"You Master of War..........." - a reflection on the death of Senator Lindsey Graham.

 We have just returned from a wonderful holiday in northern Spain, largely cut off from the big cities and the main tourist areas but with the marvels of digital technology one can still follow the world's ills anywhere on the planet. Last Monday, as I sat on a lovely beach, I read that the madman Trump threatened to "annihilate Iran in 15 minutes" if they didn't comply with his pernicious, mendacious and dysphemistic demands. Later, I read that Trump's America is planning to extend its military hardware - including nuclear weapons - at the many US bases in the UK. Presumably so he can annihilate, in 15 minutes, Iran or anyone else he dislikes.

So our little trip on Tuesday had a certain terrible resonance – we went to a place I have long wished to visit. Our trip was to Gernika (or Guernica as it is frequently referred to). Gernika is a town that was the first site of a modern day war crime when in April 1938, during the Spanish Civil War, Hitler and Mussolini carpet bombed this sleepy Spanish town. They bombed it on Monday April 26th when they knew that the town would be packed with local people all attending the town’s famous Monday market. The rebuilt town now hosts an international museum for peace to commemorate that awful event and to promote world peace and human rights; it is a place to make you step back and think.

But more famous than the museum is the mighty work by artist Pablo Picasso which is simply called "Guernica" - a huge abstract work in black and white that portrays with terrible potency the horror of war and the terrible events in April 1938 at the height of the Spanish Civil War. This great work of art (the original is kept in Madrid) - one of the world's great cultural, national, and ethical artifacts - proves the truth of the saying that "a picture paints a thousand words". Oh, that today's world had an artist of Picasso's calibre and ethical standing to depict the horror and gross immorality of 2026 America, Israel, and Russia; of all those, like Trump, who seek to bring pain and suffering upon innocents.

Guernica was only the start so far as modern war crimes are concerned. In the years since we have had many: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, the My Lai massacre, several other dreadful events in Vietnam all done on the orders of American presidents. But, of course, America does not have a monopoly of war crimes – Russia, Israel and various Balkan nations have all played their part in desecrating and destroying humanity simply because they could in places like Bosnia, Ukraine, Gaza, or Sudan – to name but four. And now we are promised more of the same by Trump in Iran. But we Brits are not guilt free. We might like to think we are all good chaps, a Christian nation of honour, decency and compassion but the reality is different. The 2^nd World War was all but over in February 1945, Germany was being invaded on all fronts by Russian, French, American and British troops. But, for reasons never fully or satisfactorily explained, Churchill agreed to the request from Arthur “Bomber” Harris, the chief of the RAF, to obliterate Dresden and its population. Over 4 nights over 1200 heavy bombers dropped over 3900 tons of high explosives and incendiary devices on Dresden. It resulted in a fire storm killing more than 25,000 civilians and laying waste to much of the city. We hypocritical Brits are not untarnished or above immoral action; we are quite capable of war crimes when the feeling takes us.

It seems that mankind, and especially American presidents, do not care how many innocents are "annihilated" at their behest and command. Life is cheap and expendable if you are of that frame of mind and have the power to bring death and destruction on those who you dislike. Mankind hasn’t moved on much since the time of Darius, Xerxes, Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun or Ivan the Terrible. I wonder if Hitler, Mussolini, American President Harry Truman or even our own Churchill used Trump's words "We're gonna’ annihilate Gernika/Hiroshima/Nagasaki/Dresden in 15 minutes........!" when planning the destruction of these cities and their inhabitants?

So we walked silently through the Museum de la Paz (the Peace Museum), looked at the horrifying black and white images of the bombing of Gernika and other war crimes across the world. We watched videos of old people recalling that terrible day in 1938, feeling their rage and sorrow. And at last we stood in front of Picasso's great work while the busy and lovely modern town of Gernika got on with its 2026 life. And 3000 miles away in Washington a mad President planned the annihilation of a nation, a people and a culture and sends more of his weapons of war to be stored and used from British soil. And as I stood in front of Picasso's work the words of ”Blowin’ in the wind”, Bob Dylan's great 1960s plea for compassion, freedom and peace filled my mind:

"How many roads must a man walk down

Before you call him a man?

