Agneta Norberg / Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space
The US and NATO are rapidly encircling Russia militarily
with heavy emphasis on the Nordic region — the High North.
It is a Cuban-missile crisis in reverse and few in the West know about it.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (July 3, 2021) — F-16 warplanes from the US’s 480 Fighter Squadron, took off from Luleå/Kallax airfield on June 7, 2021 at 9 o’clock. This was the start for war-training and coordination with the Swedish warplane, JAS 39 Gripen.
The target was Russia. The war exercise, Arctic Challenge Exercise (ACE) continued until June 18th. The US F-16, warplanes were deployed at Luleå Kallax for three weeks to make recognizing tours in the entire Northern area.
This particular war-fighting exercise is a further development from earlier similar exercises that are conducted each second year. The war-training is conducted from four different airbases and from three countries: Norrbotten’s air wing, Luleå, (Sweden), Bodö and Orlands air bases, (Norway), and Lappland’s air wing in Rovaniemi (Finland).
The US warplanes and marine forces have been in the North for war preparations for many years. This is a militarizing of the entire North, which I have described in my 2017 booklet The North: A Platform for Warfare against Russia. This aggressive, militarization has been ongoing since after WW II, when Norway and Denmark were dragged into NATO in 1949. (Read Kari Enholm’s Behind the Facade, 1988.)
Arctic Challenge Exercise was launched for the fifth time this year. Seventy warplanes were in the air at the same time. The air-wing boss, Claes Isoz, proudly declared: “This is a very important exercise for all the participating nations and therefore we have chosen not to cancel it because ACE is strengthening not only the national ability, it also contributes to add to a common security for all nations in the North.”
These dangerous northern war games, where sea-land exercises like ACE and Cold Response, are all stepping-stones in US strategy for the war against Russia.
[The motivation is] to close Russia´s access to the open sea and to exploit the large oil-and-gas findings under the Arctic ice-cap, which have become more and more accessible [due to global warming and the retreat of Arctic ice]. The US adopted a plan for this in a 2009 Security Directive — The National Security Presidential Directive, No 66:
The United States has broad and fundamental national security interests in the Arctic region and is prepared to operate either independently or in conjunction with other states to safeguard these interests.
These interests include such matters as missile defense and early warning; deployment of sea and air systems for strategic sea-lift, strategic deterrence, maritime presence, and maritime security operations; and ensuring freedom of navigation and overflight.
This war game Arctic Challenge Exercise, 2021, conducted for the fifth time, should be understood and linked to the US’s ‘Security Directive’.
Agneta Norberg is Chair of the Swedish Peace Council and is a member of the Global Network’s Board of Directors and serves on the board of World BEYOND War. She lives in Stockholm.
Related Resources
With the melting of Arctic ice, western fossil fuel corporations want to drill-baby-drill in the region. The US seeks to control the Arctic Sea. Russia has the largest land border with the Arctic and is seen as an obstacle. (Click here to watch a related video.)
The RAND Corporation (famous for publishing the controversial Vietnam-era ‘Pentagon Papers’) has come out with a study on how to break Russia into smaller nations. This would enable the western powers to have a better ‘opportunity’ to control the High North. (Click here to see the study)
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