Ep 4: NATO and the occupation of Europe

So I frequently say that if you have a US military base in your country, then you are under US occupation. And it doesn't even really matter what country Australia is under US occupation. So is the Philippines, so is Jordan, Kuwait, Kenya, you know, name one really. But then so is Europe. And I think people often confuse compliance for consent. Because even though our governments agree to have US military bases in our countries, that doesn't mean we have any say in the question, you know, we agree to it, but we don't consent to it. You know, if we ask these US military bases to leave voluntarily, I really, really doubt they would. And I think that this is one of the core reasons why true democracy is impossible in any country that has a US base. Like I genuinely believe nothing left of right wing centristism and neoliberalism would be allowed to exist in my country or any country that has a US military base in it. And these bases in our countries, they're here and they want us to think that they're our friends. I had a friend actually recount to me recently that she was watching on the news of some US ships pulled into Sydney harbor. And all these people were just on the shore waving at it and waving at these US sailors and huge, you know, destroyers and, I'm sure, sort of ships were the aircraft carriers who knows. But, you know, US military forces coming into our harbor and everyone's out in the streets waving to them. And for us, this is a really normal thing, right? We don't think much of it, but it's actually super weird. Like why are we here cheering a foreign military entering our country? Like go to any other point in history and show me an example of that happening. It is actually really weird, but it's so normalized for us. I don't think we see it anymore. And so these forces want to be viewed as being friendly. But I strongly suspect that if somehow, you know, we elected a serious left-wing government that rejected neoliberalism in our country, I think those US military bases would turn hostile very quickly. And we would see our own government get crude very quickly. And as I've pointed out in videos in the past, we've already seen that happen. That's exactly what happened to Goth Whitlam in 1975, for example. And it was actually that video, which some reason today is gone super viral even. It was like a month ago, but nonetheless, I watching that go viral today. So it prompted me to make this particular podcast. Because in that video, I say, oh, exactly my thesis here today, which is that if you have a US military base in your country, you know, you're under US occupation. And I pointed out that I view NATO as being the exact same dynamic. And so that's what we're going to be talking about today in this podcast. I'm doing a whole podcast talking about NATO. And I think the greatest example of US occupation that you can see anywhere in the world is a place that most people mistake for being genuinely democratic and free. And I would argue absolutely isn't. And that's Europe, not specifically Western Europe. But I firmly believe that they are under US occupation too. And today I'm going to lay out my case for why I believe that. But before we deep dive, I want to point out something about the modern world. Have you noticed that pretty much every country that has a US military base also has some form of centrist or right wing near liberal government? Despite the fact that no one anywhere is clamoring for this form of government, near liberalism has been a disaster since the 1980s. And yet this form of government, one that basically seeks to shrink government and governance and what they call red tape to basically give corporations unlimited power and free reign to run all parts of society. That's what near liberalism is in a nutshell. And it's everywhere. And no one likes this. This is not in anyone's actual interest except the interest of corporations. And none of the countries that have US military bases ever seem to have any diplomatic discussions with anyone without dropping the phrase free trade. And you know, this is the only thing countries would ever need to discuss. You know, we don't seem to have any diplomatic discussions about cultural exchange or talk of joint projects or development. We don't talk about creating long term peace initiatives. We don't talk about resource sharing or education cooperation, nothing like it's just free trade. Like that's the only thing in the world that matters. And it is important to point this out because free trade is something that doesn't benefit like 99% of the world's population. The only people that actually benefit from free trade, you know, trade without any form of regulations is corporations, specifically US corporations. And this is the only thing US occupied countries seem to ever want to talk about diplomatically. And I feel we should look at that at the very least as being something extremely suspicious. And in my opinion, the Sentinel Guardian of this near liberal hellscape is the Norfolk Atlantic Treaty Organization, more commonly known as NATO. And it took a lot of time, patience, and a whole lot of war to get us to this point. But how about we start this story at the beginning? And the story of NATO really begins. If you had to pinpoint an exact moment, I would say December 1941, which is when the United States enters World War II. And one of the things that US will first kind of do is say, "Well, we have this huge industrial base in the United States already. Let's start converting it to creating weapons, tanks, planes, guns, everything. And we're going to send all of this equipment to all of the other countries we're now allied with fighting Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and fascist Italy. And they'll actually have a nickname for this process where America starts to convert all of its civilian factories into military factories, and they call it the arsenal of democracy. And that's a great slogan, isn't it? And America will indeed start funding everyone. And it doesn't take very long before the United States basically takes over leadership of the Western Allies, which formally the United Kingdom was in charge of. But even the UK is doing really bad in the war by this point. By 1941, they had been fighting Nazi Germany and fascist Italy pretty much alone since the fall of France and before the Soviet Union joins. And the UK, they already looked done like they are struggling in this war. They're still recovering from the First World War and they are not doing well already. So the US comes in and there's lots of talks about this and conferences and everything where America basically comes in. And they're already