Patrick Cockburn



Profile:
Full name: Patrick Cockburn

Area of interest:

Journals/Organisation: The Independent | The Independent on Sunday

Email: [mailto:p.cockburn@independent.co.uk p.cockburn@independent.co.uk]

Personal website:

Website: / https://www.independent.co.uk/author/patrick-cockburn

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Biography:
About:

Education: Glenalmond College, Perthshire; Trinity College, Oxford

Career:

Current position/role: Middle East correspondent


 * also writes/has written for: London Review of Books

Other roles/Main role:

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Controversy/Criticism:

Awards/Honours: For on-the-ground reporting on the Iraq War won: Martha Gellhorn Prize, 2005; James Cameron Prize, 2006; Awarded the Orwell Prize 2009 for work published by the London Review of Books and The Independet

Scoops:

Other: Son of journalist Claud Cockburn



Books & Debate:

 * Getting Russia wrong: the end of Kremlinology OCLC 20264705, 1989
 * Out of the ashes: the resurrection of Saddam Hussein OCLC 40510501, 1999
 * Saddam Hussein: an American obsession OCLC 50176504, 2002 (with Andrew Cockburn)
 * Broken Boy OCLC 60641818, 2005 (a memoir)
 * The Occupation OCLC 70114610, 2006
 * Muqtada al-Sadr and the fall of Iraq OCLC 219974566, 2008

Latest work: Henry's demons: living with schizophrenia, a father and son's story OCLC 663446004, Simon & Schuster, 2011. Reviewed here by Nina Lakhani

Speaking/Appearances:

Debate: 

The Independent:
Column name: World View

Remit/Info:

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Pen-name:

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Website: [mailto:p.cockburn@independent.co.uk p.cockburn@independent.co.uk]

Commissioning editor:

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Articles: 2017

 * Grenfell Tower is Theresa May’s Katrina moment – her political career cannot survive it - Natural and man-made disasters have frequently been the last nail in the coffin of governments that were already tottering - 17th June
 * The Government has known since 2003 that the failed ‘war on terror’ could cause an attack like the one in Manchester - Were Saddam and Gaddafi not overthrown, it is unlikely that Salman Abedi would have been in a position to slaughter people in Manchester - 27th May
 * Donald Trump's extravagant trip to Saudi Arabia is a desperately-needed distraction from his crisis at home - The events planned for the President’s summits in Riyadh are pretentious and reek of hypocrisy. There’s even one dedicated to Twitter – in a nation that locks up anyone who uses the social media platform to criticise the government - 20th May
 * Trump and Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman are the most dangerous men in the world – and they’re meeting next week - Trump has already ordered greater US support for the Saudi war effort in Yemen, but the deputy crown prince will be primarily bidding for US backing for his confrontation with Iran - 13th May
 * Donald Trump's decision to arm Kurdish fighters could have profound impact on the Syria crisis - Syrian Kurds will now help defeat Isis in its de facto capital of Raqqa, but the move risks alienating the US's key Nato ally Turkey - 11th May
 * After his first 100 days in office, we should fear Trump more than ever - America's political, economic and ideological power is declining, so it's turning to military power to keep its world status - 29th April
 * Boris Johnson’s foreign policy in Syria is based on wishful thinking - Johnson spoke grandly of using ‘submarine-based cruise missiles in the Med’ against Assad to support Trump, but in fact Britain’s capacity to do anything militarily effective is very limited - 28th April
 * Mental health patients are being treated as criminals and sent to prisons rather than hospitals - The old asylum system was dismantled but nothing was put in its place to care for people unable to look after themselves who are a potential danger to themselves and others - 22nd April
 * Erdogan’s referendum victory will make Turkey prey for the country’s many enemies - Turkey is surrounded by many actual or potential enemies – Syrian, Kurdish, Iranian, Russian – who see how easy it will be to exploit and exacerbate the country’s deep divisions - 18th April
 * It’s time America explored how to end the multiple wars it has helped cause since 2001, rather than dropping more bombs - Moan about Trump all you like, but his approach to Syria was always much more realistic than Hillary Clinton’s. ‘You are fighting Syria, Syria is fighting Isis, and you have to get rid of Isis,’ he said during his election campaign. ‘Now we’re backing rebels against Syria, and we have no idea who these people are’ - 15th April
 * The upcoming Turkish referendum could end what little democracy is left in the country - Erdogan’s track record of imprisoning and silencing dissidents makes a mockery of the electoral system, which may be about to give him unprecedented power - 9th April
 * Donald Trump feels he had no choice but to launch air strikes on Syria – but the balance of power on the ground has not changed - While Trump’s decision is significant, US policy will likely still closely resemble that of the Obama administration - 8th April
 * Air strikes are the only way to defeat Isis – so tell the truth about the loss of civilian life - The mistake is not in the use of these weapons, but in failing to admit their indiscriminate nature or get civilians out of Mosul first - 31st March
 * Isis's losses in Syria and Iraq will make it harder for it to recruit another Khalid Masood - Isis portrayed its victories as a sign of divine intervention, but reverses in the battlefield will make it difficult to inspire individuals abroad to kill and to die for its monstrous version of Islam - 25th March
 * From Paris to London: another city, another attack with elements from the Isis playbook - The location and those targeted bring to mind previous attacks claimed by the jihadi group - but there is yet to be a definite answer over the background to the tragedy - 23rd March
 * Brexit unleashed an English nationalism that has damaged the union with Scotland for good - As a system of beliefs the new nationalism is much more appropriate to an English nation state than to a more diverse United Kingdom - 18th March
 * Yemen is a complicated and unwinnable war. Donald Trump should stay out of it - The Trump administration’s first counter-terrorism operation was a failure for the US and much worse for the Yemeni villagers who are dead, wounded, homeless and have seen their livestock, on which they depended for their livelihoods, all killed - 11th March
 * If this battle for Mosul ends in defeat for Isis, we shouldn’t feel too optimistic about what comes next - At one time the caliphate ruled territory with a population of five or six million people, where it sought to establish a truly Islamic State. It is this dream – or nightmare – that is now being shattered. But the groups who fought Isis may soon be fighting each other - 3rd March
 * With the US distracted by Trump and the UK by Brexit, they’re about to see a decline in their global power - One need only look to Yeltsin’s Russia to see how great powers fall. Both Trump and Yeltsin won power as demagogic anti-establishment leaders who won elections by promising reform. The result in Russia was calamitous national decline and the same thing could now happen in America - 26th February
 * With the US distracted by Trump and the UK by Brexit, they’re about to see a decline in their global power - One need only look to Yeltsin’s Russia to see how great powers fall. Both Trump and Yeltsin won power as demagogic anti-establishment leaders who won elections by promising reform. The result in Russia was calamitous national decline and the same thing could now happen in America - 24th February
 * Donald Trump and the US media are in a fight to the finish – and they're both guilty of peddling alternative facts - Fake news may have helped hand Trump the presidency, but he is now finding it is a double-edged sword - 18th February
 * Donald Trump will spark a war with Iran – which is great news for Isis - A confrontation will probably come in a year or two, when previous policies conceived under Obama have run their course. Trump may feel that he has to show how much tougher he is than his predecessor - 11th February
 * Now the High Court will decide if Brexit Britain is complicit in the devastating conflict between Saudi Arabia and Yemen - According to campaigners, since the start of the war Britain has approved export licences for arms worth £3.1bn to the Saudi regime - 8th February
 * Netanyahu’s hysterical rhetoric on Iran seeks to divert attention from West Bank settlement building - Talk of a ‘two-state solution’ remains nothing more than a convenient fig leaf for Israeli authorities - 8th February
 * Donald Trump's Twitter aggression towards Iran will deepen sectarian conflict in the Middle East - In pursuit of an anti-Iranian line, the Trump administration is making the same mistake as that made by Western governments after the 2011 uprisings in the Arab world. They tended to think in terms of nationalities and the nation state, but in the Middle East these count for less as communal bonds than religious identity - 4th February
 * Donald Trump’s ‘Muslim ban’ will only make terrorist attacks, more, not less likely - Salafi-jihadi leaders are not stupid. They will see that if Trump, unprovoked by any terrorist outrage, will act with such self-defeating vigour, then a few bombs or shootings directed at American targets will lead to more scatter-gun persecution of Muslims – which is exactly what they want - 30th January
 * Theresa May’s visit to Turkey is more evidence of her desperate search for trading partners to replace the EU at any cost - The talks with Erdogan will be seen as endorsing the destruction of Turkish democracy; he is replacing it with a presidential system as dictatorial and repressive as anything seen in Latin America in the 1960s and 1970s - 26th January
 * Think the American political system will stop Donald Trump exercising ultimate power? The same was said about Turkey’s President Erdogan - Manic sensitivity to criticism is a hallmark of both men. In Trump’s case this is exemplified by his tweeted denunciation of critics such as Meryl Streep, while in Turkey 2,000 people have been charged with insulting the president - 14th January
 * The dodgy Donald Trump dossier reminds me of the row over Saddam Hussein and his fictitious weapons of mass destruction - I talked to Iraqi defectors in the 1990s who claimed to have plenty of information about WMDs and gossip about Hussein's family affairs. It did not take long to work out that they were making it up when they produced convincing but uncheckable details - 12th January
 * There is nothing the Turkish government can do to stop Isis terror attacks on its soil - The government in Ankara is making the usual noises about tracking these different groups 'to their lairs'. but this will be easier said than done. Both Isis and the PKK have established powerful de facto states in Syria and Iraq - 3rd January



