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北約宣言和新保守主義的致命戰略
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/nato-neoconservatism-empire
Jeffrey D. Sachs | 2024 年 7 月 13 日 | 共同夢想
為了美國的安全和世界和平，美國應該立即放棄新保守主義對霸權的追求，轉而采取外交和和平共處。
1992 年，美國外交政策例外主義進入了高潮。美國一直將自己視為一個注定要領導的特殊國家，而 1991 年 12 月蘇聯的解體讓一群堅定的思想家（後來被稱為新保守主義者）相信，美國現在應該作為無可爭議的唯一超級大國統治世界。盡管新保守主義者造成了無數外交政策災難，但《2024 年北約宣言》仍在繼續推動新保守主義者的議程，將世界推向核戰爭的邊緣。
新保守主義者最初由 1992 年的國防部長理查德·切尼領導。此後的每一位總統——克林頓、布什、奧巴馬、特朗普和拜登——都推行了美國霸權的新保守主義者議程，導致美國陷入永無休止的戰爭，包括塞爾維亞、阿富汗、伊拉克、敘利亞、利比亞和烏克蘭，以及北約無情的東擴，盡管 1990 年美國和德國向蘇聯總統米哈伊爾·戈爾巴喬夫明確承諾北約不會向東移動一英寸。
新保守主義者的核心思想是，美國應該在軍事、金融、經濟和政治上占據主導地位，超越世界任何地方的任何潛在競爭對手。它特別針對中國和俄羅斯等競爭對手，因此使美國與它們直接對抗。美國的傲慢令人震驚：世界上大多數國家都不想被美國領導，更不想被一個明顯受軍國主義、精英主義和貪婪驅動的美國國家領導。
新保守主義計劃美國在“新美國世紀計劃”中闡述了其軍事主導地位。該計劃包括北約不斷向東擴張，以及將北約從一個針對已不複存在的蘇聯的防禦聯盟轉變為一個用於促進美國霸權的進攻聯盟。美國軍火工業是新保守主義者的主要金融和政治支持者。從 1990 年代開始，軍火工業率先遊說北約東擴。喬·拜登從一開始就是一個堅定的新保守主義者，先是擔任參議員，然後擔任副總統，現在是總統。
為了實現霸權，新保守派的計劃依賴於中央情報局的政權更迭行動、美國主導的選擇性戰爭、美國海外軍事基地（目前在至少 80 個國家擁有約 750 個海外基地）、先進技術的軍事化（生物戰、人工智能、量子計算等）以及信息戰的無情使用。
美國對霸權的追求促使世界在烏克蘭發動了世界兩大核大國俄羅斯和美國之間的戰爭。烏克蘭戰爭的起因是美國不顧俄羅斯的強烈反對，堅持將北約擴大到烏克蘭，參與推翻中立政府的暴力 Maidan 政變（2014 年 2 月），以及美國破壞要求烏克蘭東部俄羅斯族地區自治的《明斯克二號協議》。
《北約宣言》稱北約是一個防禦聯盟，但事實卻並非如此。北約一再發動進攻行動，包括政權更迭行動。北約領導了對塞爾維亞的轟炸，目的是將該國一分為二，北約在科索沃分離地區設立了一個主要軍事基地。北約在美國發動的許多戰爭中發揮了重要作用。北約對利比亞的轟炸是為了推翻穆阿邁爾·卡紮菲的政府。
美國對霸權的追求在 1992 年是傲慢和不明智的，今天絕對是妄想，因為美國顯然麵臨著強大的對手，他們能夠在戰場、核武器部署以及先進技術的生產和部署方麵與美國競爭。按國際價格計算，中國目前的 GDP 比美國高出約 30%，而且中國是世界上許多關鍵綠色技術的低成本生產國和供應商，包括電動汽車、5G、光伏、風能、模塊化核電等。中國現在的生產力如此之大，以至於美國抱怨中國“產能過剩”。
可悲的是，北約的宣言重複了新保守主義的妄想，這令人震驚。
盡管美國的挑釁導致了 2014 年戰爭的爆發，但宣言錯誤地宣稱“俄羅斯對其侵略烏克蘭的戰爭負有全部責任”。
北約宣言重申了《北約華盛頓條約》第 10 條，根據該條，北約東擴與俄羅斯無關。然而，美國永遠不會接受俄羅斯或中國在美國邊境（比如墨西哥）建立軍事基地，正如美國最初宣布的那樣
1823 年門羅主義的誕生，並一直得到重申。
《北約宣言》重申了北約對生物防禦技術的承諾，盡管越來越多的證據表明，美國國立衛生研究院的生物防禦支出資助了實驗室製造可能導致 Covid-19 大流行的病毒。
《北約宣言》宣布北約打算繼續部署反彈道宙斯盾導彈（就像它已經在波蘭、羅馬尼亞和土耳其所做的那樣），盡管美國退出反彈道導彈條約並在波蘭和羅馬尼亞部署宙斯盾導彈嚴重破壞了核軍備控製架構。
《北約宣言》對烏克蘭通過談判實現和平毫無興趣。
《北約宣言》加倍強調烏克蘭“不可逆轉地走向全麵歐洲-大西洋一體化，包括加入北約”。但俄羅斯永遠不會接受烏克蘭加入北約，因此“不可逆轉”的承諾就是不可逆轉的戰爭承諾。
《華盛頓郵報》報道稱，在北約峰會前夕，拜登對承諾“不可逆轉地”讓烏克蘭加入北約抱有嚴重疑慮，但拜登的顧問們卻無視這些擔憂。
新保守主義者給美國和世界帶來了無數災難，包括幾場失敗的戰爭、數萬億美元浪費的戰爭驅動軍事支出導致的美國公共債務的大量積累，以及美國與中國、俄羅斯、伊朗等國日益危險的對抗。新保守主義者把末日時鍾調到了午夜（核戰爭）前僅剩 90 秒，而 1992 年時是 17 分鍾。
為了美國的安全和世界和平，美國應該立即放棄新保守主義者對霸權的追求，轉而采取外交和和平共處。
可惜，北約卻恰恰相反。
The NATO Declaration and the Deadly Strategy of Neoconservatism
https://www.commondreams.org/
