent advocacy and action organization that challenges America to live up to its ideals. We believe American leadership is essential in the struggle for human rights so we press the U.S. government and private companies to respect human rights and the rule of law. When they don't, we step in to demand reform, accountability and justice. Around the world, we work where we can best harness American influence to secure core freedoms.

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TomLeftist

12th January 2017, 18:28

Hi, thanks for this great information. Very important. You know I love psychology a lot, because the behaviour of humans is more complicated than we think. If humans were rational, all poor people and even a sector of the middle class all over the world would only vote and support communist parties. Because if a person is poor under a country ruled by a capitalist party, where medical care is so expensive, that many poor people are banned from medical services, where electricity and other basic services are so expensive. Where even the right to sleep in a bedroom (and not in tent city and not in a parkling lot) is a luxury. Even eating has become a luxury. The normal rational common-sense thing to do is for poor people to welcome the ideas of marxism, communism, leftism.

But the behaviour of humans like i said is strange, it is irrational. For example I have a sister who is poor and who is married with a poor Republican Party fan. And I've shown her evidence-based videos from youtube.com about the coming of fascism with Donald Trump. About the destruction of medicare, medicaid, family first, food-stamps SNAP program, the destruction of public schools (to be replaced by the so called "Charter Schools" and "Home schooling). And the negative consequences they (my sister and her right-wing husband and their children) will face under a Donald Trump extreme neoliberal libertarian, pro-free market, anti-welfare services economic model. They have children and they are getting older as well (my sister and her husband), and they are not aware that both capitalist parties (Republicans and Democrats) are trying to destroy all the welfare programs, pensions etc. that elderly people need in order not to die. I showed them videos speeches by Michael Parenti, Chris Hedges, Carl Dix, even by Robert Deniro warning people about Donald Trump. etc.

But there is no way that I am able to change their political tastes. I remember a thought, an idea by a famous thinker (I don't remember if it was Voltaire) who said that humans have more faith on traditions than on things that will benefit them. So if even thought The Republican Party will turn the lives of poor americans into a hell on earth. Those same poor americans who voted for him, I think will keep supporting the republican party and even in the hell of pain and poverty that Donald Trump will create in these 4 years, I think it is worth to assume that the millions of poor voters who put him in the White House will even re-elect him in 2020.

People are not rational like most people think

Trump picks corporate war criminal 'Mad Dog' Mattis for Secretary of Defense (http://fightbacknews.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=a29530af96a02fc55d345e735&id=9a4b2088b0&e=d323598fe4)

http://www.fightbacknews.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/article-lead-photo/matthiswdit.jpg

By Dave Schneider

Jacksonville, FL - On Dec. 1, president-elect Donald Trump announced that he plans to appoint retired Marine General James “Mad Dog” Mattis for Secretary of Defense. Trump made the announcement at a ‘victory rally’ in Cincinnati, Ohio, celebrating his election last month.

If confirmed by the Senate, Mattis will lead the Department of Defense, which is headquartered at the Pentagon in Washington D.C. Second only to the president, the secretary of defense commands the entire U.S. military and its operations.

Sharp aggression and enthusiasm for violent combat marks Mattis' 47-year military career. After leading an assault battalion during the 1991 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Mattis became head of the Marines under George W. Bush. He led the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and later the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which killed an estimated 1 million Iraqis and over 4000 U.S. soldiers.

During the 2004 siege of the Iraqi city of Fallujah - the bloodiest battle of the war on Iraq - Mattis received the nickname “Mad Dog” by troops and reporters for his relentless and unhinged style of war. The siege left an estimated 1500 Iraqis and 95 U.S. soldiers dead. Mattis boasted in a 2005 interview that "it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot" people in Afghanistan, adding that if Iraqis "fuck with me, I'll kill you all." Former soldiers serving under Mattis have also noted his enthusiasm for brutality.

