By John Helmer in Moscow In a recent commentary on Iranian political thinking [A grand bargain Russia might just refuse, Jun 14] Kaveh L Afrasiabi takes seriously this proposal from the US academic Joseph Nye: “We should offer Russia a grand bargain: we delay our plans for missile defense in Eastern Europe, while the Russians […]

by John Helmer - Friday, June 15th, 2007
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By John Helmer Richard Cheney, the outgoing vice-president of the United States, is the modern version of Mime, second in command of the Niebelungs, the bad dwarfs of the mythical German underworld. It was Mime who forges a magical helmet to give his brother Alberich, the chief dwarf Niebelung, the power to change into anything […]

by John Helmer - Monday, May 30th, 2005
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By John Helmer in Moscow The English comedian, and co-founder of the Goons, Spike Milligan, once said that Americans are the new Germans. He wasn’t exactly joking, but he was being selective. Not every American, he meant, was susceptible to the type of fascism that everyone who has ever been jack-booted by the Germans recognizes. […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, May 10th, 2005
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AND the Academy Award for best fascist dictator goes to Adolph Hitler! Woody Allen cracked the joke at the ex- pense of the US habit of making awards out of self-congratulation of the least worthy type. Were anyone to dare in the same spirit, they might award the new US nominee to head the World […]

by John Helmer - Friday, March 18th, 2005
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Big events don’t make small minds any bigger. Words uttered in passion usually produce drivel. So, if you are to understand the meaning of the American events, listen carefully to this old, cold man. In 1968, when I was an editor on Madison Avenue, New York’s magazine row, I hired a man called Edward Luttwak […]

by John Helmer - Friday, September 28th, 2001
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“I never did understand the difference between a cannon and a culverin,” the Empress Catherine II once said to one of her generals. “There is a big difference,” he replied, “which I will now explain to Your Majesty. The cannon, you see, is one thing, while the culverin is quite another.” “Ah,” said Catherine the […]

by John Helmer - Friday, July 9th, 1999
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