Blowback (Europe)

July 17, 2023 Cincinnatus

“When France sneezes, Europe catches a cold.”

-Prince Klemens von Metternich, Austrian foreign minister (1809-1848) and Chancellor (1821-1848). Ousted from power by the Spring Revolutions of 1848.

Blowback is a term that refers to the reaction by foreigners to European foreign policy, particularly terrorism and now mass immigration in response to covert operations and military operations in their home countries. After years of occupying and invading the Middle East and North Africa, the EU government has occupied most of Europe, notably with the covid lockdowns and the war in Ukraine (all within territory of the former Ottoman empire). As the popularity for the lockdowns and war have diminished and people have been impoverished, Europe is experiencing blowback.

Europe has been involved in the Middle East for over 100 years. As a consequence of losing World War 1 (1914-1918), the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire was dissolved and modern Turkey lost the Middle East. The British and French divided up the Ottoman Empire in the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916.[1]

The borders of the modern Middle East emerged from WWI, with the French controlling Syria and Lebanon and the British controlling Iraq, Jordan, and Palestine. The British helped arm and fund the Arab revolt against the Ottomans (Lawrence of Arabia) in WWI that resulted in the creation of Saudi Arabia in 1932. The government of Great Britain also agreed to start settling Jews in Palestine for a creation a their national homeland in the Balfour Agreement of 1917, completed with the creation of Israel in 1948 following the end of WWII.[2][3]

The modern British (Anglo-American) Empire has been invading the Middle East to prop up the petro-dollar against governments that seek independence.[4]

One example of blowback from that was the creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979, which was created in a revolution that overthrew the Shah of Iran. The Shah was put into power by a CIA and British backed coup against their democratically elected government in 1953.[5][6]

Currently, Europe is experiencing blowback from mass immigration as people flee Europe’s (and the USA’s) invasions and impoverishment of the Middle East (Iraq and Syria) and North Africa (Lybia) for the promise of wealth in Europe.

However, the European Union’s economy is more like the Soviet Union’s than the formerly free market of America’s union. There are no free markets in which immigrants can prosper in Europe. Many Europeans are themselves poor. This is particularly true in France.

France has been rocked by riots after a 17 year old Algerian immigrant was killed by French police. While France has a tradition of riots, this one seems to have been particularly bad, indicating that more is yet to come.

Per the Associated Press on July 1,[7]

“The government deployed 45,000 police to city streets across the nation to head off a fifth night of violence. Overnight, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin tweeted that the night had been calmer than previous ones, thanks to ‘the resolute action of security forces.’ He put the night’s arrest toll at 427.

Some 2,800 people have been arrested overall since the teen’s death on Tuesday.

[…]

The reaction to the killing was a potent reminder of the persistent poverty, discrimination, unemployment and other lack of opportunity in neighborhoods around France where many residents trace their roots to former French colonies — like where Nahel grew up.

‘Nahel’s story is the lighter that ignited the gas. Hopeless young people were waiting for it. We lack housing and jobs, and when we have (jobs), our wages are too low,’ said Samba Seck, a 39-year-old transportation worker in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois.”

Algeria was a French colony and many Algerians and North Africans had moved to France prior to the unrest from the 2010 Arab Spring and warfare from the 2011 NATO invasion of Lybia. They did so for job opportunities.

France still has an empire in Africa, whereby they buy African politicians through controlling their currency: The Communauté Financière Africaine Franc (CFA Franc).

Per the IMF,[8]

“The CFA franc zone consists of 14 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, each affiliated with one of two monetary unions. Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte D’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo comprise the West African Economic and Monetary Union, or WAEMU, founded in 1994 to build on the foundation of the West African Monetary Union, founded in 1973. The remaining six countries — Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon — comprise the Central African Economic and Monetary Union, or CAEMC.

These two unions maintain the same currency, the CFA franc, which stands for Communauté Financière Africaine (African Financial Community) within WAEMU and Coopération Financière en Afrique Centrale (Financial Cooperation in Central Africa) within CAEMC. WAEMU and CAEMC account for 14 percent of Africa’s population and 12 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP).

All of these countries except Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea were colonies of France and maintain French as an official language.”

