Juan Cole

Nick Turse writes at Tomdispatch.com: In the 1980s, the U.S. government began funneling aid to mujahedeen rebels in Afghanistan as part of an American proxy war against the Soviet Union. It was, in the minds of America’s Cold War leaders, a rare chance to bloody the Soviets, to give them a taste of the sort […]

1. White terrorists are called “gunmen.” What does that even mean? A person with a gun? Wouldn’t that be, like, everyone in the US? Other terrorists are called, like, “terrorists.” 2. White terrorists are “troubled loners.” Other terrorists are always suspected of being part of a global plot, even when they are obviously troubled loners. […]

In Memoriam Marvin Hamlisch (1944-2012): Below, his “Nobody Does it Better,” theme of the 1977 Bond film, “The Spy Who Loved Me” and among the best of the 20-odd Bond film themes. It was performed by Carly Simon: If we post-moderns all live our lives to a set of background theme songs, Mr. Hamlisch provided […]

The Baath government’s attack on East Aleppo, a rebel stronghold in the past couple of weeks, began Tuesday night, with an assault by advanced Russian-made tanks. It began with a drive to cut the district in two, and the heavy shelling is said to have left large numbers of rebel fighters dead. Some 20,000 residents […]

Michael Klare writes at Tomdispatch: The Hunger Wars in Our Future Heat, Drought, Rising Food Costs, and Global Unrest The Great Drought of 2012 has yet to come to an end, but we already know that its consequences will be severe. With more than one-half of America’s counties designated as drought disaster areas, the 2012 […]

NASA has released the first high-res picture of Mars received from Curiosity, showing Mount Sharp