When Pedro Sánchez dusted off the slogan “No to war”, he knew perfectly well what he was doing. The confusion it has caused in the PP is such that the best response Feijóo's spin doctors could come up with in Wednesday's session was: “No to war and no to you”.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has become one of the most vocal critics of Donald Trump on the international stage, to the point that the White House occupant has threatened him with trade reprisals for not approving the use of the Rota and Morón air bases to attack Iran. This threat, in turn, has forced the EU to come to Madrid's support, since member states act as a single trade bloc and no member can be punished individually. But something even more significant happened this Wednesday: French President Emmanuel Macron called Sánchez to express his support. This came the day after Macron reiterated his view that the US and Israeli attack on Iran is illegal. Sánchez, therefore, can be satisfied because it has been demonstrated that he is not alone in his diplomatic stance, which is to defend the principle that any military operation must be carried out under the auspices of international law. But the Spanish president went a step further today, making it clear that for him it is not just a matter of legality but of principle. He revived the slogan of the massive demonstrations against the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the famous "No to War," and also recalled the disastrous legacy left by the "trio." It is true that George Bush, Tony Blair, and José María Aznar, as promoters of the war, set the region ablaze and turned Iraq into a hotbed of instability and jihadism. However, it is difficult not to see in this effort to bring up Iraq an electoral ploy to corner the People's Party (PP) at a time when the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) is not at its strongest and faces very tough challenges in Castile and León and Andalusia. Sánchez's speech had moments of great gravity, such as when he warned of how major catastrophes like World War I began with a series of miscalculations, and others that were decidedly more populist, such as when he said that wars "line the pockets of the same old crowd."

Everyone over 35 remembers the "No to War" movement of 2003 and 2004. For many children of that time, now fully grown adults, it marked their entry into peace education and provided them with yet another reason to be allergic to the Spanish right and to feel complicit with the Spanish left—both elements so central to the political process, first, and now to the far-right populisms that have redrew the map of mental boundaries.

Pedro Sánchez usually plays on the attack when he sees a clear opportunity to advance. And the diplomatic clash with Donald Trump's United States represents an unbeatable window of opportunity for him to set the debate on terms that suit him best. There are two major blocs in the world: the militarists/authoritarians (Trump, Netanyahu, Putin, etc.), and the democrats and supporters of the diplomatic path (which he currently leads, at least within the EU). In a country like Spain, with a very significant anti-militarist and anti-American sentiment (a direct legacy of Francoism), and which in 2003 and 2004 mobilized against the Iraq War in a process that would end with the PP's eviction from power, it is playing a winning card.

In 1990, in an Iraq battered by UN sanctions, Lamia, a nine-year-old girl living in the wetlands, is tasked with baking a cake for her school's celebration of the anniversary of the nation's supreme leader, Saddam Hussein. Faced with food shortages, the girl, accompanied by her grandmother, travels to the city in search of ingredients. This premise allows Hasan Hadi, an Iraqi director trained in New York, to transform The president's cake in a textbook social drama; that is, a collection of episodes ranging from grim to downright sordid, illustrating a reality marked by militaristic fanaticism and a profound moral crisis.

Gertrude Bell died alone in her bed in Baghdad in July 1926. When her maid went to wake her, she found a bottle of sleeping pills on the bedside table. Bell was 57 years old and didn't have much hope for the future, even though she had just inaugurated the Baghdad Archaeological Museum. At that moment, perhaps she felt that she had been pushed aside by history, out of place, and had lost some of her power. She had been a desert queen without a crown, but she was no longer taken very seriously. "If I had to define her somehow, I would describe her as an English Bedouin. Bedouins are very conservative people who seek freedom and are always on the move," says Olivier Guez (Strasbourg, 1974). The French journalist and writer is the author of the book Mesopotamia (Tusquets), delves into the life of this wealthy British woman, adventurer, archaeologist, polyglot, climber, and spy who, always acting in the interests of the British Empire, sought to shape and define the future of a mythical and turbulent region.

Babylon, Nineveh, Baghdad, Ur, Mesopotamia, the death of Alexander the Great, the Arabian Desert, the Arabs of the wetlands, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the Garden of Eden, the holy cities of Shiism... All this makes a trip through Iraq history today, when the first cities were founded, when the majestic ziggurats and walls of Babylon were built, when cuneiform writing was born and, in biblical terms, when Adam and Eve lived freely in the Garden of Eden.

The 2003 demonstrations against the Iraq War were massive and numerous all over the world. The one in Barcelona was so resounding that a couple of generations will never forget the "No to war!" that thundered in the streets and filled the balconies with banners. So much so that former President Bush Sr. said that the Barcelona protesters would not decide US foreign policy.

On Sunday, Pope Francis ended a three-day official visit to Iraq, a country that no pontiff had ever visited before and which in recent years has been particularly hard hit by war, sectarian violence and jihadist terrorism. The northern part of the country, Iraqi Kurdistan, suffered the occupation of the militiamen of the Islamic State, which made Mosul the capital of its caliphate. The jihadists imposed terror among the civilian population and massacred the Christian and Yazidi communities that have lived in the country alongside Muslims for centuries. That is why the Pope's visit to this city was particularly significant, where he took the opportunity to make a strong plea against wars and violence. The Pope also wanted to convey his warmth to the Christian communities throughout the Middle East, which have been and are still being persecuted to the point that in many places only a testimonial presence remains of them.

Pope Francis has arrived at Baghdad airport a few minutes before noon (Catalan time) to begin what is considered the riskiest trip since he began his pontificate in 2013. It is the first time that the head of the Catholic Church visits this Muslim-majority country and, during the flight from Rome, Francis said it was "a duty" to visit this "martyred land". Francis was welcomed at the airport by the Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, and during the three-day visit he plans to meet the country's president, the Kurd Barham Saleh, and also to approach the Christian community of Iraq, which in recent years has suffered fierce persecution by Islamic State. Since 2003, violence against religious minorities has caused the number of Christians in the country to shrink from about 1.5 million to just 300,000