eyeing off Imperial goals because they basically come into the UK and they go, "Okay, look, we're going to support you in this war, but we'll give you all the tanks, all the guns, everything you possibly need. But we're basically taken over the leadership and we're going to be the ones that are setting the tone and the diplomatic treaties and everything going forward. And the UK basically has no choice but to accept this." And then by, I guess a little bit before this in June 1941, 22nd of June 1941, the Germans launch Operation Barbarossa, which is when the whole Nazi alliance in Europe, which at this point is Germany, Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, if you have a little countries, but they all border the Soviet Union and they all cross the border at the same time, early in the morning of the 22nd of June 1941, and they kick off what is basically, "Well, no, what is the biggest war in human history? If you take out the Eastern Front of World War II, it's still the biggest war in human history, even without the rest of World War II." It's a huge war and by the end of it, it'll see nearly 20 million Russians be killed in this war fighting the Nazis. That's a very important stat to remember because it's going to come back a lot later on in this podcast. But over the next few years, so between 1941 and about 1944, everyone is struggling together to fight these Nazis. And America is funding everyone in the West and they're getting ready to invade and I'm using big airquets, liberate France, while what everyone thinks the Soviet Union is doing is struggling against the Nazis in the East. They have, of course, taken the brunt of this war. Everything the Americans and the British and Western allies will fight the Nazis in this war. They're always fighting the German B-Team because every true. All the quality troops and all the quality equipment of the Germans is in the Eastern Front fighting the Soviet Union, which again, this is the biggest war in human history, right, just the Eastern Front. And America already notices a dynamic happening at this point, which is they aren't really losing that many people. I mean, for the entire world, a war, including the war against Imperial Japan. America will only lose about 600,000 troops, but all of these US factories are making huge amounts of money. They are again selling these weapons to everyone who wants them, and this is the birth of the military industrial complex, because America realizes that war is huge money. And America is already thinking that they imagine that by the end of this war, they're going to be in charge of just about everything. The Soviet Union has been getting smashed for years, and they are very weak, or at least everyone thinks they're very weak. So America is already counting the money and planning the new world order for after this war. But then an event happens in 1941. It's an event that is massively downplayed in the West, by the way, but in my opinion, it's one of the most important things that has ever happened, and I'm amazed more people don't talk about it. On the 6th of June 1944, that's the famous Operation Overlord, D-Day landings in northern France, in Normandy when America, Canada and UK finally set foot back on mainland Europe after being kicked off since of all the France. Of course, they've been fighting in Italy this time as well, but they don't consider that to be the same thing as being your mainland France, mainland Europe. And this is, and still is, sproaked as being one of the biggest, most important moments of the war, but again, I like to point out that the Western Allies are still fighting the German B team, and because everyone, you know, all the quality troops are overfighting in the east. But nonetheless, the Western Allies think that this is the biggest thing that's going to happen in the war, the landing in Normandy. This is what seals the deal and finally starts the beginning of the end of the war against Nazi Germany. But later that month, 22 June 1944, exactly three years since the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union launched an operation of their own, and again, this is one that is completely downplayed in the west. It's called Operation Backration, and it is a massive, offensive by the Soviet Union against the German Army Group Center, and the attack is so big that no one can even see the full scope of it at first. It looks like, no one can make sense of it at first, it looks like the Russians are breaking through the German front line in a couple of small places as though it's this one big front that's moving forward. But once you zoom the map out and you can see what they're doing, like it's insane. They're actually having two massive breakthroughs, each of them several hundred kilometers wide, and their plan is to breach through this line and then meet up together and encircle an entire German army, more than a million German troops. And the reason this is so significant is there's already this widespread belief amongst the Western Allies that the Soviet Union was pretty much done by this point. The only reason they've been hanging on this long is because America's been sending them weapons. But this very moment, this is when the senior Western Allied command realize that they have been completely wrong about the Soviet Union this all time and they have become very, very strong. Not only are they not about to collapse, they're probably stronger than they've ever been, and this offensive dwarfs anything the Western Allies have been able to do up to this point, and it scares a shit out of them. In my opinion, I think this is the exact moment the Cold War begins because this is when the West starts to fear the Soviet Union because if they can do this against Nazi Germany, which at this point, many people still believe is the best arm in the world, and he is the Soviets just crushing them quickly and it's shocking to see. And Operation Begration will never really stop or slow down from this moment on. The Germans are in full fledged retreat and will be all the way to Berlin when the Soviets eventually take the city and in the war. And this is when we start seeing the new borders of the new world kind of set up because it everywhere in the east, Soviet armies are now resting and de facto control and everything in the West, basically near a split right in the middle of Germany, everything west of that is being controlled by the US owned armies. And this is the foundational borders that will set up the Cold War. In this exact moment, so this is like May, June 1945, this is a really crucial moment in history because these two forces are Soviet Union and the Western Allies up until this point have been allies. They've