Mattis encouraged a general tolerance of war crimes in the Marines, and he insulated killers from scrutiny or prosecution. In 2007, a group of U.S. Marines massacred 24 unarmed Iraqi women, men and children in the city of Haditha. The incident, which drew comparisons to the My Lai massacre by U.S. troops during the Vietnam War, promoted an investigation by military authorities. Mattis, head of the Marines' parent unit, cleared most of the accused soldiers and dismissed charges on several others. The only soldier to face consequences, Sergeant Frank Wuterich, received a small fine and no jail time after pleading guilty to a lesser charge of "dereliction of duty."

Picking Mattis signals Trump's intent to escalate military aggression towards Iran. During his tenure as head of Central Command from 2010 to 2013, Mattis pushed for the U.S. to take a more belligerent stance towards Iran. He proposed greater covert operations against the Iranian government and vocally opposed diplomatic efforts. When the Obama administration began negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program in 2013, they removed Mattis, an outspoken critic of the negotiations, from Central Command.

During his presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly called for overturning the Obama administration's nuclear deal with Iran, which received approval from all five members of the UN Security Council in 2015. While the billionaire real estate mogul occasionally spoke against U.S. military involvement in the Middle East, Trump's selection of Mattis for Defense Secretary shows where his actual priorities lie: moves toward war with Iran and more U.S. involvement in the region.

Like the rest of Trump's cabinet picks, Mattis also possesses deep ties to corporate America. Theranos, a giant biotech company worth an estimated $9 billion, picked up multimillion dollar contracts with the U.S. military under Mattis. They still face federal investigations into their questionable blood testing technology, which caused health problems in soldiers and produced wildly inaccurate results. Mattis joined their board of directors in 2013 after being relieved of his post at Central Command. Far from the populist rhetoric he used on the campaign trail, Trump's cabinet picks give the green light for the 1% to essentially raid the public treasury for their own profit.

Beyond the Senate appointment vote, Mattis faces another obstacle to taking the top spot at the Pentagon. U.S. law requires Defense Secretary appointees with prior military experience to spend a minimum of seven years as civilians. Mattis only retired from the military a little over three years ago, meaning the Senate must vote to exempt him from this legal requirement prior to confirmation.

Trump paid lip service to anti-war sentiment during the election because he knows how unpopular war is with most Americans. A Quinnipiac University poll from 2015 found that only 13% of people support military action against Iran, with 77% preferring diplomacy between the two countries. For years, a majority of people in the U.S. have opposed war with Iran and the disastrous occupation of Afghanistan. The vast majority of working people in the U.S. will suffer from another war in the Middle East and have no interest in the military aggression pushed by Trump and Mattis.

Anti-war activists and all people opposed to U.S. wars need to mobilize against Mattis. All of Trump's cabinet appointments thus far point to a far right-wing government for the 1% on the horizon. Now is the time for organizers, activists, revolutionaries and freedom fighters to mobilize against Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20 and his anti-people policies to come.

Read more News and Views from the Peoples Struggle at http://www.fightbacknews.org. You can write to us at [email protected]

ckaihatsu

12th January 2017, 19:07

ckaihatsu

13th January 2017, 13:22

---

The bitter fight over the allegations of Russian “interference” in the US elections boils down to a dispute over foreign policy—whether or not to settle scores first with Russia, or to focus on a showdown with China. The media hysteria and the intervention of the intelligence apparatus and leading Republicans such as McCain to support these allegations amounts to an attempt to ensure that the Trump administration will intensify the Obama administration’s anti-Russia policy, which would have been the first order of business in a Hillary Clinton White House.

