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A Glimpse of NATO HQ - Utenriksdepartementet UD
Here are some resources for preparation for understanding what is a stake at the NATO Summit in Chicago. They relate to the necessity for the US to review its 65-year old national security institutions, including NATO, that are rapidly driving a military-industrial crony capitalism and a national security state toward the end of democratic government in the US.
One of the first things to consider in the demilitarization of the American garrison society is proclaiming NATO a success, ending it, and ending the 67-year-old US occupation of Europe. It also means an end to the US military doctrine of forward deployment of military resources.
Editor’s Note: TarheelDem is travelling to the NATO conference in Chicago as an activist and citizen journalist. Thanks for this great resource guide! -Kit
Books
James Carroll, The House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power
Trevor Pagler, Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon’s Secret World
Chalmers Johnson, The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic
Wikipedia References
Note: Depending on the topic, YMMV.
List of countries by military expenditures
Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949
NATO Official Site
WE-NATO (NATO’s social media web page)
13 Comments
You and all your company of Patriots for America are the true heroes. The road is long and the path treacherous but still you proceed. Many thanks from one of the imprisoned peanut gallery.
Double that. It’s time to declare victory over the defunct Soviet Union and go home. Don’t know that this will do anything to undo the Amelrican Security State, though.
here is another good book The Pentagon’s Achilles Heel-U.S War Profitable but Unwinnable by Sara Flounders
Thanks for this, TD.
A bunch of Afghan-ignorant politicians are getting together in Chicago next month to determine the future of Afghanistan. It’ll be mostly Europeans deciding how long US troops ought to stay and die in the sinkhole of empires. You can’t make this stuff up.
USIP: “Peace in Afghanistan is more likely to be realized through a regional approach, in which the strategic and economic interests of Iran, as well as Pakistan, are not ignored.”
Regional approach? Of the fifty plus nations represented at the NATO confab, guess how many of Afghanistan’s neighbors will be there. Apparently none of Afghanistan’s six adjacent neighbors will be attending. In fact the only attendees from the Asian continent are listed to date on the host website: Bahrain, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Mongolia, South Korea and UAE (the most proximate). Pakistan, India, China, Russia, and Central Asian countries (Stans), all with vital interests in Afghanistan — nope.
If this “summit” follows the pattern of previous “summits” then the concluding agreements and statements are already being finalized and will be finished prior to the totally ceremonial dog-and-pony show in Chicago, Chicago–that toddlin’ town.
The agreements indeed will have been finalized before the two-day conference of heads-of-state. But the conference of heads-of-state will provide individual and collective schmooze time for them to wheel and deal on a variety of issues not necessarily related to NATO.
All of those regional countries with vital interests in Afghanistan have been meeting under the auspices of the Chinese and Russian-led Shanghai Cooperation Agreement. And those nations met in Istanbul in 2011 to deal with regional issues in Afghanistan. Which means that both Russia and Turkey were observers at those negotiations. And Russia will have a representative at the NATO Summit.
So the regional framework is in place and now the fig leaf Status of Forces Agreement is in place. All that remains is to bring the troops home. Oh, and have an internal political agreement among the factions in Afghanistan–something that NATO really cannot force.
And if you might have a few dollars with no place they need to be immediately, TarheelDem could use some financial help going to Chicago to make his point, which may be ours, too. ;o)
https://www.wepay.com/donations/tarheeldem-to-chicago-in-may
Thanks for this keeper of a post, Tarheel. And also wendy for the donation link again – just kicked in a few nickels.
God, nato is SUCH. fucking. BULLSHIT!
Thanks Tarheel.
Thanks much for the help.
May 12-13, 2012, Chicago, Peoples Summit
May 17-19, 2012, Chicago, IL, Voices for Creative Nonviolence events and reunion.
May 18-19, 2012, Chicago, IL, NATO-Free Future.
May 18 – 20, 2012, Chicago, IL, Challenge the NATO War Makers – Here’s Why.
May 18-20, 2012, Chicago, IL, National War Tax Resistance Gathering and Coordinating Committee Meeting
Friday, May 18: National Nurses United Rally, Daley Center Plaza.
May 19, 2012, David Swanson speaking in Chicago, IL, with Voices for Creative Nonviolence.
Sunday, May 20 (morning): Iraq Veterans Against the War Rally and March.
Sunday, May 20 (afternoon): Coalition Against NATO-G8 Poverty Agenda (CANG8) Rally and March, Downtown Chicago.
Except a strong contingent of protesters from the twin cities. There was a fundraiser last Saturday where money was raised to send people who are interested but couldn’t afford the 65$ bus trip to Chicago. Chicago, here we come !
Thanks for putting up the scheduled events, David.
More people, more families, more religious folks = more safety.