Man of sorrows: Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg
SPARE a thought this weekend for Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg. He spent almost 10 years as Norway’s prime minister slashing and privatising his country’s once prized welfare state.
On his watch, Norway’s military spending rose to become one of the highest per head in the whole of Nato, although he failed in his wish to take Norway into the EU.
This was all a far cry from his earlier years in the self-styled Marxist-Leninist Red Youth group, before finding a new home on the right wing of the Norwegian Labour Party.
Israel angered after US president lifts sanctions on Turkey, opening way for potential sale of F-35 fighter jets
SEVIM DAGDELEN says European Nato states are escalating ever closer to direct conflict with a nuclear power, and sacrificing welfare states built up over a century to finance it
Western nations’ increasingly aggressive stance is not prompted by any increase in security threats against these countries — rather, it is caused by a desire to bring about regime changes against governments that pose a threat to the hegemony of imperialism, writes PRABHAT PATNAIK