That 'whiff of Munich' in the air?
A form of bunting or scent-rubbing
Cabinet ministers are mostly generalists — it’s rare for a doctor to be in charge of the health ministry, for instance, or a lawyer to be justice minister — so, Britain’s defence secretary is something of an exception. He was, in a previous avatar, at least a foot soldier if not the general in the department he now leads. Before he joined politics, Ben Wallace was a captain in the British Army.
That probably explains his rather vague (generalist) attempt to contextualise the Ukraine issue. Military history may not be Mr Wallace’s strong suit. Having echoed American secretary of state Anthony Blinken’s oft-repeated statement that Russia could invade Ukraine any day now, Mr Wallace added that there was a “whiff of Munich in the air from some in the West.”
The allusion was to the diplomatic manoeuvres of September 1938. That agreement concluded in Munich by Germany, the UK, France and Italy, essentially gave Czechoslovakia to the Germans in exchange for a prom…
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