by Stephen Lendman

Provocative US-led NATO exercises risk direct confrontation with Russia and other independent countries Washington targets for regime change.

TRJE15 intends "showcas(ing)" US-dominated Alliance capability "on the world stage," an official statement says.

It's scheduled from September 28 to November 6 in Italy, Spain and Portugal, other Alliance nations, and the Mediterranean Sea involving around 36,000 personnel from 30 NATO member and partner countries (including Ukraine) in what's called the "biggest…operation since the end of the Cold War."

It targets Washington's main enemies - Russia, China and Iran on the pretext of fighting Islamic State terrorists. Moscow criticizes NATO's buildup in Eastern Europe "under the false pretext of alleged 'aggressive behavior' by our country" - accompanied by "unfriendly and malicious" rhetoric.

In June, Putin forthrightly said "(w)e are not threatening anyone, and we seek to resolve all conflict situations through political means (according to) international law and other nations' interests." His comments fall on deaf ears in the West, mainly America.

IS and other Takfiri terrorists are US allies in Syria, Iraq, to some degree in Southeastern Ukraine and Gaza, and wherever else deployed as proxy foot soldiers.

TRJE15 is the largest of numerous other provocative exercises (conducted earlier or planned) preparing for "emerging crises" - code language for provocative saber rattling under the cloak of "counterinsurgency" operations.

NATO calls what's involved one of its "highest planning priorities - (its) current scope and scale" exceeding initial plans "by some margin," maybe further before beginning in September.

It reflects US-dominated Alliance activities "using new and evolving concepts, advanced technology, cutting-edge military capabilities and the world's most modern land, sea and air forces in the most complex and realistic scenarios."

It involves a fictitious region called SOROTON. A crisis erupts outside NATO's territory in a fictional country affected by "internal tensions, natural hazards, and a neighbor's aggression."

Exercises will involve confronting "subversion and terrorism to grand military maneuver(s) on a grand scale from the conditions of chemical warfare to the battlegrounds of cyber and information, from the intricacies of tribal rivalries to the challenges of unpredictable and autocratic political leaders."

NATO won't explain why numerous large-scale military exercises are held at a time its only enemies are ones it invents, including provocatively near Russia's borders. Planning involves preparing for major war. Obvious targets are Washington's main adversaries.

They deplore war. They want peace and stability. Washington's agenda is polar opposite - endless wars against independent nations threatening no one, serving monied interests on the pretext of democracy building, humanitarian intervention and fighting terrorism. Global wars start this way.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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