By Juan Cole | — Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi announced to his parliament on Sunday that inspectors had uncovered 50,000 non-existent soldiers in four divisions of the Iraqi Army. Their pay was presumably being diverted to the officers in the division. This ziggurat of corruption was one reason the army collapsed on June 9, […]
Cairo Erupts as Mubarak, Adly Declared Innocent in Deaths of Protesters
By Juan Cole | — An Egyptian court on Saturday found found deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak and his former interior minister Habib Adly not guilty (or rather just dropped the charges) the killing of nearly 900 young protesters by police in January-February 2011. Downtown Cairo and some provincial towns erupted in protests. Indeed, these were […]
Oil Price Fall: Saudi Arabia targets US Shale Oil, Iran, Iraq, Russia
By Juan Cole It is clear that among the major losers in the fall in the price of Brent crude petroleum from $115 a barrel last summer to about $75 a barrel today are Russia, Iraq and Iran. Petroleum sales are 50% of Russia’s income, and are also central for Iran and Iraq. But the […]
Iran Leader Khamenei: We are not Opposed to Nuclear Talks, Will Accept Just Deal
By Juan Cole | — Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the clerical Leader of Iran, told an assemblage of volunteer paramilitary (Basij) forces on Thursday that he is not opposed to nuclear talks with the P5 +1 and would accept a just and reasonable deal. I said that a breakdown in the talks, which have been extended […]
Thanksgiving was always about Climate and Adaptation: Let’s Make it Green Again
By Juan Cole | — The popular story about Thanksgiving is an environmental parable that we would do well to remember today. It was a harvest festival in 1621, participated in by the 50 (out of 100) survivors at Plymouth Plantation and 90 Native Americans. Some of these latter, such as Squanto, had shared with […]
Race inequality between US Whites and African-Americans by the Numbers (Again)
By Juan Cole | — With regard to employment, African-Americans got hit harder by the Bush Depression than did whites, and jobs have not come back for them at nearly the same rate: This vast difference between Euro-American and African-American rates of employment holds true regardless of educational level; college-educated African-Americans are also twice as […]
As SecDef Hagel Exits, an Iraq Daesh/ISIL Scorecard
By Juan Cole | — Mosul rose up in alliance with Daesh /ISIL against the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on June 9 of this year, sparking a crisis in Obama administration foreign policy. Obama had been open to keeping some troops in Iraq, but the Iraqi parliament did not want that, and […]
Israel and Mississippi: Racist Plans for 2nd Class Citizens and Religious Legislation
By Juan Cole | — The Guardian reports that “A controversial bill that officially defines Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people has been approved by cabinet despite warnings that the move risks undermining the country’s democratic character. Opponents, including some cabinet ministers, said the new legislation defined reserved “national rights” for Jews only […]
Jerusalem: where religion divides but lives are entwined
By Wendy Pullan, University of Cambridge (The Conversation) The latest violent episode between Palestinians and Israelis has prompted Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to assert that Israel is in the midst of a “battle for Jerusalem”. This is a city divided along many lines, and while the latest attack has caused outrage and hostility, it […]
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