Mark Urban is the diplomatic and defence editor of BBC\u2019s Newsnight that goes by the strap-line \u201cThis is where the global struggle for peace and security gets incisive, informed, coverage\u201d<\/p>\n
He has just written and headlined with \u201cUS remains reluctantly tied to global security role\u201d \u2013 categorised under US\/Canada.<\/p>\n
Urban\u2019s article starts with \u201cAmerica\u2019s military finds itself pulled in several directions \u2013 and even the $582bn (\u00a3403bn) defence budget rolled out earlier this month will not be enough to satisfy all of its needs. New challenges \u2013 from Russia and the so-called Islamic State (IS) group \u2013 are forcing the Pentagon to change its plans, and reopening old arguments about whether its allies are doing enough. One of the headlines to come out of the new budget was a quadrupling of spending on US military preparations to defend allies in Europe. When Nato boss, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, says the alliance is facing its \u201cmost challenging security environment in a generation\u201d, he is thinking principally of the challenge posed by a \u201cnewly assertive Russia\u201d.<\/p>\n
Urban continues with a quote; \u201cThe US is doing what they\u2019ve always done \u2013 bail out Europeans unprepared to fund defence properly,\u201d says General Sir Richard Shirreff, Nato\u2019s number two soldier until two years ago, \u201cbut more than that it\u2019s recognition that Europe is strategically vital for the US and that the withdrawal of the last of the US heavy brigades a couple of years ago went too far in the face of the very real threat posed by Putin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Urban is clearly deluded. The \u2018new challenges\u2019 the US are facing are self imposed. ISIS, a deliberately manufactured and well funded terror group is designed to carry out American operations in Syria. In the meantime, Russia has made no threat of any kind to the European Union or any members of it in the context of his report.<\/p>\n
Is this is the same global security guard that the BBC refers to where General Wesley Clark, Retired 4-star U.S. Army general, Supreme Allied Commander of NATO admitted that \u201cWe\u2019re going to take out 7 countries in 5 years: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan & Iran..\u201d? (see the enlightening Global Research Article and video interview HERE).<\/p>\n