"The New Cold War"-The Opinion of Peter Hitchens.

Peter Hitchens in his latest work, The Broken Compass ( re-issued as The Cameron Delusion 2010 ), wrote scathingly of the new consensus in politics and diplomacy in Britain as regards the survival of NATO and it's expansion ( preface viii ),

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, bizarrely, continues to exist despite the complete disappearance of the Soviet opponent is was meant to deter.

When Russia recently threatened Georgia, battalions of commentators and politicians in what is still, for lack of a better term, called the West behaved as if this squalid and unimportant territorial squabble between unlovable governments was comparable to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia forty years before.

Yet it was wholly different. Russia is no longer an ideological state, externally or internally. It no longer seeks global power and in some ways is less interested in the minds of its citizens than are 'Western' countries which demand increasing obedience to the formulas of political correctness. In Russia, you may hold what private opinions you like. Just do not challenge the state. In Britain your private opinions may be reported to the authorities and get you into trouble, even if you believe your actions are part of normal life and you have no wish to challenge the state

The paradox is one of the most alarming facts about the modern world, and is unfortunately too little understood. This is because of the growing conventional wisdom of a 'New Cold War' is taking place between tyrannical Russia and free Britain. This is untrue and pernicious. The invented threat abroad is used to justify a stronger state at home.

Discuss.