One of my most popular blog posts that I have ever written was on the ongoing destruction of historic Mecca by Saudi Arabia and whilst one day soon I hope to write more on the topic, I thought for now it was important to write about some of the destruction of priceless artifacts that is… Continue reading Cultural Vandalism – The destruction of priceless monuments by ISIS / ISIL
Tag: war
The Christmas Truce and football match of 1914.
Whilst we are getting ready to enjoy or in some cases already enjoying our Christmas in 2014, it is worth remembering what was happening 100 years ago not so far from where I am writing today. In what is perhaps one of the most inhuman situations in history a series of events played out that… Continue reading The Christmas Truce and football match of 1914.
Diary Rooms – Being human on the front line in Afghanistan
Following my recent review of Kajaki, I was hit by an unexpected frenzy of interest from those involved with the film participants in the war in Afghanistan in generally. One interesting email I received was from Derek Eland, himself a former Paratrooper who had this time visited Afghanistan in the role of an official war… Continue reading Diary Rooms – Being human on the front line in Afghanistan
Kajaki: A True Story – Movie Review
Until a few weeks ago I thought 2014 was turning out to be pretty weak for films but recently having watched the excellent movies The Imitation Game and Mr Turner I became intrigued by a trailer I had seen detailing a true story from the war in Afghanistan. The events depicted in Kajaki are based… Continue reading Kajaki: A True Story – Movie Review
The Lochnagar Crater and a relic of war
At the end of September I visited some of the WW1 battlefields in northern France and Belgium and thought in the lead up to Armistice Day on 11th November I would dedicate some of my posts to what I saw. One of the places that we visited was the Lochnagar Crater in The Somme. This… Continue reading The Lochnagar Crater and a relic of war
The Angel of Mons
Whilst writing and researching my WW1 history book, Lest We Forget, I came across a number of semi-mythical events and accounts that went from the completely unbelievable to those that actually occurred despite being hugely unlikely. There is the grim tale of the Crucified Soldier which went from being common knowledge in WW1 to increasingly… Continue reading The Angel of Mons
21st century genocide – The Yazidi
Few can have escaped seeing the footage in the last week of the “genocide” being inflicted on the Yazidi people in Iraq. To many they are just another bad news story but for various reasons I have always had an affinity for the Yazidi and the closely related Zoroastrians. The recent massacres of the Yazidi… Continue reading 21st century genocide – The Yazidi
The Lamps are going out all over Europe
It is now 100 years since this famous phrase was first uttered by Sir Edward Grey to describe the ominous feeling that Europe and perhaps the world was about to slip into a war more bloody than most could ever imagine. His remarks were made on the evening of the 3rd August whilst looking out… Continue reading The Lamps are going out all over Europe
Our village (Leavesden Green) gets a new WW1 memorial
Like many others have done as the 100th anniversary of WW1 or The Great War looms ever closer over for us, our village has been busy working on a new war memorial which is situated at the end of my street. One of the most popular of my blog posts is that of Armistice Day… Continue reading Our village (Leavesden Green) gets a new WW1 memorial
The Importance of Soft Power
In my near 2 years of blogging, I haven’t seen any posts on the concept of Soft Power. This maybe because I spend too much time in other areas of WordPress but Soft Power is an important and interesting concept and one that is becoming increasingly important though at the same time remaining largely unknown.… Continue reading The Importance of Soft Power
Stephen Liddell 