Albert Einstein it was who made the salient point that ‘Peace cannot be kept by force, it can only be achieved by understanding.’ If only the assorted panjandrums who currently occupy positions of power in the West would have grasped Einstein’s point, there would be no conflict in Ukraine right…

Operation Bagration was the D-Day of the Eastern Front. In scope, size, scale and impact, it was a remarkable feat of arms unmatched in WWII. Crucially, Overlord (D-Day) and Bagration were planned and undertaken as part of a coordinated effort on the part of the Grand Alliance to break the…

‘In my opinion it gives us freedom, not the ultimate freedom that all nations desire.. but the freedom to achieve it.’ Michael Collins (on the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty and the partition of Ireland) Arriving at West Belfast’s Milltown Cemetery you are immediately struck by the preponderance of young people laid…

You could almost hear the sound of teeth gnashing over at NATO headquarters in Brussels. After all, decades of carefully cultivated propaganda had succeeded in the collective mind of the West in associating NATO not with military aggression and imperialism, but with democracy and freedom — a kind of benign…

Two and a half years in prison for attempting to hide cash and assets from creditors in the context of bankruptcy proceedings. Former darling of the Centre Court at Wimbledon and the pro tennis circuit in general, Boris Becker will doubtless, just a few days after being sent down, still…

A seminal moment in Coppola’s classic sequel, The Godfather II, is the scene where a freshly installed Godfather of the Corleone Gamily, Michael Corleone, is confronted by a corrupt senator at his sister Connie’s lavish wedding. The senator is all smiles in front of Michael Corleone’s family when he arrives…

“Therefore learn how to see and not to gape. To act instead of talking all day long. The world was almost won by such an ape! The nations put him where his kind belong. But don’t rejoice too soon at your escape - The womb he crawled from is still going strong.” ― Bertolt Brecht, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui It used to be axiomatic in the West that post-WWII the Nazi swastika would forevermore remain a symbol of pristine barbarism and evil, and that wherever and whenever it appeared it would become the solemn duty of all right-thinking people to…

In his excellent work, The New Silk Roads, Peter Frankopan makes the salient point that “The decisions being made in today’s world that really matter are not being made in Paris, London, Berlin or Rome — as they were a hundred years ago — but in Beijing, Moscow, in Tehran…

Hollywood actor Will Smith’s entire career is now defined by a slap that was seen and heard around the world. At this year’s Hollywood Oscars ceremony Smith, in the judgement of his critics, crossed a line by engaging in this act of violence against comedian and host Chris Rock over…