Source https://lemmy.ca/comment/23480286
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France invaded Libya because they dared to kick out French Companies. They have threatened to invade Burkino Faso for doing the same. EU countries currently have more than two dozen colonial states under their thumb. The EU, and its constituent countries, are the reason Imperialism is around in the modern world. They cannot exist without the rape of the global south. If they were to give up their colonies, the EU would die overnight as the entire EU is in an incredibly large import deficit.
Hmm? When? Do you mean Opération Harmattan?
Also: what does that have to do with the subject? The EU doesn’t work like the US, there’s not singular body determining where a military operation will happen.
That’s why I said calling EU “imperialist” stems from ignorance about the EU.
Everything you’re talking about has literally nothing to do with the EU. Moreover: the EU has zero mechanisms to enforce “anti-imperialism” on France, Denmark, or any other country.
It’s a bit like if you said “the UN is imperialist because the USA attacked Iran”. Just makes no sense.
A collection of imperialist states that have decided to share the profits of imperialism, is, by most honest people’s definition, an imperialist state itself.
And of course the EU has mechanisms to enforce ‘anti-imperialism’ on its member states. It doesn’t accept states with slavery, it coordinates sanctions against states that invade other countries, it coordinates sanctions against states it believes are not democratic, it can punish its own members for violating EU law.
It’s just not against EU law or morals to own slave states, as long as you have one singular layer of obscurity.
The reason I brought up France, one of the most important members of the EU, one of its only nuclear shields against Russia or the US, one of the most economically contributory members; is because it’s the first one that came to mind — and also it’s really, really fucking bad when you criticize Russia for fucking anything when France has done worse in the last decade and a half and had zero consequences for its actions. Not a single EU member state protested against the France-led war on Libya which resulted in the violent death of a democratically elected leader and now a failed state full of warlords fighting over the remains while EU-backed and endorsed terror groups (Seriously look into Khalifa Haftar) funnel oil to Europe.
The EU is imperialist because the majority of the most contributory member states making it up are imperialist, and it does nothing about it. Because they’re the good imperialists, peacefully raping Africa and the global south.
Right. Therefore the UN is imperialist. The WHO is imperialist. Caritas is imperialist.
Which EU laws are being violated by France? Which member states are being invaded by France? What fundamental rules of democracy and the rule of law are being broken in France?
Yes, those are defensive mechanisms the EU has to keep peace among the member states and to support member states in case of an outside threat.
But the sanctions are not “the EU has enforced sanctions against X” - that’s what the media calls it, sure, but that’s not how the mechanism works at all. The EU creates a resolution, and members states are supposed to comply and include the resolution in their own laws. But there aren’t any enforcement tools for the EU to actually make them - case in point, Orban’s Hungary ignored the sanctions against russia and continued to trade with them. The only thing the EU was able to do was withholding money from them.
OK, two things to unpack here.
Khalifa Haftar? So you ARE talking about Opération Harmattan! How in the world is that in any way “EU imperialism”, mate? The 2011 intervention was the UN not EU. Here’s a wiki article about the resolution. 0 members (with famously “imperialist” countries such as Nigeria, Gabon, Colombia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina) voted against. AND it was aimed at Gaddafi’s forces, so no idea about what “violent death of a democratically elected leader” are you talking about.
The EU mostly financially supports the Libyan coast guard, in hopes that it will stem the flow if migrants. Hardly a “terror group”.