We Bomb Therefore We Are
- November 23, 2015
- by
- Matt
Many people who have never read a word of military history or strategy will have come across the Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz’s famous observation that “war is politics (policy) by other means.” If wars are fought in pursuit of political goals, then it follows that governments will know what these goals are, and develop appropriate military strategies to achieve them.
The U.S. Department of Defense currently defines strategy as “a prudent idea or set of ideas for employing the instruments of national power in a synchronised and integrated fashion to achieve, theater, national,...
Bang, Bang Maxwell’s Silver Hammer
- August 26, 2015
- by
- Matt
Many years ago, back in 1971, the publishing magnate Robert Maxwell was forced to resign his position on the board of directors of the Oxford-based publishing company Pergamon Press, following suggestions of malfeasance in connection with his role during an attempted strategic takeover of the company. A Department of Trade and Industry inquiry into...
Chilcotmania!
- June 15, 2015
- by
- Matt
Many years ago I remember going to my local record shop almost every week to find out if they had received Television’s first album yet. I started going months before it actually came out after reading Nick Kent’s great review in the NME. I was hooked on that album even before I heard...
Letter from Palmyra
- May 21, 2015
- by
- Matt
Hey brother,
Greetings from Palmyra! I’m telling you bro, this has been a good week for the Caliphate, because we are LIVING THE DREAM! First we took Ramadi and you should have seen the Iraqi army run away from us! Afterwards we killed the ones we caught and anyone else who...
Aaronovitch Administers the Hatchet
- March 23, 2015
- by
- Matt
Anyone who has read this site will know that I’m not a big fan of the UK’s little band of neocon/liberal interventionist journalists.
It isn’t just the fact that I don’t agree with them. I can live with disagreement. It isn’t even their total obliviousness to the discrepancies between their militarist proposals and the actual...
Try to be civil, Chilcot
- January 22, 2015
- by
- Matt
One of my favourite moments in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness occurs when the narrator Marlow is interrupted by an irritated listener who tells him ‘Try to be civil Marlow.’ It’s a very English request, as Conrad well knew. I mean here is Marlow, recounting a story of the horrific violence and cruelty, madness...
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