[spectre] a terrible day

[Lanfranco Aceti]

Dear Carsten,


I wanted to say that I totally agree with you. I am shocked by the war
rhetoric and its poisonous influence. It makes it more difficult for me to
write since I am a slow and careful writer, particularly when posting
online in these threads and on these topics. The reason is that I like to
achieve a balance and make sure that I contribute something. Contrary to
most, I still believe that words are stones and one has to carefully
balance issues.


The propaganda is intolerable as much as the a-historical representation of
facts.


Andreas, I did not want to write immediately about your 'smackdown' of
Mathias Fuchs at the beginning of this thread. Like you, I very much like
facts, but I think you might be too confident in the 'innocence of NATO'
and yes, unfortunately so, the world is divided into imperialistic spheres
of influence. There are three links that I would like to provide in order
to show, with facts, that NATO is not innocent: the first is this link to
an old article from November 14, 1990:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/11/14/cia-organized-secret-army-in-western-europe/e0305101-97b9-4494-bc18-d89f42497d85/

"Andreotti said he believes the operation should now be dismantled, given
the new "'climate which has freed us from the nightmare of wars and
divisions.''

When Andreotti is speaking of *divisions*, he refers to political internal
divisions for which the right side of the political spectrum would have
weapons to use against the other side. He refers to the Gladio Organization
which was a CIA/NATO operation that created a secret organization that kept
stashes of weapons in the Western States and trained men to fight in case
of war with Russia but also in case of internal political divisions that
would move the country away from the US approved political thinking.


The second link is to an announcement titled "Gladio: The Short Sword of
State Sponsored Terrorism" of a book *NATO's Secret Armies
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2010/4/1/853084/-
<https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2010/4/1/853084/-> .*


The third link is to this documentary by the BBC (a non-biased source for
those who prefer a more institutional news outlet)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3IkbhKv598 .


NATO represents the arm of a sphere of influence in Europe to protect
American interests. Why has it not been dismantled after the Cold War?

It is too easy to write that NATO is innocent, assuming the righteousness
of the Ukrainian cause, in this case, or in any other war of 'our' side
versus 'theirs'. It is, unfortunately, a historically correct fact that
NATO has interfered to promote US interests, even with state sponsored
terrorisms within the borders of its own allies. To assume the innocence of
NATO means to blindly participate and support imperialist causes. I would
like to remind everyone of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 when the
Russians placed their missiles on the island threatening the mainland of
the US in response to US installation of missiles installed in Italy and
Turkey and directed to the former U.S.S.R. Cubans are still under embargo
from the United States and the restrictions were not lifted, not even
during COVID. I haven't seen the Europeans' outrage against this Cold War
archaic foreign policy that has hindered the social development of Cuba. No
outrage, not even during the current pandemic. I see that there is a
wonderful selection of what to be conveniently outraged at. Certainly not
the same outrage for Libya and for the ousting and killing of Muammar
Gaddafi, for example, or the many other wars and destabilization of
democracies across the world. The consequence has been the death toll that
an Obama administration policy has had on African and all other immigrants
attempting to reach Europe via Greece and Italy by passing through what is
now a failed state and making the Mediterranean a tomb for children, women,
and men alike. The racialized outrage of Europe for worthy and unworthy
victims continues to be particularly problematic and largely unaddressed.


The sphere of influence of the United States expands to Central and Latin
American countries with over a century of policies that have produced some
of the worst dictatorships in the world. Pinochet's dictatorship is just
one of the very many that first comes to mind.

This is a good handbook to begin with if anyone has any interest in reading
about this topic:
https://www.amazon.com/US-Power-Latin-America-Routledge-ebook/dp/B072L187Q5/ref=sr_1_5?crid=38JGYE9MTLKZO&keywords=us+foreign+policy+latin+america&qid=1646235180&sprefix=us+foreign+policy+latin+america%2Caps%2C154&sr=8-5&asin=B072L187Q5&revisionId=&format=2&depth=1


Regarding the role of NATO in Europe, may I remind you all that Italy, by
having one of the strongest communist parties in Europe, was at the
forefront of some of the worst operations carried out by a foreign power,
through local groups, to keep Italians firmly in the center-right of the
political spectrum and aligned with NATO.


