Politicians used to be generals because politics was created as an extension of war. In the decades of peace, we have forgotten the true nature of civilisation and its predictable need for violence, expansion, conquest, and the machine of war itself to prop up domestic power. We do not put people in Canberra to fanny around with ‘hurt feelings’ ...

Situation update The Middle East conflict intensified dramatically on Tuesday, as Israel and Iran exchanged strikes across multiple fronts while regional powers scrambled to respond to a rapidly widening confrontation stretching from Lebanon to the Gulf. The day began with reports of Iranian drone attacks far beyond the immediate battlefield. ...

The Houthi pirates have gone awfully quiet. For years, they have been holding the Red Sea shipping industry to ransom while claiming ‘solidarity’ with Palestine. Like fresh-faced Western socialists, the Houthis wear ‘Palestine’ like a Temu-printed flag, justifying whatever disruptive activity they have in mind as ‘solidarity’. They are funded (or ...

Iran threatened harsh retaliation in the wake of the American-Israeli attacks that killed the country’s supreme leader and many of its senior commanders. Its response consisted of a barrage of missiles aimed at Israel. So far, so predictable. Yet, at the same time, Tehran chose to direct its firepower at neighbouring Gulf states, countries that have ...

Many commentators are already claiming that the war with Iran is ‘spiralling out of control.’ I try not to be uncharitable: I am a Catholic, after all, and the Church tells me it is a sin. But if I were tempted, I should say that the only thing spiralling out of control is cliché. You could argue that drone attacks are a sign that Iran’s ballistic and ...

For the first time, I am grateful to Zack Polanski. For, in branding Keir Starmer ‘Islamophobic’ simply for criticising Mothin Ali, he has shown just how slippery and despotic that word is. He has confirmed what most decent folk have long suspected – that accusations of ‘Islamophobia’ are a cynical ruse to shut down entirely legitimate public ...

Why are students in British universities mourning Ayatollah Khamenei? The Iranian dictator’s death brought jubilant crowds of Jews and Persians out onto the streets of London. Yet, on campus, there’s a more sombre mood. Islamist extremists at British universities are working to continue the Ayatollah’s legacy Members of University College London’s ...

Napoleon is supposed to have defined strategy as ‘on s’engage, et puis on voit’, loosely translated as ‘get stuck in and then see what happens’. Donald Trump is not normally deemed Napoleonic, yet in his approach to strategy he appears to have taken the great general’s precept to heart, launching initiatives without much forethought regarding ...