NATO War Machine Devours Europe

European countries are united under NATO, which has become a slaughtering organization in Afghanistan devouring foreign troops and Afghan civilians. Press TV interviews political analyst Richard Rozoff for his insights on the war in Afghanistan and how NATO is pulling in more European nations for its war effort.

Press TV: To discuss the NATO summit a bit further, we are being joined by political analyst, Richard Rozoff all the way from Chicago. Many thanks for joining us here on Press TV.

Now, the Pentagon spokesman described 2014 as an aspirational goal for the foreign forces to transfer security operations to the Afghans. Will we see the Afghan war become a template for NATO's new strategic concept?

Rozoff: I'm very glad you used the word template; that's precisely what it is. In a recent interview with Britain's Daily Telegraph, General Secretary of NATO Rasmussen either used or his words were characterized by exactly the term you used, "template."

That is far from a war now on its tenth year both for the United States and for NATO, and I noticed earlier the Chief of Defense of Great Britain, Richards was quoted as saying the war is unwinnable at this point against both the Taliban and against what is a very minuscule Al-Qaeda presence there. In those very same concepts of his comments, the quote of which was extracted on Press TV, he mentioned the possibility of the US and NATO being in Afghanistan for another thirty or forty years.

If one assumes that to be an accurate projection, and if we take the higher figure, we are talking about half a century, from 2001 with US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, but not only in Afghanistan but launching into other areas:

As Press TV details showed quite regularly, you know, deadly drone missile attacks and NATO helicopter gunship raids inside Pakistan have killed almost 2000 people at an amounting rate. Also of course the deployment of the US and NATO military forces in Central Asian countries like Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and it looks like very soon Kazakhstan.

So I believe it is precisely a prototype or model for the new strategic concept of NATO, which defines itself as being basically global and expeditionary. They have a rapid response force that can martial up to 25,000 troops, and deploy them for as long as six months, presumably in any part of the world.

Press TV: As NATO leaders look to include Russia, thinking getting it to join would build trust and open the way to widening permission to bring Afghan war supplies through Russia. How would it be possible to open on that front play into the war?

Rozoff: I think it's a grave mistake for the Russian political leadership to collaborate with or even conspire with the United States and NATO to build up. You know we mentioned some of the countries the United States and NATO have military bases in, which are former Soviet Republics in Central Asia.

Increasingly the US is putting pressure on Kazakhstan both for transit rights. I don't know if you're aware, but earlier this year President Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan met with President Obama in Washington, and they reached an arrangement by which the US military supplies and particularly lethal supplies can potentially be transferred over the North Pole and necessarily of course over Russia to fly over Kazakh airspace to Afghanistan. So Kazakhstan is of course a country that borders both Russia and China, and increasingly the United States is using the Afghan war to build up a military network not only throughout Asia but into the Middle East.

For example, how the United States and NATO allies have been holding annual military exercises in Mongolia, which is another country that borders both Russia and China. Mongolia earlier this year became what NATO calls an official troop contributing country. I don't know if your listeners are aware, but there are now officially 48 countries supplying troops for NATO's international security assistance force, for the war in Afghanistan and they are a good half a dozen others that half have not yet officially been acclaimed as such.

So you're talking about troops from over fifty countries fighting under NATO command, not only in one War Theater but in one nation. This is something that is historically unprecedented. You know what Russia gains from this is truthfully beyond me.

The head of their anti-drug department or commission a man named Ivanov. He has repeatedly stated there are somewhere in the neighborhood of one-million drug addicts in Russia and there are 30,000 deaths annually because of heroin processed from Afghan opium. This was a problem that didn't exist except on a very minor scale until the US and NATO invaded the country. It has now grown by some estimates by 30,000 percent. You know constituting over 90 percent of the world's heroin problem. How Russia benefits from collaborating with NATO and the Pentagon I have no idea.

Press TV: I would just like to ask this third question. Now, since the end of the Cold War, foreign security interests of the US and Europe are no longer in line. Now based on that what can one see for the preservation of this alliance?

Rozoff: I would take issue with that. I think that when NATO cracks its whip, every head of state in Europe listens. You noticed today for example that Obama had no difficulty at all getting unanimous approval from all 28 NATO member states, and 27 other member states for the US global missile shield component that's going to be placed in Europe.

Not only in Europe, but we know now with discussion about Turkey. We know about a US missile radar device which was set up in Israel two years ago in the Negev desert, which was the first stationing of long term troops in Israel initially. But it has a missile radar that goes 2600 miles which is to say it can comfortably take in most of Western Russian and a good deal of Southern Russia, as well as all major countries in the Middle East.

I don't see that European leaders are standing up to the United States in any important manner. I think as long as NATO continues to exist, no European country has an independent foreign policy. I think it's worth mentioning that at least thirty-eight European nations have contributed troops for NATO's war in Afghanistan. Those are not only the twenty-six NATO members in Europe, excluding Canada and the United States of course, but includes so called partnership for peace countries.

You know Finland and Sweden have hundreds of troops fighting in combat operations in Northern Afghanistan and this is the first time since World War II, and in Sweden's case for the first time in two centuries. Sweden has lost five soldiers in the fighting. Europe seems to be firmly united, as I put it in a recent article under the NATO flag, and on the killing fields of Afghanistan.

Press TV: We are going to have to leave it there. I'm afraid we have run out of time. That was Political Analyst, Richard Rozoff speaking to us from Chicago. Many thanks indeed for your insights here on Press TV.

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