Articles: 2016

 * The Syrian ceasefire agreement has shifted the balance of power to Assad - Turkey is giving priority to fighting the Kurds at home and abroad; getting rid of Assad is well down its political agenda - 31st December
 * Politicians are to blame for terrorist attacks by not eliminating Isis - There is a dangerous disconnect in the minds of governments and news organisations between what happens in the war in Iraq and Syria and the long-term consequences this has on the streets of Europe - 24th December
 * There's more propaganda than news coming out of Aleppo this week - There was a period in 2011 and 2012 when there were genuinely independent opposition activists operating inside Syria, but as the jihadis took over these brave people were forced to flee abroad, fell silent or were dead - 17th December
 * The rebels of Aleppo will fight on, but Assad is taking their last power base in Syria - It may now be too late for a last stand, as happened in the city of Homs a couple of years ago - 14th December
 * We still don't know who bombed Istanbul – and that's a sign of the trouble Turkey is now in - President Erdogan has responded to the Istanbul bombings by swearing to eradicate those responsible, but it was he himself who created the conditions under which terrorism has become a permanent feature of Turkish life - 12th December
 * Theresa May is wading into a dangerous sectarian conflict in the Middle East – and she’s backing the losing side - This is a regional war but its outcome will affect an area from Pakistan to Nigeria, and it is a sectarian conflict which impacts on all the 1.6 billion Muslims in the world - 10th December
 * This is why everything you’ve read about the wars in Syria and Iraq could be wrong - It is too dangerous for journalists to operate in rebel-held areas of Aleppo and Mosul. But there is a tremendous hunger for news from the Middle East, so the temptation is for the media give credence to information they get second hand - 2nd December
 * Despite the New York Times liberal wishful thinking, Donald Trump is still in favour of waterboarding - Trump did indeed say that General Mattis never found waterboarding to be useful, but the President-elect went on to explain that ‘I’m not saying it changed my mind about torture’ - 26th November
 * Donald Trump’s dangerous team of crackpots will spread corruption and start new wars in the Middle East - Foreign policy advisor John Bolton proposes carving out a Sunni state in northern Iraq and eastern Syria. As a recipe for deepening the conflict in the region, it could scarcely be bettered - 19th November
 * Donald Trump's election proves the high days of liberal capitalism since the fall of the Soviet Union are finally over - For all his demagoguery, there was a sense that Trump was often nearer to the issues that concerned voters than Clinton. Here in the Middle East, few are optimistic about the future - 10th November
 * If you want to know what will happen to Mosul after Isis is pushed out, look back to the fall of Saddam Hussein - The anti-Isis forces involved in seizing Mosul may be temporary allies, but they are also longstanding rivals - 28th October
 * Compare the coverage of Mosul and East Aleppo and it tells you a lot about the propaganda we consume - In both countries, two large Sunni Arab urban centres – East Aleppo in Syria and Mosul in Iraq – are being besieged by pro-government forces strongly supported by foreign airpower. Yet the coverage is very different - 22nd October
 * We finally know what Hillary Clinton knew all along – US allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar are funding Isis - There is a bizarre discontinuity between what the Obama administration knew about the jihadis and what they would say in public - 14th October
 * US and EU sanctions are ruining ordinary Syrians' lives, yet Bashar al-Assad hangs on to power - The conflict in Syria is the greatest humanitarian crisis the world has seen since the Second World War with 13 million people – two thirds of the population – in need of assistance - 8th October
 * Saudi Arabia is the flagging horse of the Gulf – but Britain is still backing it as an answer to Brexit - Quite why Sir Alan Duncan, Foreign Office Minister of State for Europe, should find it necessary to visit Bahrain in the last few days remains something of mystery - 1st October
 * Saudi Arabia is showing signs of financial strain as its relationship with the US sours - Workers in the Saudi desert are not only no longer receiving wages, supplies of food and electricity have also been cut - 28th September
 * The explanations behind Russian and US airstrikes in Syria are a lesson in propaganda - It does not matter if what you are spouting is nonsense because it only has to hold up for two or three days – indeed, the UN aid convoy attack was swiftly overtaken by the riots ion Charlotte, North Carolina - 24th September
 * The US and Russia have less influence in Syria than they think - Despite 10 months of negotiations between the US and Russia, the two biggest players in the Syrian conflict, the ceasefire is close to unravelling - 19th September
 * If the ceasefire in Syria is to hold, this is what needs to happen - One of several problems is that the most important armed force on the non-Isis rebel side, Jabhat al-Nusra, is expected to obey a ceasefire from which it is excluded and under which it will shortly be targeted - 16th September
 * Syria peace deal: Russia and US could force their allies to keep this truce - Patrick Cockburn, reporting from Damascus, says Washington and Moscow have too much invested in new agreement to allow it to fail - 10th September
 * Turkey could be overplaying its hand with Syria ground offensive as civil war reaches crucial point - As US and Russian officials meet in Geneva to discuss potential co-operation, Turkey's involement means the multi-sided conflict is becoming ever more complex - 26th August
 * Turkey’s foray into Syria to take on Isis is a gamble in a very dangerous game - If this is a mask for an assault on Syrian Kurds then it will be opposed by both the US and Russia - 24th August
 * Every Syrian fighter is waging an existential battle that can only end in victory or death - The complexity of the conflict is well described as three-dimensional chess played by nine players with no rules - 20th August
 * There are so many foreign backers in the Syrian war that nothing is changing – rebels hope that Hillary Clinton could change that - Since the end of 2012, little has changed on the ground in western Syria. But the east, it’s a different story, with Isis, and later the Syrian Kurds, making huge advances - 12th August
 * Turkey, once the great hope of the Middle East, is left weak and unstable - The destabilisation of Turkey is good news for Isis as Turkish security organisations devote their efforts to hunting down Gulenists - 30th July
 * Erdogan will be stronger after the failed coup, but Turkey could be the loser - Isis will gain from the anti-American mood post-coup because the Government – and much of the population – are convinced that the US was implicated in the attempt - 23rd July
 * Erdogan is using this failed coup to get rid of the last vestiges of secular Turkey - The attempted coup is serving as an excuse for a massive round-up of members of the judiciary and army officers, far greater than anything seen in Turkey for years - 18th July
 * Isis is feeling threatened in Syria – and that is why its reign of terror is spreading - Isis is under pressure on almost every front in Iraq and Syria. It cannot withstand ground attacks backed by precision bombing from the US-led air armada and the same is true of the Syrian army supported by Russian bombers - 17th July
 * A Hillary Clinton presidency could end up letting Isis and al-Qaeda off the hook - Hillary Clinton’s expected choice as Defence Secretary has just published a report on Syria which which makes for worrying reading. Its tactics would increase the likelihood of attacks like the one in Nice this week - 15th July
 * Torture, imprisonment and killing – so what would it take for Bahrain to be criticised by Philip Hammond? - Once considered one of the more liberal Arab monarchies, Bahrain is turning into a police state as vicious and arbitrary as Egypt - 9th July
 * Like the Middle East 15 years ago, Europe has underestimated the destructive force of nationalism - The Iraq war, due to be scrutinised in next week’s Chilcot report, was the last great test of the British political establishment before Brexit – and one that it demonstrably failed - 2nd July
 * Brexit voters have more in common with Arab Spring protesters than they would like to think - Almost by accident, Leave has initiated a revolutionary change, but the weakness of revolutions is that they briefly bring together those with little in common except an antipathy to the status quo - 25th June
 * Confused about the US response to Isis in Syria? Look to the CIA's relationship with Saudi Arabia - In the 20 years between 1996 and 2016, the CIA and British security and foreign policy agencies have consistently given priority to maintaining their partnership with powerful Sunni states over the elimination of terrorist organisations such as al-Qaeda and Isis - 18th June
 * What Blair accidentally revealed about Iraq during his criticism of Jeremy Corbyn was very interesting indeed - Blair’s periodic eruptions are so useful because he openly reveals that, like the Bourbons, he has learned nothing and forgotten nothing since the start of the Iraq War - 11th June
 * Isis faces likely defeat in battles across Iraq and Syria – but what happens next? - In the second of a four-part series examining Isis, Patrick Cockburn says the terror group may be under threat, but regaining the terrority it captured would not necessarily stabilise the region - 1st June
 * Isis digs in against attack on Iraq's second city while brutally punishing those who rebel against them - In the first of a four-part series on the war against Isis, Patrick Cockburn reports that while the jihadists face battles on multiple fronts, civilians who have fled from Mosul speak of a ruthless group who will defend the city at all costs - 31st May
 * Air strikes on Isis in Iraq and Syria are reducing their cities to ruins - Using ground forces keeps civilian casualties to a minimum – but there is a feeling that any means are justifiable to defeat a movement of such monstrous cruelty and savagery as Isis - 28th May
 * Sir Richard Dearlove is right, visa waivers for Turks are dangerous - EU leaders are deluding themselves by including part of the Middle East battle zone within their outer defences - 21st May
 * Corrupt elites will fight hard to stop the dismantling of the looting machines from with they draw their vast wealth - States that get all their revenues from selling their oil, gas and minerals could easily turn into kleptocracies where the majority stay poor - 13th May
 * After the recent battles in Syria and Iraq, how close is Isis to losing the war? - Bombs and drones weaken Islamic State, but probably not as much as is hoped in Washington and European capitals - 8th May
 * Iraq protests: Baghdad unrest signals disintegration of a political system established in wake of US invasion - It is unlikely that the populist Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr wanted the invasion by his supporters because it will lead to a further weakening of the government rather than its reform - 30th April
 * Saudi Arabia is about to attempt its own version of Mao's Great Leap Forward by trying to end its dependence on oil - and it's not going to work - Prince Mohammed bin Salman is naively opting for the sort of radical economic reform that will be impossible to implement and will de-stabilise his country - 30th April
 * Saudi Arabia may be in for a nasty shock when Obama steps down - The mood in the US is changing as politicians and the media explore Saudi links to 9/11 terror attacks - 23rd April
 * The first draft of history: How war reporters get it wrong, and what they can do to get it right - 19th April
 * How the corruption revealed in the Panama Papers opened the door to Isis and al Qaeda - Local elites which hide their stolen wealth in offshore financial centres destroy their own credibility and power - 8th April
 * The Easter Rising, my grandfather and the untold story of Sir Roger Casement - A politically sophisticated and cosmopolitan Irish nationalist, Sir Roger understood the exploitation of the weak by the strong and of small nations by large - 2nd April
 * US ground troops are back in Iraq as Iraqi division hides in the mountains - Isis killed and injured US Marines whom the Pentagon said were not in Iraq as they defended a front line base abandoned by Iraqi troops - 27th March
 * Covering the Isis advance in Iraq, as it happened - I remember thinking how lucky I was to work for a paper that stuck with its correspondent - 26th March
 * How politicians duck the blame for terrorism - The French and British governments enabled Isis to grow, but the media lets them off the hook - 20th March
 * Syria war five years on: Bringing conflict to an international level is helping to hold the ceasefire - However messy, Russian and US dominance – and Russia’s swift withdrawal – helped quell violence in Syria, but ending war altogether is a different matter - 15th March
 * How Barack Obama turned his back on Saudi Arabia and its Sunni allies - World View: A striking feature of the President's foreign policy is that he learns from failures and mistakes - 13th March
 * Is it Isis or the economy that will ruin Iraq? - Jihad is still a threat to the people of Baghdad, but lack of oil revenue is inducing near-panic - 6th March
 * Divisions among forces fighting Isis delays push to recapture Iraq - It could be that all concerned are dividing up the tiger’s skin before the tiger is properly dead - 28th February
 * Obama taking threats of Turkish intervention in Syria seriously - World View: The President has an acute sense about ease of becoming plugged into local confrontations and disputes - 21st February
 * Syria: The winners and losers are becoming clear in this war - The war is far from over, but the faint shape of an endgame is coalescing amid the bloodbath - 14th February
 * War in Syria: This agreement between the US and Russia is a vital step to ending the conflict - The only way the military balance of power could swing back in favour of the Syrian opposition would be the direct intervention of the Turkish army - 12th February
 * Saudi Arabia intervening in the Syrian civil war would risk Russian wrath - Saudi intervention would add yet one more combatant in the most complex and dangerous battlefield in the world - 11th February
 * Oil price and Isis ruin the Kurds’ dream of riches - The Kurds are politically and militarily more important than ever in the fight against the jihadists – but they are also broke - 5th February
 * Syrian civil war: Why the endless conflict is at a decisive point - Talks in Geneva may produce little of substance, but winners and losers are starting to emerge - 24th January
 * Prince Mohammed bin Salman: Naive, arrogant Saudi prince is playing with fire - German intelligence memo shows the threat from the kingdom’s headstrong defence minister - 11th January
 * Gaddafi’s warnings to Blair have been proven by today's attack on Libyan police training centre - Transcripts of two telephone calls between the leaders on February 25, 2011 reveal that the West was quick to downplay the presence of Islamic extremists in the 2011 uprising - 8th January
 * Isis may be weakened by co-ordinated attacks but it is far from being overcome - World View: Isis is coming under growing military pressure from its many enemies, but learns quickly from its mistakes - 3rd January