been friends. We've been fighting Nazi Germany together and now our true armies have literally met. They've started shaking hands. What now? Because the West is looking at the Soviet armies and at this point, the Soviet Union is not only the biggest army in the world because they've been fighting the best army in the world for the past three years and then beaten it, they have also become in turn the best army in the world. So not only are they the biggest, they're the best and they're biggest by multitudes as well. The Western Allies cannot create armies this size. They can't fund armies this size. The only reason the Soviet Union can do this is because of socialism and their planned economy. And this is a moment when both sides really get to decide what sort of future do they want. Do they want to de-escalate all of these tensions and find a way to peacefully coexist? It's worth noting that the Russians want this at this point. They're pretty vocal about it, which makes sense if you think about it. They've already got at least 20 million dead and most of this war was fought on their soil. They've been devastated by this war and they don't really have an appetite for going to war with the West, even though it is worth pointing out that a lot of people in the Soviet Union kind of see the Second World War as it is the moment when the proletariat revolution happens worldwide. Everyone rises up against the capitalist, overthrow these governments and we usher in the socialist worldwide utopia. A lot of people believe that. But you can say a lot of things about Joseph Stalin, but he has always been a pragmatist and even he is exhausted by the end of this war and he doesn't have much appetite for that at this moment. Meanwhile, the Western Allies are thinking, well, here it is, here is the proletariat revolution come to overthrow the capitalist pig dogs, which we are. And they're thinking we must reinforce our armies on this border because what if the Soviets do decide to overthrow us? One of the biggest proponents for this is Winston Churchill himself who's already out there advocating, we need to go to war with the Soviet Union right now. All of our armies already in the field, we're already fully mobilized, it's now on never let's go crush the Soviets. And there's an election in the UK and he's very quickly kicked out of office and cooler heads come into power. Nonetheless, the US is looking at this situation going, what are we going to do? And of course, they're hardcore capitals at this point and they turn and look at their military industrial complex that is now churning over weapons, it's still churning over weapons, even though the war is just end and they're still making lots of money from this. And a lot of people in the Western high command in America are thinking, what if we just don't turn it off? What if we just keep it going, keep this money flowing? And then bonus, we can now move a lot of our troops out of here and a lot of US servicemen home and we'll just start arming these Europeans to basically form a big border with the Soviet Union for us. This is an idea that very quickly gains legs and by 1949 the North Atlantic Treaty organization is formalized and it has 12 founding members. And it's worth noting that the 12 original members of NATO in April 1949, all of them already have massive US military bases in them. And those countries just because we're going to be keeping track of them as we go here. The first and founding members of course the United States, then you have Canada, United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Portugal, Italy, Denmark, Norway and Iceland. And again, all of these countries already have huge military bases in them as a result of World War II. And America will never return these bases. They still have them to this day. All of these countries will also see a big resurgence of right wing governments, especially in the form access countries. And this is when you start seeing the CIA come into the picture as well. Most notably at this point is what's happening in Italy. There will be an event called Operation Galadio in Italy which is the rehabilitation and often reinstatement of a lot of the fascist people in government and the supporting of fascist groups to basically go around and smash the socialist movement that has been growing in Italy even since Mussolini was in power. And when America comes to occupy Italy, one of the first things they want to do is smash out socialism entirely, even though a lot of the socialist councils and even a almost elected socialist government were all democratically brought about. These were basically the resistance groups against Mussolini and the fascist during World War II that people who actually fought on the US. side during World War II. As soon as the war is over, America turns around and smashes and murders these people so that they can install a right wing pro-US government. So the death of democracy in Italy doesn't come because of communism or socialism, it comes because of capitalism. We also see a similar dynamic happen in Norway where Vodgin quizzling will be the Nazi puppet in Norway during the Nazi occupation and his government is not entirely overgrown when World War II ends quizzling himself. But a lot of people who are in his government will still be there when the US comes and sets up its own bases in Norway. But even at this point, let's give the US the benefit of the doubt at this point and just say everything they're doing here, they're genuinely scared of communism. The Soviet Union is huge at this point and right on the doorstep of most of Europe. So they're going to reinstall some, well there's no real other way to say they're going to keep a lot of fascists in power because they're the most anti-communist people you can find and America wants that at this point. I suppose you can see that rationally, I can see why they would do that, but what you can't really defend is what happens next. Because the next country to join NATO, the 13th member will be Greece and it's worth pointing in fact is very important to point out that during World War II Greece had a big socialist movement of its own and it's very important to point out that this is a native socialist movement. The Greek people have been drifting to their own form of socialism for many years and a lot of the socialist freedom fighters in Greece again fought to kick the Italians and Germans out of Greece after they were occupied and these socialist mooms and freedom fighters rightly believed that they would be forming the government once they kick the fascist out of their country. This is not to be because between 1949 and 1952 the US and UK will basically send in death