Dutch taxpayers taxed for yet more oil wars

This music video about the Iraq war from the USA is called Operation Iraqi Liberation (O.I.L) – David Rovics. The lyrics of a song with the same title by Anti-Flag are here.

Dutch NOS TV reports today that advisers to the Dutch government have advised to give in to demands by NATO and United States President Donald Trump to drastically increase expenses for ~~defence~~ war.

They demand an increase of Dutch military expenses to six billion euros; higher than any political party participating in the recent elections has ever proposed.

Ex minister, now government adviser Hirsch Ballin said (translated):

The biggest threat to the Netherlands is that our connections with the outside world may be affected. The supply of raw materials …

So, Mr Hirsch Ballin wants more taxpayers’ money and more soldiers‘ (and civilians‘) blood for oil wars in far away countries to help Shell to even bigger profits.

The advisers say (translated):

Not only Syria and Russia, but also unemployed young Africans who come to Europe can be a security issue, or the climate as a consequence of living areas becoming uninhabitable.

That climate change is the main factor in war in, eg, Syria, was recognized recently by a prominent Dutch general. A logical consequence of that would be to spend six billion or more euros not on more and more weapons and wars, but in stopping climate change, thus stopping wars. However, Mr Hirsch Ballin and his ilk do not want to see logic.

As for ‘unemployed young Africans who come to Europe‘: if they get good jobs and humane treatment, then they are unlikely to become a ‘security issue’, certainly not of the size of bloody wars like in Syria. If they are treated badly, then some of them may become a sort of ‘security issue’; like other people who are treated badly may sometimes become. Even then, tanks and battleships costing six billion euros are hardly the answer to a few young Africans breaking a window in a government building in anger. Let alone that expensive nuclear weapons, like the US American ones at Dutch Volkel airbase, would be an effective answer to angry young people. Even more: tanks, battleships and nuclear weapons costing six billion euros or much more are not an effective answer to terrorism: whether ISIS-like terrorism, extreme right Islamophobic civilians’ terrorism, or extreme right Islamophobic German army officers’ terrorism.