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/nice-attacks-isis-is-feeling-threatened-in-syria-and-that-is-why-their-reign-of-terror-is-spreading-a7140756.html

Articles: 2015

 * A short history of the political put-down - A good insult lingers in the memory, a bad one rebounds on its creator - it’s an art, not a science - 21st December
 * Syria in 2016 will be like the Balkans in 1914 as explosive violence breaks out on an international scale - The cost of intelligence failures is rising as the Middle East enters a more violent phase - 12th December
 * Syria air strikes: Britain is only dipping a toe in this war on Isis - US-led air strikes and Russian intervention are yet to break the stalemate in a conflict that worsens by the day - 6th December
 * Syria air strikes: Why Isis is a formidable, ferocious enemy that will not be defeated from the air - British contribution will not make much difference as there are already far more aircraft than there are identifiable targets - 4th December
 * Britain is on the verge of entering into a long war in Syria based on wishful thinking and poor information... - Patrick Cockburn was invited by Jeremy Corbyn to brief MPs on the facts about today’s Common’s vote on air strikes in Syria. This is his briefing to you - 3rd December
 * Isis: David Cameron plans to go to war, but has not produced realistic plans for defeating the group - Despite all the furious rhetoric after the Paris killings, Isis does not look as if is going to be under pressure that it cannot withstand - 27th November
 * Isis has created a new kind of warfare with its attacks on Paris - For the first time urban terrorism, guerrilla tactics and conventional fighting have been combined in a lethal blend - 15th November
 * Turkey elections: Defeat would not be the end of President Erdogan - The canny – and politically brutal – leader for the past 13 years faces a divided opposition - 1st November
 * Tony Blair apologises for Iraq War: The former PM's mind has been paralysed by what happened in 2003 - Blair has an arrogant inability to admit he was mistaken - 26th October
 * Donald Trump is much derided – but he is right about the Middle East - The candidate is demoised as an exotic celebrity but he knows more about Iraq and Syria than his critics - 18th October
 * Syria crisis: Let's welcome Russia's entry into this war - In the second part of his series, our respected commentator says Vladimir Putin’s military intervention could hasten the war’s end - 4th October
 * Syria crisis: The West wrings its hands in horror but it was our folly that helped create this bloodbath - In the first of two articles seeking a solution to Syria’s crisis, Patrick Cockburn looks at the wishful thinking that helped an uprising escalate into a catastrophe - 2nd October
 * Russia has entered a war in Syria it cannot afford to lose - Russia and the US will no longer be on the sidelines of the conflict, but will be centre stage - 30th September
 * Syria crisis: The road to peace means more war - Only by destroying Isis forces on the battlefield can there be a possible end to years of bloodshed - 29th September
 * Refugee crisis was caused by a careless West that allowed anarchy and fear to take root in the Middle East - Little has been done to end the four-year civil war that is destroying Iraq and Syria and which has caused the biggest mass flight of people ever seen in the Middle East - 20th September
 * Britain's drone strike in Syria: These executions are a mark of tyranny - The ability to execute its own citizens has been a mark of tyrannical government from Rome in the days of the Caesars to Moscow during the Great Purge in the 1930s - 13th September
 * Only a US-Russian agreement can spur a settlement in Syria - Russia is Assad’s main arms supplier and has so far prevented all-out Western intervention - 9th September
 * Isis are threatening to capture a vital highway in Syria - the loss of which could push millions of refugees out of government-held areas - Though the Assad regime may not be about to collapse, any sign that it is weakening could convince millions of Syrians that it is time to leave the country - 6th September
 * Syria's Kurds have little choice but to flee amid the desolution, ruins and danger they face - Their future is full of menaces in the shape of a hostile Turkey to the north and Isis to the south - 4th September
 * Turkey duped the US, and Isis reaps rewards - The real losers are the Kurds, the only force to have effectively resisted the jihadis in Syria - 31st August
 * Turkey-Kurdish conflict: Obama's deal with Ankara is a betrayal of Syrian Kurds and may not even weaken Isis - World View: Since the accord, the Turks have only waged war on Kurds while no US bomber has used Incirlik airbase - 2nd August
 * Greece debt crisis threatens 70 years of peace - World View: We forget that, before the EU, wars in Europe were the norm - 26th July
 * We can all get by quite well without banks - Ireland managed to survive without them - A 1970 strike in Ireland provoked an admirable outbreak of ingenuity - Greece should take note - 12th July
 * Isis in Kobani: Why we ignore the worst of the massacres - World View: The Syrian Kurdish town witnessed the deaths of 164 civilians this week - 27th June
 * Syrian civil war: Jabhat al-Nusra's massacre of Druze villagers shows they're just as nasty as Isis - The incident last week suggests that the US have let the al-Qaeda affiliate off lightly - 16th June
 * War with Isis: As the militant threat grows, so does the West's self-deception - World View: Chinese mandarins used to claim rhubarb was a war-winning weapon. Our leaders also fantasise - 7th June
 * Modern states are fragile in the face of local nationalism - It is striking how little political resistance has been offered to the break-up of the Union - 10th May
 * Isis on the run? The US portrayal is very far from the truth - The map issued by the Pentagon to prove that Isis had lost territory shows how false optimism dominates the actions of the outside powers towards the Middle East - 4th May
 * Yemen crisis: This exotic war will soon become Europe's problem - The main outcome of the Saudi air campaign will be terrorism and boatloads of desperate migrants - 26th April
 * From Iraq to Libya and Syria: The wars that come back to haunt us - Tony Blair is still pilloried for the decisions he took over Iraq. David Cameron should not escape blame for his role in conflicts that are still raging - 19th April
 * In the Middle East, our enemy's enemy must be our friend - World View: Al-Qaeda-type movements are gaining land and power, and there is only one way to stop them - 12th April
 * A young prince may cost Syria and Yemen dear - As the US and Iran reach accord, Saudi Arabia endangers the status quo in the Middle East - 5th April
 * Saudi Arabia's airstrikes in Yemen are fuelling the Gulf's fire - Arab intervention in Yemen risks entrenching Sunni-Shia divide and handing a victory to Isis - 29th March
 * Tony Blair joins a strange and exclusive club of political leaders whose careers have been blighted by the Middle East - World View: A new tomb has just gone up in that graveyard of US and British political reputations - 22nd March
 * War with Isis: The Kurdish Tiger's roar is worse than its bite - the Peshmerga have come to rely on US air strikes - With militant fighters at the gate, the former boom town of Irbil is full of refugees and abandoned buildings - 8th March
 * Isis in Iraq: Even if Iraqi troops take back Saddam’s city of Tikrit they will face bombs and booby traps - Tikrit fell without a fight on 11 June last year when Iraqi soldiers and their commanders fled and some 800 Shia cadets taken prisoner by Isis were killed in the Camp Speicher massacre - 3rd March
 * Isis has made many enemies, but it may be saved by their inability to unite - Islamic State is still receiving significant financial support from Arab sympathisers outside Iraq and Syria, enabling it to expand its war effort, says a senior Kurdish official - 22nd February
 * It's the little lies that torpedo the news stars - as Brian Williams has found to his cost last week - Embellishment and bravado are often punished more harshly than the untruths that cause wars - 15th February
 * Isis in Iraq: Britain has no plan for tackling the militants, and no idea who's in charge - A Commons report revealed last week that our involvement there is beyond parody - 8th February
 * As in 1942, Germany must show restraint over Greece - World View: Mussolini tried to warn his ally of the danger of bringing the country to its knees. So should we - 1st February
 * If all right-thinking people are united against terrorism, where are the 'Je suis Nigeria' banners? - Al-Qaeda-type jihadis killed 2,000 people in a few days, which the world largely ignored - 19th January
 * Paris attacks: Don't blame these atrocities on security failures - The causes of last week's carnage are political, a blowback from wars in the Middle East - 11th January



