By Alex Lantier
Since the failure last year of the Ukrainian army’s “counteroffensive” against Russia, NATO countries have relentlessly escalated their war with Russia in Ukraine, authorizing the Kiev regime to launch missile strikes on Russia and pledging to send their own troops to Ukraine. An interview with top NATO officials published yesterday in Britain’s Daily Telegraph, titled “NATO land corridors could rush US troops to front line in event of European war,” highlights that NATO plans to escalate the war from Ukraine across Europe.
Examining the Telegraph article puts paid to arguments that NATO’s escalation against Russia aims to defend Ukraine’s borders or European democracy. NATO is preparing a continental war, sending hundreds of thousands of troops for operations along Russia’s entire western border, from Finland to the Balkans. Even if the implementation of NATO’s plans did not immediately trigger nuclear war, which is a very real danger, it would plunge Europe into mass slaughter on a scale unseen since World War II.
Lt. General Alexander Sollfrank, of NATO’s Logistics Command, told the Telegraph NATO plans to take over Europe’s port and ground transport infrastructure, in order to send US troops arriving in Europe’s Atlantic ports across the continent to Russia. In these transport corridors, which NATO expects would face devastating air attacks, local laws would be suspended.
The Telegraph published a diagram of planned “transport corridors” across Europe. Initial NATO plans call for US troops to land in Rotterdam or Hamburg, in northwestern Europe. However, they can also arrive at the western Italian ports of Genoa or La Spezia; in Athens; in the Norwegian port of Bergen; or in Turkish ports. NATO military officers would take over key road and rail infrastructure to send US troops across Europe to the Russian border. The Telegraph wrote:
“NATO is developing multiple ‘land corridors’ to rush US troops and armour to the front lines in the event of a major European ground war with Russia. American soldiers would land at one of five ports and be channelled along pre-planned logistical routes to confront a possible attack by Moscow, officials told The Telegraph. … But arrangements are also being made behind the scenes to expand the routes to other ports to ensure the ground line of communications cannot be severed by Moscow’s forces.
“In these corridors, national militaries will not be restricted by local regulation,” the Telegraph added, “and will be free to transport consignments without normal restrictions.”
These plans for military rule and war are the outcome of Ukraine war planning that has gone on for at least a year, behind the backs of the people. The Telegraph noted: “Logistical routes have become a key priority since NATO leaders agreed to prepare 300,000 troops to be kept in a state of high readiness to defend the alliance at a summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, last year.”
Russia has thousands of high-precision ballistic missiles with nuclear or conventional warheads, and NATO expects its “land corridors” would be under relentless attack. “NATO only has 5 percent of the necessary air defences to cover its eastern flank,” the Telegraph stated. Indeed, Sollfrank told the Telegraph that the task of defending Europe’s major ports and transport hubs is all but hopeless.
“With regards to air defence, it’s always scarce. I cannot imagine a situation that you have enough air defence,” he said. “Observing and assessing the Russian war in Ukraine, we have observed Russia has attacked Ukraine’s logistics bases. That must lead to the conclusion that it is clear that huge logistics bases, as we know them from Afghanistan and Iraq, are no longer possible, because they will be attacked and destroyed very early on in a conflict situation.”
NATO therefore plans to disperse US troops across other, unidentified European ports, even before the main ports are destroyed. Given the likelihood that “NATO forces entering from the Netherlands are hit by Russian bombardment, or northern European ports are destroyed,” the Telegraph said, “arrangements are also being made behind the scenes to expand the routes to other ports to ensure the ground line of communications cannot be severed by Moscow’s forces.”
These lines in the Telegraph reveal the mood of criminal recklessness that is spreading over the entire political and media establishment in the NATO countries. The firebombing of Rotterdam by the Nazis and Hamburg by the British air force were horrific imperialist war crimes of World War II. Yet the Telegraph casually mentions these ports’ destruction, without asking the cost in lives, the catastrophic impact this would have on Europe’s economy—or, above all, what could be done to avert an escalation towards such an outcome.
But in response to the rapid fall of their global economic position, as well as explosive social anger at home, the NATO imperialist powers are pressing ahead. They are determined to inflict “strategic defeat” on Russia, force regime change in Moscow, and loot Russia’s vast reserves of oil, gas and other natural resources. Their support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, like their callous indifference to millions of preventable deaths of their own citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic, is a warning that they will not be deterred by the danger of catastrophic loss of life.
Indeed, NATO itself confirmed that it is preparing to act on the plans outlined in the Telegraph, while reporting on its massive, recently-concluded “Steadfast Defender” war game. A May 31 press release from NATO headquarters in Mons, Belgium stated:
“Steadfast Defender was the first large-scale NATO exercise series where new regional defence plans, adopted at the Vilnius Summit, were put into action. More than 90,000 forces, more than 50 ships, more than 80 aircraft flying hundreds of sorties, and more than 1100 combat vehicles from all 32 NATO Allies were involved in the exercise. …
Part one was a maritime-focused live exercise that involved various headquarters rehearsing the strategic deployment of forces from North America to continental Europe. Part two was a multi-domain demonstration of NATO, national and multinational military capabilities across continental Europe.
A further indication that both NATO and the Kremlin expect NATO’s Vilnius plans to be acted upon is the recent surge in Russian submarine activity in the Atlantic. Were US troops to be ferried across the Atlantic for war with Russia, Russian attack submarines could be tasked with launching long-range guided missile strikes to destroy US troop transports before they arrive in Europe.
In April, NATO Supreme Allied Commander for Europe General Christopher Cavoli testified about Russian submarine activity to the US Congress: “Their patrols into the Atlantic and throughout the Atlantic are at a high level most of the time, at a higher level than we’ve seen in years.” Since then, there have been numerous reports that a dozen Russian attack submarines are patrolling the Atlantic.
The principal danger today is that broad masses of workers and youth are not fully aware of the gravity of the danger, and the urgent necessity of building an international anti-war movement in the working class. The ICFI explained in its recent statement, “Stop the US-NATO escalation toward nuclear war! Unite the international working class against imperialist war and genocide!”:
“28. There is only one way that the spiral toward disaster can be avoided, and that is through the intervention of the working class to force an end to this war. This demand must be combined with a struggle to end Israel’s genocidal onslaught against Gaza. …
29. The working class must use its power to stop this war, which is plummeting toward disaster. The mobilization of this power requires overcoming the gap between the advanced stage of the global political crisis and the present level of mass political consciousness. This solving of this historic problem requires the development of a Marxist-Trotskyist leadership and the revolutionary renewal of the international workers’ movement on the basis of socialist policies.
5 June 2024
Source: countercurrents.org