Skip to main content
A grotesque auction in bellicose rhetoric
In a multipolar world Nato’s repeated violations of other countries’ borders were bound to provoke a reaction, argues KEVIN OVENDEN
JOB SAVING MISSION? Boris Johnson with Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg at Nato HQ in Brussels, Belgium

YOU know you are in a dangerous international crisis when almost the entire British media and every parliamentary party embarks on a grotesque auction in bellicose rhetoric.

Among the cliches bandied about are “appeasement” and the “new Hitler.” How many of those have we had now? Why always a Hitler, by the way? Why never a Franco or a Pinochet or a Shah of Iran or a Suharto, or...? Perhaps we ought not enquire too deeply.

And the more the public become aware of a rational approach that can prevent war, the greater the drumbeats to drown out such dangerous thinking.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP proposing the assisted dying B
Features / 21 March 2025
21 March 2025
The shameful passage of the assisted dying Bill where safeguards have been all but jettisoned is symptomatic of a hyper-liberalised society where the cult of individualism reigns supreme, argues KEVIN OVENDEN
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks to soldiers at
Features / 21 February 2025
21 February 2025
The proxy war in Ukraine is heading to a denouement with the US and Russia dividing the spoils while the European powers stand bewildered by events they have been wilfully blind to, says KEVIN OVENDEN
BY POPULAR DEMAND: Michel Barnier leaves
Features / 6 December 2024
6 December 2024
As heavy industry flees and public-sector strikes paralyse the nation, the French leader’s increasingly desperate attempts to rule without a majority reveal the deep crisis at the heart of European liberal democracy, writes KEVIN OVENDEN
Anti-fascist demonstrators march on the offices of the fasci
Features / 5 August 2024
5 August 2024
KEVIN OVENDEN draws on the Greek anti-fascist movement’s resounding successes against the neonazi Golden Dawn to outline a united front strategy to challenge state racism and surging mob violence
Similar stories
STANDING FIRM: CND activists protest at RAF Lakenheath again
Features / 24 December 2024
24 December 2024
Speaking to Ben Chacko, CND’s new leader SOPHIE BOLT outlines her organisation’s ambitious plans, from peace camps to base blockades to mass mobilisation, to fight the rising nuclear madness our politicians ignore
FUELLING CONFLICT: Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte (right)
Features / 19 October 2024
19 October 2024
Ian Sinclair interviews MEDEA BENJAMIN and DAVID SWANSON about their new book on Nato, explaining how the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia established a template for military interventions, undermining international law and diplomacy
WAR NOT PEACE EVERYTIME: US 82nd airborne division paratroop
Books / 8 August 2024
8 August 2024
TOMASZ PIERSCIONEK welcomes a succinct demonstration of how Nato became a vehicle for the US to pursue its dreams of global dominance
QUO VADIS: Foreign Secretary David Lammy leaving Downing Str
Features / 2 August 2024
2 August 2024
KENNY COYLE takes a look at David Lammy’s emerging foreign policy, dubbed ‘progressive realism,’ which supposedly draws inspiration from Ernest Bevin and Robin Cook