This is not only Putin's war! It is the war of the US elite against Gorbachev's "European House".

And Western Europe's (and Germany's) elites are submitting far and away to the US strategists, leading the continent and its people into endless suffering. They are helping the U.S. elite, in their own interests, to destroy the opportunities that Germany, in particular, has been given with Gorbachev's change in Russia's policy from confrontation to cooperation. We now need courageous people in Germany and Europe who will resume the course of Willy Brandt and Michael Gorbachev and represent our interests and those of mankind in peace, reconciliation of interests, cooperation and a social and ecological policy.

In 1990, the Soviet Union had conceded to the West everything it had always demanded of it. It agreed in the "Charter of Paris" (1) with the other states to build a Europe common with Russia, Eastern and Western Europe, with democracy and a market economy regulated by the welfare state. It was agreed to create a common European peace order that would provide equal security for all states. The USA also signed the Charter of Paris. Gorbachev wanted to create the conditions for this in the USSR by transforming the communist party into a social democratic party.

In the years that followed, however, it became clear that it was not enough for just one major power to abandon the policy of confrontation. In the U.S., there was a political debate in the early 1990s as to whether the country should seize the opportunity for cooperation or whether it would not be better to take advantage of the weakness of the Soviet Union, or Russia: With the aim of now permanently securing its global dominance for its interests and its policy of radical market economy. This current, characterized as neoconservative, prevailed in the USA. Everything we experience today is the consequence of it. And it was precisely these consequences that the forces in the U.S. at the time had warned about, those who wanted to seize the opportunity for cooperation.

The thinking of the neoconservatives also shapes Biden's and Obama's thinking:

We must prevent the rise of a power equal to us if we are to continue to lead the world. Above all, we must prevent the implementation of the Charter of Paris, the construction of a common European peace order for a common European home. If Russia's raw materials and its size and nuclear power and Western European technology and capital come together, we would have an adversary with whom we would have to negotiate on an equal footing and whom we could no longer simply dominate.

In the meantime, the neo-conservatives have largely destroyed this chance for Europe and mankind. They promoted the European politicians, media and journalists who did not see or wanted to see this chance. They promoted the forces that shied away from confrontation with the U.S. and advocated the subjugation of Europe and Germany to U.S. policies and presented them as being in their own interests.

After the end of the Cold War, Germany benefited more than any other country from international cooperation: the rust materials and markets in Russia and Western Europe, the markets in the USA and China. This has made possible the high standard of living (relative to other countries) of the majority of the population. Politicians like Kohl, Genscher, Schröder and Merkel stood for this policy. The political foundations for this were laid in the 1970s by Willy Brandt (who, unlike his successors, was also a firm advocate of fair North-South relations).

With a policy of dividing Europe (and Ukraine) to ensure their own domination, the neoconservatives in the U.S. have already created much suffering, but they have achieved their goals. They have divided Europe, taking the disscussion away from the environment and social injustice to armament and hostility and war. They seek to cut off Germany, which now and then tries to oppose their goals, from its connections to Russia and China. It threatens to come with it still much worse: Large crises threaten, which will drive millions socially into deie poverty.

Let us always keep in mind what social program the dominant current in the USA (and UK) stands for: This is ruthless freedom of the market, which is only about the profit interests of the wealthy and not about social and environmental interests. In the USA you have to earn very well to get the social security that most Europeans still have. And as the repression of the USA and GBs in the Assange case shows, they also destroy the rule of law when it threatens the enforcement of their interests.

We now need courageous people in Germany and Europe to resume the course of Willy Brandt and Michael Gorbachev. As International PeaceFactory we want to contribute to create a strong force in Europe for this (connected with forces in other countries and also in the USA): Starting from non-partisan constituency forums and international up to the Bundestag and the Euopaparliament.

Get in touch if you want to get involved: info@internationale-friedensfabrik-wanfried.org.

Wolfgang Lieberknecht, coordinator of the International Peacefactory Wanfried (IFFW) in Germany