By Juan Cole Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is complaining that he is unfairly blamed for causing the current mess in Iraq and that if Saddam had still been in power it would be just as unstable. He is, perhaps deliberately, missing the point. His invasion of Iraq was illegal and based on deception […]
Archives for June 2014
Can Egypt face up to its sexual assault problem?
At first, the blurry video of a celebration in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, captured by an onlooker’s cellphone, is difficult to make out. Fireworks explode nearby as the shaky camera captures a crowd of men, jostling and shouting. Then, flashes of a…
Iraq: Radical Shiite Militia fights Sunni Extremists as US Carrier reaches Gulf
By Juan Cole Saturday was a day of militia pushback against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS]. In a sign of growing polarization on both the Sunni and the Shiite sides, the best fighters on the Shiite side against Sunni al-Qaeda wannabes. When the worst elements of two communities go at one another, […]
Foreign nationals struggle to send money home
By Libya Herald staff. Tripoli, 14 June 2014: Money transfer companies are reportedly operating reduced hours, leaving many foreign nationals working in Libya struggling to send money home to their families. “Some Western Union and MoneyGram branches we use are not open at all now and others limit the number of people they will see […]
When will they ever Learn? America on Brink of another Military Engagement
By William R. Polk America appears once again to be on the brink of a war. This time the war is likely to be in Syria and/or in Iraq. If we jump into one or both of these wars, they will join, by my count since our independence, about 200 significant military operations (not all […]
The Biggest effect of Carbon Emissions: Rapid Ocean Warming
Posted on 12 June 2014 by John Abraham One benefit of working in the climate science arena is that I have the privilege to interact with some of the world’s most talented individuals. I have learned their stories while we have shared hypotheses about…
“If you take down the central gov’t…you could… see… pieces of Iraq fly off”- Dick Cheney 1994
Dick Cheney on why the US shouldn’t invade Iraq (1994): “Because if we had gone to Baghdad we would have been all alone. There wouldn’t have been anybody else with us. It would have been a U.S. occupation of Iraq. None of the Arab forces that were willing to fight with us in Kuwait were […]
Enter the Ayatollah: Sistani calls on Iraqis to enlist in Fight against “Terrorists”
Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, spiritual leader of most Iraqi Shiites, intervened forcefully in Iraqi politics on Thursday and Friday, giving his support to the national army and urging Iraqi men to volunteer to enlist and to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). He termed the hyper-Sunni group, which has taken over the […]
Dear America: You’re in the Army Now
By William J. Astore I spent four college years in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) and then served 20 years in the U.S. Air Force. In the military, especially in basic training, you have no privacy. The government owns you. You’re “government issue,” just another G.I., a number on a dogtag that has your […]
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