Iraq
Ben Fountain interview: Lies are an affront to writers because lying is the corruption of language
Ben Fountain’s debut short story collection, Brief Encounters with Che Guevara, was published in America eighteen years after he left his job at a Dallas real estate law firm to… Continue reading
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A mass grave and a refugee camp for Syrians – Iraqi Kurdistan teaches that military intervention can work
Two experiences stand out from my recent visit to the Kurdistan Region in Iraq: meeting refugees fleeing Syria at the Domiz refugee camp; and seeing a weeping son uncovering the… Continue reading
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The Chilcot Inquiry is a pointless endeavour. Tony Blair’s critics will never be satisfied.
I never really saw the point of the Chilcot Inquiry and nothing that has happened in the years since it first sat has persuaded me I was wrong to think… Continue reading
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The Rehabilitation of George W Bush: A Sisyphean Task
Freddy Gray is quite correct: the drive to rehabilitate George W Bush is suspicious. It is also a dog that won’t hunt. It is true that recent opinion polls have… Continue reading
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Fobbit by David Abrams – review
Fobbit, by David Abrams, is an attempt at describing a wartime tour from different perspectives, including soldiers and support personnel. Chapter by chapter our viewpoint rotates within this cast of… Continue reading
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Zero Six Bravo proves that too much secrecy over Special Forces is a bad thing
Zero Six Bravo tells of 60 Special Forces operators forced to remain silent in the face of accusations of ‘cowardice’ and ‘running away from the Iraqis’ in the 2003 war.… Continue reading
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The spy who went into the fold?
What are the Times trying to say about noted Spectator fan and new Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby? They have delved into his past. It turns out to have been… Continue reading
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The Iraq fury still burns, fuelled by unanswered questions
I was fascinated to read the reaction to Nick Cohen’s article expressing his view that after 10 years he still believed the invasion of Iraq was the right thing to… Continue reading
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Craig Raine: Fiction is franker
Issue 39 of Areté starts with the words “MEMOIR ISSUE” on the front cover. It is dedicated to writing which remembers its author. Hence we get essays on Proust; Art… Continue reading
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15 February 2003: What Do They Want? Victory for Saddam
Ten years ago today, Lloyd Evans joined the anti-Iraq war march in London. Evans had an open mind about the war, until he joined the peace movement and met Bianca… Continue reading
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What if the stop the war protesters had got their way?
It’s the 10th anniversary of the Stop the War protest today, which led me to think about a point Christopher Hitchens once made: how the world would look if the… Continue reading
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The Iraq War's Real Victims? Laurie Penny and the Narcissistic Left
Don’t take my word for it. Ask the redoubtable Ms Penny herself. Contemplating the “lesson” of the anti-war protests a decade ago, she writes: Tony Blair’s decision to take Britain… Continue reading
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War is not to be envied
Donald Anderson is a former US Air Force Colonel and current professor of English Literature at the US Air Force Academy. His new book, Gathering Noise from my Life: A… Continue reading
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If Barack Obama is an isolationist then isolationism no longer has any meaning - Spectator Blogs
Con Coughlin suggests Barack Obama has “given up” fighting al-Qaeda which, frankly, is a curious assessment given the ongoing drone war (and other operations) in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Roger Kimball,… Continue reading
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Cabinet row over imprisoned SAS soldier
A lunchtime spat has broken out over Sergeant Danny Nightingale, the SAS serviceman who was sentenced to 18 months in prison by a court martial after pleading guilty to possession… Continue reading
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Annals of Neoconservative Delusion: Leaving Iraq Edition - Spectator Blogs
Douglas Murray’s latest post is a rum ‘un indeed. He asks us to believe that Barack Obama’s “foreign policy boasts” are unraveling now that the American election is usefully out… Continue reading
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Barack Obama’s foreign policy boast unravels after election
What a lot of things President Obama seems to have been holding back until after his re-election. Each day brings something new. There has been the news of an attack… Continue reading
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David Petraeus quits as CIA director over affair
Few people have been more important in America’s recent wars than David Petraeus. Petraeus led the surge of US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and redefined the US approach to… Continue reading
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‘Arab Spring’ is a misnomer
What do you do when confronted with a prejudice so strong it takes your breath away? In my case, I did what was immediately necessary. I took a deep breath… Continue reading
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How should we mark the Great War’s centenary?
It seems strange now to recall that, it was not so many years ago, around the time of the millennium, that some in Whitehall were talking about how to scale… Continue reading
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