Canadian Forces Mobilized for Aggressive War and Occupation Canadian Soldiers Arrive in Latvia for Aggressive NATO Mission

Canada's leadership of the NATO battlegroup in Latvia is part of NATO's aggressive Enhanced Forward Presence in Eastern Europe and the Baltic states aimed at threatening Russia (click to enlarge). The first 100 Canadian soldiers of the more than 450 who will be deployed to Latvia arrived there on June 9 from CFB Edmonton with others deploying on subsequent days from CFB Gagetown and elsewhere. According to the Department of National Defence, an advance party of 50 soldiers was already in Latvia. Canada is leading a permanent NATO military presence in Latvia with soldiers from Albania, Italy, Poland, Slovenia and Spain. Other NATO "battlegroups" in Estonia, Lithuania and Poland, all bordering Russia or Belarus, are led by the United Kingdom, Germany and the U.S., respectively. The NATO mission is part of the effort to isolate Russia, further militarize the countries bordering Russia and bring them under U.S. imperialist control. This has carried on with the eastward expansion of NATO since the collapse of the Soviet Union but has accelerated since the 2014 U.S. coup in Ukraine. Along with soldiers from NATO member countries, eastern Europe and the Baltics are also being flooded with U.S. weapons and military vehicles as well as ballistic missile defence systems. The U.S. continues to base nearly 500 publicly-admitted nuclear bombs in Europe which can be deployed under NATO command. A June 12 CBC News report from Latvia interviewed locals in Riga, but was not able to find anyone who agreed with the official line of the need for NATO deploying to defend against "Russian aggression." One man told the CBC that the "fear is minimal" while others "view the arrival of NATO battle group as unnecessarily provocative," the report said. One person said, "I don't think it's necessary to annoy the Russians," while another, whom the CBC made sure to identify as a "Russian speaker" said "I don't think there's any kind of threat." The only person the CBC could find to speak in support of the mission was its commander, Lt.-Col. Wade Rutland, who said the mission is "entirely defensive and proportionate in response to Russian actions." A subsequent CBC article June 16 on "Anti-Canada propaganda" in Latvia attempted to clarify the previous report, stating "the article suggested a majority of Latvians supported the mission but there were [sic] also dissent." The June 12 article in fact said nothing about the majority of Latvians supporting Canada's military occupation of their country. The June 16 report warned that "Latvia is awash with over-the-air Russian TV and radio programs and a number of pro-Kremlin blogs and websites disseminate multiple stories every day that cast the NATO military alliance in a bad light." The CBC linked to a local news report referencing a Latvian parliamentary debate on whether NATO soldiers would be travelling through the country with live weapons, and under what conditions they would be permitted to discharge their weapons, as an example of this "anti-NATO news" and "anti-Canadian propaganda." (TML Weekly No. 23, June 24, 2017)