By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – The Obama administration got itself some headlines on Wednesday morning by pledging to send a few hundred more military trainers to Iraq and to create a new base in al-Anbar Province. But there is less to this announcement than meets the eye. The US has some 3000 […]
Implications for ICC? SCOTUS Jerusalem Decision shows Limits of Israel Lobbies
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – It has been the position of the US presidents for decades that the status of Jerusalem in international law is unsettled. That is why the US embassy is in Tel Aviv, and why US passports showing the place of birth as Jerusalem just list the name […]
Turkey: How Pres. Erdogan damaged the AKP Brand
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Justice and Development Party (AKP) decisively lost its majority on Sunday, falling to only about 40 percent of the vote. The other sixty percent were for the most party divided between the old secular Kemalist party, the Republican People’s Party; a Turkish nationalist-chauvinist party; and […]
Green Energy Surging and you’ll never Guess Why
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | — The adoption of wind and solar for electricity generation around the world is happening at a growing pace, and the likelihood is that it will displace hydrocarbons in fifteen to twenty years (decades sooner than Big Coal, Big Oil and Big Gas expect). Here are some stories […]
Iraq needs another National Party: Tariq Aziz’s Baath Party Ruined the Country
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | — Tariq Aziz, the former deputy prime minister and former foreign minister of Iraq, is dead at 79. He died in prison in the custody of the Shiie-dominated government he tried to forestall. Aziz was born Mikhael Yuhanna (Michael John) into a Chaldean Catholic family. He gravitated to […]
The Wrath of Netanyahu: What does Orange Telecom’s departure from Israel really Mean for BDS?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Stephane Richard, the CEO of the French telecommunnications company Orange embroiled himself in an international incident on Wednesday during a visit to Cairo, when he said that his company would withdraw its logo from the Israeli market “tomorrow” if he could. The reason is that the […]
On eve of Turkish Election, Leftist Women Turn backs on Pres. Erdogan in Twitter Campaign
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In Turkey, left of center and Kurdish women took to Twitter on Wednesday to post pictures of themselves turning their backs to President Tayyip Erdogan. The campaign came after Kurdish women supporting the HDP (People’s Democratic Party) turned their back to the president at a rally […]
Adelson Tabloid slams Obama for Listening to ‘Court Jews’ in Questioning Israel’s Credibility
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – President Barack Obama gave an interview on Israeli television on Tuesday in which he said that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s position on rejecting a Palestinian state as long as he is in power is damaging Israel’s credibility. Netanyahu tried to retract his campaign pledge after he won […]
US Air Force Absent as Daesh/ ISIL advances on North Aleppo against Sunni Rebels
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – Daesh (ISIL, ISIS), the murderous terrorist organization that has taken over the eastern desert of Syria and the western desert of Iraq, along with perhaps 3 million townspeople, is now making a move on Syria’s largest city, Aleppo. For the past five days, Daesh has been fighting […]
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