Look back

It's so easy to stop blogging. There are lots of news stories around, but none looks of lasting importance, so I'll look back at something from the past. With Cameron pledging £50 million to commemorate the start of World War I, it's time to start thinking about the absurdity of it all. A particular point that interests me is how arbitrary it was that Turkey got involved at all and that it joined the Germans and Austrians. There was good reason for them to remain neutral, and there were Turks who wanted to join the British and French. Perhaps it all came down to the fact that Germany was building a railway from Berlin to Baghdad. Defeat very nearly destroyed Turkey. It certainly led directly to the disasters that have afflicted the Middle East since then.Imagine the world now if Israel had been established in East Prussia! The Turks would do well to remember their past now and to keep out of events in Syria.