Matthew Carr's Blog, page 48
April 2, 2015
What’s so interesting about William Tecumseh Sherman?
There are a lot of books to read, and for those of you that like to spend time, maybe too much time, on the internet, there is a lot of stuff to read that isn’t in books and which doesn’t … Continue reading →
March 31, 2015
Why 1.3 million dead are not worth mentioning
It’s one of the essential tenets of the new age of humanitarian war that war is not as bad as it used to be, or at least that it’s not so bad that the costs outweigh the gains. War, or … Continue reading →
March 29, 2015
Killing the Messenger
I first came across the name Gary Webb some years ago, when I was researching a section about the Reagan administration’s first ‘war on terror’ in the 1980s for my book on terrorism. Webb was a reporter for the San … Continue reading →
March 26, 2015
The Ballad of Jeremy Clarkson
Even in a world filled with tragedies and traumas, Wednesday 25 March 2015 will go down as a dark, dark day in the nation’s history. For a few brief hours the sun did shine, however weakly and intermittently, across parts … Continue reading →
March 23, 2015
Aaronovitch administers the hatchet
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 … Continue reading →
March 20, 2015
Britain’s detention gulag: the ‘animals’ rebel
Three weeks ago Channel 4 News produced a shocking undercover report on Yarl’s Wood immigration detention centre, using a hidden camera. The report was painful, infuriating and utterly shameful viewing. Yarl’s Wood was outsourced to Serco in 2007, and its … Continue reading →
March 18, 2015
Come in Mr Peace Envoy: your time is up
Rumours abound of the Right Dishonourable Anthony Blair’s imminent departure from his position as the Quartet’s Peace Envoy. The Chosen One has occupied that position since the powers-that-be gave it to him in 2007, at the behest of his mate … Continue reading →
March 16, 2015
Joshua Muravchik: War Zombie
You have to admire the neoconservative imagination. Alright, maybe not admire exactly. But in any case you have to acknowledge that these guys are in it for the long haul. Neither age nor failure can wither them. No amount of … Continue reading →
March 13, 2015
Look out America: the Venezuelans are coming
A long time ago back back in the 1980s I was living in New York, when I read a story in the New York Times about a group of armed Nicaraguan exiles, consisting mostly of former members of the Somoza National … Continue reading →
March 11, 2015
It’s raining threats, hallelujah
One of the great things about living in a democratic society is that we don’t have propaganda. That is something that authoritarian regimes like Russia and Iran do. They have stations like RT and Press tv which do nothing but … Continue reading →