squads into Greece to suppress and murder all of these socialist movements and the former freedom fighters and you guessed it, install a super right wing government to take over Greece. And then Greece becomes the 13th member of NATO in February 1952. Also in February 1952, Turkey joins NATO and again this isn't necessarily because they want to do it, it's because the US decides that the extremely important strategic location of the boss for us or the Dardanelles as the British call it which is the little strip of water that goes between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea and is the only sea access Russia has in the southern half of its country other than that you have to go very far north into the North Sea and the Arctic Ocean or all the way you know thousands and thousands of kilometers to the east towards a Pacific but the only real ocean access Russia has in central Europe is by the Black Sea and the Mediterranean and the only way in or out of the Black Sea is through the boss for us slash Dardanelles. So American decides we would really like to control that little strip of land so let's go and once again install our own government into Turkey and they can join NATO. This also marks NATO's first but certainly not last entrance into the affairs of West Asia or again what the US new K called the Middle East and I think it's worth pointing out at this point the very different policies going on between the United States and the Soviet Union because while the United States is running around all of these countries, cooling governments and installing right wing governments and setting up US military bases and expanding NATO everywhere around the Soviet Union. What is the Soviet Union doing during all this? Well again it's important to point out that the Soviet Union has been turning inward and they have been busy at work dismantling and destroying fascism unlike in the West when the Soviet Union takes over East Germany one of the biggest priorities they have is the denounceification of the country and they will put all of the leaders they can find on trial and execute them or imprison them and then they start rolling out socialist policies. Places like Hungary and Romania and East Germany which have been devastated by the war see massive rebuilding programs basically using the planned economy and socialist systems. They will rebuild the education system they will start building huge amounts of prefabricated housing to make sure that they end homelessness. Again the literacy rate goes up, healthcare is improved. They do look to inward security and inward development during this same time and I do feel it's important to point that out because the way the West portrays the Cold War especially at this point is that it's like this race between two military sides trying to take over the world but if you look at what actually happens in that time that's not true. The US is busy running around setting up their little empirical forces everywhere. Also at this same time as we're knowing that they've already started doing all the right-wing coups in South America. The CIA is already going around South America assassinating left-wing leaders and installing pro-capitalist right-wing governments but let's not get too far ahead of the story because the next big thing that happens is the big one. In May 1955 West Germany is admitted into NATO and this is really a big game changer mainly because one of the first things the US and NATO does when Germany joins is they go and find all the former Nazis rehabilitate them and elevate them to senior NATO command. There will be a lot of former mid-ranking and low-level generals that were in the Fairmarked that will be installed into NATO command. Not to mention I kind of skipped over it too. That Operation Paperclip has already happened by this point as well which is immediately after World War II the US Army sweeps through Germany finding every single Nazi scientists and Nazi researcher and basically taking them over to America. They don't do any form of denightsification program whatsoever. They just basically give the US citizenship and send them straight to NASA. And again you don't see that in East Germany in East Germany under Soviet occupation. You see the denightsification process going hard. These Soviets are very very passionate about getting rid of Nazis and that's something that the West does not share at all. If you look at this from the Soviet point of view how could you not see that as being very very antagonistic. I mean the Soviets and the US were fighting the Nazis together under the general agreed belief that the Nazis are bad and the Soviet Union has followed through on its obligations but here's the US rehabilitating and reinstating the Nazis into command positions in Germany and in NATO. If I were in the Soviet Union and I saw that I would see that as being a very antagonistic move and definitely a sign of imperialistic intentions. Especially when you consider that the next few things that kind of happen over the next couple of decades all appear to be US imperialist wars. You get the Vietnam War in this period. You also get the wars and the crews in Afghanistan which I talked about last podcast. I'm not going to deep dive on that now but basically the US is out here funding any group that can overthrow socialism and install right wing governments worldwide. It doesn't even matter who they'll get on the side of America is straight up creating terrorist organizations this entire time. Not to mention you they've set up Israel by now. America if you're looking at it objectively or you're looking at it from the Soviet point of view America seems to be the really imperialist country that's hellbent on taking over the world but their propagandists is that the Soviets are doing that but if you look at the chronology of events you can really see that the Soviet Union is reacting to everything America does whereas you know America betrays it as them reacting to Soviet aggression but I think if you're looking at it objectively it really is the other way around America is the one being very aggressive in this period and the Soviet Union is the one that's reacting anyway apologies for the time jump and I'm trying to tell a coherent story here so the next part we're going to look at is the next NATO member to join which in 1982 is Spain and this one's really interesting because on the surface it looks like a break from the pattern we've been seeing so far because after the death of Francisco Franco the long term fascist dictator of Spain who took control of the country in 1939 after the Spanish Civil War and he was of course a fascist dictator you don't get much more right wing than that after