Iraq ten years on: Welcome to Baghdad, 'Capital of Culture' 2013
If Glasgow and Liverpool can do it, so too can… er Baghdad. Ten years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi capital is styling itself as a "capital of culture" for 2013. It's a gallant move to...
View ArticleIraq war: 10 years later, stability is still a long way off
I’m back in Iraq for the first time in almost nine years. Inevitably, I’m here because of the 10th anniversary of the war, which began with the first US air strikes on March 19, 2003. My overwhelming...
View ArticleThe BBC just cannot accept that Iraq is a better place without Saddam Hussein
It's pathetic, really. Ten years after the successful military campaign to overthrow Saddam Hussein, the BBC simply cannot accept that, by removing the Iraqi tyrant, we helped to liberate the Iraqi...
View ArticleIraq ten years on: Baghdad's 'Cinema of Death'
The co-ordinated bombings that killed at least 56 people in Baghdad today were a reminder that Iraq is still a very deadly place. While violent deaths are down from their 3,000-a-month peak at the...
View ArticleIraq ten years on: how the Toyota Crown has become the hitman's favourite
Iraq is a country where all manner of threats are issued every day, all too many of them genuine. One of the most chilling, though, is also one of the oddest-sounding: "Beware, or you'll end up in a...
View ArticleIraq ten years on: a tourists' guide to the Garden of Eden and the film set...
Earlier this month, Iraqi Airways relaunched its Baghdad to London connection, the first time it has flown the route since 1990, when Gulf War One brought the airline's UK activities to a halt. The...
View ArticleIraq ten years on: the tea house tales of terror and survival
On my recent trip to Iraq, I met a man whose tales of woe were spectacular even by local standards. Riyadh al-Obeid was a former army officer, who, like most others in Saddam's forces, took the...
View ArticleJames McCormick's fake bomb detectors and the attack I witnessed in Baghdad
It’s hard to find words to describe the wickedness and cynicism of James McCormick, the businessman convicted of fraud for selling fake bomb detectors. I say this with some feeling because Iraq was the...
View ArticleCould Iraq's 'Arab Spring' lead it back to civil war?
With civil war now raging in Syria, and post-Arab Spring governments taking their first unsteady steps in Egypt and Libya, it’s all too easy to forget the unfinished business that is Iraq. The tenth...
View ArticleSeventeen-year-olds are too young to die for their country
In Britain, 17-year-olds are deemed to be too young to drive a car, buy a drink in the pub, or place a bet. They are too young to vote, nor are they deemed sufficiently adult to enter into civil...
View ArticleBritain and Syria: prisoners of history
This is from the Telegraph Politics Evening Briefing email, available to anyone who signs up here. DRUMBEATS David Cameron said he agreed with the new US assessment that Syria's Bashar al-Assad has...
View ArticleSyria: Where is Britain's national interest?
Every other commentator seems clear about whether to intervene in Syria. For one side, it's a case of straightforward ethics: are you prepared to stand by and watch women and children being...
View ArticleAl-Qaeda is thriving amid the chaos of Iraq
The mass breakout from two of Iraq’s biggest prisons is yet more evidence of how close the country is to suffering the terrible sectarian bloodshed of 2006-07 once again. Al-Qaeda’s network in the...
View ArticleHow to create peace in the Middle East – by the man who brought you Iraq
Almost unnoticed, Iraq is toppling into civil war, yet again. Here are a few sentences plucked at random from an Al Jazeera article published this Saturday: “Bombings and shootings across Iraq have...
View ArticleParadise regained: the recovery of the cradle of civilisation offers hope for...
Here's some good news out of Iraq. The Mesopotamian Marshes, supposedly the site of the Garden of Eden, are coming back to life as Saddam Hussein's destruction of the area is reversed, as I describe in...
View ArticleSupporters of intervention in Syria have not yet made a convincing case
I long for the moral certainty that everyone else seems to feel about Syria. I wish I could dismiss my opponents as either warmongering fools or heartless cowards. The trouble is that, while I'm on...
View ArticleSyria debate: Can David Cameron convince his critics? Don't bet on it
Today, David Cameron stood before the House of Commons and made the case for war. He did so with conviction and passion. And it probably won't matter. Let me explain. The Government's efforts today...
View ArticleTen years after Iraq, MPs simply do not trust our spies
Last night’s debate revealed how little faith politicians have in Britain’s intelligence services. The Joint Intelligence Committee's assessment, released yesterday, was frank. The JIC, which assesses...
View ArticleBarack Obama is proving an embarrassing amateur on the world stage compared...
George W. Bush was widely mocked by the Left during the Iraq War, with liberals jeering at the “coalition of the willing,” which included in its ranks some minnows such as Moldova and Kazkhstan....
View ArticleWe don't want Syria becoming 'another Iraq'. But was Iraq really such a...
As talk of military action against Syria has gathered pace in recent weeks, I've lost count of the number of times I've heard people say "we don't want another Iraq". From the White House to the...
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