Patrick Cockburn
Patrick Cockburn is a journalist who has been a Middle East correspondent for the Financial Times since 1979 and, from 1990, The Independent.[1] He has also worked as a correspondent in Moscow and Washington and is a frequent contributor to the London Review of Books.
He has written three books on Iraq’s recent history. He won the Martha Gellhorn Prize in 2005, the James Cameron Prize in 2006, the Orwell Prize for Journalism in 2009,[2] Foreign Commentator of the Year (Editorial Intelligence Comment Awards 2013), Foreign Affairs Journalist of the Year (British Journalism Awards 2014), Foreign Reporter of the Year (The Press Awards For 2014).
Patrick Cockburn is the author of The Rise of Islamic State: ISIS and the New Sunni Revolution.
Patrick Cockburn is the author of War in the Age of Trump (Verso).
Patrick's recent articles
14 December 2022
Russians and the Ukraine war: few think it was a good Idea, fewer want it to end in defeat
What do ordinary Russians think about the war in Ukraine? Do they think it was a bad idea from the start? How eager are they for it to end, and on what terms? Accurate information on these vital questions is submerged in a great swamp of propaganda and partisan reporting.
30 November 2022
As the world fixates on Ukraine, another war is brewing in the Middle East
As warrages in Ukraine, another conflict is ready to explode in the Middle East as the US and its allies confront Iran over its nuclear programme, supply of drones to Russia, and repression of anti-government protests.
3 November 2022
The long, indecisive war in Ukraine is reshaping the political world map
The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time,
10 July 2022
The mass ethnic cleansing of Syrian Kurds is collateral damage from the war in Ukraine
Kurds are suffering the greatest collateral damage form the war in Ukraine. Ukrainian refugees attract global attention, but the Ukraine war has opened the door wide to the mass expulsion of two million Syrian Kurds, which is likely to take place in the coming months. Turkey is threatening to complete the ethnic cleansing of Kurds from northern Syria which it began five years ago.
31 March 2022
Vladimir Putin made a terrible mistake, and his concessions on Ukraine are a sign of his weakened position
For the first time theRussia-Ukraine negotiations look as if they might produce a peace dealas a top Russian defence official says that Russia will dramatically reduce its military activities around Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv.
17 March 2022
Demonizing Russia risks prolonging the war
The problem is that the hatreds generated by war gain momentum during the conflict and do not have a reverse emotional gear.
2 March 2022
Putin has gambled everything on his Snap-Invasion of Ukraine. Now his political survival in Russia is in doubt
War transforms the political landscape in radical and unexpected ways.
3 February 2022
Russia knows better than to actually invade Ukraine
Russia has much to gain from threatening to invade Ukraine, but Putin has never overplayed his hand before and is unlikely to do so now.
8 December 2021
The West helped create the conditions that force asylum seekers to cross the Channel
Economic sanctions on Middle Eastern countries targets civilians and turns them into refugees and they head for Europe, not the US.
14 July 2021
The Forever War in Afghanistan is Far From Over
Simple-minded analogies with Vietnam in 1975 are misleading. The Taliban does not have anything like the military might of the North Vietnamese army. Moreover, Afghanistan is a mosaic of ethnic communities, tribes and regions, which the Taliban will struggle to rule whatever happens to the Kabul government.
19 May 2021
Israel is making the same errors as Britain did over Northern Ireland 50 years ago
When I first visitedIsraelin 1976 after spending three years inNorthern Irelandworking on my second degree, I was struck by the similarities between the situations in the two countries.
5 May 2021
Focusing purely on injustices in China and Russia with a Cold War mindset damages human rights everywhere
During the firstCold Warbetween the West and the Soviet Union injustice andhuman rightsincreasingly became a central issue. This ought to have been a positive development, but it was devalued by partisan use and the issue turned into an instrument of propaganda.
24 October 2020
When does incompetence become a crime? (Counter Punch Oct 20, 2020)
Instead of relying on experienced public health experts with a successful record in finding, containing and isolating people infected with HIV and TB, the government handed the project over to the private sector, pouring great sums of money into the creation of a new but, in Sages judgement, dysfunctional system.
