Where is Europe’s Duterte?

by AIDAN O'BRIEN

Dublin, Ireland. 

Europe doesn’t have a leg to stand on. It doesn’t even have a brain. It has reached the stage where it is more hopeless than the Third World. Indeed for lessons in survival it must look towards the Third World.

The irony is that in a globalised environment: Europe is provincialism personified. Or in other words, as the rest of the world becomes more independent and integrated: Europe becomes more dependent and decrepit.

Last week in Brussels (September 14) European Commission President, Jean Claude Juncker, delivered the 2016 State of the Union Address to the European Parliament. It was a fairytale of lies and omissions. So much so that we can only conclude that if the EU can’t grasp reality or intentionally hides reality then reality will dispense with the EU.

Juncker started by accepting the EU’s “existential” crisis. Then he proceeded to exemplify it in an intellectual display that would have embarrassed a ten year old. Not only was historical fact beyond Juncker’s understanding but so too was current affairs.

Juncker’s big lie was what he called the “the European way of life”. Apparently this is in great danger and he wants to protect, defend and preserve it. Europe according to the EU’s top dog is surrounded by enemies, terrorists and toxic refugees. The EU therefore has to be strong and united and ready to “shape international affairs”. It needs to be a “force” in the world.

And what exactly is this “European way of life” that needs so much care?According to Juncker it is summed up in the words “freedom, democracy and the rule of law. Values fought for…over the centuries.” As he sees it: “Being European means being open and trading with our neighbors, instead of going to war with them”. In Juncker’s words: “above all, Europe means peace”.

If Europe, for Juncker, is so peaceful it follows that “solidarity” is a key European strength. And the proof of this progressive and solid European bond? The European Commission President pointed to three examples of European togetherness worth celebrating. Firstly there are the EU sanctions against Russia. Secondly there is the common EU response to the refugees. And thirdly there is the common currency – the Euro.

In this junk view of Europe “unity” therefore means: war, racism and savage austerity. And as for “Europe” being another word for peace – only a lobotomised mind could agree. To borrow an idea from Gore Vidal – Jean Claude Juncker represents not Europe but the European Union of Amnesia. In the mind of the EU – West European imperialism (old and new) is invisible. And the thought that Russia, for example, might be legitimately responding to West European imperialism doesn’t occur. To paraphrase Harold Pinter: in Brussels West European history (old and new) never happened.

And why is the EU dodging the truth about itself? The answer is the USA. This was Juncker’s great omission. The EU’s greatest taboo subject is it’s dependency on the USA. And while Juncker alluded to it in the context of NATO – he avoided digging deeper. NATO implies that there is an alliance between the EU and the USA. In truth however there is no alliance but a command structure. The commander being the USA.

The fact is that in the EU the deep state is EUCOM – the United States European Command. The US military is not just an ally of the EU but is deeply embedded in the EU. So much so that no European sees it. While everyone knows about NATO – no one knows about EUCOM. And the grip it has on the EU (via the military and intelligence networks) is so firm that the EU really is just a US puppet.

Being a puppet the EU therefore has no mind in which to entertain history. It just echoes America’s geopolitical concerns and it’s accompanying ideology. And America’s main concern today is the Euro-Asian landmass and it’s desire to control it. Hence the EU’s suicidal pro-American policies in the East. The EU says it wants to protect and preserve Europe but it’s pro-American (anti-Russian and anti-Arab) policies are doing exactly the opposite. As a result Europe’s only enemies today are the EU and it’s handler: EUCOM.

Is there possibly a way out for Europe? While Jean Claude Juncker was misinforming Europe – on the other side of the planet, deep in the Third World, Philippine President, Rodrigo Duterte, was informing his nation – and at the same time was “liberating” it.

On September 13 in Manila Duterte said: “for as long as we stay with America, we will never have peace in that land [Mindanao]. We might as well give it up. So, those [American] special forces, they have to go. They have to go. In Mindanao, there are so many American [troops] there. They have to go. We will reorient our foreign policy.” Substitute Europe for Mindanao and there is a way out for Europe.

This Filipino lesson in independent thought was reiterated a few days later (September 15) when, in Washington D.C., the Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs – Perfecto Yasay – declared that the Filipinos: “cannot forever be the little brown brothers of America”.

It may be hard to believe but such forthright words cannot be imagined in contemporary Europe. Because implicit in Europe’s institutions and in particular in it’s foreign policy is the fact that America’s new “little brown brothers” are European. We can only aspire to be Filipinos.

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Aidan O’Brien is a hospital worker in Dublin, Ireland.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/09/23/where-is-europes-duterte/