Unlike Iraq, Iran, Libya, N. Korea, Israel has Impunity from Defying UNSC (Gaza Ceasefire)
By Juan Cole The United Nations Security Council is theoretically a sort of sovereign in international…
By Juan Cole The United Nations Security Council is theoretically a sort of sovereign in international…
By Juan Cole The United States as a great Power is facing a large number of…
By Juan Cole When ordinary countries fight wars they have war aims. In World War II,…
John Oliver: “Cable companies are trying to create an unequal playing field for internet speeds, but they’re doing it so boringly that most news outlets aren’t covering it. John Oliver explains the…
By Trevor Timm: The Supreme Court today rejected New York Times reporter James Risen’s appeal of a 4th Circuit decision that ruled the government can compel him to reveal his source under…
By Juan Cole President Obama’s decision to unleash the Environmental Protection Agency on US carbon dioxide emitters is a sea change in environmental policy and is extremely welcome to any who care…
By Rebecca Solnit via Tomdispatch.com It was a key match in the World Cup of Ideas. The teams vied furiously for the ball. The all-star feminist team tried repeatedly to kick it…
Republicans love waging wars, but they sure don’t seem to love America’s soldiers and veterans. Whether they’re getting our soldiers killed in Iraq or cutting their food stamps here at home, here are the 15 top ways the GOP screws those who serve…
By Harold R. Wanless, University of Miami It is amazing for me to see the very aggressive building boom underway in south Florida; on the beaches and barrier islands, throughout downtown and…
The negotiations that led to the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl represent one thing to Republicans: another excuse to attack President Obama. “Trading five senior Taliban leaders from detention in Guantanamo Bay for Berghdal’s release may have consequences…
Matthew Hagee, son of fire and brimstone preacher John Hagee, says don’t believe those climate scientists who say things that are against the Bible, and this against the word of God. What the changes in climate mean is that Jesus is coming. And soon…
Fox News ratings dropped 27% in May, and there were double-digit falls across many of their top shows. The ratings drop is year over year, with a 27% drop in total viewership, but a 25% drop among younger viewers. With the younger viewers, these are…
By Juan Cole As the price of solar panels drops, they increasingly are being spontaneously bought and installed by villagers throughout the world, who are often ill-served, or not served at all,…
After NBC confirmed Ed Snowden’s earlier claims that he had tried to make use of internal channels to question NSA surveillance programs, James Clapper released a single email from Snowden to the legal department at the NSA, which they claim shows he…
By Jon Queally U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is facing widespread criticism for his comment that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden—increasingly seen by the American public as a heroic figure for exposing…
By Tom Engelhardt via Tomdispatch Internet Class of 2014, I’m in awe of you! To this giant, darkened auditorium filled with sparkling screens of every sort, welcome! It would, of course, be…
By Juan Cole Secretary of State John Kerry said that Edward Snowden should “return home and come back here and stand in our system of justice and make his case.” Kerry seems…
By Barry Eisler via Freedom of the Press Foundation: One of the most fascinating aspects of Glenn Greenwald’s journalism is the way it provokes various people who think of themselves as journalists…
Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now! has an exclusive interview: ” Exclusive: Bush Committed War Crimes Says Ex-Counterterrorism Czar Richard Clarke” Excerpt: Amy Goodman: “Do you think President Bush should be brought up on…
By Juan Cole NBC News’s Brian Williams interviewed Edward Snowden in Moscow on Wednesday night. But then Mr. Williams followed it up with a panel discussion of whether Snowden is a hero…
Poet Maya Angelou dies at 86. Maya Angelou reads ‘Still I Rise’
Posted on 27 May 2014 by howardlee The link between rapid climate changes and mass extinctions has been strengthened in a recent paper by Jourdan et al in “Geology.” The authors demonstrate that the extraordinarily huge volcanic eruptions of the…
“Joe the Plumber”: “Your dead kids don’t trump my Constitutional rights.” (via The Political Carnival) “Joe the Plumber” (Sam Wurzelbacher, the not-plumber), wrote the following in response to the grieving parents of…
Foreign Policy
Baghdad Strikes Back: Al-Maliki Launches Battle for Tikrit
By Juan Cole Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki is fighting for his political life as well as for the territorial integrity of Iraq. On Saturday he launched a large military operation in an…
