Category: Politics

Alex Mercouris in his presentation of 14 April 2024 1asks the question: Does Iran have the capability to develop hypersonic weapons … and then adds ‘by itself’? Alex’s has a curious assumption that Iran has to develop the technology on its own with exclusively national resources. This is a strange assumption as it has never  been applied elsewhere. Let us start with the Manhattan Project. This project utilised scientists from all over Europe etc, for example from Hungary, Germany,…

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‘O, what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to deceive!’ Walter Scott (Marmion 1808) Western psychohistory generates a complicated web of what becomes self-deception. But Western sceptics seeking justice also become entrapped in this. Western received history portrays the West as active and the rest of the wold as reactive or victims. This often misreads the dynamic of history and takes away agency from others. While many of us  are appalled and outraged by the suffering…

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Carl Zha was interviewed by David Oualaalou on 17 Feb 20241.  He repeats a fundamental error of many Asian leftist in their analysis of US policy. They posit that the fundamental difference between Chinese policy and US policy is that China looks long-term and US policy is dominated by short-term policies. At one point Carl Zha suggests that quarterly earnings dominate US thinking. This is lazy thinking and close to absurd. If we look at US historical policy we…

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I had something else to do today …but this cannot wait!!! Jeremy Tate and Cornel West have written an opinion piece (The Washington Post 20 April 2021 ) in response to Howard University’s culling of its classics department. If true the proposal by Howard University to cull its classics department is a disaster, the response by West and Tate are catastrophes. For Howard to ‘cancel’ the classics is possibly the result of the long term effects of the neo-liberal…

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