Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

NATO’s Largesse: “Nuclear Sharing”
Ann Garrison, BAR contributor
28 Nov 2018
NATO’s Largesse: “Nuclear Sharing”
NATO’s Largesse: “Nuclear Sharing”

The new Cold War is escalating, fueled by Washington’s bid to isolate or strangle Russia.

“We are being conned by the Pentagon and the military industrial complex.”

On November 10, a 5,290-ton Norwegian warship sank into one of the country’s inner fiords after colliding with a 62,557-ton tanker carrying almost 100 million liters of oil. CNNreported, “Now all that remains above the waterline is the frigate's top, antennas and radar, leading local media to speculate how a ship designed for war failed to avoid a slow-moving, 62,557-ton tanker.”

Good question, and it will cost Norwegians an estimated $100 million to recover and repair its warship, but that’s minor compared to the damage that could be done by more military mistakes within its borders. In 1949, Norway joined NATO, and NATO nations have since enjoyed its “nuclear sharing” largesse, by which member nations without nuclear weapons of their own participate in nuclear force planning, train their armed forces to use nuclear weapons, and store nuclear weapons in their territories. United States Air Force (USAF) personnel guard the nuclear weapons “shared” with NATO nations. The codes for deploying and firing them also remain under US control.

In October 2016, Norway voted against a UN nuclear disarmament resolution, saying that it “will not support proposals that would weaken NATO’s role as a defense alliance.” A month later, a Russian official warned that Norway, which shares a border with Russia, had become a nuclear target due to the deployment of 330 US Marines in its territory.

Exercise Trident Juncture prepares for Russian invasion of Scandinavia

Norway’s ill-fated frigate sank at the end of the war-games phase of Trident Juncture, NATO’s massive military exercise on Russia’s Scandinavian and Arctic borders. The first phase of Trident Juncture was deployment, from August to October. The second phase, war games, lasted from October 25 to November 7, and was based on the premise that Russia had invaded Scandinavia by ground, by air, and by sea. The third phase was a command post exercise to rehearse control of a real military operation from within Norway and Italy. The exercise included 50,000 participants from 31 NATO and partner countries, 250 aircraft, 65 naval vessels, and up to 10,000 tanks and other ground vehicles. Its “modular combined petroleum unit” provided 25,000 gallons of jet fuel and 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel.

“We are in the New Cold War, and each time these exercises will grow larger.”

In his most recent podcast with Russian History professor Stephen F. Cohen, New York City radio host John Batchelor said, “Five or six years ago, this would have been science fiction. Nobody would have accepted this was possible, but it is entirely logical. This is the escalatory cycle of Cold War thinking. We are in the New Cold War, and each time these exercises will grow larger. The thinking in the original Cold War was that the scale of the exercise was a way of intimidating and in some fashion backing off the enemy. So the Russians conducted most recently a Vostok exercise in easternmost Siberia with the scenario of an invasion of Korea by an unnamed foe, meaning the United States. Now that was an exercise combining Chinese troops and Russian troops to fight this unnamed foe. Now the American troops and 30 other countries conduct an exercise to fend off an unnamed foe named Russia. These are very serious people. These exercises are not minor. The planning that goes into this and the money that's spent means that both sides are preparing for conflict, or as Steve says, war with Russia. One more detail: within these last days, the Commission on National Defense Strategy organized by Congress, choosing senior officers retired from all militaries, Republican and Democrat, came together to issue a report to the Pentagon to say that, as of right now, the US military is not prepared to fight straight up with Russia.”

“Both sides are preparing for conflict.”

Curious report, given that the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute ranks Russia’s military budget as the fourth greatest in the world, after those of the US, China, and Saudi Arabia, and one-tenth the size of the US military budget. Are we being conned by the Pentagon and the military industrial complex? Hell yes, and that’s among the greatest understatements of the 20th and 21st centuries. Weapons manufacturers who profited from Trident Juncture and all the rest of the US-financed NATO operations are no doubt laughing all the way to the bank, while Russia remains determined not to bankrupt its people in an arms race with the US, as the Soviet Union did.

“It’s ridiculous for the US to imagine that it could isolate Russia.”

Stephen F. Cohen, author of the new book “War with Russia,” said that Russia is the most resource-rich nation on earth, and that the attempt to isolate it with sanctions and vilification has failed. Instead, Russia’s global diplomatic status has increased, and it has become more economically self-sufficient because it was compelled to develop agricultural and industrial import substitutions in response to sanctions. As George Szamuely, Senior Research Fellow at the Global Policy Institute, says, “It’s ridiculous for the US to imagine that it could isolate Russia. It’s not Iraq.” Indeed. It’s a major world power, a nuclear power, and a permanent member of the UN Security Council with veto power. And it continues to build alliances with other powerful nations, most importantly China and Iran.

