"Operating deep in the Indian Ocean, the Greek warship HS LIMNOS saw action against 3 pirate groups in as many days. Working closely with Swedish and Luxemburg maritime patrol aircraft operating from the Seychelles, the frigate destroyed 6 pirate attack boats together with all of their weapons and other piracy equipment between 7 and 9 April."
Last autumn U.S. Africa Command deployed lethal Reaper drones, military aircraft and over 100 troops to the Indian Ocean island nation of Seychelles for action in the Horn and on the Somali mainland.
The commander of the NATO naval contingent, Commodore Steve Chick of the British Royal Navy, was quoted as saying, "This has been a busy period for the NATO Task Force and we have seen significant successes against the pirates....[W]e have been able to deny the pirates the use of mother ships from which they can base their attacks at significant ranges from the shore." [31]
The Americas
On April 15 NATO's Allied Command Transformation (ACT), established after the 2002 summit in Prague and located in Norfolk, Virginia, hosted nearly 100 Latin American students from the Washington, DC-based Inter-American Defense College (IADC).
Chief of Staff at NATO's Allied Command Transformation, British Royal Navy Vice Admiral Robert Cooling, while addressing the attendees said, "This is an exciting time for Allied Command Transformation because this is the first time that we have welcomed your course here."
The ACT website added that the Inter-American Defense College course is "a graduate-level study for senior military and government officials and provides an opportunity to study global security issues. Students develop these competencies through the study of political, economic, social and military factors. Visits such as this help the students further understand the role of ACT and the NATO Alliance." [32]
The World
Late last year the president of the United States, Barack Obama, acknowledged and embraced the status of commander-in-chief of the world's sole military superpower. Few in the world appeared to be alarmed, offended or even distressed by this unprecedented claim to international preeminence based on the superiority of armed might. Nor has there been an outcry at home or abroad over the Pentagon's World War II-level $708 billion budget for next year.
Neither is there any concern, much less outrage, that the U.S.-led NATO military bloc has fanned out from the North Atlantic Ocean region to all compass points and has staked out the entire planet as its area of responsibility.
The world has deferred if not fully subscribed to NATO's grandiose and aggressive global strategy: That a Western military bloc whose officials are not elected by or accountable to any nation or people is empowered to intervene anywhere in the world with deadly force at its own discretion.
When this year's NATO summit convenes in Lisbon, Portugal in November to formalize the Alliance's new 21st century world military doctrine, to enclose the European continent under a U.S. interceptor missile canopy, and to continue what is already the largest and longest war in the world in South Asia, the protesters confronting the political and military leaders of NATO will be a - very small - fraction of the number of people who would attend a Britney Spears concert in the same city.
Most all of the world has reconciled and submitted itself to the domination of one global military superpower and its equally global military alliance with barely a murmur. An unparalleled political and moral capitulation.
1) Washington Post, May 23, 2004
2) Nine O'Clock News (Romania), April 3, 2008
3) Ibid
4) NATO In Persian Gulf: From Third World War To Istanbul
Stop NATO, February 6, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/nato-in-persian-gulf-from-third-world-war-to-istanbul
5) U.S. Department of State, March 30, 2006
6) Ibid
7) U.S. State Department, February 24, 2006
8) Ibid
9) Global Military Bloc: NATO's Drive Into Asia
Stop NATO, January 24, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/global-military-bloc-natos-drive-into-asia
10) Afghan War: NATO Builds History's First Global Army
Stop NATO, August 9, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/afghan-war-nato-builds-historys-first-global-army
11) Reuters, April 15, 2010
12) U.S. Air Forces in Europe, April 14, 2010
13) North Atlantic Treaty Organization, April 14, 2010
14) United States Navy, April 13, 2010
15) BBC News, April 11, 2010
16) United States Navy, April 13, 2010
17) United States European Command, April 14, 2010
18) Ibid
19) Focus News Agency, April 17, 2010
20) Lithuania Officer of the Chief of Defence, April 15, 2010
21) North Atlantic Treaty Organization, April 19, 2010
22) Fox News, April 16, 2010
23) USA TODAY, April 15, 2010
24) Helsingin Sanomat, April 16, 2010
25) Agence France-Presse, April 18, 2010
26) North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
April 13, 2010
27) North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
April 14, 2010
28) North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NATO Training Mission - Iraq
April 15, 2010
29) North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NATO Training Mission - Iraq
April 15, 2010
30) U.S. Department of Defense, April 16, 2010
31) Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2)
Allied Maritime Component Command Headquarters Northwood
April 15, 2010
32) North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Command Transformation
April 15, 2010
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