Fascism is driving the West's militarism

When I first heard the name Friedrich Merz, what sprang to mind was Fred Mertz, the grumpy but lovable character on the 1950s sitcom, I love Lucy.

But the only thing Fred and Friedrich have in common is the name.

The new German Chancellor, a lawyer and former Chair of US-based global asset manager BlackRock in Germany, has been described as a conservative transatlanticist, and is deeply unpopular. In a recent poll, just 21% of the German public rated Merz as trustworthy. He’s about as bad as Keir Starmer (23% favourability) and Emmanuel Macron (26%).

Friedrich Merz is also, like Starmer, Macron, and von de Leyen, a warmonger. Germany is a member of Keir Starmer’s 30-nation ‘Coalition of the Willingly Braindead,’ created to keep the war going. The UK and France have committed to send ‘peacekeeping’ troops to Ukraine if there’s an unconditional ceasefire, which is unlikely, and if the US provides security guarantees, which President Trump has ruled out. And Russia would never accept NATO troops in Ukraine.

But Merz has taken two escalatory steps his predecessor, Olaf Scholz, repeatedly refused to take.

• He has sent 4800 soldiers to Lithuania on a permanent basis, the first foreign deployment of German troops since World War II.

• He has committed €5bn for the joint production of long-range (500 km) nuclear capable Taurus cruise missiles, lifting any range restrictions on Ukraine, allowing it to fire at military targets deep inside Russia that could reach Moscow.

Knowing full well that Ukraine needs western help to operate long-range missiles, something German generals in an intercepted phone call last year confirmed, Russia immediately threatened retaliation should Taurus missiles be launched from Ukraine into Russia.

So, Merz’s finance minister Lars Klingbeil appeared to walk this back. But some analysts believe the Taurus missiles may already be in Ukraine.

Does Merz not understand how provocative these actions are? Russia lost 27 million people during WWII at the hands of the Germans, far more than any other nation. So it’s no surprise that Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov responded this way:

To hear from the current German leader that Germany will regain its position as the leading military power in Europe just after we celebrated the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Hitler’s anniversary is quite symptomatic. History apparently teaches these people nothing… Berlin’s direct involvement in the war is now obvious. Germany is sliding down the same slippery slope it already followed a couple of times in the last century – down toward its own collapse.

These escalations are occurring when Russia is winning on all fronts in a war that the US provoked by its unrelenting NATO expansion. On May 28th Zelensky cut short his visit to Germany on the news that Russian troops are on the verge of taking the Sumy region in northeast Ukraine.

Ukraine suffers from a severe shortage not just of weapons but men. In June of last year, the BBC reported on the Ukraine government’s conscription ‘bandits’ who grab men off the streets to be shipped, with minimal training, to the front lines to be slaughtered. Everyone in Ukraine knows of someone who has been killed. The real number of dead Ukrainians is over 1 million.

As for the billions of dollars of weapons and equipment the West has sent to Ukraine, Colonel Douglas Macgregor estimates that 50% ends up somewhere else, having been sold on the black market by corrupt Ukrainian officials.

Ukraine, aided by its western puppet masters, is becoming ever more brazen. Seven days ago, President Putin’s helicopter in Kursk was at the centre of a swarm attack by Ukrainian drones, which were shot down by Russian air defence. If Putin were killed, the war would intensify, more Ukrainians would die and Putin would be replaced by someone more hardline.

Yesterday, June 1, there was a Ukrainian drone attack on air bases deep inside Russia, codenamed Operation Spider’s Web. Ukraine claims to have destroyed 40 of Russia’s fleet of 120 strategic bombers.

I’m betting that US and UK military intelligence were involved in both operations, just as they’ve been deeply involved in planning and directing the war against Russia from Wiesbaden, Germany, as confirmed by the New York Times in March.

Russia’s restraint under President Putin against these provocations has been painted as weakness, which has emboldened the western warmongering lunatics. They’re so stupid they don’t realise they’re playing with nuclear fire.

What’s driving this irrational and dangerous behaviour? Rampant Russophobia and the fact the US is withdrawing military support from Europe explains part, but not all of it.

There’s another element. Like the US, the European political elites have been captured by corporations who want this and other wars to continue because they’re making tons of money.

Friedrich Merz’s former employer, BlackRock, is a key driver. Of the top military contractors in the US, BlackRock has $6.9 billion invested in Boeing, $4.2 billion in General Dynamics; $9.7 billion in Lockheed Martin; $4.4 billion in Northrop Grumman; and $11.5 billion in Raytheon. Europe will be purchasing many weapons from these US companies given its own defence industries have withered.

BlackRock holds more than 3% of Italian weapons maker Leonardo and is the second largest shareholder, 8.2%, of the UK’s BAE Systems.

BlackRock’s investments in the weapons companies included in a 2023 Ethical Consumer report totalled €32.6 billion, exceeding the €24.2 billion held by ten European banks with the biggest stakes in global armed companies.

Another major reason BlackRock wants the Ukraine war to grind on is that Zelensky agreed to a mass sell-off of Ukraine’s land and resources to BlackRock which will “coordinate” Ukraine’s reconstruction. Larry Fink knows his company stands to lose billions if Russia takes more of eastern Ukraine. So he’s probably told Merz, Starmer and Macron to do all they can to keep the Ukraine war going because BlackRock wins if they do, and loses if they don’t.

The problem is that for decades, the West has been in the grip of full-blown fascism - the merging of corporate and political power. In this dystopian world, profits matter more than people.

President Eisenhower first warned about the perils the military industrial complex posed to a democratic society 65 years ago. Since then, the arms industry has metastasised into a global monster that threatens to destroy humanity.

I’m not sure we can stop it.