Articles: 2014

 * War with Isis: The West needs more than a White Knight - Despite billions spent on weapons, the US has not been able to counter the militants' gruesome tactics - 28th December
 * Torture: It didn't work then, it doesn't work now - Its use is always wrong and, despite CIA justifications post 9/11, the information obtained from it is invariably tainted - 14th December
 * The CIA’s real failure? It pursued the wrong targets - It was an open secret Pakistan’s ISI fostered the Taliban but the US never confronted Islamabad - 10th December
 * War with Isis: Theresa May tinkers while Iraq and Syria burn - The Home Secretary's counter-terrorism Bill is unlikely to make the militants lose any sleep - 30th November
 * Isis in Iraq: The trauma of the last six months has overwhelmed the remaining Christians in the country - After 2,000 years, a community will try anything – including pretending to convert to Islam – to avoid losing everything - 22nd November
 * War with Isis: The militants will remain until the region's Sunnis feel safe - World View: The US plan of strengthening local tribes is no match for the brutality of the jihadis - 9th November
 * The West is silent as Libya falls into the abyss - In 2011, there was jubilation at Gaddafi's demise. Not any more: the aftermath of foreign intervention is calamitous and bloody - 2nd November
 * Isis captive John Cantlie says battle of Kobani is nearly over - The use of Mr Cantlie demonstrates once again Isis' skill and originality in conducting a propaganda war - 29th October
 * Fall of the Berlin Wall eyewitness: An accidental explosion of freedom - A journalist who witnessed the events of 1989 from a Soviet perspective looks back on a surreal period when attempts at moderate reform quickly an uncontrollable momentum of their own - 28th October
 * US strategy in tatters as Isis marches on - American-led air attacks are failing. Jihadis are close to taking Kobani, in Syria – and in Iraq western Baghdad is now under serious threat - 13th October
 * Isis militants: Twitter provides one of the few forums in which Saudis can discuss what they really feel - and it says they blame the clergy for Isis - The social network's free discussion contrasts with Riyadh's official line on the rise of radicals - 5th October
 * Isis an hour away from Baghdad - with no sign of Iraq army being able to make a successful counter-attack - The Iraqi army, plagued by corruption, absenteeism and supply failures, has little chance against Islamist fanatics using suicide bombings and fluid tactics. And US air strikes are making little difference - 30th September
 * Air strikes alone will fail to stop Isis - Talks between all touched by the crisis in Syria and Iraq can achieve as much as the Tornadoes - 28th September
 * On the eve of yet another war in Iraq, is the UK’s strategy any more coherent than in 2003? - Patrick Cockburn, who led the world in warning of the rise of Isis, wonders if David Cameron has really thought through his plans - 26th September
 * Nothing will stop Isis except a Syrian truce - Neither the rebels nor President Assad’s army are strong enough to fight on two fronts at once - 21st September
 * Islamic State: Widespread fear of Isis is producing strange bedfellows across the Middle East - In Iraq the Iranian controlled Shia militias, which used to specialise in killing American troops, have relieved the Shia town of Amerli, long besieged by Isis - 15th September
 *  impossible war: Isis 'cannot be beaten' as long as there is civil war in Syria - US air strikes against Isis are unlikely to be as effective as Obama hopes. Sunni communities in Iraq and Syria may prefer the militants as a lesser evil compared to the return of vengeful - 14th September
 * An obvious first step – close the jihadis' highway - The best way to stop UK fighters reaching Isis is to catch them at Turkey's border with Syria - 25th August
 * Fear brings the enemies of Isis together at last - But belated attempts to unite will be to no avail if the Sunni caliphate remains strong in Syria - 17th August
 * Crisis in the Middle East: The end of a country, and the start of a new dark age - In a new book, our veteran correspondent documents the forces that wreaked havoc on an entire region. Here is an exclusive extract - 10th August
 * Israel-Gaza conflict: What has Israel achieved in 26 bloody days? - World View: Hamas is stronger, the Jewish state looks shifty and heartless – and the world's eyes are on Gaza - 3rd August
 * Israel's propaganda machine is finally starting to misfire - Israel's 'dream of Israeli and Palestinian children playing together' is somewhat hypocritcal when you look at the 230 children killed in Gaza - 31st July
 * Israel-Gaza conflict: The secret report that helps Israelis to hide facts - The slickness of Israel's spokesmen is rooted in directions set down by pollster Frank Luntz - 27th July
 * The truth about conspiracy theories is that some require considering -For instance, did Isis kill the Israeli teenagers to trigger a war? - 20th July
 * Malaysia Airlines MH17 crash: Collateral damage is inevitable in the chaos of proxy war - The Americans and the Europeans are not going to go to war with Russia for Ukraine - 19th July
 * Iraq crisis: How Saudi Arabia helped Isis take over the north of the country - A speech by an ex-MI6 boss hints at a plan going back over a decade. In some areas, being Shia is akin to being a Jew in Nazi Germany - 13th July
 * Iraq crisis: As Shia shrines are targeted and Tikrit is strangled, the fiercest of wars lies ahead - A demoralised army is hoping that the US will step in with drones, but their use could bring devastating revenge attacks - 6th July
 * Iraq crisis: John Kerry's search for moderates is five years late - The US Secretary of State talks of 'pushing back' against Isis – but who will do this pushing? - 29th June
 * Iraq crisis: Fears grow that Baghdad could be engulfed in sectarian violence - Both sides are using well-publicised massacres to encourage the changes they want - 17th June
 * Iraq crisis: West must take up Tehran's offer to block an Isis victory - World View: Extremists have a grip on the country as Sunni Muslims decide that the jihadists are preferable to persecution by the official Iraqi army - 15th June
 * Iraq crisis: Capture of Mosul ushers in the birth of a Sunni caliphate - The balance of power between Iraq’s Sunni, Kurdish and Shia communities has now changed - 11th June
 * In the war on terrorism, only al-Qa'ida thrives - Exhaustion could end Syria's bloody civil conflict, so long as foreign backers really want it - 8th June
 * The Chilcot inquiry's focus on Bush-Blair secrets distracts us from disaster in plain sight - To have any relevance, the Chilcot inquiry should extend its brief to cover all UK military interventions since the alliance - 1st June
 * Libya's slow motion coup ends the uprising - The country edges closer to break-up and civil war as foreign powers await their opportunity - 25th May
 * This spread of 'holy fascism' is a disaster - 'Wahhabisation' is being used against other Muslims and Christians alike to subjugate women and crush dissent - 18th May
 * Prince Andrew praises Bahrain, island of torture - Kingdom that represses its Shia majority is to receive seal of approval from the Duke of York - 11th May
 * Foreign jihadis in Syria pledge their own 9/11 - Ambitious al-Qa'ida-type groups now control - or are free to operate in - an enormous area - 4th May
 * Demented Tony Blair recites the Saudis' creed in his latest speech - The former prime minister's intervention on radical Islam was aimed at all the wrong targets - 27th April
 * In Syria, rebel attacks in the north reflect a number of important changes - The intra-rebel civil war has ebbed in these areas, allowing opposition fighters to resume their war with government forces - 18th April
 * MI6, the CIA and Turkey's rogue game in Syria - New claims say Ankara worked with the US and Britain to smuggle Gaddafi's guns to rebel groups - 13th April
 * The Vikings were feared for a reason - Ignore recent revisionism. The Norsemen carried out atrocities to equal those of the German SS - 6th April
 * The US is paying the cost of supporting the House of Saud as cracks begin to appear - It has helped to restore authoritarian rule in the Middle East, but the costs are becoming clear - 30th March
 * Al-Qai'da aid project shows the way in Afghanistan - Corruption has blighted the torrent of dollars poured into the country by America since 2001 - 23rd March
 * Al-Qa'ida's second act - the full five-part series - Our foreign correspondent's investigation into the jihadi resurgence - 21st March
 * Al-Qa'ida, the second act: The hate preachers fuelling sectarianism - In the final part of his series, Patrick Cockburn explains how Sunni fundamentalist groups are successfully winning recruits through well-funded internet propaganda - 21st March
 * Al-Qa'ida, the second act: Syria’s secular uprising has been hijacked by jihadists - In the fourth of his series about the resurgence of al-Qa’ida, Patrick Cockburn examines how Islamists have turned the uprising against President Assad into a sectarian war - 21st March
 * The Sunni revolt in Syria has given al-Qa’ida more power in Iraq - In the third part of his series, Patrick cockburn looks at the growing influence of Isis, al-Qa’ida’s force in Iraq, which dominates Sunni areas and is wreaking havoc among the Shia majority - 19th March
 * Al-Qa’ida, the second act: Is Saudi Arabia regretting its support for terrorism? - In the second part of his series, Patrick Cockburn examines the role of Saudi Arabia as the jihadists’ greatest ally – and asks whether the kingdom will be forced to change tack in the face of American impatience and anarchy in Syria - 18th March
 * Al-Qa’ida, the second act: Why the global 'war on terror' went wrong - In 2014 al-Qa’ida-type groups are numerous and powerful… In other words, the ‘war on terror’ has demonstrably failed - 17th March
 * Three years after Gaddafi, Libya is imploding into chaos and violence - Its government has no real power; militias are ever more entrenched, and now the state itself is under threat - 16th March
 * To see what Ukraine's future may be, just look at Lviv's shameful past - A seemingly cosmopolitan city is a nationalist stronghold and monument to ethnic cleansing, as its barbaric wartime treatment of Jews illustrated - 9th March
 * The nature of war has changed, which is bleak news for Syria’s minorities - Once the vicious forces of sectarian strife are unleashed, it is nearly impossible to keep them in check - 2nd March
 * Local truces aside, the ingredients for a long Syrian war are all still in place - Assad cannot deliver a knock-out blow, the rebels can't unite, Moscow will not back down and the West lacks a strategy - 23rd February
 * Are protesters overthrowing a brutal despot, or merely bad losers at the polls? - The Arab Spring model of protest, symbolised by Tahrir Square, is now destabilising democratically elected leaders - 16th February
 * Syria conflict: An ordinary family, a terrible war - With jihadis at their door, terrified Maysoun, Nizar, Karim and Bishr reached for grenades rather than face torture and inevitable death at the hands of Jabhat al-Nusra - 9th February
 * Stalemate on Syria's frontlines, but the hatred and horror stories grow by the day - The rebels fight among themselves, government advances slow down, and the hard cores grow ever more intransigent - 2nd February
 * Syria: Splits among rebels allow rare lull in violence but the people, inured to war, expect little from the peace talks - Government forces are overstretched and without enough troops, while the rebels are fully engaged in fighting their own civil war - 26th January
 * Peace possible in Syria as political landscape changes - The terrible butchery could end now that the US and Russia both want to finish the war - 18th January
 * Russia and US unite to push for Syria ceasefire as Kerry and Lavrov meet in Paris - Powers call for humanitarian aid as rebels fight each other - 13th January
 * After 12 years, £390bn, and countless dead, we leave poverty, fraud – and the Taliban in Afghanistan - World View: The country is in such a bad way as western troops depart that leaders can only spin, almost to the point of lying - 12th January



