Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2025 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Juan Cole

Uncategorized
Contacts begin with Taliban DPs Suffer in Camps

Contacts begin with Taliban DPs Suffer in Camps

Juan Cole

AFP reports: “Pakistani and Afghan officials and tribal leaders agreed Tuesday to make contact with Taliban militants in an attempt to end the raging insurgent violence along their porous border. The declaration came after two days of talks in Islamabad aimed at finding a lasting solution to the unrest which has wracked the region since […]

Uncategorized
The hypocrisy of the ‘One-Party Rule’ Gambit

The hypocrisy of the ‘One-Party Rule’ Gambit

Juan Cole

The McCain campaign is now warning against “one party rule” if Obama is elected president at at time when there will likely be a Democratic landslide in the House and the Senate. Well, first of all, having one party in control of the White House and Congress could have the benefit of allowing them to […]

Iraq
US: Raid Targetted al-Qaeda Facilitator; May Complicate Security Agreement with Iraq

US: Raid Targetted al-Qaeda Facilitator; May Complicate Security Agreement with Iraq

Juan Cole

US government sources maintained on Monday that the cross-border raid into Syria that left 8 dead had succeeded in killing “Abu al-Ghadiyah” (Badran al-Mazidi) of Mosul, a member of the fundamentalist vigilante group of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (originally called “Monotheism and Holy War” but more recently “The Islamic State of Iraq”). Al-Zarqawi was killed in […]

Uncategorized
Middle East Press Negative on US Attack on Syrian Soil.

Middle East Press Negative on US Attack on Syrian Soil.

Juan Cole

The USG Open Source Center surveys the Middle Eastern press reaction to the US raid on Abu al-Kamal in Syria, finding it mostly negative and based on Syrian reports. Lesson: If the US had just gotten word out about its side of the story more quickly and effectively, it might have blunted the generally negative […]

Uncategorized
The hypocrisiy of the ‘One-Party Rule’ Gambit

The hypocrisiy of the ‘One-Party Rule’ Gambit

Juan Cole

Ooops, typo in title. Go here for “The Hypocrisy of the ‘One Party Rule’ Gambit”

Uncategorized
Two Daring Attacks on US Troops in Afghanistan

Two Daring Attacks on US Troops in Afghanistan

Juan Cole

In Baghlan in northern Afghanistan, a suicide bomber killed two US troops while meeting at a local police station. Baghlan, a center of sugar beet production, is largely Tajik (Sunni Persian-speakers) but has a Pushtun minority, some of whom are anti-American and anti-Karzai government. In November of 2007, Taliban there hit a sugar factory during […]

Uncategorized
More on Syria Raid

More on Syria Raid

Juan Cole

More on the US raid on a house in Syria: The LAT wonders if the attack will derail US-Syrian steps toward rapprochement. Syrian officials are complaining that the raid, which left 8 Syrians dead, was ‘irrational’ and contravened international law. Other Syrian denunciations are given in Arabic by al-Sharq al-Awsat. Farmhouse raided in Abu Kamal […]

Uncategorized
Pakistani Military Takes Towns in Bajaur; If this is So Central to US Security, Why isn’t it News? US Strike Kills 20 in S. Waziristan

Pakistani Military Takes Towns in Bajaur; If this is So Central to US Security, Why isn’t it News? US Strike Kills 20 in S. Waziristan

Juan Cole

Although both candidates tie the resurgence of the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan to US domestic security, I personally have difficulty understanding exactly how that works. The September 11, 2001, attacks on the US were planned by Arab expatriates in Hamburg, Germany, and Pushtun tribespeople had almost nothing to do with them (did the Taliban […]

Iraq
Helman: US has all but Committed to Leaving Iraq

Helman: US has all but Committed to Leaving Iraq

Juan Cole

Ambassador Gerald B. Helman writes: Absent the unexpected, it is unlikely that a security agreement in the form of a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between Iraq and the US will be in place before our Presidential elections and almost as unlikely before the end of the year when the present UN Security Council mandate […]

  • « Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • …
  • Page 1000
  • Page 1001
  • Page 1002
  • Page 1003
  • Page 1004
  • …
  • Page 1599
  • Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Support Independent Journalism

Click here to donate via PayPal.

Personal checks should be made out to Juan Cole and sent to me at:

Juan Cole
P. O. Box 4218,
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2548
USA
(Remember, make the checks out to “Juan Cole” or they can’t be cashed)

STAY INFORMED

Join our newsletter to have sharp analysis delivered to your inbox every day.
Warning! Social media will not reliably deliver Informed Comment to you. They are shadowbanning news sites, especially if "controversial."
To see new IC posts, please sign up for our email Newsletter.

Social Media

Bluesky | Instagram

Popular

  • America's worsening Solar Gap with China, which installs 100 Panels per Second
  • Early Farming in Middle East, Sometimes Matriarchal, Spread through Learning, not Conquest
  • Siamese Criminals: Trump and Netanyahu
  • The Day Evin Prison Burned: Why Israel's Attack Crossed a Moral Line
  • 12 Days Of War: Takeaways From The Israel-Iran Conflict

Gaza Yet Stands


Juan Cole's New Ebook at Amazon. Click Here to Buy
__________________________

Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires



Click here to Buy Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam


Click here to Buy The Rubaiyat.
Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2025 All Rights Reserved