the war Franco's popularity starts to plummet pretty consistently and there is a really strong growing socialist movement everywhere in Spain and when he finally dies and elections happen again in Spain they overwhelmingly voting a socialist government. And yet, almost immediately after that, they also join NATO. And this doesn't seem to fit the pattern. What's going on here? How could America go around smashing all of these left-wing governments everywhere? And then, what all of a sudden they're going to get into bed with one? Something doesn't quite add up here. And if you're suspicious of it, you're right to be. Because this isn't what it appears to be on the surface. Because Spain does indeed elect a left-wing government, but the amount of control they actually have over the country is very, very small. Because even though a left-wing government comes into power, it immediately starts to adopt all of the neoliberal policies that America is making everyone else. Everyone else joined. It also is forced to join the free treaty agreements in Europe that, of course, are run by the United States. So even though there is a left-wing government, at least on paper, can in control of Spain. If you look at all their actions, everything's still going the United States way, and they're still de facto in control of this country. So as far as America's concern, that's good enough. But even now, like we're going to fast-forward to 1992 now, which is the next really big moment of this story. Until now, I suppose let's still give the United States the benefit of the doubt that everything they're doing here is still in defense against Soviet aggression. Even though we don't really have much evidence of that happening, but nonetheless, let's give them the benefit of the doubt. They cannot defend what happens next because in 1992, the Soviet Union itself collapses. And it's worth talking about the collapse for a minute because I think a lot of people misunderstand what actually happened. And it's a combination of events that will happen in the years leading up to 1992 that will see the total collapse of the Soviet Union. The first is the overwhelming power of capitalist propaganda. It is absolutely everywhere. It is relentless. You think it's bad today? You should have seen it back then. But basically, every single country that is bordering one of the western controlled countries is being bombarded with propaganda, telling them how much better life is on the other side. Look at all the fancy cars. We have, look at all the fancy clothes we have. My god, isn't life just great here in the West? This works against the communist countries because, funnily enough, and it's going to take a moment to get you ahead around this one. But one of the reasons socialism fails in the East is because it works too well. And that sounds like a noxie moron, right? But let me explain it as simply as I can. But basically, because socialism has spent the last few decades taking care of everyone's basic needs. Like for example, everyone has a job. Everyone has an apartment or a home. Everyone has had free education. You have a whole bunch of well-fed, well-educated, very safely housed people that are all have specialist training. You got a ton of doctors. You have more doctors per capita in the East than anywhere in the West. Same with teachers, same with engineers, name one, right? You have all these really professional well-trained people that have all of their basic necessities and needs taken care of. And if you hit that point in your life, what do you start thinking about? That's a natural human reaction. How would you react to that situation? It's simple. You want more. And so you start seeing all this propaganda coming from the West going, well, I'm a well-qualified and very successful doctor. Why shouldn't I have a BMW or a Mercedes? I deserve all of this good consumerist stuff that's in the West. But what all the people in the Soviet Union don't understand yet is that there's a price that's paid for this consumerism. And the price is all of your basic necessities disappear. You are not guaranteed any of the rights that you have under socialism. But this isn't really fully comprehended. All people think in the West is like, we can have kind of both systems. We already have a functional socialist system, which they have completely taken for granted. Because again, this is several generations deep. This is just how life is right. You always have free education and free housing and you have a job secured and life is generally good. I just want the consumerism on top of that. What they don't realize is they have to trade it. They have to trade all of their necessities and needs in exchange for this consumerism. But the propaganda works because it doesn't talk about that. And when the Soviet Union starts to buckle and you see Perestroika come in. So they're beginning to kind of let some privatization into the Soviet Union. And when a little bit of it comes in, it starts smashing everything. And the private corporation spread like a virus through the East. You combine that with the US sponsored puppets in the East that are directly undermining all of the Soviet Union's power. Probably the biggest and most famous of these agitators is Boris Yeltsin, who will become the first president of Russia after the Soviet Union. He is a capitalist through and through and he will dismantle every bit of democracy that exists in the Soviet Union. Because again, we forget this too. There are local councils that basically run everything in the Soviet Union. There's actual practical democracy being used in all of the workplaces. And one of the first things Boris Yeltsin will do is destroy all of that. He will basically set himself up as a dictator and an oligarch. And he will just let the private corporations go nuts through all of Russia. And that's why the US is backing him because they don't really care about democracy or any of those things. They just care about the money. And Boris Yeltsin is basically saying, Hey, Western nations, I'll give you the keys to Russia. All you got to do is get me into a position of power. And of course they do. So all of this sort of stuff combined, not to mention, and I can't let the Soviet Union completely off the hook here. There is definitely widespread corruption throughout the Soviet Union at this point. Again, everyone has gotten complacent here since the end of the Second World War and a couple of generations into socialism. Life for the most part is good and everyone's letting their guard down. And the corruption seeps in and it seeps in quickly. And everything starts to fall apart. I think you can really point to the fact that socialism itself stays true