Category Archives: War

Black Lives Matter: Muhammad Ali refuses to go to war, March 1967

Posted on March 14, 2026 by odeboyz

“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple … Continue reading →

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Gambling and the Stock Market

Posted on March 4, 2026 by odeboyz

Introduction Many managers are little better than gamblers who are adept at strutting their stuff convincingly and looting their companies. Sometimes they get lucky and add value, but many destroy shareholder investments. The history of the FTSE is littered with … Continue reading →

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Let’s bomb Iran and stop talking about Epstein

Posted on February 28, 2026 by odeboyz
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Book Review: Lee Child ~ The Enemy (2004)

Posted on February 25, 2026 by odeboyz

After reading a few Reacher novels they begin to feel like a warm blanket. Predictable and a lovely interlude in life’s rich pageant. Reacher is a ‘righteous’ psychopath smashing people into pulp. Killing people in ever more ingenious ways. Wandering … Continue reading →

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War Studies: The battle of the Somme, 1st July-18th November 1916

Posted on February 11, 2026 by odeboyz

Introduction Medieval warfare ended on the 1st July 1916. The battle of the Somme began with British soldiers being used as human battering rams. Its failure was so devastating warfare transitioned into modernity.1 Modern warfare then pivoted from battlefields to … Continue reading →

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Letter from the West Bank: Getting a child vaccinated

Posted on November 20, 2025 by odeboyz

Travelled first thing from Ramallah to Nablus but oh dear were delayed cos checkpoint not open so onto the next one and no one there (all Israeli soldiers absent) so onto next one queued for 35 minutes, onto next one … Continue reading →

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War Studies: American Exceptionalism and war by other means: 2011 and 2025

Posted on November 19, 2025 by odeboyz

On May 2nd 2011,1 Obama watched Osama bin Laden being assassinated. Fourteen people watched the snuff movie with him, President Obama said, “Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims. Indeed, al Qaeda has slaughtered scores of … Continue reading →

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Latch Key Kid, Leeds, 1950s

Posted on November 12, 2025 by odeboyz

During the war my father worked brutal hours building bombers. He worked for 20 days and then had a day off. His shifts were 12 hours on, 12 off, which alternated every 20 days between days and nights. He made … Continue reading →

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War Studies: Britain’s ‘White Feather’ Campaign 1914-16

Posted on October 1, 2025 by odeboyz

The declaration of war in August 1914 was popular because everyone knew Britain was unbeatable. They’d been fed a century of triumphs in colonial wars. Even the disastrous Charge of the Light Brigade, 1854,was seen as a success….(a bit like … Continue reading →

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War Studies: Britain’s Civil War (aka The Troubles), 1968-98

Posted on August 26, 2025 by odeboyz

The British civil war was centred in northern Ireland and later migrated to the mainland. Assassinations, atrocities, the breakdown of law and order, internment, loss of civil liberties and state repression occurred over 30 years. These techniques had failed when … Continue reading →

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