By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Sawt al-`Iraq reports that sources in the Turkish military announced Saturday that about 150 Turkish troops had been placed into northern Iraq along with 20-25 tanks. The head of the Iraqi parliament’s Security and Defense Committee, Hakim Ilzami, said that this incursion was just switching out […]
Archives for December 2015
In the Actual fight against Daesh/ ISIL, the Key is Cutting off Mosul
By Special Correspondent | ( Niqash.org) | – – The Sinjar victory saw the route between Mosul and Raqqa cut. But local truckers have found another way in the desert that extremists are thought to be using too. If this road closes too, Mosul will be fully isolated. The new route out of Mosul heads […]
12 Million homeless, displaced Syrians facing Disaster as Winter Approaches
Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — More than 12 million people in Syria — nearly half of whom are children — are in need of immediate humanitarian assistance before winter sets into the war-torn country, an international aid group said Friday. Robert Mardini, regional director for the Middle East at the International […]
Roof, Dear and Tashfeen Malik: ‘Self-Radicalized,’ ‘Terrorism,’ ‘Lone Wolf’ and Double Standards
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Federal officials are now investigating the San Bernardino massacre as an “act of terrorism” rather than just workplace violence. But when Dylann Roof allegedly shot nine persons dead at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on June 17, 2015, there was strong resistance on the part […]
Syria: Mission Impossible
By John Feffer | (Foreign Policy in Focus) | – – p>Imagine this new TV series coming to HBO in 2016. The planet faces an unprecedented peril. The international community brings together a team of experts, each one with a different specialty: the scientist, the general, the computer geek, the engineer, the spook. It’s their […]
How Turkish President Erdogan went Wrong: Dividing and Not Ruling
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Receb Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, was once seen as a political breath of fresh air and a beacon of change in the Middle East. Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Algeria, Tunisia and other countries in the region were locked into an unhealthy political gridlock. The […]
Syrian Refugees in Jordan’s Camps Reply to Dr. Ben Carson
AJ+ | (Video report) | – – “After a recent visit to the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson described it as “really quite nice.” We went to the camp to ask refugees there what they thought of his comment.” AJ+: “We Asked Syrian Refugees To Respond To Ben Carson’s Comments […]
For Pacific Islanders, Paris Climate Summit is Life or Death
Euronews & Scott B. Power | – – “Dozens of activists at the COP 21 summit in Paris have taken part in the so-called Run for your Life, a relay race from the Arctic across northern Europe to the French capital. Each person carries a story they’ve shared along the four-thousand kilometre relay. Euronews spoke […]
Beyond ISIS: Suicide by World War IV
By Andrew Bacevich | (Tomdispatch.com) |- – Introduction by Tom Engelhardt Let’s consider the two parties in Washington. I’m not referring to the Republican and Democratic ones, but our capital’s war parties (there being no peace party, of course). They might be labeled the More War Party and the Much (or Much, Much) More War […]
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