For decades, these immigrants from their empire have lived in banlieues, which is a French suburb. Now, it refers to a suburb comprised of immigrants.[9]

One of these immigrants was Nahel Merzouk. Per the BBC, the police story and the story of the two other young men in the car with Nahel, he was driving a rented vehicle, he was in the bus lane, he did not initially pull over for the cops when they went to pull him over for his traffic violation, when he did stop, he started to drive away again and one of the cops shot him.[10]

As Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates said at the 2017 Riyadh Summit in Saudi Arabia,[11]

“There will come a day where we will see far more radical extremists and terrorists coming out of Europe because of lack of decision making, trying to be politically correct, or assuming that they know the Middle East, and they know Islam, and they know the others far better than we do. I’m sorry, but that’s pure ignorance.”

However, not all of the rioters are immigrants. France treats riots like a national pastime. Since January, French citizens have been protesting and rioting against the government’s plan to raise the retirement age for people using tax funded pensions.[12]

The covid lockdowns made the economy worse for every nation that implemented them. The increased retirement age is one consequence of that policy, along with decades of the French government trying to control the economy and the European Central Bank printing money like a drunken sailor, thereby, making everything increasingly unaffordable.

In addition, NATO’s undeclared war against Russia in Ukraine has had negative consequences on the French and EU economy. Cutoff from Russian energy because the Nord Stream II pipeline mysteriously blew up, they have had to depend on more expensive American energy imports (cui bono?).[13]

Now, in Eastern Europe, NATO appears to be losing the war in Ukraine. On June 6, the Kakhovka dam blew up, flooding much of the area that Russia could invade, destroying Ukranian infrastructure, and cutting off water and power to Russian Crimea. Additionally, an apparent coup by the mercenary Wagner Group on June 22 and 23 against Russia has failed. Instead of toppling Putin, Russia controls the Russian speaking parts of Ukraine. The politicians who supported the costly war and lockdown will face electoral consequences at home.[14][15][16]

Today, July 17, 2023, Russia announced that the Black Sea Grain Initiative with Ukraine to export wheat, grains, and fertilizer through the Black Sea without either side being attacked is terminated. Food will probably get more expensive for Europe. That won’t help European governments stay in power.[17][18]

Indeed, that is happening in the Netherlands and France and has already happened in Italy. The Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, resigned on July 7 because of the Boer rebellion against the forced selling of their land to combat climate change (Socialism). The French are rebelling, giving Marine Le Pen’s political party, National Rally (formerly National Front) more power. Giorgia Meloni replaced Mario Draghi as Prime Minister of Italy in Oct 2022. Immigration is a common theme in each of the three countries.

Per Sam Meredith writing for CNBC,[19]

“Known as ‘Teflon Mark’ for his ability to endure political storms during his more than 13 years in power, Rutte has faced intense criticism over a range of major policies in recent years — including a crisis over the Groningen gas field, angering farmers with plans to cut nitrogen emissions and a scandal over child benefits.

The latest political crisis resulted from splits over migration policy.”

Per France 24,[20]

“In her first speech in parliament as France's riots ebbed this week, far-right leader Marine Le Pen accused the government of turning the country into a ‘hell’ that she had foreseen.

[…]

‘We predicted what is happening despite great adversity. Unfortunately we were right.’

She and her father Jean-Marie have been forecasting France's demise and even civil war since the 1970s in doom-laden speeches focused on the presence of foreigners in France.

‘Above all and before anything else, we need to stop anarchic immigration,’ Le Pen continued.

Finally, per Paul Kirby of the BBC,[21]

“A clue to her priorities came in a typically raucous speech she gave in Spain last June.

‘Yes to the natural family, no to the LGBT lobby, yes to sexual identity, no to gender ideology... no to Islamist violence, yes to secure borders, no to mass migration... no to big international finance... no to the bureaucrats of Brussels!’"

[1]https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/sykes.asp

[2]https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/balfour.asp

[3]https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/who-was-lawrence-of-arabia

[4]https://www.hamiltonmobley.com/blog/national-divorce

[5]https://www.hamiltonmobley.com/blog/the-death-of-the-petro-dollar

[6]https://www.npr.org/2019/01/31/690363402/how-the-cia-overthrew-irans-democracy-in-four-days

[7]https://apnews.com/article/france-riots-police-killing-nahel-f9fac88ddc7af57b7686ddeac6827641

[8]https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fabric/backgrnd.htm

[9]https://schoolofjournalism.shorthandstories.com/les-banlieues/index.html

[10]https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66075798

[11]https://twitter.com/DrEliDavid/status/1675598572929142784

[12]https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/protesters-prepare-last-ditch-bid-stop-french-pension-overhaul-2023-06-06/