By Juan Cole NBC News’s Brian Williams interviewed Edward Snowden in Moscow on Wednesday night. But then Mr. Williams followed it up with a panel discussion of whether Snowden is a hero or traitor. It was a cowardly and venal thing to do, and Mr. Williams should be ashamed of himself. By framing the post-interview […]
Egypt: Passive Aggression and Counter-revolution: Voters, Youth Stay Home
By Juan Cole Voting was abruptly extended from two days to three in Egypt’s presidential election on Tuesday, apparently because of an unexpectedly low turnout. The contest pits Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, until recently minister of defense and a high-ranking general, against leftist warhorse Hamdeen Sabahi. None of the other eligible Egyptian frontrunners agreed to run, […]
Did a Karzai No-Show Spoil Obama’s announcement of end of Afghanistan War?
By Juan Cole Update: President Obama on Tuesday morning announced the end of the Afghanistan War on December 31, 2016. He envisions about 10,000 US troops there through 2015, then 5,000 in 2016, then virtually none except to guard the Kabul embassy in 2017. He says that this plan, however, is dependent on the Afghan […]
On Memorial Day, Let’s do right by our Veterans
(By Juan Cole) Memorial Day should honor not only those military personnel who gave their lives for America but really all those who have suffered and died in war. Given the difficulties that have been revealed for Veterans in getting prompt and thorough healthcare from the VA, it is also a day in which those […]
30 Murders by Firearm in England 2012 (equiv. 164), vs. 8,855 in US
By Juan Cole The mentally imbalanced individual who hunted down UC Santa Barbara students and knifed three and shot 6 of them to death, wounding with gunfire 7 more, on Saturday, used a semi-automatic handgun. The most popular such weapon is a Glock. It is not an automatic weapon, meaning you have to squeeze the […]
Pope Francis in Jordan Reaches out to Forgotten Syrian Refugees, Christians and Muslims
By Juan Cole AFP Arabic reports that Syrian refugees, and Christian refugees in particular, are hoping that the visit of Pope Francis to Jordan on Saturday will raise the profile of their plight. Jordan is a country of 6.3 million citizens, but it has another 600,000 or so Syrian refugees. Likely on the order of […]
Pope Francis to call for Sovereign, Independent Palestinian State from Bethlehem
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin is signaling that Pope Francis in his visit to Bethlehem on Sunday will strongly support the right of Palestinians to a sovereign state. Implicitly, Pope Francis will condemn the Apartheid system of military rule used by Israel in the West Bank, though he likely won’t use the word. […]
Top 5 Wars on Religious Extremism in Today’s Muslim World
The Fox News commentators who say that the Muslim world is not doing enough to police its own extremist movements don’t actually seem to be reading the news. If anything in a number of countries they’ve gone overboard with a Bush style ‘war on terror.’ To wit: 1. On Wednesday, the commander of Libya’s Air […]
The Obama Effect? Are Iran/ Saudi-and-GCC no longer on a war footing?
(By Juan Cole) There are signs of a diplomatic thaw between Iran and the Arab oil monarchies of the Gulf. It has just been announced that the ruler of Kuwait, Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, will make a state visit to Iran. This news comes after it was confirmed that the Iranian foreign minister has been invited […]
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