Articles: 2013

 * Sunni monarchs back YouTube hate preachers: Anti-Shia propaganda threatens a sectarian civil war which will engulf the entire Muslim world - There is now a pool of jihadis willing to fight and die anywhere - 29th December
 * Middle East leader of the year? You'd be surprised... - In a period of failure for many, one man is on the up and up. And he's no friend of the West - 22nd December
 * Britain’s policy on Syria has just been sunk, and nobody noticed - The West’s favoured faction is on the run, while the Riyadh-backed rebels steadily gain ground - 15th December
 * Mass murder in the Middle East is funded by our friends the Saudis - Everyone knows where al-Qa'ida gets its money, but while the violence is sectarian, the West does nothing - 8th December
 * In magical Najaf the old stories are still the best - The Shia record of governance here is not good, but the city's ancient heroes remain untarnished - 1st December
 * Muqtada al-Sadr has a peerless record of opposing Saddam Hussein - Sadrism deeply divides the Iraqi Shia, many of whom see the movement as having a history of sectarian violence - 29th November
 * Biggles flies uncensored: more whisky, less jingoism - W E Johns's tales about the often derided but intrepid fighter pilot have been unfairly maligned - 17th November
 * Iranian concessions on nuclear issues are not going to lead to an agreement - The Reformists in Iran will be vulnerable to allegations that they are negotiating from weakness - 11th November
 * Whatever Israel says, it is Iran that's offering the concessions - A deal on nuclear weapons has been on the cards since President Obama decided not to attack Syria - 10th November
 * How my grandfather's brave and lonely stand for justice cost him his career - Trying to protect a Korean journalist brought Henry Cockburn into conflict with the Japanese – and his own Whitehall masters - 3rd November
 * As Syria disintegrates, so too does Iraq - Where there are Sunni minorities in Iraq, they will be killed or forced to flee - 29th October
 * Toppling a bad regime liberates a country – but let's not go there - The real story of security after Gaddafi can be seen in the Foreign Office's advice to travellers - 27th October
 * Tear-gas shells replace the Pearl as the symbol of Bahrain - Amid claims that torture is 'the norm', cultural chasms are creating a repressive island of hate - 20th October
 * Like Assad, Churchill liked to stockpile poison gas - The prime minister meant to spray German troops if they landed on British beaches - 13th October
 * Ali Zeidan's kidnap confirms Libya's slow implosion - The perception that the militiamen had beat Gaddafi through their own strength in 2011 was an illusion helped along by Western media - 11th October
 * Just who has been killing Iran's nuclear scientists? - The timing of the latest shot in a covert war invites questions about the role of proxies - 6th October
 * How Turkey blew its chance to lead this troubled region - The country could have enhanced its influence and saved a lot of lives. It did the exact opposite - 29th September
 * While Iran and the US talk of peace, the real war keeps going - World View: Ethnic cleansing continues as President Rouhani prepares to address the UN on Tuesday - 22nd September
 * Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have put Russia back on the top table - Deal in Geneva shows the Kremlin’s influence is at its greatest for more than 20 years - 15th September
 * War comes to Syria's quiet Christian hinterland - A rebel attack on Maloula is a warning for a minority accused of supporting government - 8th September
 * Syria crisis: The teetering balance of power has whole region on edge - Israel’s position is firmly based on its own self-interests - 7th September
 * In Syria, it's a case of all or nothing - History teaches us that limited Western intervention can only inflame this complex war and will do nothing to bring peace - 1st September
 * Only a peace conference, not air strikes, can stop further bloodshed - Could the US and Russia force their respective allies to at least agree to a ceasefire? - 27th August
 * Is the West prepared to cross the Rubicon over Syria? Probably - Will the night sky of Damascus soon be illuminated by the explosion of American cruise missiles - 26th August
 * Did Syria gas its own people? The evidence is mounting... - Attacks make it hard for Barack Obama to avoid a military reaction. But that's not what Assad wants - 25th August
 * The evidence of chemical attack seems compelling – but remember - there’s a propaganda war on - The evidence so far for the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian army is second-hand and comes from a biased source - 23rd August
 * Egypt on the brink of a new dark age, as the generals close in for the kill - Compromise is no longer feasible, and the army controls the levers of power. But can its victory be conclusive? - 18th August
 * Violence is one thing, but what causes real terror is the threat of kidnapping - The danger of a relative disappearing brings a unique chill – and the threat is growing as Syria's gangs get organised - 11th August
 * Germany should honour its debt and offer NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden asylum - When such figures as Albert Einstein fled the Nazis, the US provided a haven. Now it’s time for Berlin to offer asylum to the persecuted - 21st July
 * Hidden hands of old regimes did not go away - The unholy alliances forged in the revolutionary Arab Spring uprisings are beginning to crumble - 14th July
 * Syria: One death among 93,000 - Ghassan al-Khouly was a builder, husband and father killed by a mortar while guarding an Old City gate in Damascus last week. This is his story - 23rd June
 * Only an all-out war can depose Assad. Anything less is like being 'half-pregnant' - Syria's insurgents cannot win just by getting a few more weapons. If the West intervenes, it will be as a main player - 16th June
 * Erdogan's mishandling of protests has exposed the myth of a stable Turkey - The PM's inability to counter unrest within and enemies without make any talk of a 'new Ottoman empire' absurd - 9th June
 * Just who has the most to gain if the killing in Syria goes on? - All the players have their own agendas, and none seems to involve a ceasefire... just yet - 2nd June
 * 'Baghdad likes to live from crisis to crisis': Civil war looms in Iraq - The governor of Kirkuk - one of the country's most violent but successful provinces - fears the worst - 26th May
 * Syria has no reason to use chemical weapons - After the fiasco over Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, people around the world are rightly sceptical about claims of gas attacks - 19th May
 * History lessons the West refuses to learn - After the Great War, Britain and France carved up the Middle East between them. Now, plans for Syria have the same potential for disaster - 12th May
 * How my ancestor, James Ramsay, helped end slavery - Seven years ago, Patrick Cockburn found he was descended from 'the single most important influence in the abolition of the slave trade' - 5th May
 * The Boston bombs roused a monster - An overreaction to the attacks could result in massive, self-important bodies wielding excessive powers and hounding the wrong people - 21st April
 * North Korea: Why the media needs a sausage maker in Seoul - Any source is a good source when desperate journalists can't dig up the most basic of facts - 14th April
 * Libya's future looks bleak as media focus turns elsewhere - Two years after Nato's intervention, the militias are still terrorising the country - 7th April
 * Adventurers and lotus-eaters in the land of the expatriate - Cyprus's foreign residents are only the latest to watch their dreams of a better life turn sour - 30th March
 * Thanks to Leveson the job of journalists has become that little bit harder - Foreign experience shows harsher press rules in the UK will play into the hands of the rich and powerful - 24th March
 * Erdogan should pursue lasting truce with the PKK - The conflict between Turkey's government and its Kurdish population will only get worse if no agreement is reached. A ceasefire might last this time - 22nd March
 * Western meddling in Syria will only fuel the Sunni insurgency - British efforts to arm 'moderate' rebels reveal a lack of understanding of this complex civil war - 17th March
 * Want to know what Iraq is like now? Check out 'Henry VI', parts I, II and III - Ten years after the invasion, Shakespeare's depiction of the War of the Roses echoes the fight for supremacy in Baghdad - 10th March
 * Iraq: a history that must not be repeated - (6/6): The US and Britain are seen as conquerors rather than liberators. Their perceived support now for al-Qa’ida fighters in Syria, while condemning them in Iraq, has raised the political temperature - 9th March
 * Iraq 10 years on: from death to dollars - how Kurds struck it rich - (5/6): Iraqi Kurdistan was the scene of Saddam’s greatest crime. It is also the home of the country’s newest oil fields, which present both an opportunity – and a threat – to its people - 8th March
 * How the Shia are in power in Iraq – but not in control - (4/6): On paper Iraq's religious majority also runs the country. In reality, sectarian divisions make it virtually ungovernable - 7th March
 * The Sunni rise again: Uprising in Syria emboldens Iraq's minority community - Iraq: The Legacy (3/6): When Saddam fell, his people fell with him. But events in Syria have emboldened Iraq’s Sunni minority to fight for a greater share of power - 6th March
 * Iraq ten years on: How Baghdad became a city of corruption - Iraq: The Legacy (2/6): Money talks - how bribery became the dominant currency in Baghdad - 5th March
 * Ten years on from the war, how the world forgot about Iraq - Iraq: The Legacy (1/6): A nation in crisis - 4th March
 * Polio must be eradicated. It's a crippling disease but it can be beaten. I know - Bill Gates's campaign against the virus prompts our columnist to recall his own battle with it almost 60 years ago - 24th February
 * A decade after the invasion of Iraq, the Kurds emerge as surprise winners - Troubles in surrounding countries may puncture Iraqi Kurdistan's boom but, for now, new hotels and malls are mushrooming - 17th February
 * Saddam and the US failed, so why should Maliki think he can control Iraq by force? - The Prime Minister may have electoral legitimacy, but the Sunni revolt against his government is growing in strength - 10th February
 * As murder rate drops, flood levels rise and inundate Baghdad with raw sewage - Ten years after the invasion of Iraq, an incompetent and corrupt government is unable to improve life for most citizens - 3rd February
 * If you want the truth during a war, don't ask a pundit - On TV, informed commentators are too often ignored in favour of 'experts' with their own political agendas - 27th January
 * 'War on terror' is a tempting defence, but it isn't that simple - We must understand the strange alliances in Mali to unravel its complex, conflicting loyalties - 20th January
 * The war against the Shia catches all in its crossfire - Sunni attacks on their Muslim neighbours have left the West with strange bedfellows - 13th January
 * At this rate, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad could still hold power in Damascus a year from now - In his World View column, our correspondent find links between the conflict in Syria today and the Algerian civil war of the 1990s - 11th January



