Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community is out. It has a Middle East section and a report on Afghanistan in the South Asia section. Although the threat assessment aims at highlighting potential threats to the US and US interests, I am struck by how little their analysis […]
Archives for April 2021
Protesting Ongoing Israeli Army Arrests, Detention of University Students in Occupied Palestine
By Committee on Academic Freedom of the Middle East Studies Association. To: Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Minister of Education Yoav Galant, Minister of Higher Education Ze’ev Elkin, Minister of Justice Avi Nissenkorn, Brigadier General Rasan Alian, Head of Civil Administration in the West Bank, Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Chief Clerk Init […]
As Biden Announces US will Leave Afghanistan, what Forces will Shape its Future?
By Catesby Holmes | – The United States will bring home its over 3,000 remaining soldiers in Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021, delaying its planned withdrawal for five months in an effort to bolster faltering peace talks between the Afghan government and Taliban insurgent group. The new troop withdrawal date is symbolic, marking the 20th […]
Turkey’s Government moves to Ban Pro-Kurdish Leftist Party, 3rd Largest in Parliament, to Int’l Silence
By Foteini Bakadima | – ( OpenDemocracy.net) – There is no doubt that current events in Turkey violate democratic procedures, personal and political rights and any obligation Turkey has as a member of international organisations such as the Council of Europe. Over the years, the EU has seen the Turkish government exert increasing pressure against […]
No, Biden ending the Afghanistan War isn’t a Disaster: The disaster was Dropping 7,400 Bombs on the Country Annually
President Biden announced Tuesday that he will completely withdraw US troops from Afghanistan around September 1. This move will bring to an end America’s longest war, which still costs $50 billion a year. Imagine what that money could do for the US if it is invested in green energy and infrastructure. Worse, a lot of […]
Palestinians of Gaza, under Israeli Blockade, face Devastating Second wave of Covid-19
By Eman Abusidu | – The humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip is worsening as health officials report more than 1,000 new coronavirus cases daily. They warn of a healthcare catastrophe under an Israeli-led blockade that restricts medical imports, among many other things. The impact of the pandemic is devastating in such a closed environment. […]
Young Indigenous organizers are taking the fight against oil pipelines to Biden
( Waging Nonviolence)- Hundreds of people rallied in front of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers headquarters in Washington, D.C. on April 1 to deliver 400,000 petition signatures calling on the Biden administration to stop a pair of major oil pipelines threatening Indigenous nations’ land and water. “We as Indigenous people are done being silenced,” […]
Empire of Killing Machines: America’s Arsenal for Sale
( Tomdispatch.com) – By the time you read this piece, it will already be out of date. The reason’s simple enough. No matter what mayhem I describe, with so much all-American weaponry in this world of ours, there’s no way to keep up. Often, despite the headlines that go with mass killings here, there’s almost […]
“Unimaginable Amounts of Water”: Human-Made Global Heating in Danger of “Uncorking” Massive Antarctic Glaciers, causing Sea Level Rise
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A new article in Geophysical Research Letters found that four times as much of the Antarctic ices shelves would melt under a scenario where we heat the earth by 7.2 degrees F. (4 degrees C.) as opposed to the current Paris Climate Treaty goals of 1.5 degrees C. or at […]