I wonder: what’s it like to be Pope Francis, waking up each morning in the Vatican knowing he’s surrounded by people praying fervently, and that many of them are begging God to make him die before noon?
Not everyone around him wants him dead, of course. Francis has fans and supporters too. And even some harsh Continue reading Pope Francis: Wanted Dead, Or If Alive, Then Retired & Silent
Ukraine: Will Western tanks bring victory?
Gwynne Dyer is a UK-based Canadian journalist and historian who writes about international affairs.
OPINION: On Tuesday they reset the Doomsday Clock to 90 seconds before midnight. How did they know that Germany would agree to give Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine on Wednesday?
[NOTE: First, a reflection: Quakers are known, in part, for a devotion to losing causes. This penchant was deftly satirized by Doug Gwyn, a renowned scholar/songwriter, in his ditty, “Yonder Stands the Quaker”:
“Yonder stands the Quaker,
Looking quaint as a box of Quaker Oats . . .
Yonder stand the Quakers,
On the far side of the back of beyond;
Misfit mystics, a boil
On the bum of Babylon. . . .
They’re standing for peace and justice . . . Continue reading Time to Close Gitmo, Says Its First Commander
[NOTE: This column is a followup to the post of early last week: Lightning Strikes Three Times: Japan, Taiwan & The Emerging Big Power Arms Races.
It’s an improvement, in two ways: First, Gwynne Dyer knows what he’s talking about. He has a doctorate in war history and strategy; he served with the militaries of three different countries, and has traveled and studied wars past and present across much of the world. Second, he writes with rare concision and clarity, building on forty-plus years of practice in meeting deadlines and skillfully fitting big thoughts and insights into always-small and tight Op-Ed column spaces.
And — oh wait, there’s a third: Dyer is an independent journalist/analyst, and excels most others in seeing through the thick fogbanks of propaganda and lies thrown up around wars and rumors of war by most or all sides. Here, he does it again.]
Hamilton Ontario Spectator–January 19, 2023
Continue reading Dyer: Alliances and The Big Wars Nobody Wanted, But Stumbled Into
Introduction: For me, the sudden abandonment of neutrality by Sweden and Finland after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine were like separate lightning bolts striking the same tree.
How likely was that? Sweden had been a neutral country for 200+ years. Finland for 75, since 1948. Continue reading Lightning Strikes Three Times: Japan, Taiwan & The Emerging Big Power Arms Races