Articles: 2012

 * Syria is many conflicts rolled into one. It is also at the centre of two regional struggles - A military stalemate between the government and rebels will make a negotiated settlement inevitable – but not for a long time - 30th December
 * The descent into Holy War - The world decided to back the rebels last week, but this is no fight between goodies and baddies - 16th December
 * Syria's rebels reach Damascus suburbs, but cannot break the civil-war deadlock - In a special dispatch, our reporter files from amid the 'vicious and unrelenting fighting' that is tearing the country apart - 9th December
 * Shame on the UN for creating the deadly cholera epidemic that's killed 7,500 in Haiti - World View: Nepalese blue-beret troops brought the disease to the stricken country after the 2010 quake, but report implies the islanders are to blame - 2nd December
 * Despite the sabre-rattling, an attack on Iran is now unlikely - If the Israelis wanted to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities, they have probably left it too late - 25th November
 * Jane Austen made those long nights in Tripoli bearable - There's more to being a reporter than knowing your way around: you need to pass the time - 18th November
 * Middle Eastern snakes exceed ladders for the US - Obama wasn't challenged over America's plans in Syria and Iran in the election. But conflicts in the region could proliferate in his second term - 11th November
 * Whatever the weather, the US cries wolf - Hysterical reporting puts Americans in danger – as does the lack of an east-west mountain range - 4th November
 * How US drones forge as many foes as they kill - The enhanced use of unmanned attack planes is at the heart of American foreign policy - 27th October
 * Weasel words that politicians use to obscure terrible truths - Beware 'robust', 'remnants' and 'anecdotal' – just three of the terms deployed to hide or mislead
 * Syria's suffering opens a door for Washington - As sanctions bite in Iran and Turkish shells fall, US is well placed to broker regional peace talks - 7th October
 * American influence on the Middle East is past its peak – someone should tell them - Is the US now in the same position as the Soviet Union in 1989, when it had to allow its satellites to collapse around it? - 30th September
 * Romney and the royals? They all know better - Those in the public eye should realise that the days when they could control or manipulate the news are gone - 23rd September
 * As the Chinese so wisely say: Don't tie your shoelaces in a melon field - Humour and proverbs offer quirky insights into the wider world, but you have to work hard to uncover the gems - 16th September
 * The murder of US ambassador Christopher Stevens proves the Arab Spring was never what it seemed - Bloody violence in Libya and protests in Egypt should dispel any notion that these revolutions were a vote in favour of Western ideals - 13th September
 * Across the globe, neglect of the mentally ill is one of the great scandal of our times - Our writer, whose son Henry has schizophrenia, says the desire to save money has left mentally ill people to fend for themselve - 9th September
 * The day a Cockburn set the White House aflame - Two hundred years after the US was humbled by Britain, our leaders still pass off defeat as victory - 2nd September
 * As the violence intensifies in Syria, there can be only one winner - the Kurds - Ankara is watching events unfold with growing anxiety as Assad withdraws his forces from the Turkish border area - 26th August
 * Libyans have voted, but will the new rulers be able to curb violent militias? - The armed groups who helped depose Gaddafi are now committing human rights abuses of their own, Amnesty warns - 8th July
 * How Julian Assange's private life helped conceal the real triumph of WikiLeaks - Without the access to the US secret cables, the world would have no insight into how their governments behave - 1st July
 * Why the Arab Spring has not been followed by the expected summer - History has gone into reverse as military governments clamber back into the saddle or slaughter their people - 24th June
 * Greece's day of reckoning dawns in a climate of anger and uncertainty - Unless there is a decisive result in today's election, the country faces a political as well as an economic crisis - 17th June
 * America is deluded by its drone-warfare propaganda - The use of unmanned aircraft to assassinate its enemies is guaranteed to backfire on Washington - 10th June
 * Why war is marching on the road to Damascus - A special dispatch from the Syrian capital reveals why the city's residents expect the worst - 3rd June
 * Move pushes Syria – and Russia – further out into the cold - It was in Assad's interests to avoid any atrocities. But the regime could not restrain its forces - 30th May
 * As the bodies continue to mount up, a people on edge prepare for civil war - Many in Damascus know first-hand about the physical destruction wrought by the fighting - 28th May
 * I fear this terrible massacre will be the beginning of a long civil war in Syria - The chances of compromise were never great, but they now seem to have been killed along with Houla's children - 27th May
 * Goodbye to recent delusions - the age of nationalism is back with a vengeance - Intervention was meant to produce democracy in the Middle East and stability in Europe. Now we know it was a con - 20th May
 * Netanyahu's threats to bomb Iran have served Israel – and the US – very well - With no one willing to call the belligerent PM's bluff, the fate of the Palestinians has dropped off the agenda - 13th May
 * The last months of Bin Laden - Most of the interviews given by US officials to mark the anniversary of the al-Qa'ida leader's killing were fantasy - 6th May
 * Al-Qa'ida opens a new front line - How did al-Qa'ida survived the intense pressure placed on it by security services after 9/11 and will it be able to do so in future? - 3rd May
 * One year after death of Osama bin Laden, what next for al-Qa'ida? - The network Bin Laden led may be fragmented – but it has not been eliminated - 2nd May
 * Hitchens made a cogent case for war – but he was still wrong - The late journalist insisted removing Saddam and the Taliban from power was paramount. But what about Syria? - 29th April
 * The West practises double standards in the Middle East - World View: While Barack Obama and David Cameron vigorously oppose the atrocities against protesters in Syria, they handle Bahrain with kid gloves - 16th April
 * Syria is too far steeped in blood for resolution by negotiation - The government's use of brutal tactics means that it is always creating fresh enemies - 10th April
 * Galloway won for some very good reasons - Commentators who portray him as a self-serving demagogue are only showing their own biases - 8th April
 * Corruption fills the air as Egypt prepares to vote - World View: Citizens here expect their leaders and officials to want bribes, and they're almost never wrong - 1st April
 * The attempt to topple President Assad has failed - The EU travel ban serves to show how impotent the outside world is in its dealings with Syria - 25th March
 * The strange forgettability of some civilian massacres - It is too soon to know if the deaths of an Afghan family last week will alter things in Afghanistan, but some atrocities have the power to shape history - 18th March
 * Greece sells its independence to escape the burden of debt - Special Dispatch: In the birthplace of democracy, self-determination has lost out to economic dictats from abroad. And, as ever, it's the poor who suffer the most - 19th February
 * All the evidence points to sectarian civil war in Syria, but no one wants to admit it - World View: Arming the resistance can only increase the blood-letting - 12th February
 * The death of the American dream in Afghanistan - A devastating leaked Nato report shows the extent of US failure, as the Taliban prepare for the occupying forces to leave - 5th February
 * Sanctions can only deepen the Iran crisis - Israeli and US hawks are more interested in regime change than the country's nuclear programme - 29th January
 * Is Turkey's economic miracle about to fade away? - While its neighbours stumble, the country that is a role model for Islamic democracy could become a victim of overconfidence - 22nd January
 * Whose hands are behind those dramatic YouTube pictures? - World View: Disinformation and black propaganda are as old as armed conflict itself, and the internet has only increased the opportunities to spread the fog of war - 15th January
 * The day the checkpoint goons thought I was an American spy - In much of the world, you can tell who's really in charge from who is running the roadblocks – often manned by brutish extortionists armed to the teeth - 8th January
 * Are we witnessing the final disintegration of Iraq? - World View: Its three main communities – Shia, Sunni and Kurd – cannot seem to run the country together, and yet none can run it alone - 1st January



