This is a grim time for those of us who would like to see Team America do well.  We are tied in Afghanistan, but we’ve been playing defense and have been pushed back to our own twenty-yard line since the start of the second half.  In Iraq we are two touchdowns behind at the start of the fourth quarter. We have … [Read More]

I saw her standing there giving me the once over. Or thought she did.  She was young and pretty and was smiling. Not for the first time I felt confident. The champagne was working, so I approached her amidst the bedlam. “Who are you?’ I ventured. “Who do you want me to be?” she countered. “The future Mrs Taki…” I tried, … [Read More]

David Niven and I used to play a word game back in the Sixties. He was a new arrival in Gstaad—actually his chalet was at nearby Chateau d’Oex—whom I’d introduced to cross country skiing, and that wonderfully charming man had fallen head over heels in love with the region. So every day we’d meet for lunch at the Eagle club, or … [Read More]

They would, wouldn’t they? Politicians could be counted on to give a tepid response to King Abdullah II of Jordan, when before a joint session of Congress this week he made an impassioned plea for the United States to lead in an active pursuit of an Israel-Palestinian peace. Politicians, after all, know which side their bagel is buttered. It got quieter … [Read More]

With American soldiers in harm’s way, and dead-ender neocons baying for more American and Iraqi blood to be spilled, one wonders if these sofa samurai have ever read a book about the Middle East, or, as I wrote recently in these here pages, ever seen a movie about the horrors of war. I covered seven conflicts in my youth as a … [Read More]

March 5th is a special day for me. Joe Stalin—the greatest murderer of modern times—croaked, and my two oldest friends, Alexander and Leonidas Goulandris, were born (the latter, in 1927). I will not go on about them because they don’t like publicity. They are great art collectors, big-time ship owners of the old school, and very good guys. Aleko, one of … [Read More]

Margaret MacMillan’s new book Nixon and Mao brought back pleasant memories. It was February 1972, and I’d just returned to Saigon from Phu Bai and Hue in the north,  where I was reporting for National Review. I was eager to get back to civilisation and some skiing in Gstaad, when president Nixon’s trip to Beijing took us all by surprise.  Not … [Read More]

Eureka! I think I know why the administration is so eager to wage war with Iran. Forget about the nukes the mullahs haven’t got. Forget about the neocons working for Israel. It’s all about ego, old boy, as the great Sherlock told the good doctor. The real reason for American rage against Iran - I wish Seymour Hersh would learn to … [Read More]

For the record, he died twenty years ago this month and I went to his funeral as stoned as most of his entourage. Bianca Jagger made a ridiculously theatrical entrance, as did Cornelia Guest, the deb of the decade as the tabloid had dubbed her,  the latter bursting into tears as soon as she approached the waiting cameras. Everyone who was … [Read More]

Here’s a quickie on the Oscars. No, I am not going to complain about The Departed because Martin Scorsese is an acquaintance of mine—my wife is the godmother of his little girl—and his wife, Helen Morris, a very good friend. What I will complain about is the past. Scorsese should have won with Raging Bull in 1980 and with GoodFellas in … [Read More]