5 September 2020
Trump at the RNC: Echoes of Saddam (Counterpunch 31/8/2020)
The Republican convention was a nauseating performance even by the cess-pit standards of theTrumpadministration. In its cult-like obeisance to the supreme leader it reminds me of meetings of the Iraqi Baath Party that periodically endorsedSaddam Husseinas the national saviour.
22 August 2020
The Decline in Power of the Oil States (Counter Punch August 17, 2020)
President Donald Trump is cock-a-hoop over the United Arab Emirates becoming the first Arab Gulf state to normalise its relations with Israel. He needs all the good news he can get in the months before the US presidential election.
15 August 2020
War and Pandemic Journalism: the Truth Can Disappear Fast (Counter Punch August 7, 2020)
The struggle against Covid-19 has often been compared to fighting a war. Much of this rhetoric is bombast, but the similarities between the struggle against the virus and against human enemies are real enough.
10 May 2020
PATRICK COCKBURN. Trump is Igniting a Cold War With China to Try to Win Re-election (Counter Punch 5.5.20)
Go to China!, a woman in Denver, Colorado, shouts at two hospital workers standing in front of her car to prevent her from taking part in a protest against the coronavirus lockdown.
8 April 2020
PATRICK COCKBURN.- Trump's Chernobyl Moment: the US May Lose Its Status as World Superpower and Not Recover( Counterpunch 31.3.2020)
The US may be reaching its Chernobyl moment as it fails to lead in combating the coronavirus epidemic.
18 March 2020
PATRICK COCKBURN.-Covid-19 and the battle for the Saudi Royal Crown(CounterPunch 16.3.2020)
Trump is visibly self-isolating the US and undermining the hegemonic role it has played since the Second World War. Even if Biden is elected as the next president, the US will have lost its undisputed primacy in a post-pandemic world.
4 March 2020
PATRICK COCKBURN.-The Real Modi: Do the Killings of Muslims Represent Indias Kristallnacht? (Counterpunch 3.3.2020)
President Trump said he was satisfied that Modi was working really hard to establish religious freedom.
22 January 2020
PATRICK COCKBURN. The US and Irans Perpetual Almost-War is Unsustainable and Will End Badly(Counterpunch21.1.2020)
The basis for a deal exists between the US and Iran, but that does not mean one will materialise.
16 January 2020
PATRICK COCKBURN.-Blundering intoWar(LRB 2.1.2020)
What Trump doesnt know about Iran
10 October 2019
PATRICK COCKBURN. Iraq is in Revolt. (CounterPunch 7.10.2019)
Iraq is poised at a turning point in its modern history as its people wait to see if the government curfew and close down of the internet will end the ongoing demonstrations.
8 October 2019
AMY GOODMAN and PATRICK COCKBURN. On the Turkish invasion of the Kurdish area in Syria. (Truthout 7.10.2109)
AMYGOODMAN: Lets start with the surprise announcement, after the phone conversation between Erdogan and Trump, that the U.S. is pulling back its troops for Turkey to attack in northern Syria. Explain what you understand is happening and the significance of this.
3 October 2019
PATRICK COCKBURN. Just as Iraq begins to find Peace, it once again becomes the battleground for an American proxy war (Counterpunch, 30 September 2019)
People in Baghdad are fearful that the next war between the US and Iran will take place in Iraq, which is only just returning to peace after the defeat of Isis. Alarm that Iraq will be sucked into such a conflict has increased here because of recent Israeli drone attacks on the bases of the Iraqi paramilitary groupknown as the Hashd al-Shaabi, which is accused by the US and Israel of acting as a proxy of Iran.
25 September 2019
PATRICK COCKBURN. The Drone Strikes on the Saudi Oil Facilities Have Changed Global Warfare (Counterpunch 24-9-19)
The devastating attack on Saudi oil facilities by drones and missiles not only transforms the balance of military power in the Middle East, but marks a change in the nature of warfare globally.
16 February 2018
Toxic legacy of US assault on Fallujah 'worse than Hiroshima'
[Reprint of an article in the UK Independent dated 23 July 2010] Dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukaemia in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which was bombarded by US Marines in 2004, exceed those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, according to a new study.In 2004 General Jim Molan was in charge of the Coalition forces attacking Fallujah