The US is by contrast an empire declining beneath the weight of its grotesque military budgets and wars, even if it’s not sinking as fast as Norway’s frigate in NATO’s latest war games. Question is, will its handlers take the rest of the world down with it, either by accident or on purpose?

Ann Garrison is an independent journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2014, she received the Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and Peace Prize for her reporting on conflict in the African Great Lakes region. She can be reached at [email protected]

COMMENTS?

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

Or, you can comment by emailing us at [email protected]

U.S. Imperialism

Trending

Elizabeth Warren Wants Green Bombs, not a Green New Deal
Parallels Between Black and Palestinian Struggles
Cory Booker Hates Public Schools
Bill Cosby Should Have Been Denounced by Black America Long Ago
The Black Wall Around Barack Obama: Who Does It Protect Him Against?
How Complacency, Complicity of Black Misleadership Class Led to Supreme Court Evisceration of the Voting Rights Act

Related Stories

Freedom Rider: Capitol Riot Brings U.S. Foreign Policy Home
Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
Freedom Rider: Capitol Riot Brings U.S. Foreign Policy Home
13 January 2021
There needs to be soul searching and truth telling about invasions, interventions, coups and sanctions that are far more destructive than the Trump
White Rightwing Chickens Roost Violently at Capitol
BAP Coordinating Committee
White Rightwing Chickens Roost Violently at Capitol
13 January 2021
The Democrat-aligned oligarchy will try to use last week’s racist violence as an excuse to impose a corporate brand of fascism.
Coup d’état or Insurrection – What’s Good for the Goose… 
Dr.Wilmer J. Leon, III
Coup d’état or Insurrection – What’s Good for the Goose… 
13 January 2021
Under what authority does the American government have the right to instigate and execute coup’s against democratically elected governments in othe
The “Non-Aligned” Nations Realign
Wilmer J. Leon III
The “Non-Aligned” Nations Realign
14 October 2020
The formerly colonized peoples of the planet say No to US bullying, sanctions and regime change.
The Stalinist Trial of Julian Assange
John Pilger
The Stalinist Trial of Julian Assange
09 September 2020
The collusion of powers wants to bury Julian alive in their war on the very principle of freedom of speech and freedom of thought, and democracy.
No to the New Cold war with China
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
No to the New Cold war with China
29 July 2020
The African radical, anti-imperialist, internationalist movement, sees the Chinese state and the Chinese people much differently than the U.S.
Building Power to Win is the Revolutionary Approach to Bourgeois Electoralism”
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
Building Power to Win is the Revolutionary Approach to Bourgeois Electoralism”
17 June 2020
We must make clear that it is imperialism that degrades and destroys the earth, makes water a commodity, food a luxury, education an impossibility,
Update on Charges Against the Venezuela Embassy Protectors
Ajamu Baraka and Bahman Azad
Update on Charges Against the Venezuela Embassy Protectors
17 June 2020
It was agreed that dropping the federal charges and seeking no jail time in return for pleading to a very low-level DC Code charge was an important
Trump vs. Biden: The China-Hating Contest Is On Like Donkey Kong
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
Trump vs. Biden: The China-Hating Contest Is On Like Donkey Kong
20 May 2020
Trump and Biden promise their fans a roaring hate-fest this election cycle, as they vie for the honor of defending America’s right to full spectrum
Fighting the Invisible Enemy: Imperial Fascism 2020, Not Covid-19
Lauren Smith
Fighting the Invisible Enemy: Imperial Fascism 2020, Not Covid-19
06 May 2020
What could possibly be a more effective way to seal borders, discourage protest, and position the United States into perfect alignment for WWIII?

More Stories


  • Trump as Othello in a Corporate Theater
    Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
    Trump as Othello in a Corporate Theater
    21 Jan 2021
    Trump the straw man has finally been knocked down, giving the Democrats a victory that costs their corporate masters nothing.
  • The Left Lens: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and American Empire, with Ajamu Baraka
    Danny Haiphong and Margaret Kimberley
    The Left Lens: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and American Empire, with Ajamu Baraka
    20 Jan 2021
    Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday is often celebrated without any regard for his radical political legacy.
  • Freedom Rider: Why the Left Don’t Protest
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Why the Left Don’t Protest
    20 Jan 2021
    The worse the political and economic crisis becomes, the more lethargic the US left behaves – as if generations of collaboration with corporate Democrats has sucked the life out of the left.
  • Return to the Source: Democracy is Dead
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    Return to the Source: Democracy is Dead
    20 Jan 2021
    By what stretch of the imagination can the US be a democracy when ordinary citizens have virtually no influence over what their government does? 
  • Uganda: Bobi Wine Rocks the Vote but Museveni Claims Victory
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Uganda: Bobi Wine Rocks the Vote but Museveni Claims Victory
    20 Jan 2021
    Ugandan pop star turned presidential candidate Bobi Wine is not Sankara or Lumumba, but he has risked his life to mount a fierce challenge to the 36-year dictatorship of President Yoweri Museveni.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us