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Juan Cole

Donald Trump
No, Iranian President Rouhani didn't Call Trump "mentally Retarded"

No, Iranian President Rouhani didn’t Call Trump “mentally Retarded”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The New York Times and other Western news outlets reported on a speech of Iranian president Hassan Rouhani that expressed frustration with the US government in general and President Trump in particular, alleging that he called Trump “retarded.” There has been a long history of mistranslation from Persian in US […]

Featured
Are Young Arabs Abandoning Religion?

Are Young Arabs Abandoning Religion?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Arab Barometer in partnership with the BBC has interviewed a weighted sample of 25,000 people in the Arab world. One of the survey’s findings is the rapid decline in self-reported religiousness. About 30% of Tunisians say they are “not religious” in 2019, nearly doubling since 2013. The youth are […]

Featured
Erdogan's Agony: Has Istanbul just begun saving Turkish Democracy?

Erdogan’s Agony: Has Istanbul just begun saving Turkish Democracy?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Istanbul has clapped back for democracy big time, electing as mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu of the secular Republican Peoples Party. İmamoğlu had already won once, last May, with a margin of 15,000 votes. The increasingly dictatorial president, Tayyip Erdogan, of the center-right pro-Islam Justice and Development Party (AKP), argued that the […]

Featured
Dear Trump:  Iran doesn't Have a Military Nuclear Program and Gave up Bomb-Making Potential

Dear Trump: Iran doesn’t Have a Military Nuclear Program and Gave up Bomb-Making Potential

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Julian Borger at The Guardian reports that Trump said Saturday to reporters, “They’re not going to have a nuclear weapon. We’re not going to have Iran have a nuclear weapon. When they agree to that, they’re going to have a wealthy country. They’re going to be so happy, and I’m […]

Donald Trump
Trump cites "Proportionality" in Iran pullback, though He has often Violated It

Trump cites “Proportionality” in Iran pullback, though He has often Violated It

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump in an interview Friday with Meet the Press attributed his decision not to go ahead with a strike on Iran to concerns about proportionality. He said he asked the Joint Chiefs of Staff just before the strike was to have been set in motion about the likely Iranian casualties. […]

Drones
Back from Iran War Brink: Trump wants to Walk back Iran Crisis that He created with Severe US Sanctions

Back from Iran War Brink: Trump wants to Walk back Iran Crisis that He created with Severe US Sanctions

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The warmongers on Trump’s national security team apparently convinced him to set in motion an aerial strike against Iran Thursday in retaliation for the downing of a US drone over waters claimed by Iran. Then at the last minute, Michael D. Shear, Eric Schmitt, Michael Crowley and Maggie Haberman at […]

Featured
Yes, Liz Cheney, AOC is right that US is Running Concentration Camps for Refugees

Yes, Liz Cheney, AOC is right that US is Running Concentration Camps for Refugees

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been under fire for an Instagram message she sent out in which she characterized the holding facilities for refugees and other undocumented entrants into the US run by ICE and by private companies (for which it is a $2 billion a year industry) as “concentration camps.” Human […]

Israel/ Palestine
Kushner's Bahrain conference collapsing--No Palestine, Israel Officials, charges of attempting to Buy off Palestinians

Kushner’s Bahrain conference collapsing–No Palestine, Israel Officials, charges of attempting to Buy off Palestinians

Juan Cole

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — US Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt has stated that next week’s Bahrain economic workshop is the first part of the United State’s peace plan known as “Deal of the Century.” Greenblatt has also emphasized to the Israeli news agency “i24NEWS” that the workshop will be concidsered as “apolitical” due to the Palestinian […]

Featured
Solar Growing by leaps and Bounds in India, fueling Irrigation and Jobs

Solar Growing by leaps and Bounds in India, fueling Irrigation and Jobs

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Solar energy is one of the fastest-growing energy sectors in the world, and has the great advantage of producing no carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that is raising the average surface temperature of the earth. India is now for the first time in history investing more in solar energy than […]

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