India

Indian peasants in Maharashtra are protesting plans to build a nuclear plant on an earthquake fault at Jaitapur. India has an ambitious set of plans to build 21 further nuclear reactors. The peasants were already worried, but the partial melt-down at the Fukushima plant in Japan, and especially the venting of radioactive water into the […]

India

Ala. Governor Apologizes to Muslims, Hindus, Jews

Juan Cole

Gov. Robert Bentley, the new governor of Alabama, created a firestorm of controversy on Monday when he said that if you are not a Christian he does not consider you his brother or his sister. He added, “… so anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their saviour, I’m telling you, you’re […]

Afghanistan

Dec. 6: Top Ten New Wikileaks on Greater Middle East

Juan Cole

Here are this weekend’s top ten Wikileaks revelations for the Greater Middle East: The US and India wanted to slap United Nations sanctions on Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and his group, Jama’at al-Da’wa, for terrorism. But Pakistan asked China to block this move at the UN, and Beijing complied. The Jama`at is widely considered a front […]

India

Ron Paul: We’ve Already Declared War on Iran

Juan Cole

From last summer after the passage of the Comprehensive Iran sanctions or CISADA: Rep. Ron Paul argues that this measure is more or less a declaration of war on Iran, and that therefore we are effectively on a war footing with Tehran already. He also suggests that we do not need more than 700 bases […]

India

Cole in Tomdispatch: Asia Rising, American Hessians

Juan Cole

My column is out in Tomdispatch on the troubling ways that President Obama’s Asian trip suggest America’s weakening position in the world, especially with regard to a rising Asia– given our debilitating wars and our hollowed out economy. Read the whole thing.

India

What does Pakistan think of Obama’s India Trip?

Juan Cole

Pakistanis are from all accounts rather miffed that President Barack Obama did not stop in Islamabad as part of his Asian tour. The officer corps is the angriest, but it is viewed widely as a put-down. From a Pakistani point of view, the US and Pakistan have been allies since the 1950s. They stood shoulder […]

India

Bachmann Harms US Economy, Security with Scurrilous Charges about Obama in India

Juan Cole

One of the great things about the victory of so many eccentrics in the congressional races of 2010 for bloggers is that we can look forward to at least two years of having lots of fun with them. Of course, old-time funny people have come back, as well, such as cut-up Michele Bachmann. Bachmann is […]