Latest News: Posts Tagged ‘Patrick Cockburn’

Roundup: PATRICK COCKBURN on the Chilcot inquiry

Wednesday, July 6th, 2016

The Chilcot inquiry is an unmistakable and damning indictment of Tony Blair’s Iraq War policy—but will it make a difference?

Veteran war reporter Patrick Cockburn has spent years covering the unfolding disaster in the Greater Middle East. In light of this week’s report, his analysis is proving indispensable.

 

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Quoting at length from Patrick Cockburn‘s column in the Independent:

“By an accident of history, the Chilcot inquiry on the Iraq War is appearing at a critical moment in British history. The war was the first great test this century of the ability of the British powers-that-be to govern intelligently and successfully and one which they demonstrably failed. The crisis provoked by the vote to leave the European Union is the next crisis of similar gravity faced by these same powers and, once again, they appear unable to cope.

“Britain’s politicians and senior officials have traditionally had the reputation of making fewer mistakes than their rivals, but their inability to grapple with these crises is a sign that this period may be drawing to an end. The Chilcot report will presumably provide evidence about why Britain made so many mistakes before and during the Iraq war, but is unlikely to explain why it went on making them in Libya and Syria.

“Britain’s rulers periodically admit that they got many things wrong in Iraq, but they tend to be unspecific about what these were or what practical lessons can be learned from British military involvement there between 2003 and 2009. This ignorance is wilful, stemming from a conscious or unconscious sense that, if Britain admits to real weaknesses and failures, it will be seen as a less valuable ally by the US and others whom Britain is trying to convince of its continuing political and military strength.

“One way of looking at the Iraq conflict is to see it as a disastrous attempt by Britain to make war on the cheap in conditions which were far more risky than those launching it imagined. To prevent fragile support for the war eroding further, bad news was concealed or glossed over to the point that propaganda took over from reality.

“It was comical but chilling in the early years of the war to see Tony Blair and other British ministers, sometimes protected by helmets and body armor, travelling by helicopter from Baghdad International Airport to the Green Zone because it was too dangerous for them to drive along the short stretch of road between the two. Despite the necessity for these security measures in the heart of the Iraqi capital, they would then blithely state that the insurgents were on the run and a majority of Iraqi provinces at peace, a claim they wisely made no attempt to validate by a personal visit and in the knowledge that journalists could not disprove without grave risk of being murdered.” 1

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BBC Radio also called on Cockburn to contextualize the inquiry’s findings in the greater British political landscape. Cockburn:

Robin Cook, the former Foreign Secretary … made a magnificent resignation speech in 2003 before the beginning of the war, saying, ‘look, the military strategy for overthrowing Saddam Hussein is that he’s militarily very weak, there won’t be much resistance; but the justification for this war is that he is a threat to us all—and you can’t have it both ways. So from the very beginning there was a contradiction. And Cook also says, ‘well it’s very unlikely he has militarily significant WMD’. It turned out he had none. But that’s something that could and should have been known at the time, and probably was instinctively known. So the threat was exaggerated to the point that it just becomes untrue. 2

And later, on BBC Radio Five Live, Cockburn charges that Blair, on Iraq, “has always been a bit detached from reality,” but that the “single-minded focus on Tony Blair as the evil architect of the whole war and almost a scapegoat for everything that happened is simple-minded and a bit deceptive. You have to look at what happened to British policy in general.” 3

 


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1 The Independent, published 4 July 2016
2 BBC West Midlands Radio, broadcast 7 July 2016
3 BBC Radio Five Live, broadcast 7 July 2016

“Chilcot report: Tony Blair, the Iraq War, and the words of mass destruction that continue to deceive” PATRICK COCKBURN for The Independent

Tuesday, July 5th, 2016

“By an accident of history, the Chilcot inquiry on the Iraq War is appearing at a critical moment in British history. The war was the first great test this century of the ability of the British powers-that-be to govern intelligently and successfully and one which they demonstrably failed. The crisis provoked by the vote to leave the European Union is the next crisis of similar gravity faced by these same powers and, once again, they appear unable to cope.”

