World Champion in Warfare

HEIDELBERG (Own report) - A new study confirms that the West is world champion in waging war. A newly published analysis of the Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research confirms that, last year, the number of wars being waged around the world was the highest since World War II. The research also indicates that the NATO countries, including Germany, either are engaged in the majority of these armed conflicts with their own troops as aggressors or are instigating local proxies. These wars are concentrated on countries in the Arab world and South Saharan-Africa, which are in the focus of western interests because of their natural resources or their geostrategic situation. The West's leading position in waging war is in correlation with the fact that western nations have the world's largest military budgets and are its largest exporters of combat material - supplying NATO member countries or its allies.

More Wars than Ever

As the Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research ascertained in its recently published "Conflict Barometer 2011,"[1] last year, the number of wars being waged around the world has risen to a new record high since 1945. Whereas in 2010, the institute recorded six wars, in 2011 the number had more the tripled to 20 wars. None of the six wars registered by the institute for 2010 gave way to peace. Regionally, the conflicts are unevenly distributed. Whereas in Europe there was none and in America only one - the Mexican drug war - there were three shooting wars in Asia (two separate ones in Pakistan and a war against minorities in Myanmar). Hardest hit are Sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab world, with eight wars each. On closer inspection, it becomes apparent that the West is involved in the overwhelming majority of these wars with its own troops, or at least as instigator or by way of proxies. Germany, which - contrary to all evidence - is often considered a "peaceful power," holds a leadership role in numerous conflicts.

Afghanistan, Pakistan (...)

This applies to the war in Afghanistan, waged for over ten years and which the West can no longer win. It began back in 1979 as a proxy conflict between the West and the Soviet Union. In mid 1979, the USA began to arm the mujahidin against the pro-Soviet Kabul government.[2] At the end of 1979, the Soviet Red Army entered the fighting. In the 1980s, the Federal Republic of Germany also got involved, reinforcing the Afghan mujahidin, who escalated the conflict into a civil war in the 1990s. The country has not been calm since. Of the more than 7,200 German soldiers deployed around the world, 4,800 are stationed at the Hindu Kush. However, the West's war on Afghan is inextricably linked to the war being waged mostly with drones and US Special Forces in Pakistan, which is also supported by Germany politically and in part militarily through NATO channels.[3]

(...) Sub-Saharan Africa (...)

The West, including Germany, is also involved in the majority of the eight wars being waged in Sub-Saharan Africa, for example in Somalia. After 15 years of armed conflict, a government was established in 2006. The government was considered Islamist, but it sought to establish a certain amount of state order - also showing tangible success in the struggle against piracy. In alliance with Ethiopian troops, as well as with the assistance of US-American air strikes, the West drove this government from Mogadishu, again enflaming the civil war. (german-foreign-policy.com reported.[4]) US drones are continuing to attack in this civil war. German warships are also cruising off the coast of the country in the war on piracy. Currently in discussion is the extension of combat to Somali territory. Three of the four other wars that the Heidelberg Institute differentiates between in Sudan and South Sudan (Darfur, Sudan/South Sudan, SPLA/Militia) are clearly characterized by western interference. The secession of South Sudan was also decisively encouraged by Berlin,[5] reinforcing centrifugal forces in other parts of the country (Darfur) and greatly contributing to existing hostilities escalating into armed conflicts. The Bundeswehr is present in Darfur and South Sudan - because it is in German interests, to weaken (Northern) Sudan with diverse separatisms.[6] Last year, French troops, assisted by the UN and Berlin's discrete rear-guard support, bombed an ex-IMF functionary, favored by the West, into power in the Ivory Coast.[7] Only the two Nigerian wars (North/South and Boko Haram)[8] and the inter-ethnic conflicts in South Sudan are indirectly but not primarily the result of western policy.

(...) and the Arab-Islamic World

The West's decisive involvement in the overwhelming majority of today's wars is even more evident in the Arab-Islamic world. Alongside Afghanistan, Iraq was the second theater of the West's war of occupation. War has incessantly continued to ravage that country until today - with catastrophic consequences. Though Berlin officially declined to participate in that war, the German government soon gave up its passivity in the war on Libya. Western air forces bombed that country's regime from power, plunging Libyan society into rule by tribalism and militias.[9] A similar scenario is now being played out in Syria - also with the complicity of the West, including Berlin. (german-foreign-policy.com reported.[10]) The so-called "war on terror" in Yemen is also being waged with US drones and special forces commandos as well as with Germany's political support.[11] In the conflicts in Turkey and in Egypt - classified as wars by the Heidelberg Institute - western allied military forces - in Turkey, even NATO forces - are fighting forces contesting their authority.

Military Budgets, Arms Exports

In effect, when contemplating the 20 conflicts that the Heidelberg Institute categorizes as "wars," six wars, at the most, (the two wars in Nigeria as well as the internal wars in South Sudan, in Yemen, in Pakistan and in Myanmar) are not being determined by western interventions, or even by western interference through local proxies. The majority of the wars are waged in Arab and in Sub-Saharan African countries, regions that have become focal western spheres of influence because of their resources or their geostrategic situations. This is aggravated by the fact that NATO members have, by far, the world's largest military budgets and are the world's largest arms exporters. The SIPRI research institute has listed countries in accordance with the sizes of their national military budgets. Five NATO member states, including Germany (eighth) are among the top ten on the list. When their 2010 military budgets are added together, the total is 55 percent of the world's military expenditures. Japan (sixth place), Saudi Arabia (seventh), and India (ninth) are all western allies. Seven NATO countries and Sweden were among the top ten arms exporters between 2006 and 2010. According to SIPRI, Germany is the world's third largest arms exporter. When one also takes into account that the western countries are the front runners in waging wars around the world, the West's destructive potential in comparison to that of the non-western segment of humanity becomes fathomable.

[1] Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research: Conflict Barometer 2011, Heidelberg 2012
[2] see also Der religiöse Faktor
[3] see also Wie in Vietnam and Silent Complicity
[4] see also Strandkrieg
[5] see also New Sudan, Establishing a State and Nächstes Jahr ein neuer Staat
[6] see also The Benefit of Secession and English rather than Arabic
[7] see also Playing with Fire and The Right of Might (II)
[8] see also On the Verge of Civil War
[9] see also The Libyan Strategy and Europas Wächter
[10] see also Iran's Achilles Heel
[11] see also The New Front and Die neue Front (II)


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