Showing 1 - 10 of 136
The case of the disappearing senior generals
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 10/02/2026
» Armies can be used against both against foreigners abroad and against citizens at home, but the two roles require quite different equipment and tactics. The same applies to their commanders: you need a different kind of general if you think that the primary task of their troops will be controlling dissent at home.
Who is next for the United States?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 12/01/2026
» The Crazy Gang are high on the "brilliant success" of their Venezuela caper and looking for new targets. Like Alexander the Great, US President Donald Trump weeps because there are no more worlds to conquer. But wait! Actually, there are still lots of places to conquer.
World leaders are destroying the rule of law
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 01/12/2025
» Russia's "big concession is they stop fighting, and they don't take any more land," US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, when asked what Russia was conceding in the thinly disguised surrender document he was trying to shove down Ukrainian throats. He truly is a 19th-century man at heart.
Iran: Drought, incompetence, revolution?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 22/11/2025
» Twenty years of strict sanctions on Iran by both the United States and the United Nations did not bring down the regime of the ayatollahs. Half a dozen major waves of non-violent protest involving several thousand deaths have not brought it down either. Even last June's massive bombing campaign by Israel and the US did not bring it to heel.
Brazil and the US: Same crime, different fate
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 16/09/2025
» If Donald Trump were a religious man, he might have said "There but for the grace of God go I" when he heard that former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro had been sentenced to 27 years in prison. Bolsonaro's crime was to have plotted a coup to take back the presidency he lost in the 2022 election.
Greenland, Ukraine and all that stuff
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 30/08/2025
» Last Wednesday, the Danish foreign minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, summoned the top US diplomat in Copenhagen to his office to complain that the United States is running a covert operation in Greenland, a semi-autonomous part of the Danish kingdom.
Gaza Strip pantomime ending at last
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 29/07/2025
» The coordinated chorus of despair by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump and their various henchpersons and flacks was quite impressive. The message was that everybody should stop hoping for a negotiated peace. Mr Netanyahu has stared Mr Trump down once again, and the four-month pantomime search for a new ceasefire in Gaza is at an end.
Too long in power a bad idea for leaders
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 01/07/2025
» Leading an entire country for a few years is a steep learning curve, but it's useful experience. Being in power for a dozen years makes most leaders arrogant and careless, but some remain more or less functional. Being in power for more than 30 years just makes you stupid. Consider Cambodia's Hun Sen and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Clear danger as war in Europe is in the air
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 10/06/2025
» 'There is a clear, present risk, particularly as Vladimir Putin does see himself as being at war with the West. The homeland is again (in peril)...Air and missile attacks will potentially cause civilian casualties (in the United Kingdom) in very large numbers." Therefore, concludes Gen Sir Richard Barrons, the UK needs to bring back air raid sirens and air raid drills.
Bolsonaro coup attempt won't land him in jail
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 05/05/2025
» Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's former president and Trump clone, is facing trial for encouraging a plot that would have restored him to power after he lost the 2022 election, but it is unlikely that he will ever end up in court.