THE FLORENCE DECLARATION: CREATION OF AN INTERNATIONAL “NATO EXIT” MOVEMENT

Below is our translation from the Italian of an article and manifesto, NATO EXIT, that urges Europe to leave NATO. Commentary and notes in [brackets] are by Vince Dhimos. This article echoes my article, first published at Quora, essentially urging the same thing:

http://www.newsilkstrategies.com/news--analysis/eurexit-from-nato-needed

At the same time, the US publication National Interest is also calling for the US to leave NATO.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/it-time-america-quit-nato-15615
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NATO’s immoral and illegal war on Serbia in 1998-1999 killed 13,500 Europeans while the Russian Federation never dropped a single bomb on Europe.
It was GW Bush who, in 2002, unilaterally abandoned the ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) Treaty, which had been in effect since it was signed in 1972. Russia did not express any desire to abandon the treaty.

And yet the NATO alliance – the only organization to attack Europe militarily – cynically claims it is there to protect Europe from Russia! Amazingly, most Europeans swallow this line of blatant propaganda.
 
 
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https://www.voltairenet.org/article206039.html
 
Counter-celebration in Florence of the 70th of NATO
 
by Manlio Dinucci
 
Political leaders gathered for NATO's 70th anniversary. At the same time President Trump, who did not take part in the celebration, proposed a partial nuclear disarmament to China and Russia, despite the contrary opinion of the Alliance. At the same time, some peace activists have called for a NATO exit; a position paradoxically close to that of Trump.
 
The 70th anniversary of the Atlantic Alliance was celebrated by a29 foreign ministers meeting not in NATO's headquarters in Brussels, but in the State Department in Washington.
 
Master of Ceremonies NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who merely announced the opening speech given by Secretary of State Michael Pompeo. NATO explains - the State Department explains – it [NATO] is important because, "thanks to it, the United States can better address, globally and politically, global threats to their interests: NATO remains fundamental for US military operations in the transatlantic region (ie in Europe) and in other strategically critical regions, such as the Middle East and South Asia.” [highlighting is mine—Vince]
 
It is therefore the State Department itself that clearly tells us that NATO is an instrument of the United States. No political reaction in Italy. The only answer came from the Conference which, promoted by the No War No NATO Committee and by Global Research, a research centre headed by Michel Chossudovsky, brought together about 600 participants at the Odeon cinema-theater in Florence on 7 April. The conclusions are set out in the "Declaration of Florence," which reads as follows:
 
"The risk of a major war that, with the use of nuclear weapons could mark the end of Humanity, is real and is increasing, even if it is not perceived by public opinion, which is kept in the dark about the impending danger. A maximum effort to get out of the war system is of vital importance. This calls into question the membership of Italy and other European countries in NATO.
 
NATO is not an alliance. It is an organization under the command of the Pentagon, whose purpose is the military control of Western and Eastern Europe. The US bases in NATO member countries serve to occupy these countries, maintaining a permanent military presence that allows Washington to influence and control their politics and block real democratic choices.
 
NATO is a war machine that works for the interests of the United States, with the complicity of the major European power groups, staining itself with crimes against humanity.
 
The war of aggression conducted by NATO in 1999 against Yugoslavia opened the way for the globalization of military interventions, with the war against Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and other countries, in complete violation of international law. These wars are financed by member countries, whose military budgets are constantly growing at the expense of social expenses, to support colossal military programs such as the US $1.2 trillion nuclear program.
 
The US, violating the Non-Proliferation Treaty, deploys nuclear weapons in 5 non-nuclear NATO states, with the false motivation of the "Russian threat.” This compromises European security.
 
To get out of the war system that harms us more and more and exposes us to the imminent danger of a major war, we must leave NATO, affirming the right to be sovereign and neutral states. In this way it is possible to contribute to the dismantling of NATO and of any other military alliance, to the reconfiguration of the structures of the entire European region, to the formation of a multipolar world in which the aspirations of peoples for freedom and social justice are realized.
 
We propose the creation of an international NATO EXIT front in all the European countries of NATO, building an organizational network at the grassroots level capable of sustaining the hardest struggle to achieve this vital goal for our future.”
 
Manlio Dinucci
 
Manlio Dinucci Geografo. Latest published works: Laboratorio di geografia, Zanichelli 2014 ; Diario di viaggio, Zanichelli 2017 ; L’arte della guerra / Annali della strategia Usa/Nato 1990-2016, Zambon 2016; Guerra nucleare. Il giorno prima. Da Hiroshima a oggi: chi e come ci porta alla catastrofe, Zambon 2017; Diario di guerra. Escalation verso la catastrofe (2016 - 2018), Asterios Editores 2018.
 
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We add to this our translation of an article from rueconomics.ru, showing that prominent Americans, in addition to Trump, have been urging the US to put an end to NATO.
 
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US politicians urge US authorities to review anti-Russian strategy
 
April 12, 2019
 
https://rueconomics.ru/387176-amerikanskie-politiki-prizvali-vlasti-ssha-peresmotret-antirossiiskuyu-strategiyu
 
Former US Secretary of State George Schulz, former Secretary of Defense William Perry and former Senator Samuel Nunn addressed the American President Donald Trump. They called for a revision of anti-Russian policy.
 
The aforementioned politicians believe that at the present time relations between Moscow and Washington are deadlocked. This, in their opinion, threatens dangerous confrontation, which can result in the use of nuclear weapons. They shared information about this in a joint article for the Wall Street Journal.
 
As the politicians said, the level of the current threat noticeably exceeds the danger to which the world was exposed during the Cold War. In this regard, they believe that the United States needs a new approach to relations with Russia.
 
American politicians want Putin and Trump to continue to develop mutual cooperation between countries. According to them, the beginning was made at the Helsinki summit, but the words did not go further than the words said there.
 
The author: Denis Davydov
 
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