Jeffrey D. Sachs | July 13, 2024 | Common Dreams
For the sake of America's security and world peace, the U.S. should immediately abandon the neocon quest for hegemony in favor of diplomacy and peaceful co-existence.
In 1992, U.S. foreign-policy exceptionalism went into overdrive. The U.S. has always viewed itself as an exceptional nation destined for leadership, and the demise of the Soviet Union in December 1991 convinced a group of committed ideologues—who came to be known as neoconservatives—that the U.S. should now rule the world as the unchallenged sole superpower. Despite countless foreign policy disasters at neocon hands, the 2024 NATO Declaration continues to push the neocon agenda, driving the world closer to nuclear war.
The neoconservatives were originally led by Richard Cheney, the Defense Secretary in 1992. Every President since then—Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden—has pursued the neocon agenda of U.S. hegemony, leading theU.S. into perpetual wars of choice, including Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Ukraine, as well as relentless eastward expansion of NATO, despite a clear U.S. and German promise in 1990 to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not move one inch eastward.
The core neocon idea is that the U.S. should have military, financial, economic, and political dominance over any potential rival in any part of the world. It is targeted especially at rival powers such as China and Russia, and therefore brings the U.S. into direct confrontation with them. The American hubris is stunning: most of the world does not want to be led by the U.S., much less led by a U.S. state clearly driven by militarism, elitism and greed.
The neocon plan for U.S. military dominance was spelled out in the Project for a New American Century. The plan includes relentless NATO expansion eastward, and the transformation of NATO from a defensive alliance against a now-defunct Soviet Union to an offensive alliance used to promote U.S. hegemony. The U.S. arms industry is the major financial and political backer of the neocons. The arms industry spearheaded the lobbying for NATO's eastward enlargement starting in the 1990s. Joe Biden has been a staunch neocon from the start, first as Senator, then as Vice President, and now as President.