How many seas must a white dove sail

Before she sleeps in the sand?

Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly

Before they're forever banned?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind

The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Yes, and how many years must a mountain exist

Before it is washed to the sea?

Yes, and how many years can some people exist

Before they're allowed to be free?

Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head

And pretend that he just doesn't see

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind

The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Yes, and how many times must a man look up

Before he can see the sky?

Yes, and how many ears must one man have

Before he can hear people cry?

Yes, and how many deaths will it take 'til he knows

That too many people have died?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind

The answer is blowin' in the wind"

Yet, as I stood, humbled and in awe, before Picasso’s thought provoking masterpiece, other, long forgotten, words came, echoing through my mind. And the years rolled back 60 years to my youth, and the war crime that was Vietnam. The words of "Masters of War" are not a plea for peace or compassion but are Dylan’s great and terrible 1963 damnation of those who produce and profit from war written at the height of Vietnam – and seemed, as I stood in front of Picasso’s masterpiece, to be more prescient today than ever. Dylan’s excoriating words were a philippic attack on those that made weapons and profited from the killing fields: the great oligarchs and billionaires who had the ear of President Kennedy, LBJ and Richard Nixon - and today promote Trump and fund his evil desires; the five star generals and others like Senator Lindsey Graham who encourage him, lie for him and ensure that their weapons of death are sited in far off lands so that America might be "protected" and their own pockets lined with gold. And all this while others, the innocents - the expendable, collateral damage that is humanity, must die in order that the American dream can be fulfilled, that the dollar can ride roughshod over the rest of humanity and that another American President can preen and boast of his power and America’s might and self righteousness:

"Come, you masters of war

You that build the big guns

You that build the death planes

You that build all the bombs

You that hide behind walls

You that hide behind desks

I just want you to know

I can see through your masks

You that never done nothin'

But build to destroy

You play with my world

Like it's your little toy

You put a gun in my hand

And you hide from my eyes

And you turn and run farther

When the fast bullets fly

Like Judas of old

You lie and deceive

A world war can be won

You want me to believe

But I see through your eyes

And I see through your brain

Like I see through the water

That runs down my drain

You fasten all the triggers

For the others to fire

Then you sit back and watch

While the death count gets higher

You hide in your mansion

While the young peoples' blood

Flows out of their bodies

And is buried in the mud

You've thrown the worst fear

That can ever be hurled

Fear to bring children

Into the world

For threatenin' my baby

Unborn and unnamed

You ain't worth the blood

That runs in your veins

How much do I know

To talk out of turn?

You might say that I'm young

You might say I'm unlearned

But there's one thing I know

Though I'm younger than you

That even Jesus would never

Forgive what you do

Let me ask you one question

Is your money that good?

Will it buy you forgiveness?

Do you think that it could?

I think you will find

When your death takes its toll

All the money you made

Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die

And your death will come soon

I'll follow your casket

On a pale afternoon

I'll watch while you're lowered

Down to your deathbed

And I'll stand over your grave

'Til I'm sure that you're dead"

Our little act of homage done, we left Picasso’s great work and wondered down Gernika’s silent lunchtime streets that had once echoed to the roar of German and Italian bombers and the terrifying sound and sights of death. We made our way back to the town centre, subdued at what we had seen and where we had been. We enjoyed a lovely and gentle lunch and tried to think of of pleasanter things. Lunch done, a short drive took us to Mundaka a lovely little resort where we sat for a couple of hours enjoying the July sun, the view and the silence; a far cry from the evil ravings of the American president and his squalid supporters, who now are the face what was once, perhaps, a more respected, and certainly a more honourable nation, but is now a place of hateful deceit and violent, immoral deeds. 

