BBC Yes, my latest book is called The Great War for Civilisation after the inscription on the back of my father's World War I medal.
After WWI the British and French created the borders of Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia and the Middle East.
I've spent my entire professional career watching the people within those borders burn.
For me it's all about linking history with the present.
Oddly enough, that's true of Bin Laden as well, he talks about the Balfour declaration, the Sykes-Picot agreement and the loss of Andalusia to the Christians in the 15th Century.
It seems that in many ways, history haunts us and maybe we should all carry a history book in our back pockets.
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