This does not in any way excuse his behaviour or way of living.
People can be incredibly immoral and yet still be committed to larger social
ideas. People are complicated and inconsistent.
When examining his 2011 arrest and subsequent tribulations,
there's something to be noted with regard to the way narratives are framed and
events are interpreted.
Christian Right leaders like Mohler praised the fact that he
was humiliated and subjected to the ridiculous American practice of the 'Perp
Walk'.... probably a violation of the US Constitution. As usual Mohler like
most Christian political commentators totally missed the point and the issues
that were really at stake. For Mohler, a Christo-American idolater who hates
Europe and wantonly bashes it every chance he can get, the arrest of
Strauss-Kahn was fodder for many a moral pontification and denunciation of all
things European. He didn't have to wait long for another opportunity. When the
Costa Concordia went aground less than a year later, and the pilot abandoned
ship, Mohler proclaimed this exemplified the difference between American and
European values. In other words, the captain abandoned ship and behaved in a
cowardly manner... because he's European.
Others who possess a little more knowledge of the world and a
degree of cognitive sophistication looked beyond the actual arrest of
Strauss-Kahn and questioned the timing of it all. Here was a very powerful man,
head of the IMF and shortly slated to be president of France... who came
suddenly and stunningly crashing down into ruin.
One need not be a conspiracist to wonder if there was
something more to the story.
The following linked commentaries were available in the days
following these events but I've always struggled to understand why Strauss-Kahn
was brought down. To what end? After all, it wasn't as if Sarkozy retained
power. Hollande took over the following year. So it wasn't as if a huge swing
to the Right or a retention of Pro-Right/Pro-NATO/Anti-EU power remained in
place. In fact it's quite clear the US would like to see Hollande gone and
Sarkozy or someone like him back in power.
That said, Hollande has been far more of a team player when
it comes to NATO than anyone would have imagined. Embracing nationalism and
expansion he has turned out to be less than a Leftist when it comes to foreign
policy.
Strauss-Kahn's 2015 comments regarding the European crisis are
enlightening. Could his downfall be about Europe? Strauss-Kahn is critical of the
present state of the project and the applied agenda that we've seen unfold just
over the past couple of years. We see France and in particular Germany no
longer 'leading' the EU but dominating it and all but subjugating the weaker
states. The parameters which govern the EU and the regulated market economy
which it mandates has been exposed as rigged and really something of a
mechanism for control. The weak countries have been all but subjugated and not
a few ideologues believe this is a betrayal of what the EU was supposed to be
all about.
Strauss-Kahn believes, and he's probably right, that in the
end this will lead to the breakup of the EU and a return to a multi-polar
Europe, the traditional paradigm that historically has bred endless conflict.
Was the fall of Strauss-Kahn yet another example of the 'Strategy
of Tension' at work? We would be foolish, yea blind, to think this ended with
the conclusion of the Cold War. The US has a mixed relationship with Europe. On
the one hand it wants a strong and loyal ally. But it doesn't want a rival.
When it comes to Russia, the US wants a strong EU. They like
the EU partnering on military projects and providing a geographical and
strategic platform for US power.
But on the other hand when Europe becomes a rival, whether
economic, ideological or moral, then the US likes to work against Europe. But
as it works against Europe it must hide its hand.
The EU represents a massive economy and an overall population
significantly bigger than the US. The former colonial powers of Europe still
wield a great deal of influence around the world... influence that can be
positive if it aligns with the US interests or if opposed can prove quite
obstructionist and detrimental.
The US has long employed a Strategy of Tension. It helps Europe
and works with her but at the same time manipulates and on occasion works
against her. During the Cold War the US through operations such as Gladio
sought to undermine European political structures. There's a long history of
manipulating politics and elections beginning with Italy in 1948. The US
provoked fear, often through false flag operations that were blamed on Leftist
groups but were in fact conducted by Neo-Fascist paramilitaries connected with
the CIA. The effect was to drive European politics to the Right.
An American Right-wing advocate might say this has failed but
this is to misunderstand the Left/Right divide in European politics. In terms
of European politics, the American push to the Right has (for the most part)
been successful. In terms of the NATO/EU expansion to the East, it has been nothing
less than a smashing success.
Surveying from a distance, US policy and actions toward
Europe seem schizophrenic. Rather they should be understood as self-serving and
multi-faceted. The US works against Europe through Britain and other means of
manipulation, but at the same time aids Europe through the auspices of NATO...
again largely benefitting American interests.
In the end the US wants a compliant EU, one that holds all of
Europe under an umbrella. They don't want any rogue states like Serbia for
example. The interventions of the 1990's were more about consolidating the
power of the EU and NATO than they were about any kind of humanitarian
interests. The timing was also right (which in itself is interesting) due to
the fact that Russia was totally out of the picture at that point in time.
While we cannot be dogmatic, nor can it be proved (at this
time) there's a good reason to be suspicious that Strauss-Kahn was brought down
because the US and other allied European interests did not want to see him
ascend to the presidency of France. He represented a threat to the overall
project of power-consolidation and the subjugation of wayward European states that
are reluctant to follow the NATO (US) line, not to mention the aspirations of
globalist bankers behind organisations such as the IMF and World Bank. It is interesting
to note both Spain and Greece have chequered histories on this point with
several marks against them, at least from the perspective of the Establishment.
They were slated for rebuke and the hand that's fallen on them has been a heavy
one.
The CIA has two main prongs or functions. One is active operations,
the things that are most often portrayed in movies. The other and perhaps in
the long run the more potent is intelligence gathering. As we've known for
years they (with NSA) gather information on everyone including allies. This is
a means to manipulate. Knowledge is power. It can bring people down, influence
them, blackmail them and if necessary destroy them. When one considers the extensive
nexus between Corporate America and the Intelligence Establishment,
intelligence gathering can be understood as a weapon in and of itself.
When the Strauss-Kahn story broke I was reminded of the scene
in The Godfather II when the Nevada Senator insults Michael Corleone but then
later is caught in a very compromising situation in a brothel owned by the
Corleone family. They clean up 'the mess' for him but now he's their man.
Strauss-Kahn wasn't blackmailed. He was marked for
destruction. He's been pulled from the fire but politically he's ruined. I'm
sure he knows the score but he must be incredibly bitter. His reputation is
destroyed along with his credibility but like Eliot Spitzer he perhaps more
than anyone knows what's actually going on. Today he's active but in circles
that the EU establishment would frown upon.
Many also believe Spitzer was a man marked for destruction.
There are some good reasons to believe he was set up. In one sense it's hard to
feel sorry for men like this. Drunk on power they feed their egos in perverse
ways. But their fall and removal hardly represents some sort of moral triumph.
It's just the struggle for power on display. But as truth-tellers and witnesses
we can learn something even from episodes like these... things about the nature
of power and the complicated motives and struggles of fallen man. We can see
the hand of Common Grace at work even among those who at the same time are
infected with depravity.
Here are some links to the Strauss-Kahn story including one
by M Chussodovsky which offers a 'conspiratorial' interpretation of the events.
And finally a link to Strauss-Kahn's recent statements
regarding the state of Europe.
