War
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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21 books for a godson, pt. 2
This post is the second half of a list of 21 books that a man might give to his godson on the occasion of his twenty-first birthday.That is novels done.… Continue reading
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No, the Syrian civil war is not "Obama's Rwanda"
Today’s Question To Which the Answer Is No is asked by Will Inboden over at Foreign Policy. To wit: Has Syria Become Obama’s Rwanda? There are many reasons why it… 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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No, Barack Obama has not declared an end to the War on Terror - Spectator Blogs
I see that Con Coughlin is at it again. Apparently, you see, Barack Obama has “taken leave of reality”. How so? By declaring that al-Qaeda is but “a shadow of its former… 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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Yoram Kaniuk, reluctant soldier in 1948
Yoram Kaniuk was born in Tel Aviv in 1930. After his experience in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, Kaniuk moved to New York where he became a painter in Greenwich… 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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All-American heroes
Whatever Mitt might think, if there’s one thing that makes us proud to be British, it’s the fact we’re not American. Alright, it’s true we don’t have a black president… Continue reading
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Across the literary pages
Any idea what an Ouroboros is? It’s not the name of the cloud hanging over London at the moment but, according to Will Wilkinson, in his review of Joseph Stiglitz’s… Continue reading
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American mythology
Happy Fourth of July America! As you salute that Star-Spangled banner today, however, please remember that the war which spawned your anthem was a farrago wrapped in a fiasco inside… Continue reading
7 CommentsWar is War: Horrid But Not Shocking
Commenting on the publication of photographs of American soldiers in Afghanistan posing with the severed limbs of their dead Afghan opponents, Andrew Sullivan says this is "What Empire Does": The… Continue reading
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From the archives: Defending the Falklands
To mark the 30th anniversary of the start of the Falklands War, here’s Ferdinand Mount’s column from the time: The last armada, Ferdinand Mount, 10 April 1982 A debacle speaks… Continue reading
6 CommentsCameron’s fight over the Falklands
Thirty years on from the Falklands War, and the hostility between Britain and Argentina persists. And it was that hostility that delivered the most striking moment of PMQs earlier. Not… Continue reading
22 CommentsFrom the archives: A nuclear Iran
This week there were rumblings that war with Iran may be closer than most people thought. In a piece for the Spectator in 2004, Andrew Gilligan argued that even with… Continue reading
9 CommentsGaddafi’s Warning to Other Dictators: Shoot First & Shoot Them All
Now that Colonel Gaddafi is dead, there’s a lot stuff flying about Twitter along the lines of Are you watching Mr Mugabe/Assad/Ahmadinejad? I’m sure they are. Few people are likely… Continue reading
6 CommentsA Lovely Little Forgotten War
I’m glad the kinetic military action faux-war in Libya has gone so well. What’s that? Oh. Nevertheless, the war has this to be said for it: very few people seem… Continue reading
0 CommentsWhy enshrining the military covenant in law might not be such a good idea
Charles Moore’s column in the Telegraph today makes a very good case against enshrining the military covenant in law. As Charles argues, once the lawyers and the judges get their… Continue reading
16 CommentsMars and Venus Revisited
Bruce Bartlett offers this chart (via Andrew) demonstrating that the United States is the only NATO country basically to have maintained it’s Cold War defence spending. Indeed, the US accounts… Continue reading
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