NATO WAR CRIMES/INVOLVEMENT AND NATO – CLIMATE

BACKGROUND TEXTS FOR THE PHOTO DISPLAY 2

NATO, founded in 1949 by 12 countries, is today the biggest geopolitical war machinery consisting of 32 member states.

This scale of expansion contributed to international tension as Russia sees itself increasingly surrounded by US and NATO bases.

The alliance calls itself a “defensive” alliance and claims to be based on the member countries’ common values of individual liberty, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Practice shows that NATO is far from that.

NATO has a blood-soaked history of organising or supporting coups, brutal colonial wars and military interventions.

Within the meaning of the Nuremberg Tribunal judgment in respect to German second world war crimes, NATO deserves the label ’criminal organization’.

Since the 1990s NATO forces have repeatedly committed severe war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In 1999, without the consent of the UN Security Council, NATO bombarded Yugoslavia violating Article 2 of the UN Charter. NATO performed serious war crimes such as indiscriminate bombardment of civilian centres and the use of indiscriminate weapons including depleted uranium and cluster bombs.

The Yugoslavia war of aggression was the prelude to a series of aggressions against Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria and elsewhere, during which war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed without any punishment. The International Criminal Court – in the hands of the ”collective West,” – never investigated these crimes.

The war in Ukraine, which NATO expansion did much to provoke, has led to substantially increased NATO activity in Europe. Since the beginning of the war NATO allies have provided Ukraine with unprecedented levels of financing and arming support. This unwavering support confirms that weapons, not negotiations, are NATO’s unshakable motto.

The genocidal Israeli war in Gaza and the West Bank, causing worldwide outrage, has been silently accepted by NATO and its allies. This, despite the fact that all states have the duty to impose a full arms embargo on Israel. This duty derives from decisions of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) from January and July 2024 that concluded Israel is plausibly carrying out genocidal actions in Gaza in violation of the Genocide Convention and that Israel is illegally occupying Palestine.

This arms embargo duty has also been asserted by the UN Human Rights Council and various UN experts. Stopping the flow of arms, energy, food and other key exports to Israel is meant to ensure the protection of the Palestinian people.

But, NATO country’s arms trades in both directions continues, and Israel can count on diplomatic and military support from NATO countries for its wars of terror.

All this, alongside an increased presence in the Asia-Pacific region and across other parts of the world, increases the risk of conflicts and war.

And finally, NATO is a nuclear-armed alliance. On top of nuclear bombs stationed in the US and France, around 150 US B61 nuclear bombs have been stationed in Europe – in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Turkey – for years. And now it seems that US nuclear weapons will be brought back to Britain.

NATO maintains a “Nuclear Planning Group” to discuss the launching of a war that would put all life on Earth at risk. NATO coordinates rehearsals or “war games” practicing for the use of nuclear weapons in Europe.

NATO’s nuclear policies conflict with the legal obligations of the signatories to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) forbidding the transfer of nuclear weapons to non-nuclear weapon states. US/NATO nuclear weapons in Europe however, are located in non-nuclear weapons states. Furthermore, the alliance does not reject “first use’ of nuclear weapons.

NATO – the biggest war machinery in the world – constitutes the greatest danger to our survival as a species.

NATO is a ”criminal organization” and must in the name of the survival of mankind be dissolved!

NATO – CLIMATE

Excerpts from the introduction of the CLIMATE  CROSSFIRE report –  How NATO’s 2% military spending targets contribute to climate breakdown

Climate mitigation and adaptation efforts are chronically underfunded by billions of dollars, deepening the climate crisis and its impacts on citizens around the world.

At the same time, the richest and most carbon-polluting nations are also increasing military expenditure. Global military spending has reached a record high of $2.46 trillion US dollars, more than half of this spent by NATO’s 32 member states, and budgets are projected to increase massively in the next few years.

NATO and the arms industry frequently talk about ‘greening’ the military but have totally failed to reduce emissions in any of their operations. Increased military expenditure will therefore always increase greenhouse gas emissions.

According to the Climate Crossfire report from October 2023 the total military carbon footprint of NATO rose by 30 million tonnes between 2021 to 2023. This is equivalent to putting more than 8 million extra cars on the road.

If NATO’s militaries were a single country, it would rank as the world’s 40th largest carbon polluter.

If every NATO member were to meet the earlier agreedcommitment to 2% of GDP on military spending, by 2028, NATO would spend an estimated additional 2.57 trillion dollars, enough to pay for what the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has estimated are the climate adaptation costs for low- and middle-income countries for seven years.

NATO’s military expenditure of 1.26 trillion dollars in 2023 would pay the most-polluting nations’ unfulfilled promise of climate finance of 100 billion dollars a year for 12 years.

For European NATO members, the €1 trillion extra spending needed to achieve the earlier agreed 2% of GDP target for military expenditure is equivalent to the €1 trillion needed for the EU Green Deal.

Today however, 2 % is not the roof but the bottom. Allies are now expected to reach at least 3 % of GDP. President Donald Trump has called for a minimum of 5%.

The principal beneficiary of NATO’s targets is the arms industry, which has seen its revenue, profits and share prices surge. The industry is lobbying to ensure that these profit streams are permanent, by demanding long-term structural commitments to arms production and by limiting environmental commitments.

Most importantly, the NATO targets – with all the attendant environmental consequences – are igniting a new arms race just as the climate crisis worsens. This will lead to increased emissions and absorb financial resources from already grossly inadequate climate finance. It is a political distraction that diverts attention from the biggest security crisis humanity has ever faced: climate breakdown.

NATO is a ”criminal organization” and must, in the name of the survival of every living thing on this planet, be dissolved!