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Juan Cole

Egypt
Why US Clout in the Middle East is Gone (Hiro)

Why US Clout in the Middle East is Gone (Hiro)

Juan Cole

Dilip Hiro writes at Tomdispatch.com: What if the sole superpower on the planet makes its will known — repeatedly — and finds that no one is listening?  Barely a decade ago, that would have seemed like a conundrum from some fantasy Earth in an alternate dimension.  Now, it is increasingly a plain description of political […]

Iran
Why Israel’s Plan to Bomb Iran is more Dangerous to Israel than Obama-Rouhani Diplomacy

Why Israel’s Plan to Bomb Iran is more Dangerous to Israel than Obama-Rouhani Diplomacy

Juan Cole

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has made no secret of his dismay that the Obama administration is entering into what look like serious negotiations with Iran over the latter’s nuclear enrichment program. Israeli hawks such as Netanyahu want the US to bomb the Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities in Natanz near Isfahan and in Fordow near […]

US politics
You Can have Obamacare, or You can have Cruzcare (Jamiol Cartoon)

You Can have Obamacare, or You can have Cruzcare (Jamiol Cartoon)

Juan Cole

Courtesy Jamiol’s world

Iran
Is Iran out of the US War Queue?  The Twilight of the Hawks

Is Iran out of the US War Queue? The Twilight of the Hawks

Juan Cole

The short telephone conversation between US President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Friday may or may not lead to a successful diplomatic resolution of US-Iranian conflicts, especially over Tehran’s nuclear enrichment program. But if it does, how will the hawks in Washington survive? The US is an unusually war-like country. Since 1963 […]

Syria
Where did Syria get its Chemical Weapons in the First Place? (Brühl)

Where did Syria get its Chemical Weapons in the First Place? (Brühl)

Juan Cole

Jannis Brühl writes at ProPublica In the wake of a recent Russian-U.S. deal averting American airstrikes, Syria has begun to answer questions about its chemical weapons stockpile. One thing inspectors don’t have the mandate to ask is where those weapons came from in the first place. But evidence already out there suggests Syria got crucial […]

Energy
Stand up to Global Warming or just Observe it?  Ice Cover down 40% since 1980 (Naidoo@ Moyers)

Stand up to Global Warming or just Observe it? Ice Cover down 40% since 1980 (Naidoo@ Moyers)

Juan Cole

Bill Moyers interviews Kumi Naidoo of Greenpeace International on the urgency of action on climate change: The program’s blurb: “On this week’s broadcast, the charismatic Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo joins Bill to discuss the politics of global warming and the urgency of environmental activism. As of this moment Vladimir Putin’s government is holding […]

Climate Change
With a Solar Minimum and La Nina’s, Why isn’t it Really, Really Cold?

With a Solar Minimum and La Nina’s, Why isn’t it Really, Really Cold?

Juan Cole

2013 is witnessing another year of very low sunspot activity, showing that we are in a years-long solar minimum. It may not last much longer, but something is going on more than just the usual drop in solar activity every 11 years. Even that 11-year cycle affects the weather. But we’ve seen remarkably low sunspot […]

Afghanistan
Dear President Obama:  Some American Exceptionalism is nothing to be Proud Of (Engelhardt)

Dear President Obama: Some American Exceptionalism is nothing to be Proud Of (Engelhardt)

Juan Cole

Tom Engelhardt writes at Tomdispatch.com “But when, with modest effort and risk, we can stop children from being gassed to death, and thereby make our own children safer over the long run, I believe we should act.  That’s what makes America different.  That’s what makes us exceptional.  With humility, but with resolve, let us never […]

US politics
Why Ted Cruz Should sit down and Shut Up: Countries with Social Safety Net Happiest

Why Ted Cruz Should sit down and Shut Up: Countries with Social Safety Net Happiest

Juan Cole

In a performance that the rest of the world could not even comprehend, a wealthy, Ivy League-educated Texan talked until he was blue in the face to prevent poor children from seeing a doctor. Political scientist Benjamin Radcliff summarizes decades of survey research on human happiness, and the findings are not in doubt. People report […]

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