To achieve hegemony, the neocon plans rely on CIA regime-change operations; U.S.-led wars of choice; U.S. overseas military bases (now numbering around 750 overseas bases in at least 80 countries); the militarization of advanced technologies (biowarfare, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, etc.); and relentless use of information warfare.
The quest for U.S. hegemony has pushed the world to open warfare in Ukraine between the world’s two leading nuclear powers, Russia and the United States. The war in Ukraine was provoked by the relentless determination of the U.S. to expand NATO to Ukraine despite Russia’s fervent opposition, as well as the U.S. participation in the violent Maidan coup (February 2014) that overthrew a neutral government, and the U.S. undermining of the Minsk II agreement that called for autonomy for the ethnically Russian regions of eastern Ukraine.
The NATO Declaration calls NATO a defensive alliance, but the facts say otherwise. NATO repeatedly engages in offensive operations, including regime-change operations. NATO led the bombing of Serbia in order to break that nation in two parts, with NATO placing a major military base in the breakaway region of Kosovo. NATO has played a major role in many U.S. wars of choice. NATO bombing of Libya was used to overthrow the government of Moammar Qaddafi.
The U.S. quest for hegemony, which was arrogant and unwise in 1992, is absolutely delusional today, since the U.S. clearly faces formidable rivals that are able to compete with the U.S. on the battlefield, in nuclear arms deployments, and in the production and deployment of advanced technologies. China’s GDP is now around 30% larger than the U.S. when measured at international prices, and China is the world’s low-cost producer and supplier of many critical green technologies, including EVs, 5G, photovoltaics, wind power, modular nuclear power, and others. China’s productivity is now so great that the U.S. complains of China’s “over-capacity.”
Sadly, and alarmingly, the NATO declaration repeats the neoconservative delusions.
The Declaration falsely declares that “Russia bears sole responsibility for its war of aggression against Ukraine,” despite the U.S. provocations that led to the outbreak of the war in 2014.
The NATO Declaration reaffirms Article 10 of the NATO Washington Treaty, according to which NATO’s eastward expansion is none of Russia’s business. Yet the U.S. would never accept Russia or China establishing a military base on the US border (say in Mexico), as the U.S. first declared in the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 and has reaffirmed ever since.
The NATO Declaration reaffirms NATO’s commitment to biodefense technologies, despite growing evidence that U.S. biodefense spending by NIH financed the laboratory creation of the virus that may have caused the Covid-19 pandemic.
The NATO Declaration proclaims NATO’s intention to continue to deploy anti-ballistic Aegis missiles (as it has already done in Poland, Romania, and Turkey), despite the fact that the U.S. withdrawal from the ABM Treaty and placement of Aegis missiles in Poland and Romania has profoundly destabilized the nuclear arms control architecture.
The NATO Declaration expresses no interest whatsoever in a negotiated peace for Ukraine.
The NATO Declaration doubles-down on Ukraine’s “irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership.” Yet Russia will never accept Ukraine’s NATO membership, so the “irreversible” commitment is an irreversible commitment to war.
The Washington Post reports that in the lead-up to the NATO summit, Biden had serious qualms about pledging an “irreversible path” to Ukraine’s NATO membership, yet Biden’s advisors brushed aside these concerns.
The neoconservatives have created countless disasters for the U.S. and the world, including several failed wars, a massive buildup of U.S. public debt driven by trillions of dollars of wasteful war-driven military outlays, and the increasingly dangerous confrontation of the U.S. with China, Russia, Iran, and others. The neocons have brought the Doomsday Clock to just 90 seconds to midnight (nuclear war), compared with 17 minutes in 1992.
For the sake of America's security and world peace, the U.S. should immediately abandon the neocon quest for hegemony in favor of diplomacy and peaceful co-existence.
Alas, NATO has just done the opposite.
https://www.commondreams.org/
