Iraq war
Saviour complex: Jonathan Powell is still trying to change the world
In 2011, the Hampstead theatre put on an autobiographical play about a marriage strained by lies, betrayal and, as the…
Ambitious, bold and confusing: BBC4’s Corridors of Power – Should America Police the World? reviewed
Narrated by Meryl Streep, Corridors of Power: Should America Police the World? announced the scale of its ambition straight away.…
One damned thing after another: Britain’s crisis-ridden century so far
The Iraq war, the financial crisis, Brexit and Covid have seen many prime ministers blown off course. Will Keir Starmer be any luckier than his predecessors?
Was I right about Iraq?
Back in March there was a glut of pieces about the 2003 Iraq war. The 20th anniversary seemed to much…
Bush is leading us to tragedy (2002)
It’s 20 years since the clamour for the invasion of Iraq was at its loudest. Boris Johnson, The Spectator’s then…
Colin Powell: A great man – and a failure
My memory of Colin Powell feels personal, even though we were 6000 miles apart at the time. I was in…
Joining the dots
‘History,’ wrote Edward Gibbon, ‘is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.’ In…
Joe Biden’s endless wars
In just over a week, the Empire hopes to strike back. Joe Biden personifies the foreign policy of endless war…
Are you reading this, Rishi?
Curious thing, writer’s block. If you believe it exists. Terry Pratchett didn’t. ‘There’s no such thing,’ he said. ‘It was…
Opulence and chaos
Nobody could argue that Andrew Davies isn’t up for a challenge. He’d also surely be a shoo-in for Monty Python’s…
Katharine Gun: the spy who tried to stop the Iraq war
In his memoir of office, Decision Points, George W. Bush writes about going to see Tony Blair in the Azores…
The Cheneys have always put war first and America last
Donald Trump has called the Iraq war the ‘worst single mistake’ in US history. Most Americans, including our military, agree…
To win, the Democrats need to be more like Trump
Here is the tragedy of the Democratic party in 2019: its partisans are left to hope that personal hatred of…
Brexit, and the return of political lying
The Chancellor and PM are using every dirty trick in the Blairite book to win a Remain vote
Americans for Brexit
President Obama thinks it’s in all our interests for you to remain part of the EU. This is why he’s wrong
You can’t forget what Will Self says – even if you wish you could
It lasted for just a few seconds but was such a graphic illustration of the statistics behind the bombing campaign…
Eastern airs
On Private Passions this week the writer Amitav Ghosh gave us a refreshingly different version of what has become a…
Forget Chilcot
What we really need is an inquiry into why so many of us are so eager to support ‘humanitarian’ wars
Long life
I’m going off Jeremy Corbyn. He seems more and more pleased with himself by the minute. But I understand why…
How to defeat a caliphate
Private military contractors have done wonders against Boko Haram. They could against Isis, too
Sexed-up pacifism
Big-screen documentaries never change the world. Blackfish has not shortened the queues to see maltreated killer whales leap through hoops…
The man to take on Hillary
Washington DC Bored American reporters are pining for a Democratic primary challenger to step up against Hillary Clinton in…
Daring to think the unthinkable
Tony Judt was not only a great historian, he was also a great essayist and commentator on international politics. Few…
The Tim and Andy show
Tim and Andy are back. Their monster hit Evita opens the fully refurbed and re-primped Dominion Theatre, which is built…
This ‘Islamist conspiracy’ is WMD all over again
I can remember where I was when Colin Powell presented to the United Nations his evidence for the existence of…
