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

Featured
In Turning Point for US Media, Time Recognizes Palestinians Mohammed and Muna El-Kurd as among 100 "Most Influential"

In Turning Point for US Media, Time Recognizes Palestinians Mohammed and Muna El-Kurd as among 100 “Most Influential”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In what may be a turning point for American media, Time magazine has chosen twin Palestinian activists from the endangered East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, Mohammed and Muna el-Kurd, as among the 100 most influential people in 2021. "Through online posts and media appearances, sibling activists Mohammed (@m7mdkurd) and Muna […]

Afghanistan
China slams US Sanctions on Taliban, Eyes investments in Afghan Minerals

China slams US Sanctions on Taliban, Eyes investments in Afghan Minerals

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Laura Zhou at the South China Morning Post reports that Zhao Lijian, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, on Wednesday called on the United States not to sanction the Taliban in Afghanistan and to cease sequestering $9.5 billion in Afghanistan government funds that Washington is withholding from the Taliban. Zhao […]

China
“We are on the way to a right-wing coup:"  Milley secured Nuclear Codes, Allayed China fears of Trump Strike

“We are on the way to a right-wing coup:” Milley secured Nuclear Codes, Allayed China fears of Trump Strike

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – As a historian, I am fascinated by the practical appeals to history that appear throughout the story of Gen. Mark A. Milley’s struggles with Trump in the last months of the latter’s presidency. Milley believes that Jan. 6 was just an initial skirmish, sort of like the failed 1905 revolution […]

Afghanistan
Afghanistan and 9/11: Finished or Unfinished Business? MIT Starr Forum with B. Posen, Juan Cole, V. Felbab-Brown, C. Saivetz (Video)

Afghanistan and 9/11: Finished or Unfinished Business? MIT Starr Forum with B. Posen, Juan Cole, V. Felbab-Brown, C. Saivetz (Video)

Juan Cole

MIT Center for International Studies: “Starr Forum: US, Afghanistan, 9/11: Finished or Unfinished Business?” Chair: Barry Posen, Ford International Professor of Political Science, MIT. He studies US grand strategy and national security policy. His most recent book is Restraint: A New Foundation for US Grand Strategy. Panelists: Juan Cole, Richard P Mitchell Collegiate Professor of […]

Afghanistan
As Banks threaten to Collapse and Aid Dwindles, 93% of Afghans already don't get Sufficient Food

As Banks threaten to Collapse and Aid Dwindles, 93% of Afghans already don’t get Sufficient Food

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – UN World Food Program surveys in August and September, Al Jazeera reports, found that 93 percent of Afghans already are not getting sufficient food, for the most part because they lack the cash to purchase it. Things are about to get worse, as Afghanistan under the Taliban is cut off […]

al-Qaeda
No, Saudi Arabia wasn't behind the 9/11 Attacks; That is a conspiracy Theory

No, Saudi Arabia wasn’t behind the 9/11 Attacks; That is a conspiracy Theory

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The FBI released documents from its investigation of ties of personnel at the Saudi embassy in Washington, D.C., to al-Qaeda. The Saudi government was not behind the September 11 attacks, and these documents don’t indicate that it was. The Saudis are heavily invested in the U.S. stock market, and it […]

Featured
Top 7 Ways al-Qaeda’s Terrorism Violated the Precepts of the Holy Qur’an

Top 7 Ways al-Qaeda’s Terrorism Violated the Precepts of the Holy Qur’an

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – One of the great tragedies of the early twenty-first century is that the great civilization of Islam, over 1400 years old and with tremendous achievements should have had its escutcheon besmirched with the terrorism of a small fringe of extremists such as Usama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda. It is the […]

Children
The Palestinian scramble to earn a living in Israeli-Occupied Gaza starts at school age

The Palestinian scramble to earn a living in Israeli-Occupied Gaza starts at school age

Juan Cole

By Motasem A Dalloul | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – The start of the new school year in the besieged Gaza Strip saw just under 300,000 students aged between six and 17 turn up for classes; more than 20,000 are attending school for the first time, often in overcrowded classrooms. Despite the difficult […]

Bush
The Accumulated Evil of the Whole: That time Bush and Co. made the September 11 Attacks a Pretext for War on Iraq

The Accumulated Evil of the Whole: That time Bush and Co. made the September 11 Attacks a Pretext for War on Iraq

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Kyle Swenson at the Washington Post reported in 2018 that Floridian Ishnar Lopez-Ramos was in love, but her intended only had eyes for another woman. So Ms. Lopez-Ramos enlisted two 22-year-old accomplices to target the other woman, who worked at the Ross Dress for Less at a shopping Center near […]

  • « Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • …
  • Page 127
  • Page 128
  • Page 129
  • Page 130
  • Page 131
  • …
  • 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

  • Siamese Criminals: Trump and Netanyahu
  • Early Farming in Middle East, Sometimes Matriarchal, Spread through Learning, not Conquest
  • Misreading and Misrepresenting Iran
  • 12 Days Of War: Takeaways From The Israel-Iran Conflict
  • Ibn Battuta, a 14th-century Judge and Ambassador, travelled further than Marco Polo. The Rihla records his Adventures

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