Mira Oklobdzija
The NATO chief is exaggerating threats in order to boost military budgets.
When I first arrived in the Netherlands some decades ago, from a country without bicycle paths in the cities and where the powerful used big official cars to go anywhere, I was honestly impressed by the number of Dutch politicians who crossed my lane on their bicycles early in the morning, obviously heading for work.
Those bicyclists included Mark Rutte, who happened to be prime minister of the Netherlands for four turns, from 2010 till 2024. He’s been known by various nicknames. For a long time, he was locally labelled “Teflon-Mark,” “Mr. Normal,” the Houdini of the Low Countries, “flip-flop-pragmaticus,” among others. Teflon Mark was assigned to him in honour of his ability to come out of numerous political scandals with an (almost) untarnished reputation. Mr Normal refers to his choice of transport, bicycle, which he used in a relaxed fashion, often wearing jeans and sneakers, just like anybody else in the country. And besides, he lived in a modest apartment in The Hague, never demonstrated immodesty of any kind, and became the epitome of a hard-working and thrifty Dutchman.
The Houdini of the Low Countries and ‘flip-flop-pragmaticus’ referred to Rutte’s style of governance. He has been described as an ideologically flexible and pragmatic political survivor with many lives. During his political career in the Netherlands he developed into one of the first post-ideological politicians who could rule with liberals, leftists, and rightists. His repertoire included flirtations with xenophobic right-wing populists as well as concessions to the environmental protection policies of the left parties. “Finding a solution” was always his first impulse, and steered clear of fighting for ideals or pursuing a vision. “Vision is like the elephant that obstructs the view,” he liked to say. “If vision means a blueprint for the future, then everything that is liberal in me resists it.”
In his new position as the top man of NATO, Rutte must use more advanced means of transport than a bicycle to keep up with the fast-moving world. His current organization is actively accelerating the world’s movement and not in the right direction. Once again, Rutte is using his proverbial flexibility but this time manipulating on a larger scale. His first widely publicized remarks were not a slip of the tongue but just the beginning of a new persona.
On December 12, in Brussels, he vehemently claimed that threats were not distant and abstract. Rather, he said, they were “right up to our front doors, even in our homes,”
At stake is our freedom, our security, our way of life…Without strong defence, there is no sustainable security. Without security, there is no freedom … No schools, no hospitals, no companies. There is nothing…. We must face the fact that what can happen in Ukraine can also happen to us… The alliance needs to ‘shift to a wartime mindset…
Rutte is urging the endangered citizens of the free world to call on politicians to invest in armaments even if that means less money for healthcare and pensions. The dangerous ones in the global world order are Russia and China wishing to increase their own spheres of influence while NATO is protector of all the peaceful, innocent, unsuspecting victims of evil powers.
But the Dutch daily NRC provides a corrective:
If there is one superpower that has put the global legal order at risk, it is America. Not only by starting illegal wars and maintaining secret torture bases, but also by unilaterally withdrawing from agreements with Russia on reducing its nuclear arsenal, not recognizing the International Criminal Court and, under Trump, cancelling the Paris climate agreement.
NATO, meanwhile, is not a passive victim but an active party with its own, often American, geopolitical agenda.
Specialists in the field of propaganda warn against accepting Rutte-like addresses without a thorough analysis. Historian and communication scientist Etienne Augé considers four such elements to be typical propaganda work: the archetype of the innocent damsel besieged by evil forces, the inhuman adversary, the domino theory, and the eternal struggle between good and evil.
The public in other countries is surely less surprised by Rutte’s newfound vehemence that the Dutch. At home, he was known as a moderate pragmatic who always tended to smooth contradictions and not dwell on them. He’s suddenly like an athlete who has found his real team in the league he always admired.
Rutte is eagerly preparing the next NATO meeting in The Hague in June 2025. Some 27,000 police officers will be deployed, half the overall Dutch force. The Dutch police have never carried out such a large security operation. Prior to the meeting, he has been busy exhorting his fellow team members. On January 13, speaking to the European Parliament, he said:
At a time when Russia, China, North Korea and Iran are increasing their defence industrial cooperation to unprecedented levels, it would be an act of self-harm to put up new barriers between allies… We are not at war, but we are not at peace either. That means we need to invest more in defence … This cannot wait any longer. We need to increase the resilience of our societies and key infrastructure…. We are safe now, but in four or five years we may not be…
He added that if spending on arms does not increase, Europeans should “take out their Russian language textbooks or emigrate to New Zealand.”
As quoted, Marc Rutte is a self-proclaimed man without a vision. But a vision nevertheless reached him: of a looming apocalypse. His only call is to arm NATO even more, to defend and threaten with weapons and not to look for other diplomatic solutions, peaceful ways out of the seriously gloomy reality of the world.
Other top geopolitical players have visions as well, which also require military action and more weaponry. Trump, for instance, wants America to be “great again,” without making a serious effort to describe the content of this “greatness,” though it might include incorporating Canada, the Panama Canal, and Greenland as part of maintaining world dominance.
The sad fact is that citizens of all countries today, East or West, live in societies inundated with disinformation, ruled by conspiracy theories, fake news, deliberate lies, propaganda, and mystification. It is not easy to know precisely what Putin’s vision is, but it’s safe to say that he wants a piece of Ukraine, no NATO on the borders, and a lot of power. Zelensky wants peace and NATO. The Chinese would prefer that their zones of interest get larger. Netanyahu wants more territory and freedom to deal with his enemies in every way he sees fit. The Palestinians want freedom…
One way or another, saber-rattling, not dialogue, is at the core of all these visions. The domino theory and vicious circles are hard to escape. The four horsemen of the apocalypse are firmly in their saddles.
It is anybody’s guess which nicknames Mark Rutte will acquire next. Fifth horseman of the apocalypse could fit. He could be the one who rides onto the world stage at the moment of earth’s greatest crisis and makes not only war, but the war to end all wars. Needless to say, he is not the only candidate for the title.
Source: https://fpif.org/natos-rutte-teflon-mark-or-the-fifth-rider-of-the-apocalypse/
