Donald Rumsfeld with Saddam Hussein, February 2003. The US, long engaged with Iraq, armed Iraq during the 8 year Iran-Iraq war. Oil drove the invasion of Iraq, 2003. The US did not understand Iraq which became patently obvious within 3 weeks of the illegal invasion. This photograph much used is deliberately out of focus. A European produced, elitist, twilight view of the modern world was allied to the sunny all-American politics of triumphal capitalism, cultural piety and fla

Union horse soldiers rode south to destroy the railroads crucial to the supply lines of the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg which was besieged by Union Army, General Grant. Colonel Grierson commanded the Sixth and Seventh Illinois and the Second Iowa Volunteer Cavalry which ensured a 1,700 man Brigade. This is an account of the raid which is an approximate truth because it is impossible to reconstruct the true past from documents. Starting from laGrange Tennessee on instr

Born in Rostrevor, Co Down in 1916 and raised in Drogheda, Co Louth he played an immensely influential role in the economic, social and cultural evolution of the state. His meteoric rise in the Civil Service spanned the history of modern Ireland. His appointment as the youngest secretary of the Department of Finance at 39, changed the direction of economic policy led the move from protectionism to free trade, and guided Ireland on its journey towards European integration. A