How the JASTA override on Saudi could Bite Americans in the Ass
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - President Obama vetoed the Justice Against Sponsors…
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - President Obama vetoed the Justice Against Sponsors…
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - I met an emperor once, but have…
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Regular readers will know that in my…
Foreign Policy
The Haunting Image of a Syrian Boy Who’s Only Known War
TeleSur | - - The image is haunting: A boy sits silent and stone-still in an ambulance, hands resting in his lap, his feet dangling from the chair as though suspended in…Economic Damage from Civil War Costs poverty-stricken Yemen $14 Billion
TeleSur | - - The civil war in Yemen has caused a humanitarian disaster. The cost from damage to infrastructure and economic losses in Yemen's civil war is more than $14 billion…Dragon Rising? China seeks Closer military Cooperation with Syria
By Juan Cole | Informed Comment | - - The Arabic press is reporting that a high Chinese official on a visit to Damascus has announced that Beijing intends to strengthen its…Israelis raze homes near Hebron, Bethlehem, Palestine, leaving 70 Palestinians homeless
Ma'an News Agency | - - HEBRON (Ma’an) -- More than 50 Palestinians of the same extended family, including several children, were left homeless Tuesday morning after Israeli forces demolished eight homes…Does this Change Everything? Russia’s first strikes on Syria from Iran Airbases
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Russian bombers for the first time have taken off from bases in Iran to carry out air strikes on rebel targets in Syria.…Evangelical Lutheran Church Votes to Divest from Israeli Occupation
by Anna Baltzer, US Campaign to End the Occupation | IMEMC | - - On Friday, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) voted overwhelmingly — by an estimated 90% — to…2 out of 5 Palestinian youth in Israeli-occupied Palestine unemployed
Ma'an News Agency | - - BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Two out of five Palestinian youth were unemployed during the first quarter of 2016, according to data recently released by the Palestinian Central…10 Children Killed in Saudi Airstrike on Yemeni School
TeleSur | - - The Saudi-led coalition admitted children were at the site of the airstrike but jets “don’t distinguish ages” during attacks. At least 10 Yemeni children were killed in a…People in Syria’s Manbij Rejoice by Shaving, throwing off Veil as ISIL fighters Flee
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - People in Syria's norther town of Manbij, now entirely liberated from the rule of Daesh (ISIS, ISIL), rejoiced on Saturday. Men shaved their…Climate Change Terror as Deserts Bury 2/3s of African Lands
By Baher Kamal | (Inter Press Service) | - - ROME, (IPS) - Two-thirds of the African continent is already desert or dry-lands. But while this vast extension of the second largest…ISIL fighter number falls to 15,000 as Manbij capture Cuts off Route to Europe
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | AP is reporting that Lieutenant General Sean MacFarland maintains that the number of ISIL fighters in Syria and Iraq is in steep decline, having fallen…Monsters to Destroy: Top 7 Reasons the US could not have forestalled Syrian Civil War
by Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The interventionist temptation, muted since the Iraq imbroglio, is now returning. Sec. Clinton's team are already talking about taking steps to remove Syrian…No, Obama did not found ISIL, Mr. Trump: That was the GOP
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Trump in his daily free association exercise accused President Obama of creating Daesh (ISIL, ISIS) in Iraq by withdrawing troops from that country…The Economic Crisis of Greying World: 30 Countries have more Elderly than Children
By Joseph Chamie | (Inter Press Service) | - - NEW YORK (IPS) - It first happened in Italy in 1995. Five years later it happened in six additional countries, Bulgaria, Germany,…Gaza Strip: Blockade Causing an End to Fresh Water Resources
By IMEMC News | - - International Solidarity Movement | Gaza Team | - - As every year, during the summer, the water shortage in the Gaza Strip is accentuated. At the…Google Sparks Outrage by Abolishing Palestine on Maps
TeleSur | - - Google's decision to wipe Palestine from its map app and portray the occupied territories as Israel sparks online protest campaign. Journalists and activists have excoriated Google for wiping…Looming Aleppo Battle indicts both sides of Civil War for breaking Cease-Fire
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The only thing worse than the new hero status of now-covert al-Qaeda operative Abu Muhammad al-Julani and his Army of Syrian Conquest (ASC)…On 71st Anniversary of Hiroshima, the Fear of a Nuclear Trump
TeleSur | - - Donald Trump also recently asked a national security expert three times why, since the US has nuclear weapons, it can’t use them. Japan marked the 71st anniversary of…Will Syria Issue derail Turkey-Russia Rapprochement?
By Abbas Djavadi | ( RFE/RL ) | - - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan travels to St. Petersburg on August 9 to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. They will focus…Democrats Are Still Divided on Israel, But Clinton Runs Way to the Right
By Naomi Dann | Foreign Policy in Focus | (Originally published in Lobelog) Some see Democratic VP pick Tim Kaine as a promising counterbalance to Clinton's hawkishness. Following Debbie Wasserman-Schultz’s exit as…