So, we sat gazing out onto a peaceful beach and a gently rolling sea, our minds still plagued by the news that appeared on our mobile phones of Trump’s plans and pronouncements and of the couple of hours we had spent in Gernika. And the words of another long learned verse came to me, reminding me that humanity’s capacity for evil is an ever present: Osbert Sitwell’s poignant and witheringly cutting “The Next War”. Written in 1919 in the aftermath of the 1^st World War, Sitwell, as many others of his generation, knew that another war was inevitable; and like Bob Dylan he pointed a finger at those who promote and profit from war, who raise the call to arms and encourage young men to go to their deaths in the hell of the trenches to put gold in the pockets of weapon makers and power in the hands of politicians. Sitwell knew, as we all know, that men like Hitler, Mussolini, Churchill, Trump, Putin and Netanyahu are only able to do the things that they do because others support, promote, finance and ultimately make real their sadistic and evil ideas; powerful fixers, manipulators, power and wealth seekers like the late Senator Lindsey Graham are at the root of evil. Sitwell's words are both painfully true and prophetic - and more relevant today in 2026 than they were when he wrote the over a century ago:

"The long war had ended.

Its miseries had grown faded.

Deaf men became difficult to talk to,

Heroes became bores.

Those alchemists

Who had converted blood into gold

Had grown elderly.

But they held a meeting,

Saying,

'We think perhaps we ought

To put up tombs

Or erect altars

To those brave lads

Who were so willingly burnt,

Or blinded,

Or maimed,

Who lost all likeness to a living thing,

Or were blown to bleeding patches of flesh

For our sakes.

It would look well.

Or we might even educate the children.'

But the richest of these wizards

Coughed gently;

And he said:

'I have always been to the front

-In private enterprise-,

I yield in public spirit

To no man.

I think yours is a very good idea

- A capital idea -

And not too costly . . .

But it seems to me

That the cause for which we fought

Is again endangered.

What more fitting memorial for the fallen

Than that their children

Should fall for the same cause?'

Rushing eagerly into the street,

The kindly old gentlemen cried

To the young:

'Will you sacrifice

Through your lethargy

What your fathers died to gain ?

The world must be made safe for the young!'

And the children

Went. . . ."

We should heed the words of Dylan and Sitwell and the brush of Picasso if mankind is not to sacrifice itself at the altar of death and annihilation promoted and sponsored by Donald Trump, his cohorts and other American, Israeli and Russian – and yes, British - “masters of war”. Like monsters of the past they seek only profit and power at the expense of innocents. Never were the dreadful words of the ancient Greek general and statesman Thucydides more true than now in 2026, 3000 years after they were first written. Thucydides’ great work - “The Peloponnesian War” - is required study for all officers in training at the world’s leading military colleges: America’s West Point, Britain’s Sandhurst, France’s Saint Cyr, Russia’s Mikhailovskaya Academy, Germany’s Budeswehr Staff College, and Israel’s Camp Dayan. At each of these illustrious and disciplined institutions the men and women who will make, carry out and command war learn military strategy, diplomacy, principles of command and the art and execution of power from Thucydides’ writing. And they learn, too, Thucydides’ great maxim and truth about power, that "The strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must". I first read those words in the summer of 1965 – Thucydides was on the pre-course reading list for my teacher training course. I still have my copy bought for 6 shillings over 60 years ago and Thucydides’ great truth is underlined in pencil on its faded and well thumbed pages.

The residents of Gernika, may never have read Thucydides but they learned and suffered its truth and its terrible consequences in April 1938 at the hands of German and Italian bombers, when the bombers of “the strong” did “what they willed” and “the weak” innocents of Gernika “suffered what they must”. Today, the innocents of Gaza, Ukraine and Iran are learning and suffering that same lesson at the hands of Israel, Russia and Trump’s America. Mankind should be ashamed.