to its principles even in the collapse. Because when all of these countries start to leave the Soviet Union and start to have their capitalist renazons, you don't see widespread violence start to spread out. You don't see the Soviet state sending the troops into the streets to start shooting people up and try and take control by force. Pretty much all of them help. All of them just let it happen because none of these socialist governments are willing to turn on their own people because that is the very core of their beliefs. Everything here is about the people and the people are going to reject socialism. Then socialism would rather let them do that then kill them to try and change their views. When Poland breaks away the first president of Poland will come out and brag that they managed overthrow communism without breaking a single window. And this is meant to be like a declaration of how much everyone hated socialism. But I look at it as the opposite. I think it's a testament to socialism and the fact that it would rather let everyone break away from it peacefully than it would rather murder its own people to try and hold on to power. And I think that speaks volumes about socialism personally. Anyway, it's also worth noting that when the collapse happened, a lot of the propaganda that was told about the Soviet Union was found out to be false. But of course this was never reported in the Western media. For example, we often hear a lot about the ghoulags, right? The dreaded ghoulags or everyone is sent if they don't go along with the socialist government. Well, have you noticed that there's no footage of the liberation of these ghoulags? There's no moment like they liberated the concentration camps from Nazi Germany where people throw open the gates and thousands of starved people walk out of these ghoulags to liberation. There's nothing like that. In fact, they don't find anything. There's no mask graves, which were taught were something that the Soviets would do to all of their dissenters. There's none of those. You're not seeing any neuroburg style trials after the war. All of these Soviet criminals have been oppressing all their people. Well, you would expect them to be to have huge trials after the fall of the Soviet Union, right? But none of them whatsoever happens. In fact, it's very remarkable that even weeks after the fall of the Soviet Union life just kind of goes on as normal for a while. Nothing really seems to have happened that these people are coming out of this detrimental system into a new world. Everyone adopts to it pretty quickly, which is a sign that things were not going that bad in the socialist countries at all. And that everything that people have been taught about it in the West was in fact a lie. Anyway, the direct period after the fall of the Soviet Union is a really fascinating period to me and everything I just mentioned then. But I feel we don't want to get too off track here. So we'll save all that for another episode. The point I'm really trying to make here is that NATO has now won the Cold War has won it definitively. They not only have they managed to make the Soviet Union collapse, they have installed an ultra capitalist leader under Boris Yeltsin in the very heart of Russia. This is total victory for capitalism. It is a total victory for NATO. From this point on, NATO no longer has any reason to exist and now it can be disbanded, right? Right? Well, not only does NATO not disband at this point, it starts to expand. And again, that is a very, very strange thing for a defensive alliance to do after it has won the war. Any logical view of this situation would tell you that NATO should be disbanding as its core mission has now been completed, so why the hell is NATO expanding? And at this point in the story, I am done giving the US the benefit of the doubt, and I feel that intuition is rightly vindicated by the next event to happen, which is now that the Soviet Union, the Soviet block, the Warsaw Pact has collapsed. Six years after that in 1998, a nova collapse is going to happen, which is the state of Yugoslavia. And when Yugoslavia starts to break up, and it starts to break up in two smaller countries known as the, you know, the Balkanization of Yugoslavia, that's where the term comes from, by the way, you start seeing all these countries break away, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, and so on. And this really isn't anyone's business, except for the people that live in the Balkans, but NATO sees an opportunity here to move in and set up some more bases and take control of the situation. They eye off an area known as Kosovo, and they decide that it should be its own breakaway state under NATO. Now this is, you know, historically it's kind of downplayed as not being that big of an event. And on the surface, it looks like it has good intentions too, because all of these Balkan countries, when they're breaking from each other, all of the old centuries long tension starts coming out, and they're all fighting each other for a rociously. And there are massacres, and there's ethnic cleansing, and there's genocide, and all the horrible things that come with that. So NATO is saying we're going to go move in as peacekeepers on the surface. Everyone's thinking, yeah, I mean, that's probably a good idea, right? But, you know, this is NATO, and there's obviously going to be an ulterior motive, and that's where Kosovo comes in. When they start identifying that we want to turn Kosovo into its own country, NATO has gone into Kosovo, into Serbia against the UN resolution. The UN has voted not to intervene in this conflict, but NATO has gone in any way. And this is made Russia very, very uneasy. So in order to mitigate the situation, Russia volunteers to go in as well. We'll send peacekeepers as well, and make this a more even multinational peacekeeping force. NATO really, really doesn't like this, and they instantly start standing off. And this is going to be the beginning of a lot of mistrust between the new Russian Federation and NATO. But, actually, because after this little fight that they have between each other, NATO will start to grow very, very quickly. In March 1999, so about a year after Kosovo, the Czech Republic will join NATO in the same month hungry will join NATO in the same month, Poland will join NATO. And that's the first former Warsaw Pact country to join NATO, and this sends huge alarm bells through Russia. Poland joining is a massive red flag for Russia, because now Russia shares a direct border with a NATO country. While NATO seems to be getting more aggressive and more expansionist and growing, and a lot of people in Russia, like the rest of us are wondering why, why is NATO growing? It