Rutte to 32 NATO countries: ‘Forget the commons….wildly boost military spending to prepare for war with Russia’

 

Rutte to 32 NATO countries: ‘Forget the commons….wildly boost military spending to prepare for war with Russia’

 

 

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is quickly becoming a major threat to human progress in Europe, Canada and the US.

 

 

The former Netherlands Prime Minister is demanding the 32 NATO countries goose their overall military spending, currently at 2.7% of GDP, to an astonishing 5%. Even proposed US defense budget for fiscal ’26 of $962 billion would swell to $1.45 trillion to reach 5%.

 

 

While most NATO countries are suffering economically, cutting sorely needed social services, Rutte wants more, more, more military spending.  

 

 

Why? Rutte, a fawning supporter of President Trump, Is echoing Trump’s dream of the 5% NATO goal. Rutte, however, is even more delusional than the Donald, arguing 5% is needed so NATO can be prepared for war with Russia within 5 years.

 

 

Only NATO member Spain pushed back against Rutte’s deranged demand to cut the commons to further enrich the weapon makers and further empower unbridled militarists. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, proudly embraced his dead last finish in NATO defense spending of 1.2% of GDP. Echoing George H.W .Bush, Sanchez essentially told Rutte ‘5% wouldn’t be prudent.’

 

 

Rutte’s 5% goal will simply further NATO nations’ economic decline. It will further empower right wing European political movements gaining traction with populations disgusted with reduced societal needs to promote senseless militarism. The cowed European governments buckling under Rutte’s hysteria may rue the day they embraced his 5% solution to an imaginary military threat.

Why Israel caved quickly without achieving any of 3 war goals

 Why Israel caved quickly without achieving any of 3 war goals

While Israel inflicted significant death and destruction on Iran in its 2 week bombing campaign, it achieved nary a war objective.

Tho likely severely damaged, It didn’t eliminate Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. It didn’t topple the hated Iranian regime. It didn’t demolish Iran as a powerful hegemonic rival to Israel in the Middle East.

Then why did Israel fold its missile launchers, ground its planes and agree to a ceasefire without a whimper?

Simple. Israel took an unprecedented pounding from Iranian missiles it could not shoot down. Indeed, it was running out of defensive interceptors because it took multiple such missiles to shoot down a single incoming missile. Israel’s modern air defenses still allowed 10 to 15% of incoming missiles strike Israel.

While little info of substantial Israeli damage emerges from heavily censored Israeli media, the impact on Israel was significant.

Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich estimates the war may inflict a $12 billion hit on the Israeli economy. The economy virtually shut down during the war with non-essential schools and businesses shuttered. The Weizmann Institute of science, a main Israeli research facility and its largest refinery in Haifa were both badly damaged.

Israel may have more offensive and defensive firepower than Iran. But it quickly realized it had no ability to stop the bleeding which could have become catastrophic if its interceptors become depleted.

The one-off US attack did not achieve any of the three Israeli goals. Only all out US war to obliterate Iran can do the job which Trump appears unwilling to initiate even for his Israeli puppet masters.

We can hope that the quickly agreed upon ceasefire will hold. It could of course collapse, especially if Israel becomes self-destructive from its humiliation of not achieving a single war objective. Israel has a history of breaking ceasefires, most notably their blowing up the March ceasefire in Gaza so they could continue their genocidal ethnic cleansing of Palestinians there.

But breaking the Iran war ceasefire likely a bridge too far compared to the defenseless Palestinians Israel slaughters daily at their pleasure.

Hopefully, the missiles that rained down on Israel in their failed 2 week war may motivate Israel to pivot to peace instead of resuming unwinnable war to destroy Iran.

Its lawmakers establishing religion contrary to the 246 year Constitutional prohibition that are missing a moral code.

 Its lawmakers establishing religion contrary to the 246 year Constitutional prohibition that are missing a moral code.

Joanna Summa’s Chicago Tribune letter ‘Moral code is missing,’ defending Texas Governor Gregg Abbott’s expected signing of law allowing display of Ten Commandments in public schools, is confused about whose moral code is missing.

Summa posits the cause of murders such as the Luigi Mangione killing of a health care company executive rests upon the absence of a cultural moral code. And what better way to establish that code than by posting Christianity’s Ten Commandments in every Texas public school classroom. In Summa’s view, had Mangione been exposed to the Big Ten in his childhood classroom, he may have passed on killing an innocent over personal health care grievances.

Summa appears unaware that 45 years ago the US Supreme Court struck down a Kentucky Ten Commandments law because it violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution declaring “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion.” Summa further justifies her support by stating that Christianity’s Ten Commandments lines up with the teachings of Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism. Wow. Let’s not establish one religion in a country whose Constitution outlaws it. Let’s establish them all.

