The Twittersphere has spent much of this week reflecting on the Twentieth anniversary of the Gulf War and the parallels with the current Ukraine War:
“It’s a useful coincidence that the 20th anniversary of George W Bush and Tony Blair’s illegal attack on Iraq falls only a matter of weeks after the anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s illegal attack on Ukraine. Neither war was authorised by the UN. Both are marked by massive destruction and huge loss of life.” (Jonathan Steele/The Guardian)
"Both the US and Russia resorted to violence to bring a resource-rich country within their sphere of influence, and both underestimated the will and capacity of locals to resist." (Spencer Ackerman/The Nation)
For Putin, Iraq War marked a turning point in US-Russia relations (Responsible Statecraft)
Top Zimbabwe ambassador involved in gold smuggling scheme (Al Jazeera)
“The boys clicked on Tate because of his striking appearance — the glossy shaved head, the physique ‘yoked as fuck,’ as the comedian Noel Miller observed on The Tiny Meat Gang podcast, with a menacing cobra in a devil’s mask tattooed on his chest. But they stayed for the ostentatious, outrageous masculine display: the machetes and cigars, the diamond watches, the Bugattis and Lamborghinis, the obscene piles of banded cash like a scene out of Scarface.” (NYMag)