The Great War: Warnography

Needless to say, the centenary has been seized as a military propaganda opportunity. Last week David Cameron crudely compared Vladimir Putin in Ukraine to Germany under the Kaiser in 1914 (and under Hitler). This was neither true nor helpful. The prime minister added that Britain was “not about to launch a European war”. In which case why mention it at all, and why also send troops to train in eastern Europe? ...

The chief lesson of 1914 must be not recklessly to rattle sabres across the frontiers of Europe until all else is lost. The Germans have learned that. In Ukraine they are still counselling restraint. Britain is doing the opposite, as its leaders gently dust themselves in glory. When Cameron last year allotted £50m to “remembering the lessons” of 1914, he was also planning to go to war on Syria. I wonder what lesson taught him that.

1914: The Great War Has Become A Nightly Pornography Of Violence Simon Jenkins, The Guardian.

Meanwhile in Gaza...

Update: A blunt warning from Prince William, a century after war ravaged the continent: Ukraine crisis is a threat to all Europe Mail Online.

'In April, the Mail reported how Prince Charles told a Polish woman, who had lost many of her Jewish family in the Nazi Holocaust: ‘And now Putin is doing just about the same [in the Ukraine] as Hitler...’

Thankfully, our own dear Royal Family stand above politics, except when engaging in propaganda so crude, you'd have to be as stupid and inbred as them to fall for it.