The tragedy of 9/11 galvanised the American superpower into action, leaving us in Europe divided in its wake.

Silence is regarded as a sort of sin now, and it has to be filled with a lot of gossip and soundbites.

We should be wary of politicians who profess to follow history while only noticing those signposts of history that point in the direction which they themselves already favour.

Men like Hitler and Stalin and their immediate lieutenants cannot plead in defence of their actions that these were justified by the accepted values of that time.

A genuinely democratic Iraq might well act as a fresh spur.

People know they are lacking something, they are constantly wanting some kind of spiritual guidance.

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