For what it's worth, the transatlantic alliance of the U.S. and its European allies – embodied by the NATO military bloc – had a fairly good chronological run. The imperialist clique managed to hold together for nearly eight decades. But now that ship is running aground on the rocks of a proxy war in Ukraine against Russia.

Signs of collapse and disintegration are coming fast and thick. The military defeat in Ukraine by the NATO powers after a $100 billion investment in weapons is foremost among the casualty list – together with up to 500,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers.

What a hideous fiasco the NATO-sponsored campaign against Russia has turned out to be. A bloodbath in Europe akin to the worst among history's many imperialist slaughters. The U.S.-led military alliance of 30 nations has spectacularly forfeited any pretence of being a "security organization".

The gnashing of teeth has only just begun. The farcical shame over NATO's retreat two years ago from Afghanistan in August 2021 – after 20 years of failed military occupation – is but a prelude to the horrendous debacle unfolding over Ukraine.