Eric Zuesse
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
The country that blew up the Nord Stream pipelines that were to supply cheap Russian energy to Europe is now threatening Europe to become sanctioned by America unless they cut off all business with Russia that the U.S. Government tells them to cut off.
According to a report by Fortune magazine on April 7th, under the headline “America has a message for countries and companies still doing businesses with Russia: You’re with us or against us”:
Top sanctions officials from the U.S. Treasury Department plan special international trips this month to pressure firms and countries still doing business with Russia to cut off financial ties because of the war on Ukraine.
The message is that those working with Russia’s government must decide:
1. Continue to provide Moscow with material support or
2. Keep doing business with countries that represent 50 percent of the global economy.
Those are the choices to be laid out, senior Treasury officials told reporters on a call Friday. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the travel plans. …
This is war against Russia, and the U.S. Government is telling Europeans that to the extent they won’t be on America’s side in it, this will also be a war against them — a war against Europeans.
The U.S. Government is demanding: Send us more business, or go to hell!
They aren’t telling them to switch their business to Russia’s allies; if they would be doing that, such as by trading more with China, then U.S. sanctions will apply against China too, and so that business wouldn’t be able to last long. The U.S. Government is, though indirectly, saying: Send more of your business our way — or else!
America is demanding its NATO allies on the other side of the Atlantic: Choose which side you are on, ours or theirs. For example: buy more of our liquefied natural gas that we condense and containerize and ship across the Atlantic to you, or else suffer the consequences.
If it’s instead manufactured goods that are involved, then America is demanding: buy them from us and from countries that we approve (i.e., countries that are “us,” not “them”), or else we will cut you off and do to you what we (and Norway, which is the main beneficiary of having blown up the Nord Stream) did to Nord Stream: cut off your sources of supply, by force, that you won’t cut off on your own, ‘voluntarily’.
This is the new “Free World” of American vassal-nations, and if you aren’t now ‘with us’ and doing what we demand you to do, then you are supporting “authoritarian regimes,” and we are against those and will be at war with them, never at peace with them — and we won’t be at peace with you or with any other enemy.
So: You are either with us, or you are against us. Choose! And we will then know whether to sell you our weapons, or instead to use them against you.
We will not relax in support of The Free World. And neither will you. Or else!
This is the same America it has been, at least ever since U.S. President George W. Bush first announced to the world, on 16 February 2002, that “Either you’re with us, or you’re against us.” Being an ally of America now means being a slave to America. And anyone who’s not that, is America’s enemy. This is the basic message of today’s U.S. President, Joe Biden.
The Fortune article says:
Treasury officials Liz Rosenberg and Brian Nelson — specialists in sanctions and terrorist financing — will travel to Europe this month to meet with leaders of financial institutions in Switzerland, Italy and Germany. They plan to share intelligence on potential sanctions evaders and to warn of the potential penalties for failure to comply with international sanctions.
Rosenberg will also make a stop in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan to urge the country’s private businesses not to provide material or intelligence support to the Kremlin.
Kazakhstan has the longest border of any nation with Russia: 7,599 km = 4,721 mi. Unlike the existing NATO nations, which are to Russia’s west, it is to Russia’s south. China has the second-longest — 4,209 km = 2,615 miles — and the Biden Administration is now preparing to go to war against China too, and is increasingly putting pressure on Europe to trade less with that soon-to-be-officially designated “foreign adversary” of the United States.
It’s not enough to strangulate Russia from its west; they’re aiming to do this also from its south — and, soon, Europeans will be required to participate in that, too. America wants the entire world to strangulate Russia. And then to strangulate China, too.
So: the question for Europeans, now, is: Which side are you on? Are you against Russia (and, ultimately, China)? Or are you instead against America’s Government (which doesn’t represent the American people)?
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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s new book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
This stuff is already known, even before the NS bombing. But now they demand it openly.
This was to be expected: the only player of the “free” world that counts is the US, and its vassals serve only to save the US from getting its hands dirty (and suffering directly) while trying to maintain its hegemony. The vassals are the first to be hit by the (mostly economic) consequences of this–now not so covert–war that is now directed against Russia AND Western Europe.. Western Europe is starting to realize what a terrible mess they have gotten themselves into, and the falling of pro-US governments has started. In order to stop the hemorrhage, the US can’t avoid… Read more »
An excellent analysis.
RE: The sad thing is that all of this could have been avoided, but for the hubris of the US.
I could be a bit more specific (actually, a lot more) about the factors which brought us to this nightmare, but it would certainly hurt the feelings of some “very sensitive” souls.
Don’t worry about their feelings: say it — unless you can’t prove it by linking to solid evidence that it is true. (There is no point in anyone’s stating a ‘fact’ that that person fails to prove.)
PS: An example, or even any number of examples, doesn’t prove anything, because counter-examples might be able to be cited that are even more numerous. Proof, in science, is never a mere example.
Just an addition to vassals starting to back out:
Alexander Mercouris on The Duran (“Russia Holds 90% Bakhmut, Sweden Refutes ‘6 Guys in Boat’ Nord Stream Claim, Macron Accused of ‘Betraying US’ in China, Russian Inflation Unemployment Fall Output Rises”, starting from 31:31, talks about how Macron is perceived as betraying the US. Macron tries to play both sides, but the US has made it clear that you are either with us, or against us.” Procrastinators will be treated as enemies.
And, all the while, the US imports Russian crude.