To hear more, visit The Independent

“Laura Flanders: The End of Capitalism? Paul Mason and Patrick Cockburn” PATRICK COCKBURN on The Laura Flanders Show

Tuesday, June 28th, 2016

“Journalist Paul Mason discusses capitalism, Middle East correspondent Patrick Cockburn explores ISIS, and Laura asks what’s missing from the LGBT Pride celebrations. A new way of living is in the process of formation. Capitalism as we know it has reached the limits of its ability to adapt. A networked Alternative is already in the works- You can see it in the cooperative businesses on the rise and the tough time traditional parties are having keeping old hierarchies in place. There’s no more exciting or important story to report on – says Paul Mason economics editor at Channel Four News in the UK. Paul joined us often from the frontlines of the anti–austerity rebellions in Europe and the Middle East after the financial crash of 2008. Now he’s out with a new book: Postcapitalism: A guide to our future. Also in this episode: ISIS has been sustaining defeats across Iraq and Syria in recent months, but that doesn’t mean that peace is looming. In part that’s because the Middle East’s wars are as much about politics as about military prowess. Long time Middle East correspondent Patrick Cockburn, author of a new book Chaos and Caliphate, Jihadis and the West in the Struggle for the Middle East discusses the latest news on ISIS.”

To hear more, visit The Laura Flanders Show

“Tomgram: Patrick Cockburn, An Endless Cycle of Indecisive Wars” PATRICK COCKBURN in Tom Dispatch

Tuesday, June 28th, 2016

“As Patrick Cockburn points out today, we have entered “an age of disintegration.” And he should know. There may be no Western reporter who has covered the grim dawn of that age in the Greater Middle East and North Africa — from Afghanistan to Iraq, Syria to Libya — more fully or movingly than he has over this last decade and a half. His latest book, Chaos & Caliphate: Jihadis and the West in the Struggle for the Middle East, gives a vivid taste of his reporting and of a world that is at present cracking under the pressure of the conflicts he has witnessed. And imagine that so much of this began, at the bargain-basement cost of a mere $400,000 to $500,000, with 19 (mainly Saudi) fanatics, and a few hijacked airliners. Osama bin Laden must be smiling in his watery grave.”

To hear more, visit Tom Dispatch

“From Chaos and Caliphate” PATRICK COCKBURN excerpted in International Policy Digest

Friday, June 24th, 2016

“War reporting is easy to do but very difficult to do really well. There is great demand for a reporter’s output during the fighting because it is melodramatic and appeals to readers and viewers. This is what I used to label in my own mind as “twixt shot and shell” reporting and there is nothing wrong with it. The first newspapers were published during the Dutch Wars with Spain, the Thirty Years War and the English Civil War at the beginning of the 17th century. People rightly want to know the latest news about momentous and interesting events such as wars, natural calamities and crime.”

To hear more, visit International Policy Digest

“Isis will benefit from the slaughter carried out by Omar Mateen in Orlando regardless of how far it was involved in the massacre.” PATRICK COCKBURN for The Independent

Tuesday, June 14th, 2016

“Isis will benefit from the slaughter carried out by Omar Mateen in Orlando regardless of how far it was involved in the massacre. It will do so because Isis has always committed very public atrocities which dominate the news agenda, spread fear and show its strength and defiance.”

To hear more, visit The Independent.

“One of the best and most knowledgeable commentators” PATRICK COCKBURN praised by Noam Chomsky

Tuesday, May 24th, 2016

“Patrick Cockburn, one of the best commentators and most knowledgeable commentators, has correctly pointed out that what he calls the Wahhibisation of Sunni Islam, the spread of Saudi extremist Wahhabi doctrine over Sunni Islam, the Sunni world, is one of the real disasters of modern—of the modern era. It’s a source of not only funding for extremist radical Islam and the jihadi outgrowths of it, but also, doctrinally, mosques, clerics and so on, schools, you know, madrassas, where you study just Qur’an, is spreading all over the huge Sunni areas from Saudi influence. And it continues.”

