AJ+ | – – “In Sweden a group of bearded men (Bearded Villains) are saying that they were mistaken for ISIL fighters during a gathering in the countryside, prompting a visit by the police.” AJ+: “Swedish Bearded Men Mistaken For ISIL”
Endless Rounds of “Vietnamization” as America’s Colonial Armies Collapse one by One
By Andrew J. Bacevich | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – First came Fallujah, then Mosul, and later Ramadi in Iraq. Now, there is Kunduz, a provincial capital in northern Afghanistan. In all four places, the same story has played out: in cities that newspaper reporters like to call “strategically important,” security forces trained and […]
Ankara bombs: Turkey is being torn apart by bad leaders and bad neighbors
By Alpaslan Ozerdem | (The Conversation) | – – It had already been a deadly summer of political instability in Turkey. And now this. Another bloody massacre – this time at the hand of twin bomb attacks on a peace rally in Ankara, which have killed at least 97 people. It is the worst terror […]
Global Warming: See the Extreme Ice Changes Near the Antarctic Peninsula
James Balog | The National Geographic (Video Report) | – – “Join the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS) team on an expedition to South Georgia Island near the Antarctic Peninsula. This trip adds the Southern Hemisphere to a network of 43 time-lapse cameras placed worldwide on 24 glaciers. Capturing one photo per hour of daylight, the […]
Can Russia afford Its Syria Campaign?
By Charles Recknagel | ( RFE/ RL ) Rough estimates suggest that Moscow has spent at least $87 million for air and cruise-missile strikes in the first two weeks of its bombing campaign in Syria that began September 30. With that relatively modest investment, the Kremlin has made itself a player that cannot be ignored […]
Palestinians want West Bank & Gaza to be put under UN protection
By Samer B. Jaber | (Ma’an News Agency) | – – We, a group of professional and trade union figures, intellectuals, and political activists, appeal to the Palestinian leadership within the Palestine Liberation Organization and outside of it, to call on the United Nation and the permanent members of the Security Council to put the […]
3 Memes: Twitter debates as Russian support for Syria intervention Doubles
By Anna Shamanska | ( RFE/RL) | – – Support among Russians for military intervention in Syria has more than doubled, to 31 percent in early October from 14 percent in September, according to independent pollster Levada Center. The increase comes with coverage of air strikes filling Russian state airwaves, press, and the Internet, and […]
Palestine: Of course, it is an intifada: This is what you must know
By: Ramzy Baroud | (Ma’an News Agency) | – – When my book ‘Searching Jenin’ was published soon after the Israeli massacre in the Jenin refugee camp in 2002, I was quizzed repeatedly by the media and many readers for conferring the word ‘massacre’ on what Israel has depicted as a legitimate battle against camp-based […]
The Mideast’s New Cold War: Why Russia won’t Defeat Iraq’s Extremists
By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | – – Since the announcement of a new military alliance including Russia, locals have been trading arguments. Could Iraq become the stage for a new “Cold War”? And how effective can this coalition really be? For many Iraqis, the news that came last week of an alliance […]