The Art of War
EU, Schengen Area for NATO forces
Manlio Dinucci
The European Commission presented the Action Plan
on Military Mobility on 28 March. "By facilitating military mobility
within the EU, - explains the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica
Mogherini - we can be more effective in reacting when challenges arise".
Even if she does not say so, the reference to "Russian aggression" is
evident.
The Action Plan was actually decided not by the
EU, but by the Pentagon and NATO. In 2015, General Ben Hodges, commander of US
ground forces in Europe (US Army Europe), called for the establishment of a
"military Schengen Area" so that, to face "Russian
aggression", US forces could move quickly from one European country to
another, without being slowed down by national regulations and customs
procedures.
This request was embraced by NATO: the North
Atlantic Council, meeting on 8 November 2017 at the level of defense ministers,
officially requested the European Union to "implement national rules that
facilitate the military forces crossing borders and, at the same
time, to 'improve civil infrastructures so that they are adapted to military requirements'.
On February 15, 2018, the North Atlantic Council
at the level of defense ministers announced the establishment of a new NATO
Logistic Command to "improve the movement in Europe of troops and
essential equipment for defense".
Just over a month later, the European Union
presented the Action Plan on Military Mobility, which exactly meets the
requirements established by the Pentagon and NATO. It foresees "simplifying customs formalities for military operations and the transport
of dangerous goods in the military domain".
This is how the "military Schengen
Area" is prepared, with the difference that free-to-circulate are not
people but tanks.
Moving tanks and other military vehicles by road
and rail is not the same thing as driving ordinary vehicles and trains.
"The existing barriers to military mobility" must therefore be
removed by modifying "infrastructures not suitable for the weight or size
of military vehicles, in particular bridges and rails with insufficient load
capacity". For example, if a bridge is not able to hold the weight of a
column of tanks, it will have to be strengthened or rebuilt.
The European Commission "will identify the parts
of the trans-European transport network suitable for military transport,
including necessary upgrades of existing infrastructure". They must be carried out along tens of
thousands of kilometers of the road and rail network. This will require an enormous
expense for the member countries, with a "possible financial contribution
from the EU for such works".
However, we European citizens will always pay
these "great works", useless for civil uses, with consequent cuts to
social spending and investments in public utility projects.
In Italy, where funds for the reconstruction of
the earthquake zones are scarce, billions of euros will have to be spent to
rebuild infrastructures suitable for military mobility.
The 27 EU countries, 21 of which belong to NATO,
are now called to examine the Plan. Italy would therefore have the possibility
to reject it.
This, however, would mean for the next
government, to oppose not only the EU but NATO under US command, starting to
disengage from the strategy that, with the invention of the Russian threat,
prepares the war, this one very real, against Russia.
It would be a fundamental political decision for
our country but, given the subjection to the US, it remains in the realm of
political fiction.
Il manifesto, April 3rd, 2018
NO WAR NO NATO
/https://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/content/dam/thestar/news/canada/2021/09/25/huawei-executive-meng-wanzhou-receives-warm-welcome-upon-return-to-china/_1_meng_wanzhou_2.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.