Articles: 2011

 * Some say Maliki is paranoid. And it's no wonder given the violence of Iraqi politics - But his unexpected decision to provoke a political crisis immediately by ordering the arrest his own Vice-President on terrorism charges may weaken his rule and destabilise Iraq - 23rd December
 * This is just the start of the struggle - The past year has shaken the Middle East from top to bottom, but the final results of the Arab Spring are far from clear - 18th December
 * A superpower not strong enough to set Iraq on course - The US invaded Iraq in 2003 in a show of strength after 9/11 to prove it was the world's sole superpower - 16th December
 * Focus on torture hides deeper discrimination in Bahrain - Shia leaders warn that a sense that they are being denied promotion will inevitably provoke a crisis - 13th December
 * Wars without victory equal an America without influence - For all its military might, the US has failed to get its way in Afghanistan and Iraq, severely denting the prestige of the world's only superpower - 11th December
 * Fragile Iraq threatened by the return of civil war - While the country is less dangerous, it is still plagued by sectarian divisions – which could increase as the last American soldiers withdraw this week - 4th December
 * They act tough in Tehran because they don't think the US or Israel will attack them - Iran's leaders are nervous because of the likely fall of the Syrian government, its main ally in the Arab world - 1st December
 * Iran is not the monster it's made out to be – yet - World View: By blaming the street protests at home on their Shia neighbour, Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are playing with fire - 27th November
 * Making the rich pay tax they owe is one way to achieve fairness - The millionaire, who when his fortune is made, moves to the Isle of Man, is a tax dodger - 24th November
 * Bullying intrusion is now a routine experience - At some point, we must be prepared to take a risk rather than throw away civilised standards - 24th November
 * This was always a civil war, and the victors are not merciful - The purge of Gaddafi supporters is made more dangerous by infighting between the militias - 24th November
 * Abdullah shows that neighbours believe regime cannot survive - The Syrian government looks ever more isolated. The latest blow came yesterday when King Abdullah of Jordan became the first Arab ruler to call for Bashar al-Assad to give up power - 15th November
 * Greece and Ireland's dreams of equality go as quickly as the money - Perception of the crisis in Europe over the past month has been less concentrated in time and place compared with Black Thursday in New York, but in other ways the reaction is similar - 13th November
 * My friend, the fixer - Feature: Reporting on the uprising in Libya, Patrick Cockburn recruited an idealistic Tripoli hotel worker as his guide. Shortly before Gaddafi's fall, Ahmed Abdullah al-Ghadamsi was killed. This is his tribute - 5th November
 * The Army won't face the truth about Afghanistan and Iraq - Both British campaigns were ill-conceived and poorly executed: military defeats dressed up as victory. And much of the blame lies with the generals - 30th October
 * Iran had better watch its step now Obama's chasing votes - A fumbling Tehran-backed plot to kill the Saudi ambassador was dismissed as bizarre by the rest of the world. But the White House is taking it very seriously - 16th October
 * This bizarre plot goes against all that is known of Iran's intelligence service - The claim that Iran employed a used-car salesman with a conviction for cheque fraud to hire Mexican gangsters to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington goes against all that is known of Iran's highly sophisticated intelligence service - 13th October
 * Beware, an apparent victory can come back to bite you - The Taliban were defeated in 2001, but they are back in business – mainly because the Coalition has no partner to consolidate expensively won gains - 9th October
 * Muslim sectarianism will halt democracy in its tracks - The ancient hatreds of the Sunni and Shia communities, exploited by rulers clinging to power, means the Arab Awakening won't succeed east of Egypt - 2nd October
 * America celebrates the silencing of a crucial and fluent propagandist - The killing of Anwar al-Awlaki by a US drone is significant, unlike that of other al-Qa'ida operatives, because he was one the few effective propagandists in the group - 1st October
 * President's return moves Yemen nearer to all-out war - World View: Ali Abdullah Saleh's call for a truce after his reappearance in Sanaa is likely to fall on deaf ears, unless he rapidly begins to transfer power - 25th September
 * Turkey's bid to lead the Arab world meets Israel head on - World Vew: Prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a strong advocate of secularism, is feted in Egypt, and now he is promoting the Palestinian cause - 18th September
 * Whatever happens, a strong government is unlikely - Damage to oil facilities is not severe, but it will take time to again export 1.3m barrels of oil a day - 16th September
 * Al-Qa'ida, and the myth behind the war on terrorism - The atrocities against America created the image of Osama bin Laden as the leader of a global jihad upon the West. It was a fantasy that governments willingly, and disastrously, helped to perpetuate - 11th September
 * The tide may be turning against systematic abuses of prisoners - The close co-operation amounted to farming out torture by the CIA and MI6 to Gaddafi and his interrogators - 5th September
 * A clean victory in Libya, but the peace will be rather messier - The swift end to the six-month conflict took many by surprise. The power switch is a different matter, with rebel leaders struggling to impose themselves - 4th September
 * of Gaddafi brought Libyans together. What can unify them now?'' - View From Tripoli: Nato planes are bombing Muammar Gaddafi's home town of Sirte, underlining the degree to which Nato fully joined the war against him over the past month - 27th August
 * longer in opposition, rebels must start again'' - Nobody quite knows who is in charge in the capital, unlike in the Nafusa mountains to the south - 26th August
 * one doubts that Gaddafi has lost. The question is: who has won?'' - Precedents in Afghanistan and Iraq are not encouraging and serve as a warning - 23rd August
 * ragtag rebels are dubious allies'' - Rebels, from the Wars of the Roses up to the present civil war in Libya, usually try to postpone splitting into factions and murdering each other until after they have seized power and are in full control. However deep their divisions, they keep them secret from the outside world - 11th August
 * The divided kingdom'' - Brutal crackdowns on Bahraini protesters have revealed a bloody rift between the country's Sunni rulers and the Shia majority. Sectarian violence could tear the nation apart – as it has done elsewhere - 8th August
 * the West is committed to the murderous rebels in Libya'' - Foreign governments rush to recognise the Transitional National Councilin the hope of commercial concessions and a carve-up of the oilfields - 30th July
 * in Libya has failed to learn costly lessons of Afghanistan'' - For too long, Western governments have believed they could earn a cheap victory by using air power alone. But experience shows this is not enough - 24th July
 * must Britain always try to 'punch above her weight'?'' - Getting sucked into America's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq was the result of our delusions of influence. Now we're repeating the mistakes in Libya - 17th July
 * show Taliban are not as weak as the US claims'' - The killing of Ahmed Wali Karzai, the most powerful Afghan in the south of the country, will reinforce the feeling among Afghans that the Taliban can strike anywhere at any time and are not weakening as American military commanders have claimed - 13th July
 * expect top room service, or information, in a war zone'' - Hotels in strife-torn countries are obviously difficult to make secure, even the most foolhardy, ill-paid guard is unlikely to want to tackle a suspect bomber - 3rd July
 * believe everything you see and read about Gaddafi'' - Both sides in this conflict are guilty of spreading propaganda – and foreign journalists have on occasion been all too eager to help - 26th June
 * for democracy fade as civil wars grip the Arab world'' - The anti-regime demonstrations that worked so rapidly and unexpectedly in Tunisia and Egypt are faltering elsewhere as rulers fight to hold on to power - 12th June
 * power base will struggle to survive this crisis'' - Pundits ask if the power vacuum will lead to civil war, but there has always been a vacuum of power in Yemen - 6th June
 * must cut politics out of the debate on cannabis'' - The 'war on drugs' may amount to a form of US imperialism, but advocates of decriminalisation must also acknowledge the real dangers of marijuana - 5th June
 * winners from brutal repression of Shia majority will be Saudi Arabia'' - How to explain the ferocity of the Bahraini al-Khalifa royal family's assault on the majority of its own people? - 3rd June
 * Nato's blunders have prolonged Libya's suffering'' - Air strikes will defeat Gaddafi. But unless regional partners help force his departure, he will fight to the finish – ushering in years of chaos and crisis - 22nd May
 * 'used to force Shia out' of Sunni kingdom'' - Island state's ruling elite are set on a campaign of persecution, say religious leaders. Our writer on a nation divided - 20th May
 * is trying to drown the protests in Shia blood'' - World View: Claiming that the opposition is being orchestrated by Iran, the al-Khalifa regime has unleashed a vicious sectarian clampdown - 15th May
 * Bin Laden the reason we went to war?'' - The killing of the al-Qa'ida leader offers an opportunity to make long overdue progress on Afghanistan - 8th May
 * night I shot Donald Trump'' - The US media's downgrading of their foreign reporting teams has created an information vacuum which images from mobiles and satellite phones cannot fill - 8th May
 * with al-Qa'ida's face of fear gone, can we ever be truly safe from terrorism?'' - Of course, there will be jihadi groups who will want to restore the balance of terror by making new attacks, but none is likely to have the same impact as 9/11 - 3rd May
 * double threat that hangs over the poor of Kabul'' - World View: As popular uprisings convulse the Middle East and North Africa, governments across the world wait nervously to see if any other country will experience an explosion of popular rage against despotic rule. In the wake of the Japanese earthquake there is also a more general curiosity about which places are most vulnerable to a similar calamity - 1st May
 * intervention in Syria would make matters worse'' - There are good reasons why Britain and other foreign states should limit their involvement in the conflicts now raging in the Arab world - 27th April
 * will haunt Libya for decades'' - World View: Whatever Nato may say, the country is in the grip of a civil war that will resound for years to come - 24th April
 * regimes are rallying their forces. Is the tide turning against Arab freedom?'' - In Bahrain, Libya, Yemen and Syria leaders are no longer caught by surprise; their defeat no longer seems inevitable - 22nd April
 * denied it was about Iraq's resources. But it never rang true'' - The supposed disinterest expressed by international oil companies in the outcome of the invasion of Iraq in the year before it was launched never quite made sense - 19th April
 * the Arab landscape shifts – and confusion reigns'' - The great political awakening in North Africa and the Middle East brings change, but some things – torture of suspects among them – remain the same - 17th April
 * parallels with Iraq under Saddam are truly ominous'' - Opposition leaders hope that time is on their side. Possibly they are right. But Iraqi opponents of Saddam Hussein thought much the same 20 years ago - 13th April
 * problem for Nato: how to tell rebels from loyalists'' - With the anti-Gaddafi forces ill-trained and totally dependent on the West, Britain and France are going to find themselves sucked into a long conflict - 10th April
 * shady men backed bythe West to displace Gaddafi'' - World View: We seem to have learnt little from recent history. Trying to impose a no-fly zone in Libya looks like a mistake and the rebels' credentials to rule are thin - 3rd April
 * tyrant makes the same mistake in the Arab uprisings'' - The despots who have ruled the Arab world for half a century are not giving up without a fight - 27th March
 * may have squandered its last best chance for peace'' - Amid all the optimism, the Jerusalem bombing and the increased violence in Gaza are a reminder that the struggle remains at the centre of Middle East politics - 25th March
 * crucial US ally against Middle East terrorism or a safe haven for al-Qa'ida?'' - The US is expressing worry that the struggle for power in Yemen will give opportunities to al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula, which is based in Yemen - 23rd March
 * has followed the Mubarak route to alienating his people'' - There is always potential for violence in Yemen – the state is weak and one in five people pledge their allegiance to their tribe - 22nd March
 * cannot hold out. But who will replace him?'' - The rebels have shown that they are politically and militarily weak - 21st March
 * have an impact, this kind of intervention needs clear objectives'' - Western nations will soon be engaged in a war in Libya with the noble aim of protecting civilians. But the course of such a conflict is impossible to predict - 18th March
 * response reveals fear that Sunni power is fading'' - There is growing anger in the Shia community, estimated to number at least 250 million world-wide, at the intervention of troops from Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates in Bahrain to help repress the Shia majority which has been demanding political and civil rights - 17th March
 * League call for a no-fly zone may be too little, too late'' - A call for action from the Arab League sounds like a contradiction in terms, given the 22-member organisation's reputation for ineffectiveness - 14th March
 * has clearly not learnt lesson of history'' - There is something frivolous and absurd about France's sudden recognition of the Libyan rebel leadership in Benghazi - 11th March
 * a leader on the brink'' - The world watches and waits to see how the 30-year reign of Egypt's corrupt, incompetent President will end – whether the man who has reduced his country to a political slum will fight or take flight - 1st February
 * real scandal is Blair's ignorance'' - Worth watching will be the extent to which he continues his tirades against Iran, in much the same way as he spoke of Iraq - 21st January
 * on camera: Why media coverage of natural disasters is flawed'' - When a natural disaster happens, we watch from afar, transfixed by dramatic news reports. But how accurate is the picture? - 20th January
 * East is brewing troubles like these'' - A striking feature of the Middle East has been the unpopularity of the regimes combined with their ability to stay in power - 15th January
 * your enemy's stupidity'' - History is full of examples of experts being dumbfounded by countries acting contrary to their own best interests - 5th January



