With no end in sight to the fighting in Ukraine, the
European Union has become financially exhausted with the drawn-out conflict on its
doorstep. As against this, United States, sitting across the pond, is watching
on as well as making huge profits. As the war drags on, the costs for Europe
are mounting.
One thing is for sure. It is certainly not the first time
Washington has tricked the international community into a war. One can still
recall the US sending fake intelligence, to the UN Security Council to make the
case for the Iraq war.
At the time, France and Germany formed a coalition, making
strong arguments and objections to prevent the Iraq war.
This
time, critics argue EU members caved in too quickly and are acting as US
proxies without even being aware of it.
Before the conflict broke out on Europe’s doorstep in
February, Russia regularly accused the US of deliberately creating a scenario
that was designed to lure Moscow into war while ignoring Russia's security
concerns over Ukraine.
The Pentagon led the mobilization of NATO troops and weapons
on Russian borders and Europe quietly followed suit. The security concerns
expressed by the Kremlin were ignored by Washington despite many experts
describing them as legitimate.
Moscow wanted the West to respect an agreement signed in
1999 that no country can threaten its security at the expense of others. The
Kremlin said this was at the heart of the crisis before the conflict broke out.
The
question must be asked, why not sending peace delegations to Russia and Ukraine
instead of arms packages? The answer is the American economy crashed in the
aftermath of the covid-19 pandemic and now it is growing again as a result of
the war. America has a long history of making money out of waging or triggering
wars across the planet.
Those paying the price on this occasion are European states
with the continent slipping into a recession and ordinary households failing to
make ends meet.
Reportedly, the EU has set aside fund to reimburse member
states with the money they spend on sending weapons to Ukraine. However, the EU
has been flooded with requests that the bloc simply cannot cover. Brussels has
reportedly not even sent out the first payment.
The news outlet cites diplomats as saying the EU had
estimated it could cover some 85% of the costs but so many requests were sent
to the bloc’s headquarters that it revised that number down to 46%.
That is said to have angered Poland, which is one of the
EU’s largest arms exporters to Ukraine and a leading seeker for reimbursements.
The diminishing payback scheme and struggling attempts to reimburse risks
damaging the EU’s reputation.
The
argument coming out of Brussels is that at times like these, unlike the Iraq
war, the Western allies must stick together with the United States.
What allies is Brussels exactly referring to? Europeans are
struggling to heat their homes this winter because of the Ukraine war. France
and Germany’s request for US gas supplies to alleviate the crisis in “ally”
states were met with “astronomical” prices by Washington.
There is no doubt the US is making astronomical gas sale
profits from the Ukraine war. The US oil giant Chevron, also a large global
natural gas producer, is expected to make record exports to Europe.
"We have seen a big uptick in demand from European
customers so we are adjusting to that," said Colin Parfitt, who oversees
the company's shipping, pipeline, supply and trading operations. Europe will
not "go back to the same flows from Russia as it did before," he
said.
The US
achieved its long term desire to replace Russian gas flows to Europe with its
own stocks of liquefied natural gas (LNG). For years Washington has been
demanding Europe to wean itself off Russian gas and the Ukraine war has met
that demand, even slapping sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to
Germany. At the time, Berlin strongly censured the move.
American energy companies are now reaping in the profits.
"What's growing in the United States is demand for exports," Parfitt
said.
According to the Energy Information Administration, the US
became the top LNG exporter in the first half of 2022, because of increased
supplies to Europe amid the Ukraine crisis. Exports rose to average 11.2
billion cubic feet per day compared with the second half of 2021.
The fact is Europe has no choice but to purchase American
energy as Washington has imposed sanctions on certain other major gas-producing
countries. But why is the US selling at “astronomical” prices to its “allies”.
The answer is American politicians, energy giants and arms manufacturers don’t
really care about Europe.
Senior officials in France and Germany have even accused the
US of overcharging for its LNG and using the war in Ukraine and the energy
crisis to make profit and make Europe dependent on US gas.
French
Finance Minister Bruno Le Mair recently noted the US should not be allowed to
dominate the global energy market as its allies in Europe are suffering from the
consequences of the Ukraine conflict.
He also said it is unacceptable for the US to sell LNG at
prices four times higher than those paid by companies in America. The French Minister
also called for the establishment of a more balanced relationship between the
US and Europe.
The
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck decried American LNG companies of
charging too much for gas at a time when Europe’s biggest economy is struggling
to balance its energy mix without Russian supplies.
He also recalled how the US has turned to the EU before when
crude oil costs were skyrocketing, and that Europe’s national reserves were
used at the time to push the prices back down.
At a time that the EU is in crisis, with friends like the US who needs enemies?
Of course, American arms manufacturers are also making gigantic profits. They
are shipping weapons to the warzone in Eastern Europe.
In the lead up to the war, President Putin said Russia needs
to defend itself from an aggressive and hostile America. Washington is not
primarily concerned with Ukraine's security, but with containing Russia, Putin
said.
"In this sense, Ukraine itself is just an instrument to
achieve this goal, this can be done in different ways, by drawing us into some
kind of armed conflict and, with the help of their allies in Europe, forcing
the introduction against us of those harsh sanctions they are talking about now
in the US" he said at the time.
The consequences of the conflict have been felt by Europeans
who have been staging mass protests, strikes and voting governments out of
power across the continent. While the war has triggered soaring costs that the
European public simply cannot afford, it has also frustrated hopes of any
normalization in Europe following the covid-19 pandemic as well as European
unity.
Studies show there is growing polarization in Europe as to
whether supporting the US into triggering the Ukraine crisis was worth it after
all?
