Washington’s inability to subjugate Iran is an example of how it is trying to preserve a regional order that no longer exists, argues RAMZY BAROUD
AS they have just done, the US celebrates Veterans Day every November. Now all leading German parties also want such a “Veteranentag” to honour all those past patriots who wore uniforms, voluntarily or not, and certainly to inspire many more reluctant young men or women to put on boots and shoulder arms.
Not so many may recall that the earlier “Armistice Day” marked the end of World War I. Far fewer know that the kaiser’s abdication and total surrender were basically achieved on November 9 because German navy sailors, soldiers and shipyard workers, led by a communist machinist, joined in a mutiny and strike.
Their revolt even seemed headed toward a socialist revolution — but the leaders of the Social Democratic Party, who had buried all their principles in 1914 by voting for money for the kaiser’s war, to “patriotically save civilised Germany from those tyrannical Russians,” deflected or betrayed all hopes for a major change in 1918-21 with their secret deal with the top brass, who had led and lost the war, and with the profit-swollen but now frightened millionaires.
JOHNNIE HUNTER reports from the German Communist Party’s (DKP) weekly Unsere Zeit (Our Newspaper)-organised Peace Days festival in Berlin last weekend
Faced with crises in every direction, Volodymr Zelensky is rewriting his country’s complex history by paying homage to the founding fathers of Ukrainian ultra-nationalism and courting their modern heirs, writes KENNY COYLE
The Baltic state is set to reverse its constitutional prohibition on nuclear weapons and foreign bases as part of accelerated Nato war preparations, warns TOM UNTERRAINER
The defence secretary’s resignation reveals not a split over principle but a dispute over pace of military spending, as Britain’s political Establishment unites behind deeper Nato commitments, argues NICK WRIGHT



