Book review. The Ledger: Accounting for Failure in Afghanistanby Ian SinclairPeace NewsJune-July 2022 Presumably hastily put together after the disorderly US-UK-NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, The Ledger is written by two advisors to the Western militaries and Afghan government: David Kilcullen and Greg Mills. Their roles gave the pair an enviable level of access to […]
If Vladimir Putin is to be tried as a war criminal, why not Gordon Brown?by Ian SinclairMorning Star5 April 2022 Last month former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was among 140 academics, lawyers and politicians who signed a petition calling for a Nuremberg-style trial for Russian President Vladimir Putin for the invasion of Ukraine. Appearing […]
Foreign policy conducted on the sly: Britain and the repressive Gulf monarchiesby Ian SinclairMorning Star29 March 2022 In 1917, after listening to an account of fighting on the Western Front, Prime Minister Lloyd George is reported to have said “If people really knew [the truth], the war would be stopped tomorrow. But of course they […]
[This is the transcript of a talk I gave to Bath Friends of Palestine on 25 February 2022.] Since I arrived with my family in the UK last summer, I have been repeatedly asked: “Why choose Bristol as your new home?” Well, it certainly wasn’t for the weather. Now more than ever I miss Nazareth’s […]
The Russian attack on Ukraine and the Western propaganda systemby Ian SinclairMorning Star14 March 2022 The Russian invasion of Ukraine has confirmed the criminal barbarity of the Russian government and the leadership of its armed forces. On 8 March Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said two million people had fled Ukraine since […]
Why is no one talking about how senior Labour Party figures whitewash apartheid?by Ian SinclairMorning Star25 February 2022 Amnesty International’s recent report condemning Israel for “committing the crime of apartheid against Palestinians” is a damning indictment of the current Israeli government (and its predecessors), and its supporters around the world. After carrying out research for […]
How do we stop the UK enabling the bloodbath in Yemen?by Ian SinclairMorning Star16 February 2022 As we approach the seventh anniversary of the beginning of Saudi Arabia’s ongoing military intervention and blockade in Yemen, the horror continues. By the end of 2021 the United Nations Development Programme estimated 377,000 people had been killed in […]
Munich – The Edge Of War: glossing over the British Empireby Ian SinclairMorning Star4 February 2022 A pretty good, sometimes gripping, political thriller, the new movie Munich – The Edge Of War, based on Robert Harris’s 2017 novel, includes a couple of obvious howlers. First, the film’s Adolf Hitler is so bad it becomes comical. […]
The Curious Incident of the Missing Article of the Russian Treatyby Ian SinclairMorning Star22-23 January 2022 Last month Russia’s Supreme Court ordered the closure of Memorial International, the nation’s oldest human rights group, which was devoted to researching and recording crimes committed in the Soviet Union. “It is not hard to see how Putin, mired […]
Book review. Veteranhood: Rage and Hope in British Ex-Military Life by Joe Glentonby Ian SinclairMorning Star31 December 2021 A wide-ranging memoir-polemic, Joe Glenton sees his new book is an attempt “to address the commonly held idea that we vets are all irredeemably right-wing.” Glenton, who served in Afghanistan with the British Army’s Royal Logistical Corps […]