Articles: 2010

 * virtue of speaking truth to power'' - Opponents of Assange, like those of my father, downplay his revelations while demanding his arrest for high crimes - 29th December
 * adopted this tactic in Vietnam. It won't work any better now than it did then'' - Could US Special Forces make a lunge across the Pakistan border in pursuit of the Taliban just as American and South Vietnamese troops briefly invaded Cambodia in pursuit of the Vietcong and North Vietnamese forces in 1970? - 22nd December
 * is repeating itself in Afghanistan'' - One hears again and again Afghans say that the Taliban may not be liked but that the US is distrusted, even hated - 18th December
 * Afghans will do to get friends out of jail'' - The main prison is Kabul is Pol-i-Charkhi, a forbidding-looking place off the Jalalabad road in the east of the capital, which was shrouded in smog yesterday. It has a grim reputation, built in the 1970s and used by the communist government as a place of torture and execution - 2nd December
 * should be glad anyone is paying attention to its inconsequential messages'' - To regain its old influence the Foreign Office should send a sizeable chunk of its cable traffic, firmly marked secret, to Wikileaks for further distribution - 30th November
 * journalism: A distorted view of war'' - what makes a good story might not be the right story - 23rd November
 * under no illusion, Nato is in no shape to make progress in this graveyard of empires'' - If Iraq was bad, Afghanistan is going to be worse. Nothing said or done at the Lisbon conference, which is largely an exercise in self-deception, is going to make this better and it may well make it worse - 20th November
 * may be weak, but President Karzai knows the US has no alternative'' - The main American complaint against President Hamid Karzai over the past year has been that he and his government are so weak that the US has no effective local partner in Afghanistan - 16th November
 * al-Qa'ida really want to hit the West, they can'' - International Studies: The original al-Qai'da led by Osama bin Laden did not controlits franchisees post-9/11 - 4th November
 * of El Salvador in tales of US-approved death squads'' - The Iraqi documents released by Wikileaks produce significantly more detail on US actions in the war in Iraq, but do they produce anything that we did not know already? - 23rd October
 * won't act against the Taliban'' - Most Pakistani soldiers see the Afghan Taliban as Pashtun freedom fighters combating a foreign occupation - 2nd October
 * fires of religious fury are easily lit but hard to put out'' - Christian communities in the Muslim world that date back 2,000 years are finally being extinguished - 10th September
 * stability is the US legacy in Iraq'' - The civil war had winners and losers and it was the Shia who emerged as the victors - 28th August
 * battle to justify this war just got a lot harder'' - The people of Afghanistan keep losing their trust in government because of corruption - 27th July
 * Sangin shows, British troops were never geared up to make a lasting difference'' - The area, where a tenth of the British troops in Afghanistan suffered one third of total casualties, is symbolic of Britain's involvement in Afghanistan, as a bit player whose contribution was always going to have little effect on the outcome of the whole campaign - 8th July
 * chronic failure of Israeli leadership'' - Israeli leaders remain protected by an all-purpose American insurance shielding them from the results of their mistakes - 8th July
 * politicians face domestic constraints to talking tough with Israel'' - US strength in the Middle East has been reduced by the failures in Iraq and Afghanistan - 7th July
 * mineral wealth is impressive, but it won't benefit Afghans any time soon'' - A smudge of blue paint decorating a letter in the Book of Kells may have come originally from the lapis lazuli mines in the heart of the Afghan mountains. The country's mineral wealth has been known about for a long time – but its full exploitation has been prevented by chronic insecurity - 15th June
 * dangerously distorts the Israeli sense of reality'' - An old Israeli saying describing various less-than-esteemed military leaders says: "He was so stupid that even the other generals noticed." - 2nd June
 * blow to relations with its key ally in the Middle East'' - Israel's relations with its most powerful Muslim ally have plunged to a historic low - 1st June
 * stable Iraq is still a very long way off'' - The communal divisions and political paralysis lead some to fear that the country is turning into another Lebanon - 29th May
 * US and Russian interests collid'' - Kyrgyzstan Analysis - 10th April
 * – violent, divided, but hopeful'' - The election result marks another stumbling step towards an independent and, ultimately, peaceful existence - 28th March
 * need not figure in Iraq's future'' - Is this period of continuing emergency and conflict now coming to an end? - 6th March
 * rapid apologies only emphasise waning support'' - No Nato power contributing forces can keep itself on the margins of the escalating conflict - 23rd February
 * from Pakistan is more significant than military action'' - The support of Pakistani military intelligence has always been crucial for the Taliban, which is why the arrest of several of their senior leaders in Pakistan is so important -20th February
 * war goes, propaganda follows'' - Manipulation of news by government is easy when insurgents start targeting journalists - 11th February
 * Evidence of Witness 69: Blair has shown himself more a fool than a liar'' - The most revealing thing about the former PM's evidence was how little he understood about the situation on the ground - 31st January (Iraq war inquiry)
 * US is failing Haiti – again'' - US-run aid effort for Haiti is beginning to look chillingly similar to the disorganised government support for New Orleans in 2005 - 16th January
 * ugly embassy proves the US does not expect affection'' - The US and Britain may regret intervening in Yemen, which is very much an Arab Afghanistan - 4th January



Articles: 2009

 * was targeted to secure freedom of Iranian-backed militants'' - Peter Moore was treated differently and may at one stage have been held in Iran - 31st December
 * to Yemen prove America hasn't learned the lesson of history'' - Extraordinarily, the US is making exactly the same mistake as in Iraq and Afghanistan - 31st December
 * in the US already see Arab state as 'tomorrow's target''' - Washington has quietly been supplying military equipment, intelligence and training to Yemeni forces - 29th December
 * bombers will not restart the war'' - The slaughter by car bombers of over 100 civilians in Baghdad proves that al-Qa'ida in Iraq still has the capability to launch devastating multiple attacks on soft targets - 9th December
 * surge will only prolong Afghan war'' - Analysis: Just as in Iraq, more Western troops on the ground will deepen an ongoing civil conflict and drive ordinary Afghans into the arms of the insurgents - 6th December
 * ignorance of Iraq is already apparent'' - Ever since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 senior British officials have gently hinted that what went wrong was the fault of the Americans and, if there is any blame left over, it belongs to Tony Blair - 25th November
 * general is right. Liam Fox is wrong'' - Just when it looked like Obama might send more troops to Afghanistan, the US envoy to Kabul has warned him not to - 13th November
 * bring Afghan strategy into question'' - In a long tradition of carefully calculated treachery, the shooting dead of five British soldiers by an Afghan policeman operating with them is hardly surprising - 5th November
 * is safer – but by no means safe'' - Police know bombers are difficult to stop, and awards are likely to be posthumous - 26th October
 * life is improving, but it's far from safe''' - Security in Baghdad is better than the slaughter of two or three years ago, but this still leaves it as perhaps the most dangerous city in the world after Mogadishu. It is certainly worse than Kabul - 14th October
 * say this war must be won in a year is nonsense'' - Eight years ago I was standing on a hill 50 miles north of Kabul watching the flashes in the night sky as the US air strikes started against the Taliban front line. There were a few ineffective puffs of fire from Taliban anti-aircraft guns which could do nothing against the bombs and missiles raining down on them - 8th October
 * act born from the burning hatred of foreign occupation'' - Mr Zaidi's words demonstrate how occupation provokes instability and violence - 16th September
 * and occupation don't mix'' - Afghans and Iraqis see their governments as rackets run by political gangsters - 22nd August
 * time can heal some Iraqi wounds'' - Horrendous violence has never really abated, despite propaganda lauding the ‘surge’ - 14th August
 * man of brutality and arrogance who knew how to play to American suspicions'' - The Saddam Hussein interviews are interesting for what they reveal and what they conceal. Probably right up to the end, Saddam was talking up the Iranian threat to Iraq, knowing that this would confirm American suspicions of Iran. The Iraqi leader would recall that a joint front against Iran had been the basis of Iraqi-American co-operation in the 1980s - 5th July
 * hoped my son would recover soon. He did not'' - The illness struck with terrifying rapidity over the course of a few weeks - 2nd July
 * will damage but not destroy Iran'' - Is the revolution in Iran over before it began? Was it ever going to be a revolution? Will it leave the Iranian state permanently divided and weakened? - 25th June (See: Iran: summary)
 * Decoding the President: what Obama's words really mean - the highlights of the much-anticipated – and carefully constructed – Cairo speech - 5th June
 * killings will only strengthen the Taliban'' - It is astonishing to discover that the same small American unit, the US Marine Corps' Special Operations or MarSOC, has been responsible for all three of the worst incidents in Afghanistan in which civilians have been killed. Its members refer to themselves as "Taskforce Violence" and the Marines' own newspaper scathingly refers to the unit as "cowboys" - 16th May
 * achieve peace, we must break the Taliban's support base in Pakistan'' - Afghans wonder if we are really prepared to do anything effective about Pakistan - 28th April
 * well was the Iraq war reported?'' - The winner of the Orwell Prize for his coverage of the most fiercely debated conflict of modern times, reflects on the task he and his colleagues faced - 25th April
 * Obama turn rhetoric into the reality of peace with the Muslim world?'' - The President's bridge-building is welcome. But it will take more than words to erase the damage done by his predecessor - 8th April
 * day with the terror 'charity' working 15 miles from Lahore'' - 5th March
 * to the US: beware treating Afghanistan like Iraq'' - It's a mistake to think that 'failed states' won't put up strong resistance - 26th February
 * 'puppet in Kabul' will not go quietly'' - the Pentagon has increasingly seen him as an obstacle to its plans for a "surge" to try to turn the corner in the Afghan war - 23rd January
 * In Israel, detachment from reality is now the norm - All these years on from Sabra and Chatila, has anything changed? - 22nd January



News & updates:


Links:

 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Cockburn