Thirty years ago this well-financed newspaper should have changed its named to The Wardian. Or La Guerrienne. The transition in the United Kingdom to New Labour, in the U.S. to New Democrats, in Germany to Die Neue Mitte (the New Middle) and moves in a similar direction in much of the rest of Europe and Canada occurred in the 1990s and exploited the crisis in former Yugoslavia to promote NATO expansion, resulting in its evolution from 16 members and no partners in 1991 to 30 members and 40 partners, in six continents, now. That trend gave us, especially in the persons of Tony Blair and Gerhard Schröder, the wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya among others.
An aspect of that tendency has been the emergence of a NATO Left, one which under the aegis of, at first, claims of humanitarian intervention, then promotion of largely American-style cultural and lifestyle concerns abroad, has converged with the Euroatlantic elites’ newfound rules-based international order. Many in this category fully supported the initial stage of the war waged by U.S. Africa Command and NATO against Libya in 2011, if not the entirety of it. Such types also urged stronger NATO intervention in Sudan over Darfur and even in Mali in the last decade. As is personified by New Labour’s Starmer below, they are foursquare in support of NATO’s confrontation with Russia now, up to and including war.
Their leaders in the U.S. House and Senate are openly pro-NATO, having to a one voted for the 2019 NATO Support Act in the House.
That trend in Europe, of which the transformation of the former Manchester Guardian into what it has become is emblematic, and to an analogous extent in the U.S. has now contributed to a showdown between the world’s mightiest armed power and its thirty-nation military bloc on one hand and Russia on the other. That is, nuclear U.S. and nuclear NATO against nuclear Russia.
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The Guardian
February 10, 2022
Keir Starmer accuses Stop the War coalition of siding with Nato’s enemies
Keir Starmer: Under my leadership, Labour’s commitment to Nato is unshakable
Excerpts from the first link.
Keir Starmer has launched an outspoken attack on the Stop the War coalition, in which Jeremy Corbyn is a leading figure, effectively accusing the campaign group of siding with Russia against Nato.
In an opinion article for the Guardian, written on the way to Brussels where he reaffirmed Labour’s staunch support for Nato, Starmer says Stop the War are “not benign voices for peace”.
“At best they are naive, at worst they actively give succour to authoritarian leaders who directly threaten democracies. There is nothing progressive in showing solidarity with the aggressor when our allies need our solidarity and – crucially – our practical assistance now more than ever.”
He accused the group of a “kneejerk reflex: ‘Britain, Canada, the United States, France – wrong; their enemies – right’.”
Stop the War is holding an online rally on Thursday evening, with the title No War in Ukraine: Stop Nato Expansion. Speakers include Corbyn and the Labour MP Diane Abbott.
Starmer said: “Nobody wants war. At first glance some on the left may be sympathetic to those siren voices who condemn Nato. But to condemn Nato is to condemn the guarantee of democracy and security it brings and which our allies in eastern and central Europe are relying on as the sabre-rattling from Moscow grows ever louder.”
Good for Corbyn and Abbott. That Stirmer guy will be left in the dustbin of history with his record of insignificance.
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Starmer: “Just think of it — Putin is a threat to our woke way of life! Who wants that? Anyone? Hello?”
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All of the threats to “democracy” these days are strictly internal.
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He accused the group of a “kneejerk reflex: ‘Britain, Canada, the United States, France – wrong; their enemies – right’.”
Unlike of course the non-kneejerk reflex of ‘Britain, Canada, the United States, France – right; their enemies – wrong’.”
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