By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Despite Trump having pulled the US out of the Paris Climate accord, there is reason to think that the US will nevertheless meet its obligations to reduce deadly carbon dioxide emissions. Although Trump is blowing up the Environmental Protection Agency the way a terrorist would blow […]
Archives for August 2017
Afghanistan is now officially James Mattis’ war
By Simon Reich | (The Conversation) | – – Donald Trump’s speech on his administration’s strategy in Afghanistan – in which he announced the introduction of an unspecified number of new combat troops, without a mission and without a specified end date, in a strategy that abandoned nation building but entailed war-fighting – clearly contravened […]
Shadowy US Covert Ops & Surveillance Abroad always Come Home
By Alfred W. McCoy | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – [This piece has been adapted and expanded from the introduction to Alfred W. McCoy’s new book, In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power.] In the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks, Washington pursued its elusive enemies across the […]
Is the Gulf Crisis bringing Iraq back into Arab World?
Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | ( Niqash.org ) | – – Countries like Saudi Arabia are showing new willingness to open diplomatic channels with Iraq. Motivations include a military they now respect, opportunities for reconstruction and countering Iranian influence. Iraqi diplomats have had a busy month. There have been dozens of officials from Arab countries […]
Germany’s Merkel: A Selfish & Isolationist America isn’t “Great Again”
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In an interview with Handelsblatt , German Chancellor Angela Merkel took on Donald Trump’s philosophy directly. She said that Trump’s isolationism cannot make America greater. Turning inward and abandoning friends can only diminish America, she said: “An America that does not care about the rest of […]
Will Trump’s Arpaio Pardon encourage more civil rights violations?
Steven Mulroy | (The Conversation) | – – President Donald Trump may pardon Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff who illegally used racial profiling to enforce immigration laws. It’s true, Trump has the legal power to pardon pretty much anyone. But pardoning Arpaio could send the message that state and local officials can aggressively enforce […]
A Turkish Woman in the Oedipus Complex: Orhan Pamuk’s “The Red-Haired Woman”
By Erdağ Göknar | (Los Angeles Review of Books) | – – COULD A CONTEMPORARY STORY of love and vengeance set in Turkey have its roots in ancient myths of patricide and filicide? This is what Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk convincingly contends in his 10th and latest novel, The Red-Haired Woman. The two dominant and […]
Is Trump planning permanent occupation of Afghanistan?
By Reese Erlich | ( 48Hills | – – What will 4,000 more US troops do that 100,000 troops couldn’t do before? On my first reporting trip to Afghanistan, I was surprised to find that so many people supported the US invasion. They loved President George Bush because he got rid of the hated Taliban […]
India joins 20 Muslim Countries in banning ‘Instant Divorce’
TeleSur | – – Women’s rights activists view the ruling as a step toward granting Muslim women greater equality and justice. India’s Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional a Muslim practice that reportedly allows men to “instantly divorce” their wives, a move some claim is a landmark victory for Muslim women to get greater equality. The […]
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