When a Libya’s Muammar prophesied a new holocaust over refugees into Europe shortly before his demise, not so many listened. Today however, the echoing finality of his words remind of far off air raid sirens, the dull thud of the battlefield, and epic tragedies from days long past. Europe is in a mess, and so is the world. Today we must recall brutally executed leaders like Gaddafi. We must search diligently for truths we once looked over for expediency sake. To solve the refugee crisis, solving the ISIL problem is fundamental, and so is curtailing US hegemony.
Sputnik called me yesterday to ask my opinion about this current human tragedy. The questions the Sputnik reporter presented, they addressed the crux of Europe’s current and future dilemma over refugee flows. For those of us simply watching news, even the mal-informing western press tells of a situation spinning way out of control. Misunderstanding in countries across the EU, this will inextricably lead to fear and even loathing, and ultimately to more heated confrontations in between “local” governments, citizens, and nations. Now all Europe will be staggered beneath an unsupportable weight of poverty and hopelessness. This is bound to happen even though Germany and others justifiably reach out to help.
A key question from Sputnik’s Ekaterina Blinova galvanizes the causal truth of this exodus to Europe. “Was it not clear since the very beginning that the US’ Middle Eastern crusade would prompt desperate and destitute refugees to seek shelter in Europe?” The answer is clear for anyone who with an unbiased opinion. Certainly Washington knew Gaddafi was right when he said the “gates of hell” would be opened up after NATO’s operations.
Washington’s strategy of “containment” of Russia and China will no longer work. Weakened by the economic downturn, staggered under the weight of supporting US santions on Russia, and on fire because of bankers leveraging governments from Athens to Madrid and Rome, the EU is already on the brink of collapse. Still, the Obama administration plays every hand, ever card to “twist the arms” of former allies. Germany is ready to balk, as are Greece, France, Spain, Italy, and most other nation states in Europe. Faced with almost certain economic collapse and civil strife, what can Brussels finally do? Factor into all this the new China-led New Silk Road Economic Belt initiative, the moving away of the BRICS from the American and European sphere, and what’s revealed is a Europe-US catastrophe in the making. Either European states tell Washington NO, or they over tax their own people. This crisis is as simple as that.
European voices are already being raised against Washington and London hegemony. German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher has called for Russia and Europe to solve for X:
“Global and European challenges can only be solved by working together with Russia and certainly not against our major partner in Europe”.
The globalization spurred by the bankers in the west, it has set in motion synergies that cannot be reversed. The United States was once a beacon for progress and collaboration, but America today is ever more isolating herself in a cooperative world. This is abundantly clear for those with unshaded eyes. The net effect of bossing other nations around, of ongoing police actions around the globe, is a vehement suspicion, if not outright hatred of American power mechanisms. The truth is, without a major upwelling of citizen protest against Washington militarism, nothing about recent policies is going to change.
Reverting back to the refugee situation, I told Sputnik that any “terroristic” event on European soil now, could spell the end for formerly stable societies. We must admit, we have seen all this before. Hundreds of thousands pressing the borders of Hungary, Germany, and then France and others, it is a recipe for cataclysm. Here in Germany, the young people already speak of “those refugees” – as if the unfortunate ones already had the star of David painted on them. Five years ago I would have called my own words a form of conspiracy theoretic, but Arab Spring seemed inconceivable five years ago too. So too, the Donbass situation, the Gaza genocide, and Syria torn to bits and pieces were ridiculous eventualities only a short while back. With trillions on trillions wasted fighting useless wars, the United States of America is running amok, like a freight train destined for a wreck. The Sputnik piece brings into frame Oswald Spengler’s “Decline of the West”, and the utter decay of European civilization. For those unfamiliar, Spengler’s depiction in 1918 was of Western Man as a proud but tragic figure. In the epoch of humanity, the European-American strives and creates, but ultimately knows the original goals are unachievable. The end reality being, Russia and China cannot be subdued permantently, and neither can the other nations of the BRICS.
American or even British hegemony cannot exist forever, this is the inescapable fact of any empire. Human beings will strive, interact, emerge, or else utterly destroy the systems which constrain them. We do not have to get into a political philosophy lesson in order to understand what is going on though. Systems like those we have operated under, they simply must fade away. Here in Germany we see, essentially a socialist state pampering its citizenry as spoiled children. The same is true of the United States, only via rampant consumerism and hyper-capitalism. The chaos we see now, it’s all a last gasp to try and extend utterly unsustainable systems. Just look at the evidence, without bias, and you’ll quickly see the telltale signs of the multiple failure of these systems.
Returning to what Libya’s Gaddafi predicted, one has to wonder at where his crystal ball went to. Another quote is a spooky reminder, that we are all interdependent on one another. Our systems interdependent, like cells in complex organism. Gaddafi was quoted the following, should Tripoli fall; “The Mediterranean will become a sea of chaos.”
And now the chaos has spread to deep within Europe’s core. Unfortunately for the sad, homeless, and defenseless among these asylum seekers, fear of ISIL infiltrators in their midst will jade their quest for a new home. The perpetrators of Arab Spring, and of the chaos encircling Russia from outside, they’ve set in motion a real army of chaos. These poor people who’ve mostly lost homeland, they are mostly the unwitting and unpaid pawns of great men, men intent on the same Great Game of impeding Russia. The solution is far simpler than most make out though, we only need to repair their homes, to offer a sane and reasonable way of life. History will tell whether we did so or not, whether European civilization survived or ended.
Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe.