It is not helpful to help a friend by putting coins in his pockets when he has got holes in his pockets.

But Germany will always suffer, I fear, from the intensely dramatic character of the crimes of the Third Reich.

There are thus great swathes of the past where understanding is more important and reputable than judgement, because the principal actors performed in line with the ideas and values of that time, not of ours.

Prison is an expensive way of making bad people worse.

History provides no precise guidelines.

No military timetable should compel war when a successful outcome, namely a disarmed Iraq may be feasible without war, for example by allowing more time to the UN inspectors.