I would like to see any Western state having a referendum and leave NATO to
be a neutral and demilitarized zone between the spheres of influence of
Russia and the United States.


It is my opinion, and this is an opinion and not an irrefutable fact, that
this will never happen without bloodshed since the US has strong economic
and geopolitical interests and will want to retain its control over what
we, as European citizens, are invited to believe are free democracies and
cannot dare to consider to be vassal states, similarly to the vassal states
that the roman empire or any other empire has had throughout history.


It appears that for whatever reason, economic or strategic that it might
be, for President Biden and its administration was necessary to push for a
conflict with disregard for the consequences for the people of Ukraine, for
the Russians (may remind you all that the soldiers are human beings as
well), and for the security of all Europeans.


To look at this with naive eyes is dangerous for our own future. Ukraine is
a participant in this conflict with what I consider to be unreasonable
demands, backed by the United States that wants to keep on reducing the
sphere of influence of Russia to its own advantage. It has failed with
Georgia and it seemed destined to fail again.


I find the propaganda in these times from all parties odious. Everyone
seems to have forgotten that there are people on the ground, on both sides
and they don't deserve to be demonized. It won't serve anyone, least of all
the people that are suffering.


I used to do a presentation for my history of art students titled *The War
of the Riches*, looking at the visual representation of war and heroism and
the role that the masses and the poor played in it. The poor were
marginalized, cannon fodder, ravaged masses by disease, and corpses to
build a guided sense of horror in the viewer. George Orwell featured
abundantly in the list of readings. I also talked of matriarchal theory,
more than feminism, to present an alternative view of what might be
possible as well as try to raise awareness of economic issues that underpin
these wars and that have nothing to do with how they are presented to the
public.


The murky financial dealings between President Biden and Ukraine's
presidents will emerge at some point. As other things emerged about US
Presidents, e.g. President Ronal Regan and G. H. W. Bush Iran-Contra
scandal.

Having said all of this, and there is much more that I would like to add, I
have been obsessed by this question: why hasn't President Zelensky pursued
a policy similar to that of Finland, that is to achieve a status of
neutrality and demilitarization, perhaps even with the entry in the EU,
without joining NATO? To answer Andreas' statement earlier, yes I do not
believe that Ukraine had or has a right to join a military alliance like
NATO without expecting retaliation, when instead it had every right to join
in the EU as a neutral and demilitarized state, freely negotiating to do
so, without fear. Perhaps our role as European is that of striking a
balance between competing interests and not siding with one part or the
other. It is finding solutions or even imposing them to both the United
States and Russia that they might be unwilling to consider.


I believe that particularly as artists and curators we have, in a world
that seems increasingly divisive, even more of a duty now to engage in
proper debates with all parties without preaching and taking preconceived
sides. We should more than ever listen to and attempt to understand not a
single part but the entire complexity of what we are all experiencing, to
perhaps make better decisions guided by other feelings that are not fear
and hatred. Cultural boycotts, exclusions, and embargos will contribute
very little to shed a light on the dreadful events of these days and find a
different path that will not cost human lives.


I would like to close with two links about Mark Lombardi's works of art.


Mark Lombardi, *Banco Nazionale del Lavoro, Reagan, Bush, Thatcher, and the
Arming of Iraq, c. 1979-1990*, (4th version) 1998. Colored pencil and
pencil on paper. Dimensions: 50 x 120" (127 x 304.8 cm).

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/82619


https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/movies/mark-lombardi-death-defying-acts-at-moma.html


Thank you all for your patience and... May the Force be with you.
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