The Matthew Parris column in the Times yesterday – yup, Rupert’s Times – was headed, The Bombs-Away Brigade are on Autopilot. Its kicker ran thus: “Amazingly, Corbyn is right. The hawks just want to join a scrap with their mates … Read More »
My friend Sue Beardon alerted me to this FB post of November 17 by Greg Afinogenov, a Muscovite living in Boston MA: I’m so sick of seeing the endless debate about “if you care about Paris you don’t care about … Read More »
Last night Channel 4 screened a documentary on Isis recruitment of British Muslim women. A young woman calling herself Aisha spends a year engaging Islamists, graduating from Twitter and FB through text and phone call to live meetings. She’s in … Read More »
Don’t we instinctively recognise the truth of Goering’s words? I began my last post but one by describing Corbyn’s response to the Paris question – would he endorse shoot to kill by special forces if even greater carnage might thus … Read More »
Dreadful article by Rafael Behr in the Grauniad today. You get the gist from its headline: Jihadism a symptom of western policy? That’s mangled history. In a piece whose thrust is to rubbish Jeremy Corbyn – in this instance for … Read More »
A friend questions my broad-brush style. He has both a history degree and a point. A cornerstone of critical thinking is that the more counter-intuitive a claim, the more evidence it needs. My recent posts run counter to dominant narratives … Read More »
Recap from part 1: Ankara is unwilling to move against ISIS because (a) that would aid Kurdish Peshmerga linked to a PKK it sees as terrorist; (b) in a bid for regional supremacy Erdogan turned on the man he used … Read More »
Isis looks set to overrun Kurdish resistance at Kobani. Not because these fanatics are invincible but because, as ever in the Middle East, a grim realpolitik prevails in the stakeholder capitals. Let’s set aside – we don’t have all day! … Read More »