NATO’s Continuing Collapse: The Helsinki Combined Arms Fashion Show
Finland is Being Left Out In the Cold
In July 2022, with great fanfare, Jen Stoltenberg announced Sweden’s application into NATO. ‘This is a good day for Finland and Sweden and a good day for NATO,’ Stoltenberg told reporters in a joint press statement with the Swedish and Finnish foreign ministers.
It is now February of 2023 and Finland is still out in the cold.
This should not be surprising, though. The position of Secretary General, is nothing more than a glorified arms broker with no command authority.
Here is the real problem, Finland and Sweden have stated their intention to break with their historical neutrality. And as we know, Türkiye is blocking the Finnish and Swedish ascension into NATO.
But why?
Very simply, Erdoğan is getting Russian gas at a discount and they are also getting transit fees from TurkStream. The Turkish oligarchy (at the top) is skimming (off the top) and selling the gas at (market rate)
What does the United States offer? Sanctions and threats.
And guess what? No one can pay the bills with that.
Unfortunately for Finland, they share a border with Russia and now in the eyes of Moscow, they have forfeited their neutrality along with Sweden. Not only do these countries (all of a sudden) find themselves on the primary target lists for nuclear strikes. These Nordic countries now find themselves assuming all the risks of nuclear war without Article 5 protection―to boot. Many analysts are of the opinion that the United States would protect Finland and Sweden anyway. But why would they?
The United States now has two more countries for Russia to shoot at for free. And what’s even worse, NATO has no obligation to protect them. Or the enemies for free policy. Technically speaking, Finland can fight the Russians to the last Fin― just as Ukraine fought the Russians to the last Ukrainian. And knowing what I know about NATO, Jens will not lose one ounce of sleep over the matter.
It seems that the teenage Finnish PM is ready for war though. In this photo, she is wearing a black leather jacket with 3O8 NATO linked rounds as a decorative belt. I guess if your a Russian general looking at this photo― it would seem her nation is metaphorically ready to go to war. And (that) is the wrong signal!
But, aside from the Social Democratic fashion show in Helsinki. The reality that this prime minister has condemned her country too is far more existential. Not only does she not have an agreement with NATO to defend her country. Finland now has to contend with a hostile Russia at their frontier, once more.
A country that has mobilized 1.5 million men and is producing 35 T-90s a day. To put this into perspective, at the Lima army tank plant in Ohio, where the M1 Abrams is produced. They are manufacturing just two Abrams tanks a month– always keeping in mind, these tanks are manufactured nowhere else in the world.
Not only has the United States fallen behind in the production of armor and artillery but it will be impossible to meet the demands of a European Battlefield. Adding to this, American military recruitment goals are in crisis. In FY22 the Army fell short of its 60,000 recruitment goal by 15,000 soldiers.
In a survey taken by the Department of Defense. Only 9% of adults that are between 18–25 years of age even want to serve. And out of this demographic, only 22% are qualified to a basic standard.
In other words, both Finland and Sweden have hitched their wagons to the wrong horse. Not only will they bear the brunt of the imbalanced security agreement — that does not even exist. Finland and Sweden have given up their neutrality and now face a revitalized Russia that does not look at war as a Social Democratic fashion show.
And the biggest irony of all, all that Finland had to do to stop all of this was― nothing.
―Chris
Do you remember when Scholz went to Saudi Arabia, and held secret talks with Russia? The US blew up Nord Stream the next day, sending a clear message to all of them.
While European “allies” are doing their best to publicly show unity, behind the scenes it is another matter. Unfortunately, we don’t get to see a lot of it. Only with events such as the recent bickering over sending tanks to Ukraine have we seen the underlying disorder creep into public view.
We see many seemingly odd behaviors, inconsistencies, things that have no clear explanation, unless we know what is happening behind the curtains of power. For example, Turkey is buying/dealing gas from Russia, holding up Finland and Sweden’s entry to NATO, drafting a peace agreement with Assad, accusing US-backed Kurds of recent terrorist attacks in Turkey, and even threatening to attack US military installations in the Aegean Sea…while at the same time the US is about to send a fresh shipment of F-16s to Turkey (although a few in congress are protesting)…seems a bit strange (GD’s powerful influence? Something else?).
We heard about Orban’s government sending weapons to Ukraine, and trying to hide the fact from his public because he wants to keep up appearances as an iconoclastic Putin-friendly NATO rebel.
We’ve heard about Putin refusing to take phone calls from Macron…what did he want to talk about?
This is just the tip of the iceberg. There is SO MUCH going on that we don’t see. We cannot rely on public appearances and statements to get at the truth. If we could look behind the curtains, we would see something very different. Based on the glimpses we have, it looks as if NATO is in total disarray, the opposite of public appearances.
An important question is: who are they trying to fool? Chris, if you and I and your other readers can readily see the gaping holes in the façade, then it obviously will not fool Putin, either. They’re not putting on this act for him. The only plausible answer is that they’re putting up a smokescreen to deceive a credulous public…in order to prevent/deflect criticism and grassroots opposition to their machinations, because in the west this is the only force capable of stopping them. We already see them making moves to criminalize alternative narratives, to label opposition as an enemy. Until this is over, it will only grow.
So…keep up the good work! Telling the truth is obviously a threat to the neocons, otherwise they wouldn’t put so much effort into lying to the public. We know this is their weak spot, so we need to keep pressing.