still doesn't have an official reason to even exist, why is it growing, and why is there now a country that has a big long border with Russia itself joining an anti-Russia military alliance. And if that wasn't enough of a red flag for the world to see that NATO is, well, kind of being a bit aggressive here, surely the next event should open everyone's eyes, right? Because in 2001, America starts its war on terror. And despite the fact that you can't actually go to war with an abstract concept, America will still kill many, many people for this war. In fact, they will completely destabilize the Middle East, West Asia as it's properly known. They will kill millions of people and leave the place a shattered ruin and a husk. And well, what it still is today, but specifically Afghanistan in Iraq will be attacked, and it will be attacked under the control of NATO. Again, what is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization doing in West Asia? Why are they there? They are apparently to get rid of weapons of mass destruction, despite the fact that UN investigated those sites. And this is very well documented, by the way. The UN went and investigated and found nothing of the sort. So the UN doesn't sign off on these wars, but NATO goes in anyway. So NATO is the one acting like a rogue state. And I really feel it's important to point this out because one of the things that the West really likes to do is present itself as the law and order side. You know, it's the world police. It's the people on the right side of history. But they haven't been on the right side of history in a long time, and all this aggression and all this war that's going on around the world. It all goes back to the US and NATO. They seem to be the ones that are aggressively attacking everyone. And they're rational reasons for doing so. And line up with the propaganda they love to spread anyway. Again, if you're Russia looking at this situation, how would you interpret it? You've now got NATO attacking Afghanistan and Iraq. They're already talking about attacking Iran. And Afghanistan and Russia share very close borders. So he is NATO moving now to the southern borders of Russia and spreading wars there as well, while NATO is expanding on the East. You have to be a little bit worried at this point if you're Russia. And then NATO expands again in March 2004, Estonia joins NATO, Latvia joins NATO, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Romania join NATO. And now this is pretty much Russia's entire eastern border covered in NATO members and NATO. Again, still doesn't have any particular reason it exists other than being an anti-Russia military alliance. But if we're looking at their actions, what are they doing here? The US is occupying and controlling countries, forcing them into free trade agreements and to adopt right wing near liberal countries. This is the work of an empire. And that's what America's doing. It is spreading an empire anywhere and everywhere it can. It stretches now from Afghanistan all the way up to Estonia. Then by April 2009, four more countries will join NATO, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania and Croatia. If you're Russia at this point in 2009, you are getting very, very worried. This military alliance is now the biggest alliance the world has ever seen. It is strikingly powerful. It is clearly aggressive and expansionist. And if I were in the Russian government, I would be very worried too. And now we're approaching the modern era. And really, we all know where this story is going right. Eventually, we have to talk about Ukraine. Because if all you know about Ukraine is what you've been hearing in US corporate media and from US politicians and Western politicians in general, you definitely don't have the full picture. Let's go into this more specifically and look at the course of events that happen from 2013 all the way up to 2025. Because in November 2013, Ukraine votes into power. This is important. It votes in a pro-Russian government. They win the election and then they are immediately couped. There is a apparent revolution that breaks out in Ukraine. That government is deposed and a pro-NATO government is installed. Ukraine then immediately does what everyone else does. It adopts neoliberalism and supports Western military goals. Although it doesn't have a US military base in it yet, it's not a part of NATO. But this is clearly a step towards Ukraine joining NATO. This for Russia is a red line because Ukraine isn't just any country to Russia. It is a country it shares the biggest land border with. And it's also the gateway to the Black Sea. This is where the Crimea is, which Russia has always historically had its naval bases that, which it needs to get into the Black Sea and get into the Mediterranean. All the things we talked about back with Turkey. Now that Ukraine appears to be on the verge of joining NATO, this is when Russia finally strikes back. And in 2014, they launch war against Ukraine and Russia annexes the entire Crimea and area. And I think that Russia does this because it is quite clear by this point that the rules based order is already dead. NATO does whatever it wants, wherever it wants. And Russia finally strikes back. Of course the way it's portrayed to us is that Russia and its blind aggression is attacking a sovereign nation for no reason. But I think in order to believe that you have to ignore basically the last 50 years of here. history and this story and pretend that this is some event that's just started in 2014, which I hope I have clearly demonstrated is not the case. But the big problem with Russia's aggression here is it's now given NATO fuel all of these other countries are thinking, "Oh, maybe we are right to join the anti-Russia alliance. Look how aggressive they have been." And not long after this in June 2017, Montenegro will join NATO and then in 2020 and March 2020, North Macedonia will join NATO. And now you can see this dynamic is becoming really uncontrollable and it's one of the reasons we live in such a destabilized world today. What is NATO doing? What are they trying to achieve? I mean, it's obviously an imperialist goal. It's obvious to me anyway that that's what they're trying to do to take over these countries and control the trade for US corporate interests. But how can they be so short-sighted that they don't see that this is going to eventually lead to World War III? Or maybe they do see that and that's exactly what they want to happen. Remember, all the way back at the start of this story, this all began with the US military industrial complex in World War II and how much money it's making. And America hasn't really been at peace ever since there's always