Now armed with a super conservative 6-3 Supreme Court majority, 14 other states besides Texas are considering Ten Commandments laws. Conservative lawmakers in these states are the folks lacking a moral code. One whose moral code is still intact is Republican Montana state senator Jason Ellsworth who argued against stating “So, if we put the Ten Commandments up, which are Christian commandments, then we’re actually violating the plain language of our Constitution in our First Amendment.” Seven other Montana Republicans joined every Democrat in the Montana Senate to defeat the measure.

Time for a civics refresher course for Summa and all those state lawmakers trying to demolish one of the most sacred pillars of our constitutional democracy.

Israeli, US bombing of Iran a failure of epic proportions

 Israeli, US bombing of Iran a failure of epic proportions

The illegal, criminal bombings on Iran which killed over 800 and wounded over 2,500 have failed spectacularly.

While still going on, there are indications from the Trump administration a ceasefire may soon be possible.

What has 11 days of bombings accomplished?

It has not destroyed Iran’s nuclear facilities or its enriched uranium. It has not achieved regime change in Iran. It has not shattered Iran into failed state status. It has likely rallied Iran’s[Ma1] population to coalesce around besieged Iranian leadership.

It has brought retaliation bombings to Israel killing dozens and wounding hundreds, the largest such attacks in its 77 year existence.

It has likely motivated Iran to repair and rebuild its nuclear capabilities outside of oversight of nuclear inspectors. Iran may decide to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) designed to give signatories the inalienable right to civilian nuclear development. When they observe how Israel and the US cavalierly bomb non-nuclear weapons states, Iran may decide they have no choice but to join the nuclear club. Since Iran was not developing nuclear weapons, the Israeli, US misadventure may speed up the very thing they claimed urgency in preventing.

Possibly the worst bombing campaign failure was to obliterate US credibility as a responsible diplomatic partner. By using the duplicity of negotiating an end to the imagined nuclear crisis to enable Israel’ sneak attack, US now ranks dead last of all 194 other countries to negotiate anything of consequence. Check that, the US can still negotiate with Israel which has complete trust in US backing of their ongoing genocide in Gaza and lust to topple Iran as their only hegemonic rival in the Middle East.

The US has made of shambles of international law. It has substituted its Orwellian ‘Rules Based Order’ allowing it to wage regime change, including outright war, on any targeted state at the point of a smart bomb fired by dumb, international war criminals.

But no matter how badly deranged US policy turns out, the current CICW (Commander in Criminal War) will call it “a spectacular success.”

Katz misunderstands the real existential fight occurring in Israel and its performance in its unprovoked attack on Iran

 Katz misunderstands the real existential fight occurring in Israel and its performance in its unprovoked attack on Iran

In his Chicago Tribune op-ed, ‘Israel’s war against Iran is just’ Steven Katz’s begins “Israel is waging an existential fight for its survival as a Jewish state. And it is winning and fighting well.”

While Israel is waging an existential fight for its survival as a Jewish state, it’s not from Iran. Iran never was, is not now and won’t in the future be an existential threat to Israel. It has neither the will nor the means to do that.

Israeli leadership under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his even more extreme cabinet are doing that quite well without any help from Iran or any of its other neighbors. Netanyahu’s genocidal campaign of ethnically cleansing all 2,300,000 Palestinians in Gaza has made Israel a pariah state being shunned by much of the world.

Tourism is down 90%, inflicting a $3.4 billion drop in tourism revenue. Over 550,000 Israelis have left Israel since the genocide began October 8, 2023, a day after the Hamas attack. Israel’s economy has been battered. Bank of Israel estimates war costs since October, 2023 will amount to $55.6 billion costing Israel 10% of its economy. Israeli GDP dropped to 2% since the Gaza genocide from 6.5% before. Consumer spending declined 27%, imports dropped 42% and exports fell 18%.

Instead of ending the bleeding in Gaza and the Israeli economy, Netanyahu launched another murderous misadventure sure to make all these demographic and economic declines worse. The existential threat to Israel lies not in Tehran but in the Israeli Prime Minister’s office

Regarding Katz’s take on Israel’s war performance, it’s neither winning nor fighting well. Israel cannot destroy Iran’s nuclear capability by itself nor topple the Iranian regime. Only massive US military involvement can possibly do that and with no certainty of success.

Israel knows this which is why it has goaded the US to attack Iran for decades, beginning with their cheering on America’s illegal, immoral, criminal war on Iraq 22 years ago. That war was designed then to end up toppling the Iranian regime in Tehran. Instead it backfired and didn’t.

Israel’s sneak attack enabled by duplicitous US diplomacy to lull Iran into complacency, has caused retaliatory strikes never before experienced in Israel’s 77 year existence. And they will get worse as Israel runs out of weapons to shoot down incoming missiles.

Steven Katz certainly knows all of this. But in the service of US and Israeli exceptionalism promoting world/regional dominance, he turns a blind eye. The Tribune’s readership deserves better.