To read more, visit Democracy Now!.

“Few journalists are as well informed on the Middle East and Central Asia, their history and current problems, as Patrick Cockburn.” PATRICK COCKBURN reviewed by Spokesman Books

Thursday, May 19th, 2016

“Patrick Cockburn has provided an invaluable account of the manner in which a quasi medieval reaction is sweeping across the Middle East and adjoining areas and the misguided policies of the West. His book should be read and studied by anyone seeking to understand events in the region and hopefully to campaign for more progressive policies.”

To read more, visit Spokesman Books.

“Looking for the good guys in Syria, the moderates…has generally been an act of fantasy.” PATRICK COCKBURN for The Nation

Thursday, May 19th, 2016

“Looking for the good guys in Syria, the moderates…has generally been an act of fantasy.”

To read more, visit The Nation Podcast.

“Mutual hatred is too great for any long-term deal on sharing power. ” PATRICK COCKBURN excerpted in Truthdig

Thursday, May 12th, 2016

The best hope for an end to the killing in Syria is for the US and Russia to push both sides in the conflict to agree to a ceasefire in which each holds the territory it currently controls. In a civil war of such savagery, diplomacy with any ambition to determine who holds power in future will founder because both sides believe they can still win. Mutual hatred is too great for any long-term deal on sharing power. A ceasefire would have to be policed on the ground by a UN observer force. I recall the much-maligned UN Supervision Mission in Syria in 2012 arranging a ceasefire in the hardcore rebel town of Douma on the outskirts of Damascus. It did not stop all the shooting but many Syrians lived who would otherwise have died.

To read more, visit Truthdig.

“A gripping account and penetrating analysis of one of the most significant slices of the history of our times.”PATRICK COCKBURN reviewed by Lobster Magazine

Wednesday, May 4th, 2016

“Our guest today, Patrick Cockburn’s new book Chaos and Caliphate: Jihadis and the West in the Struggle for the Middle East, proves the opposite: that a collection of old clippings, or as Cockburn himself describes it, “a contemporary diary drawing on my notes, diaries and writings produced between 2001 and 2015,” can combine the virtues of daily reporting and persistent study and reflection into a gripping account and penetrating analysis of one of the most significant slices of the history of our times.”

To read more, visit Dave Marash.

“The first striking thing about this book is that the author survived long enough to write it” PATRICK COCKBURN reviewed in Lobster Magazine

Wednesday, May 4th, 2016

“The first striking thing about this book is that the author
survived long enough to write it. Cockburn has spent nearly
20 years years, mostly in the Middle East, reporting in
countries where one of the few things the warring parties
agree on is that Western journalists are probably spooks, and
are thus worth killing.”

To read more, visit Lobster Magazine.

“The self-declared caliphate is too well rooted to disappear.” PATRICK COCKBURN in Newsweek

Monday, May 2nd, 2016

There is as yet no sign of counter-revolution or even effective armed resistance against a movement that has mercilessly crushed all opponents. Those living within ISIS territory who hate and fear it have reacted by fleeing rather than resisting.

The self-declared caliphate is too well rooted to disappear. Its slogan, “The Islamic State remains, the Islamic State expands,” is still true.

To read more, visit Newsweek.

“An excellent book which looks at the region from a brilliantly unique angle.” PATRICK COCKBURN reviewed in Middle East Monitor

Monday, April 25th, 2016

“Chaos and Caliphate is an excellent book which looks at the region from a brilliantly unique angle. For the most part, Cockburn really takes advantage of his personal experience and expresses it in such a gripping way that it is hard to put the book down. As a guide to what has been going on in Iraq, with Daesh and in Afghanistan it is almost perfect…”

To read more, visit Middle East Monitor.

