Yesterday's rally against the Trump administration in Washington, D.C., a vast and confused hodgepodge of liberal groups, snuck in one notable "progressive" demand: that Trump take his hands off NATO.
Since its founding, NATO has served as a belligerent enforcer of Western hegemony, one which fuels militarization, enforces neocolonial domination, and provokes global conflicts—from Yugoslavia to Ukraine—while serving arms dealers and empire.
Its post-Cold War expansion encircled Russia, violating past promises, and its illegal wars under "humanitarian" pretenses have devastated nations like Libya and Afghanistan.
Even if he wanted to, the figurehead Donald Trump would never be allowed to put his hands on NATO.
I also have to wonder, because this otherwise seems like a pretty ok protest, who snuck in the "NATO" part here, since in some other posters for this event it was actually not included:
Lots of Ukraine and USA flags there. Liberals for sure. It was at best a popular front event. Agitate and recruit potentials to mass socialist organizations. That’s all.
Okay, that sounds like it was even worse than i initially assumed. I thought someone just snuck in the NATO part on the poster, but apparently this was way more of a lib fest than i thought.
I was looking up more about this event and saw a bunch of photos of people with signs calling Trump a "Putin puppet" and "Moscow agent". That plus the Ukraine flags and the "we're the real American patriots" flag-waving jingoism, makes apparent that the pro-NATO poster is not an accident at all but absolutely intentional.
And the absence of pro-Palestinian messaging that others are also pointing out is a massive red flag that there is some co-opted bullshit going on here rather than genuine grassroots protest.