Iraqi Mosul’s Child Soldiers: ISIS Trickily recruits 10-year-olds
niqash | Special Correspondent | Mosul | Much to the horror of the city’s adults, children and teens in masks, carrying guns, are becoming an increasingly common sight on Mosul’s streets. NIQASH…
Sunni Radicals of ISIS seek showdown with Lebanon’s Hizbullah
By Radwan Mortada The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has decided to instigate a full-scale conflagration in Lebanon. All indications show that the al-Qaeda offshoot is resolved to bring back…
Top 5 Reasons US Aid to “Moderate” Syrian Fighters is Quixotic
The Obama administration’s fruitless search for effective Sunni “moderate” fighters in Syria continues, with the announcement of a $500 million grant to them for training and weaponry. This policy seems in part…
Iraqi Idol: Tikrit Woman who Confronted ISIS Becomes Internet Sensation
By Osama Hassan | Tikrit Sad story: Tikrit woman Umiyia Jibara was killed by an ISIS sniper. In a country currently full of sad tales, the tragic death of a Tikrit women’s…
Dear Neocons: Why we’re not Sending Combat Troops to Iraq no matter how much you Pout
By Scott Corey There are only three things wrong with the idea of sending combat troops to Iraq at this time, as a range of hawks from Bill Kristol to Sen. John…
July 1: Juan’s new Book, “The New Arabs” hits the Shelves
By Juan Cole For those of you who like “long reads,” my new book will be out next Tuesday. For those of you intending to buy it, let me suggest that you…
Is Russia Replacing US in Iraq?
By Juan Cole Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Thursday told BBC Arabic that he was buying used fighter jets from the Russian Federation and from Belorussia. He said it had been…
Is it ISIS? French, Saudi Suicide Bombers Target Beirut
Via al-Akhbar English: A suicide bomber blew himself up as security forces raided his hotel room in Beirut’s Raouche district Wednesday evening, injuring at least 11 people, in the third such blast…
What Drove Iraqi Sunnis to Revolt and ally with ISIS?
By Charles Recknagel via RFE/RL As Sunni insurgents have swept across northern Iraq, they have sought to win support by portraying themselves as the liberators of the country’s Sunni population. One of…
Iraq’s PM al-Maliki Rejects Gov’t of Nat’l Unity as Sunnis Demand he step Down
By Juan Cole Secretary of State John Kerry is an experienced and knowledgeable diplomat, but the difficulty of the situation in the Middle East right now is demonstrated by the repeated reversals…
Iraq Crisis: It’s the Oil, Stupid!
By Michael Schwartz via Tomdispatch Events in Iraq are headline news everywhere, and once again, there is no mention of the issue that underlies much of the violence: control of Iraqi oil.…
Iraq in last Throes as Kurdistan Seeks Independence, Syria & Iran intervene
By Juan Cole Former Vice President and unindicted felon Richard Bruce Cheney (they always give the criminals’ names that way, in full) once said that he was sure that the Sunni Arab…
How WW I, British Greed, and Oil Distorted Modern Iran
By Farhad Malekafzali With one hundredth anniversary of the start of WWI fast approaching, the consequences of the war for Iran deserves attention. When it comes to European role in shaping Middle…
Why you need an EV: Radicalism in Iraq Menaces the World’s most Important Oil Fields
By Juan Cole The virtual collapse of the Iraqi army and its inability to take back any territory from Sunni forces coordinated by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria brings into…
Religion and the Fight over Public Space in Egypt
By Marwa Fikry Abdel Samei | Cairo (Special to Informed Comment) “Have you pronounced blessings on the Prophet today?” These words alarmed the Egyptian regime and impelled it to announce a war…
Hardliners in Israel & Iran Resist US Pivot to Iran over ISIS
By Juan Cole The continued advances of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL) on Sunday brought the radical Sunni movement to the borders of Jordan and consolidated its…
Afghanistan and the Artificial US War on Terror (Anand Gopal’s New Book)
By Juan Cole I guest-hosted a book salon over at Firedoglake on Sunday concentrating on Anand Gopal’s expose of the so-called ‘war on terror’ in Afghanistan. Below is my review of the…
Israel Threatens Witnesses to its Killings of Palestinians, and it Must Stop
Via Human Rights Watch Israeli Army targets Man Whose Cameras Recorded Deaths Israel should be investigating these deaths, but instead its forces seem intent on intimidating witnesses and ensuring future abuses won’t…
Neo-Zangid State erases Syria-Iraq Border, cuts Hizbullah off from Iran
By Juan Cole With the alleged fall to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria of Qa’im on Saturday, and of Talafar a few days ago, the border between Iraq and Syria…