Pretext
in sentence
211 examples of Pretext in a sentence
The theory’s publication at a time of worldwide alarm about double-digit inflation offered central bankers exactly the
pretext
they needed for desperately unpopular actions.
After the Security Council approved a resolution to institute a no-fly zone and take other actions ostensibly to protect Libyan civilians, NATO used the resolution as a
pretext
to overthrow Qaddafi’s regime through aerial bombardment.
Prohibition created a
pretext
for authoritarian regimes to resist the abolition of death penalty; yet even states that execute people for drug-related crimes have not been able to stem the tide.
They are not using their struggles as a
pretext
to default on their duty of solidarity with Greece.
According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the recent US-led strike could serve as a
pretext
for further strengthening the Assad regime’s conventional capabilities by supplying it with Russia’s advanced S-300 air-defense system.
Now Putin claims the right to ignore neighboring countries’ sovereignty on the
pretext
that Russia is merely defending the rights of ethnic Russians abroad, up to and including their right to secede and join the Russian homeland.
The West’s response will intensify dramatically if Russia deploys forces across its borders, whatever the pretext; should Russia adopt subtler methods of political destabilization, Western pressure will build more gradually, but build it will.
Today, too, governments may be tempted to protect newspapers and public TV on the
pretext
of “saving democracy as we know it.”
The generals’ insistence that the constitution should vest them with power to define security threats – including political threats – is unacceptable to Egypt’s liberals, and is a message to the Muslim Brotherhood that the army could again use any
pretext
to define them as a public threat.
The NKVD, the precursor to the KGB, orchestrated the assassination on Stalin's order, but the inquiry gave the Soviet dictator a
pretext
for eliminating other opponents.
But Xi, under the
pretext
of his anti-corruption battle, has targeted retired Politburo member Zhou Yongkang, who is now reportedly under house arrest, facing graft charges – and lurid allegations not only that he murdered his first wife but that he tried to assassinate Xi.
More often, however, the cleansing is a
pretext
to change political direction after the people have voted in a way that magistrates oppose.
The Archduke's assassination provided a perfect
pretext.
We know from a long trail of documents, memoirs, and interviews that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were a
pretext.
In his famous attack on determinism, the philosopher Isaiah Berlin did not deny that structural factors could be a driver of history; he simply rejected their use as a
pretext
for avoiding moral responsibility.
In the meantime, his obsession with dominating the daily news cycle, no matter how flimsy the pretext, continues unabated.
Perhaps we should be looking to China and India for answers about how to address environmental damage, instead of using climate change as a
pretext
to deprive them of what we already have.
The
pretext
for the war, which pitted the Russians, under Czar Nicholas I, against the British, French, and Ottomans, was Russia’s self-declared responsibility to protect Jerusalem’s holy places.
Moreover, Estonia and Latvia are alarmed at Russia’s geopolitical ambitions, especially given the
pretext
of protecting ethnic kin.
Those problems were not the direct cause of the attacks, but nor were they a mere
pretext.
Alternatively, because Biden consistently leads Trump in opinion polls, Trump could try to use the COVID-19 pandemic as a
pretext
for postponing or otherwise corrupting the election.
Over four decades, the Cold War had taken millions of lives in various theaters around the world (where the conflict was much hotter than its name suggests), and created a
pretext
for repression and elite dominance in dozens of countries across Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
Autocratic regimes, in particular, are liable to use the pandemic as a
pretext
to arrest opponents and silence dissent.
Throughout history, crises like the current one have served as a convenient
pretext
for authoritarian regimes to normalize their tyrannical impulses.
But Britons would nonetheless do well to heed the words of the Duc de Saint-Simon: “The Revocation of the edict of Nantes, without the least
pretext
or any necessity, depopulated a quarter of the kingdom, ruined its commerce, and weakened it in all its parts.”
For them, the promise of a technological get-out-of-jail-free card is an ideal
pretext
for continuing their highly profitable, destructive activities.
It is also what happened in 1964, when the US used attacks by North Vietnamese torpedo boats on American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin as a
pretext
for adopting a congressional resolution that allowed President Lyndon B. Johnson, and then President Richard M. Nixon, to escalate US military involvement in the Vietnam War.
The goal would be to provoke leftist counter-violence, giving Trump a
pretext
to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy federal law enforcement or the US military to restore “law and order” (as he has previously threatened to do).
Furthermore, prohibiting safe outdoor activities on the
pretext
of reducing the risk of wider rules violations is an argument against law and order itself.
For example, Trump’s refusal to accept electoral defeat could spark mass protests (and probably some rioting), creating an ostensible
pretext
for him to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy troops against US civilians.
Back
Next
Related words
Under
Which
Their
Would
Could
Other
Using
There
Should
Without
Security
Order
Against
Military
Government
After
While
Wanted
People
Night
