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

Barack Obama
Americans more likely to get hit by Lightning than Terrorism, but 51% Fear It

Americans more likely to get hit by Lightning than Terrorism, but 51% Fear It

Juan Cole

By Peter Certo | (Foreign Policy In Focus) | – – One in 3.5 million: That’s your annual risk of dying from a terrorist attack in the United States, at least according to Cato analyst John Mueller. Rounded generously, that comes out to roughly 3 one-hundred thousandths of a percentage point, or 0.00003 percent. And […]

Featured
Noam Chomsky slams Turkish Pres. Erdogan for Arresting Academics, supporting Extremism

Noam Chomsky slams Turkish Pres. Erdogan for Arresting Academics, supporting Extremism

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Matthew Weaver of the Guardian reports retired MIT linguist Noam Chomsky’s reply to a personal attack by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan criticized Chomsky and other international scholars who signed a petition against the Turkish government’s current vendetta against Kurdish-Turkish citizens in the country’s southeast. Erdogan […]

Featured
War Talk, Jingoism and White Supremacy at GOP Debate

War Talk, Jingoism and White Supremacy at GOP Debate

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The GOP presidential debate last night veered even further right on international issues, given the absence of Ron Paul, who represents the Libertarian wing of the party that is less interested in foreign wars. Ted Cruz started off with a promise of war on Iran over […]

Islam
How I Explained to My Impressionable Student That Islam Is Not Monolithic

How I Explained to My Impressionable Student That Islam Is Not Monolithic

Juan Cole

Asma Afsaruddin | (Huffington Post) | – – On Sept. 29, 2015, President Obama addressed the United Nations summit on violent extremism. He stated that part of the international effort to stamp out terrorism “must be a continued rejection by Muslims of those who distort Islam to preach intolerance and promote violence, and it must […]

Featured
Top 6 Wind Energy stories Today: Cost down 60% since 2009

Top 6 Wind Energy stories Today: Cost down 60% since 2009

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – 1. This press release from Windpower Engineering notes that in 2015: “The German electricity system has reached a new milestone, generating 85.4 billion kWh of wind power in 2015, the highest amount ever recorded and 66% more than 2014. Nationwide, wind energy accounted for 13.3% of […]

Crime
German lawmakers rush to respond to Cologne attacks as Vigilante Attacks Break Out

German lawmakers rush to respond to Cologne attacks as Vigilante Attacks Break Out

Juan Cole

by Dario Sarmadi (trans. by Samuel Morgan) | ( EurActiv.de) | – – After the attacks carried out on women in Cologne on New Year’s Eve, the German government wants to act quickly and tighten the asylum law. Meanwhile, verbal and physical violence against migrants has escalated. EurActiv Germany reports. The events that unfolded in […]

Barack Obama
Obama:  Islamophobia harms US Interests;  Daesh/ISIL a dangerous Fringe

Obama: Islamophobia harms US Interests; Daesh/ISIL a dangerous Fringe

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – President Obama’s last State of the Union address this year was largely lacking in specifics and replete with high ideals and ambitious goals like curing cancer. But he did address some issues in everyday politics. One of the more powerful moments came when he implicitly attacked […]

Featured
Thwarted Territorially in Ramadi, Daesh reverts to Terrorism in Baghdad

Thwarted Territorially in Ramadi, Daesh reverts to Terrorism in Baghdad

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – One of the problems Iraq and Syria will face as Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) is gradually rolled back from its territorial acquisitions is that it will demobilize its conventional forces and return to being a terrorist organization. It may be in some ways more dangerous under the […]

Authoritarianism
How the fate of Syria's al-Assad divides the GOP Field: Cruz, Trump, Rubio

How the fate of Syria’s al-Assad divides the GOP Field: Cruz, Trump, Rubio

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Foreign policy is not a strong suit for most of the Republican candidates for president. Many of them probably couldn’t find Syria on a blank world map. But the fate of Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad has become a flashpoint issue distinguishing them from one another. Donald […]

  • « Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • …
  • Page 395
  • Page 396
  • Page 397
  • Page 398
  • Page 399
  • …
  • Page 1603
  • 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

  • From Gaza to Trump, Some of us Saw this Coming
  • Cartoonish Trump is making America a Caricature, and I should Know
  • Netanyahu far outscores Putin and George W. Bush in Killing innocent Civilians, at 83% of the Dead
  • Ancient Nomadic Scythians Found to be Ethnically Diverse
  • The Silence of the Scholars: How leading Academics gave Cover to Genocide in Gaza

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