‘Core message’ contains a summary of, & link to ‘The Longest War’, written in January 2022.

‘Video’ contains a Renegade Inc programme called ‘The Quickening’. A 30 minute conversation with Ross Ashcroft, the programme aired on RT on 1st July 2019.

‘Archive’ has links to all the stuff I’ve written since 2014, when I began commenting at the Financial Times newspaper.

Afghanistan and the silent consent of idiots

In response to an FT View on 22nd August 2017, entitled ‘Trump has bowed to the generals on Afghanistan’

https://www.ft.com/content/da2d3b64-8724-11e7-8bb1-5ba57d47eff7?desktop=true&conceptId=9823c7de-0ed0-3538-a804-996b268a776f&segmentId=d8d3e364-5197-20eb-17cf-2437841d178a

“A few thousand extra troops — the figure of 4,000 has been bandied around — and harsh rhetoric about Pakistan will change little on the ground…

For there to have been any hope of a successful counter insurgency, the US would have had to commit to the long haul and put more boots on the ground to win hearts and minds” - FT View

Win hearts and minds? In Afghanistan? You have learned absolutely nothing from over a century of imperial powers such as Britain and the USSR poking their noses into that territory - not to mention the past 17 years of US intervention.

Congratulations for being as utterly ‘thick’ as the neoconservatives behind this strategy, who actually believe they can ‘win’. Your 'silent consent' will also be welcomed by the ‘defence’ companies, who are rubbing their hands with glee as they update their spreadsheets with a few new columns.

Idiots.

Cash is not the curse

The FT on the importance of Jackson Hole