“The one thing we can be completely certain of about the War on Terror is that it has failed.” PATRICK COCKBURN for Counterfire

Monday, April 25th, 2016

“The one thing we can be completely certain of about the War on Terror is that it has failed. After 9/11, Al – Qaeda was made up of a few hundreds or very low thousands of people in a few camps in Afghanistan and on the North West frontier of Pakistan. Now similar organisations control an area bigger than great Britain in Syria and Iraq and a large chunk of South Coast of Yemen, about 250 miles in fact, the distance from Edinburgh to London. They control sections of Libya and they are a growing force in Central Damascus as well as important areas in Africa. They are becoming a real threat as we know in Europe. This book was partly written in the hope that the West will develop a more realistic foreign policy, but I am not optimistic.”

To read more, visit Counterfire.

“Cockburn is one of the greatest British foreign correspondents of all time – a must-read” The Conversation on PATRICK COCKBURN

Wednesday, April 20th, 2016

“My composure is restored with Patrick Cockburn’s disturbing account of what is going on in Baghdad. Cockburn is one of the greatest British foreign correspondents of all time – a must-read. He will fortunately remain with the new internet-only Independent.”

To read more, visit The Conversation.

“The melodrama of war tends to take over” PATRICK COCKBURN on BBC RADIO 4

Monday, April 18th, 2016

“War also, in Afghanistan, when you see it on television – big explosions, flames, wrecked buildings -it’s very difficult to know if this is typical or not…the melodrama of war tends to take over, and that dominates everything else for a period.”

To hear more, visit BBC Radio 4.

“These are very much the actions of the foreign policy establishment in Washington that hasn’t learned or forgotten anything for the last quarter century.” PATRICK COCKBURN interviewed by Big Issue North

Monday, April 18th, 2016

Is Hillary Clinton likely to pursue an enlightened foreign policy with regard to jihadism?
Not much sign of it. She was for invasion of Iraq in 2003, intervention in Libya in 2011 and Syria in 2013. These are very much the actions of the foreign policy establishment in Washington that hasn’t learned or forgotten anything for the last quarter century.

To read more, visit Big Issue North.

PATRICK COCKBURN interviewed on VICE

Friday, March 25th, 2016

I think journalists kid themselves when it comes to people giving them information. Nobody tells you something without a reason. I think journalists have always thought they were more in charge of things than they were really: they weren’t really investigators or spies, they were messengers.

To read the rest of the interview, visit VICE.

PATRICK COCKBURN joins RT to discuss Western intervention in the Middle East

Monday, March 21st, 2016

To watch the full interview, visit RT.

A “useful guide to the chaos.” Morning Star praises PATRICK COCKBURN‘s CHAOS AND CALIPHATE

Monday, March 21st, 2016

The unavoidable lesson is that only a complete cessation of external political and military interference in the region can create the space for democratic renewal and the creation of functioning states based on popular sovereignty.

To read the rest of the review, visit Morning Star.

PATRICK COCKBURN discusses the latest developments in Syria on BBC Newshour

Thursday, March 17th, 2016

To listen to the program, visit the BBC. Patrick Cockburn’s interview begins 31 minutes in.

When IS falls, who will gain power? PATRICK COCKBURN asks in his latest for the London Review of Books

Tuesday, March 1st, 2016

[IS] is certainly weakening, but this is largely because the war has been internationalised since 2014 by US and Russian military intervention. Local and regional powers count for less than they did. The Iraqi and Syrian armies, the YPG and the Peshmerga can win victories over IS thanks to close and massive air support. They can defeat it in battle and can probably take the cities it still rules, but none of them will be able fully to achieve their war aims without the continued backing of a great power. Once the caliphate is gone, however, the central governments in Baghdad and Damascus may grow stronger again. The Kurds wonder if they will then be at risk of losing all the gains they have made in the war against Islamic State.

