If you want a signifier of the changed image of empire, and imperial adventures in foreign lands, think about last Sunday’s six Oscars for The Hurt Locker, including ones for Best Movie and Best Director. The film’s director, Kathryn Bigelow, said at the end of her acceptance speech, “I’d like to dedicate this to the women and men in the military who risk their lives on a daily basis in Iraq and Afghanistan and around the world and may they come home safe.”

More from Alexander Cockburn. Scroll down.

Arnold Boecklin, Island of the Dead, 1883

Health scares are like terrorist ones. Someone somewhere has an interest in it. Simon Jenkins