NATO, Take Note: Trends Are Not Inevitable | EIRNS

by Jason Ross (EIRNS) — The world is changing rapidly. What would happen if Western nations joined suit? Credit: Google Earth.

What would happen if Western nations, including the countries of Anglo-American NATO, were to join, rather than oppose, the new paradigm unfolding across the world?

The hostility to Russia, China, and really any form of independence or growth outside of Western control, is driving Western countries toward ruinous policies of war and economic mayhem, and it is catalyzing the formation of alternative systems for financial transactions, for political consultations, and even cultural approaches.

For example, Russian Finance Minister Siluanov told Izvestia that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is in the process of setting up a new bank for development, and that Chinese and Russian economists will be meeting this fall to discuss how to create loan facilities and financial transaction clearinghouses that bypass the Western-controlled institutions that have been used to degrade Russia’s access to the global economy. “We need to have our own independent payment infrastructure,” he explained.

“We see that the existing banks—the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the BRICS New Development Bank—are funded and lend in foreign currencies of non-participating countries. That’s why I say: if we create a new financial institution, let’s make it independent of Western currencies as well, so that you can freely lend to whatever and to whomever you want.”

Efforts by President Trump to compel India to stop availing itself of inexpensive Russian oil have failed to sway the country with the world’s largest population. In fact, the Russian Foreign Ministry recently praised the state of bilateral relations with India.

Trump also made a statement that can be read either as pushing for European countries to sanction Russia and tariff China, or mocking Europeans who demand that the fighting in Ukraine continue, while relying on U.S. military support to make that happen.

Regarding Israel’s destruction of human life and the means for life in Gaza, it should be noted that an increasing number of universities and departments are ending their cooperation with Israeli counterparts. Demands are coming from Israelis as well. Noted Israeli conductor Ilan Volkov, at the conclusion of a concert in London, spoke directly to the audience, asking them to take whatever action they could to stop Israel from continuing its immoral policy.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress continues its nutty activity, with one piece of legislation that would prohibit Pentagon contractors from boycotting Israel and another that would allow the Secretary of State to refuse to issue, or even to revoke U.S. passports of people supporting terrorism (read: opposing Israeli killing).

And the U.S. military seems intent on starting a war in South America, with its latest action to provoke Venezuela into taking action that would be used to justify a large-scale U.S. “response.” The reportedly Russian drones that entered Poland are similar—they are compared to the Gulf of Tonkin incident by a Swiss military expert.

One can’t have high expectations for improvement in Trump in the near future. He is soon to head to the U.K. for a state visit, and the “royals” are ready to overwhelm him with pomp and rope him into a stronger commitment to the so-called “special relationship” between the two countries.

Expanding military action, demands for further sanctions and tariffs, the continuing financialization of their economies—this is not a real future for the “West.”

Instead, it were wise to look to such elevated expressions of human dignity as Pope Paul VI’s speech to the UN sixty years ago. He called for support for “the great principle that relationships between nations must be regulated by reason, justice, law and negotiation, and not by force, violence, war, nor indeed by fear and deceit.”

Expressing a view of an abundant future, the Pope said the task of nations is “to act that there will be enough bread at the table of mankind.”

As the UN General Assembly meets in Manhattan, with a special emphasis on Palestine next week, the question arises: who will stand up, not only against evil, but for a paradigm of economic and social relations commensurate with the dignity of the human individual?