To read the rest of the article, visit the London Review of Books.

PATRICK COCKBURN talks CHAOS & CALIPHATE on the BBC

Friday, January 8th, 2016

What makes [Islamic State attacks] so different from the old al-Qaeda is that they’re backed by a state with money, with resources . . . If it fails five times, it can try another five times. And that’s what it’s trying to do in Libya and Yemen: to set up mini-states and then expand them.

If you’re in the UK, you can watch the full program here.

CHARLES GLASS and PATRICK COCKBURN join ABC to discuss the roots of the Syrian conflict

Monday, November 30th, 2015

The conflict that’s taking place in Syria now began with protests in the city of Daraa in March of 2011 when some young students had written some anti-government graffiti on the walls. Some of those young people were then apprehended and tortured. Their parents and other people in Daraa thought that torturing children was a little too much, even for a dictatorship.

To listen to the full program, visit ABC.

PATRICK COCKBURN joins Democracy Now! to discuss the latest in Syria

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2015

To watch the segment, visit Democracy Now!.

“The clearest and simplest account of events in Iraq and Syria leading up to the present nightmare” THE JIHADIS RETURN praised by Financial Times

Friday, September 11th, 2015

The shortest, and the one that gives the clearest and simplest account of events in Iraq and Syria leading up to the present nightmare, is by Patrick Cockburn, whose reports on the Middle East for the Independent have won him almost universal respect among specialists. He certainly deserves high marks for spotting the importance of Isis earlier than most. In fact, his book was first published, as The Jihadis Return, a year ago. But it so quickly established itself as essential reading on the subject that Verso republished it as The Rise of Islamic State in February, with a new afterword.

To read the rest of the review, visit Financial Times.

THE JIHADIS RETURN reviewed in The Baffler

Monday, July 6th, 2015

Iraq, its frontiers inscribed by British colonialism, had not known democracy since the dawn of civilization. Now it offers a second home to ISIS. Was this, too, inevitable?

Cockburn’s narrative suggests otherwise. As a somnambulist march toward disaster, America’s invasion and occupation of Iraq was a tour de force. After the ill-conceived initial conflict, the by now familiar drama unfolded with America’s dismemberment of the country’s overwhelmingly Sunni army and Baath party, paving the way for a Sunni rebellion. The White House, as if cued by Iran, organized elections won by the Shiite majority, installing in power an incompetent if ruthlessly sectarian Shiite government, aided by Shiite militias allied with Tehran. America’s “surge” only delayed the looming catastrophe. Then came U.S. military withdrawal in 2011, by which time ISIS was on its way. Given the repression by militias and the U.S.-backed government, Sunnis, as Cockburn notes, “have no alternative but to stick with ISIS or flee, if they want to survive.”

To read the rest of the review, visit The Baffler.

“Extremely important and highly readable” — Nomadic Press on PATRICK COCKBURN‘s THE JIHADIS RETURN

Tuesday, May 5th, 2015

The Jihadis Return is a brisk, yet thoroughgoing, overview of the resurgence of jihadi movements in the region. Though published in August of last year [2014], and thus not including the many developments since that time, Cockburn’s book is by no means out of date. It is rather an extremely important and highly readable examination of the root causes of Sunni jihadism’s recent renascence, combined with a brief history of the Syrian conflict and a masterful chapter focusing on the media’s role in obscuring the true nature of the unrest.

To read the rest of the review, visit Nomadic Press

PATRICK COCKBURN applauded for his work tracing the rise of ISIS in The New York Times

Wednesday, April 1st, 2015

Cockburn, an experienced Mideast journalist, relies heavily on his own reporting. He offers revealing anecdotes on the decrepit state of the Iraqi Army, which collapsed before the Islamic State’s Mosul offensive, and some glimpses of the sluggish and brutal military stalemate in Syria.

To read the full review, visit The New York Times

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