As NATO opened its two-day yearly summit in Ankara on July 7, two major conflicts in which member countries are deeply involved, Russia-Ukraine and Iran, could quickly escalate to a point of no return. The United States today resumed strikes on Iran targets in the area of the Strait of Hormuz. On Ukraine, the NATO drumbeat is deafening, for more funds, more sophisticated fire power, and more long-reach into Russia. Ukraine Acting President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Ankara, asking for some $70 billion in new money for 2027.
The big feature of the NATO Summit first day, apart from President Trump’s media showtime, held as a press conference with Summit host Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was the “Defense Industry Forum.” Multi-billions of dollars of deals were announced, from the Saab GlobalEye spy aircraft, to more Airbus transport planes, to producing more ATACMS missiles in Germany, by Rheinmetall working with Lockheed Martin.
Fantasies of the benefits of this weapons-production drive for the Trans-Atlantic economies are thick in the air. There will be “hundreds of thousands of new jobs,” said Mark Rutte, NATO Secretary General, stretching “from Arkansas to Ankara.”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced in Ankara today that nine countries have committed to his new global defense bank: Albania, Belgium, Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg, Romania, Türkiye, and Ukraine. To be based in Canada, he calls it the Defense, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB.) So far no big-time nations have signed on to what is a warmed-over version of the military funding model of Hitler’s Finance Minister Hjalmar Schacht, from the 1934-37 years.
Unless stopped, the direction of today’s NATO and rearmament madness leads to nuclear Armageddon. But empire is doomed. Setting aside the lying propaganda that Ukraine is about to defeat Russia, and Russia is about to collapse, the reality is that diplomacy and world-scale intervention against the madness, is still possible to win out. It requires citizen volunteers the world over, to lead the way out of danger and the financial crisis behind the militarism and depravity, by committing to know and spread truth and courage.
A remarkable event took place today in New York at the United Nations. The voice of the Global Majority was heard loud and clear for the principle of the right to development and peace, by presentations from spokesman at the daylong UN General Assembly Debate on the emergency in Cuba. The focus was the call for the “necessity of ending the economic, commercial, and financial blockade of Cuba imposed by the United States.” Not surprising was the universal support expressed for Cuba from the nations of the Global Majority, whether from diplomats from various nations speaking for regional organizations— the G77 + China, ASEAN, the Group of Friends for Defense of the UN Charter, the Caribbean Community, the Africa Group, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)—or individual national representatives who expressed support for those organizations. Many African representatives were among the latter group.
The United States objected to the meeting even taking place, so a vote was taken at the very beginning, which resulted in 136 in favor of proceeding with the discussion, 9 against, and 60 abstentions. The U.S. isolation was obvious. U.S. Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz gave a snide, ranting, speech of lies, declaring that the Cuban “regime” is responsible for its nation’s suffering. But he stood out as a miserable, shameful creature.
Finally, the historic action of the people of Iran continued yesterday and today, with processions of multi-millions of people in the streets in profound love of their country, culture, and long civilization. They are brought forward in mourning, commemorating their Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, killed, along with members of his family, in the Israeli-U.S. airstrikes in February.
In the ancient, holy city of Qom, an estimated 3-4 million people filled the streets leading to the Jamkaran mosque. This firsthand account of the experience was made available (through a posting on Middle East Spectator), which stated in part: …"It’s the awakening of an entire nation.
“Public life is completely shut down in these cities. People travel from hundreds of kilometers just to visit the martyred Leader. They sleep on the hard streets, some even without food, in 30 degree weather. People walk, sometimes 10-20 kilometers, with their children, elderly, sick, and even crippled or disabled, to visit the martyred Leader.
“There isn’t a single street within the city that doesn’t have dozens or hundreds of mourners walking to the funeral site. There is no metro station without chants of ‘Allahu Akbar,’ that isn’t completely congested.
“Some of the people that are attending, didn’t even support the Islamic Republic before the war. Some of them never attended a political rally in their entire lives. What is happening is completely unprecedented in history.”