a war to be fought somewhere. There's always a war to keep going somewhere because America makes so much money selling weapons and basically benefiting from all of the contracts that endless war brings. So America doesn't really care how much war is created. It doesn't even care if it wins wars. America hasn't actually won a war since World War II. America just starts these really long protracted wars and then just abandons and when it gets over it like it did in Vietnam, like it did in Iraq and Afghanistan. For America its intention is just war itself because the war is where you make all your money. But this is a problem for everyone else in the world because that just means that we're all just pawns in this US empire here to make corporations money, either by fighting for US corporate interests or dying for them. So by the end of 2021, let's look at this from Russia's point of view. Almost their entire European border is now controlled by an anti-Russian military alliance. And the last time that happened to Russia, right before Nazi Germany and all of its allies invaded the Soviet Union then and kicked off the biggest war on human history that left at least 20 million Russians dead. If you're looking at this situation in 2021, you have to be having some deja vu, right? This is something that no other country on earth would possibly tolerate. Can you imagine something like this happened to America? Imagine if Mexico and Canada and all of Central America and everyone in the Caribbean all joined an anti-US military alliance and they started placing all of their tanks and armies along every single part of the US border. Do you think the US would tolerate that? Not a chance, right? But we're expected that Russia will. But to Russia's credit. And you may know some being a bit of a Russian apologist and a Russian defender here, I'm doing it because no one else really seems to win the West. And I actually know my history and I can see all the nefarious things that NATO is doing. I would like to point out however that I am not a supporter of Putin or the current Russian government. They are just as hyper capitalist as America is and I don't support Putin because I think he's just another capitalist just like Americans. However, I do support the Russian people who I think are really victims in a lot of this and have been for a very, very long time and it's not fair to them that they are constantly vilified for all of the actions of their government. And I think we would all want that same level of understanding if our own government was doing horrible things. And I'm speaking as an Australian and I know that my own government over the decades has done all sorts of horrible things, especially in East Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq. So who am I to point fingers at the Russian people and go, how does an American feel that fact as well? Anyway, I just wanted to make a quick note of that. So in the months before February 2022, Russia engages in several rounds of negotiations and conferences with NATO and America to try and de-escalate the situation that is building in Ukraine and Russia doesn't get enough credit for that because they straight up say what they want. They say, look, we can see that NATO is expanding but you cannot have US military bases in Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine have been frenemies for centuries and having an anti-Russian military alliance have bases all over a country that we have issues with domestically as well as sharing the biggest border with is absolutely not acceptable. We can negotiate on this point. We just cannot have NATO take over in Ukraine. This is something I'd like to point out that Russia and Ukraine are both advocating for at this point the country that is pushing back and saying no, Ukraine is free to do it at once. It can join NATO if it wants. We can have military bases in Ukraine if we want. The country saying that is United States and they're the ones really fanning the flames of the conflict that's about to break out and we should not ever let them off the hook for that. Anyway, so in February 2022, the Ukraine war breaks out and that pretty much brings us to the story we all know and love now. Not long after this in April 2023, Finland will join NATO and that's a big deal because Finland and Russia have long, long not like each other. Let's just put it that way. Also around this same time is when we see Israel begin the genocide of war against Palestine. It's when we see Israel attack, Syria, Lebanon and that is a US puppet and they're unleashing genocidal violence against all of their neighbours with America's backing. Again it's important to point out we have never seen Russia do anything like that. Also in 2024, Sweden will finally join NATO. This one is also a big deal because Sweden has had a policy of neutrality for over 200 years and even they get pressured into joining NATO despite the fact that again 200 years of neutrality that has been working out very, very well for Sweden. Finally, they are compelled and pushed into joining this military alliance and signing all the same agreements that everyone else has had to do that overwhelmingly favours US corporate interests. And I would like to point out that I am recording this particular podcast. The date today is the 18th of June 2025 and we are on the verge of going to war with Iran which again is being pushed by Israel and America. Not Russia I would like to really point out we keep wanting to paint Russia as this aggressive country but it's America that's going around and starting all of these wars everywhere. America's blood loss seems endless and I don't know how anyone can't see that the US is an empire. It is not a defensive organisation. NATO is not a defensive organisation. NATO is going to be dragged into this war with Iran if it truly breaks out and I don't know what more evidence I can bring forward that proves that NATO is not a defensive alliance and that Europe, even Europe is under occupation by the United States and I vote I'm sure many people will not agree with a lot of things I have said in this podcast. These are of course my points of views but I feel I have articulated them clearly and fairly so I'll leave it to you to decide whether I'm right or wrong but this is a situation as I see it. This is the triploy version of NATO history and I guess in conclusion I firmly believe that NATO is an occupying and imperial force not a defensive alliance. Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed this latest episode of the triploy podcast. I very much enjoy making these podcasts and would like to be doing this more full time. 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