NATO expansion + olive green + pork

Dear Reader,

• There is an impression in Germany, held by a minority, but by no means rare, that the US is responsible for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In its most crude form, this opinion can be found at Montagsdemos where protesters hold up signs saying things like ‘Stop US terror’ or ‘Ami go home.’ Talk to these people and they will tell you that the US, as the unrivalled hegemon inside NATO, pushed for its extension towards Russia’s borders in an attempt to encircle Moscow while extending Washington’s economic reach. Variations on this argument can be heard all the way up the societal ladder to politicians like Sahra Wagenknecht and even Gerhard Schröder. In this telling, all of Europe is a victim of US imperialism, while the war on Ukraine is the bloody cheque that the continent is paying failing to stand up to American aggression. Read through newspaper archives from the period of the first round of NATO expansion and one gets a rather different impression, though. It was in fa…