There was enough brass in the room to forge a cannon. The generals were all there, the joint chiefs and…
Continue reading →The life of a hostage: terrifying, unjust and expendable
Alan Johnston told a press conference after his release yesterday morning, “They did threaten my life a number of times.…
Continue reading →A patriotic thought experiment
“I am going to teach [them] to elect good men.” –President Woodrow Wilson, referring to his decision in 1914 to…
Continue reading →Iraq’s founding mother
During the frozen winter of 2003 in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, Ahmad Chalabi was waiting for the United States…
Continue reading →What Luttwak didn’t say
Edward Luttwak is right that the middle east is not important enough to fight over. That’s why the US should…
Continue reading →Obituary – Major Derek Cooper, MC, OBE, World War II hero who espoused the Palestinian cause
There was no more improbable sight in Beirut during the brutal Israeli siege of 1982 than a graceful and elegant…
Continue reading →Review of ‘Aida’
The Richmond Theatre 30 April – 5 May 2007 Following Aida’s premier in Cairo in December 1871, Verdi wrote, “This…
Continue reading →The lord of no man’s land: A guided tour through Lebanon’s ceaseless war
Israel should have known better. Even before abandoning their bases inside Lebanon in 2000, the Israelis had been unable to…
Continue reading →Death of a billionaire PM
Review of Killing Mr Lebanon: The Assassination of Rafik Hariri And Its Impact On The Middle East by Nicholas Blandford…
Continue reading →Learning from Its Mistakes: Charles Glass on Hizbullah
In his memoir, Not So Wild a Dream, the famous CBS correspondent Eric Sevareid recalled watching the execution of six…
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