The performance of the Democrats, including its “left” faction led by Warren, demonstrates that there is no peace faction within the American ruling class. Whatever their transient differences over the immediate target, the turn toward war to pursue the interests of the American capitalist oligarchy is the consensus policy of both parties.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/01/13/matt-j13.html

ckaihatsu

17th January 2017, 14:48

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-germany-idUSKBN1500XW?il=0

Germany says NATO concerned about Trump 'obsolete' remark

WORLD NEWS | Mon Jan 16, 2017 | 12:04pm EST

Germany says NATO concerned about Trump 'obsolete' remark

By Tom Körkemeier and Andreas Rinke | BRUSSELS/BERLIN

Germany's Foreign Minister said on Monday that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's comments that NATO was obsolete had aroused concern across the 28-member alliance.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, speaking after a meeting with alliance Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels, said Trump's remarks contradicted views expressed by designated Defense Secretary James Mattis. He spoke also of "amazement".

"I've spoken today not only with EU foreign ministers but NATO foreign ministers as well and can report that the signals are that there's been no easing of tensions," Steinmeier told reporters when asked about Trump's interview with Bild newspaper and the Times of London.

"Obviously the comments from President-elect Trump, that he views NATO as obsolete, were viewed with anxiety," he said.

Trump, who is due to be sworn in as president on Friday, said NATO was obsolete because it had not defended against terrorist attacks.

He said also he had always had "great respect" for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, but criticized her 2015 decision to allow in a wave of a million migrants as a "catastrophic mistake" that opened the door to terrorist attacks.

RUSSIA AGREES

NATO has been seen since the 1950s as the keystone of western European defenses, extending its zone of activity in the post-Cold War period to the borders of Russia - much to Russia's chagrin. The alliance's founding treaty commits members to consider an attack on any one state as an attack on all.

A Kremlin spokesman said he agreed with Trump that NATO, characterized by Russian officials as a hostile remnant of the Cold War, was obsolete.

Germany's transatlantic coordinator, Juergen Hardt, told Reuters he did not expect Congress to allow Washington to give up its leadership role in NATO.

He said key U.S. lawmakers, including Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, had told him several weeks ago they expected Washington to remain a reliable partner in the 28-nation bloc, and he did not expect Trump to reverse the deployment of 4,000 U.S. troops to Poland.

ALSO IN WORLD NEWS

China will 'take off the gloves' if Trump continues on Taiwan, state media warns
Syrian rebels to attend Kazakhstan peace talks
Norbert Roettgen, head of Germany's foreign affairs committee, said Germany should fight to restore Western unity.

"Europe is not able to replace the security role of the United States so there is a lot at stake - the very foundations of liberal order internationally and European security. And for that we should fight because it is our very existential interest," Roettgen told Reuters.

Trump repeated criticism of NATO members that fail to meet spend at least 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense.

Germany is working to gradually boost its military spending, Defence Ministry spokesman Jens Flosdorff told a news conference. Merkel in November said she could not promise the NATO target would be met "in the near future."

(Reporting by Andreas Rinke; Writing by Andrea Shalal and Paul Carrel; Editing by Paul Carrel and Ralph Boulton)

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ckaihatsu

20th January 2017, 12:58

---

The project of European integration under capitalism is coming to an end, unleashing all of the political demons it was meant to have contained.

Nothing is left of the promise that closer political union and the Single Market would bring prosperity and peace. Instead, right-wing reaction and the growth of fascistic parties are taking place in every country. The European powers speak constantly of the need to militarise, even as NATO troops mass on Russia’s border, while austerity is the only issue on which they all agree.

The bourgeoisie has proved incapable of overcoming the fundamental contradiction between the integrated character of the global economy and the division of the world into antagonistic nation states based on private ownership of the means of production, which is once again driving them to a war for the redivision of the world.

The working class of Europe must proceed from an understanding that the post-war period, in which, since 1945, several generations have lived their lives, is over, and a new pre-war period has begun. It must assume responsibility for opposing the drive to austerity, militarism and war by all the imperialist powers.

Above all, it must seek the conscious unification of its struggles with those of workers in the United States and internationally. The explosion of working class opposition that Trump’s government of oligarchs and warmongers must inevitably provoke will provide the most powerful accelerant for the struggles of the European working class.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/01/19/pers-j19.html