Guerrillas in Iraq staged a serious of bloody bombings targeting Shiites on Thursday. Shiite Muslims are on the move, meeting and going on pilgrimage to commemorate the 40th day after the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Husayn, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. He was struck down by imperial Umayyad armies in 680 at […]
Jahanpour: As US and Iran Confront Each other, where is the Diplomacy?
Dr. Farhang Jahanpour writes in a guest column for Informed Comment : The war of words between Iran and the West has reached dangerous proportions, and it may easily get out of hand. It is clear that the majority of people in the West and in Iran do not wish the hostilities to develop into […]
Tomgram: Bill McKibben, Buying Congress in 2012
My resolution for 2012 is to be naïve — dangerously naïve…
Turkey Warns against Sunni-Shiite Civil War in Mideast
Turkish Foreign Minister Davutoglu Ahmet Davutoglu warned Wednesday in Tehran against a Sunni-Shiite civil war in the Middle East, which he said was being encouraged by some (unnamed) forces. Among the flashpoints in the area has been the confrontation between Iran and the United States at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. Iran conducted a […]
Omar Khayyam (1) [Whinfield 26]
In these one, two, three days a lifetime has passed, like cascading waters or a desert squall. But regret for two days never comes to mind: the one that hasn’t arrived and the one that long since passed – Omar Khayyam Trans. by Juan Cole from Whinfield 26 Revised. For the […]
US sees Iranian Military Spending as Threat
courtesy Ben Adler @ Reuters
Three Republican Bears and none Just Right
Why did Mitt Romney win Iowa? Not because he is the ideal candidate, but because the Republican faithful will just have to settle. That the turnout was not impressive, despite grassroots exasperation with Barack Obama, is a testament to the lack of enthusiasm with which the Iowa GOP greeted the quirky field of candidates presented […]
Reading in the New Millennium: Cole at Truthdig
My essay, “Reading in the New Millennium: Forward to the Past?” is out at Truthdig. Excerpt: “I have been rereading Ralph Waldo Emerson’s two-volume “Essays” on my iPad via Google Books. His remarks at the opening of the piece on “Politics” are justly renowned but always worth considering again: “In dealing with the State, we […]
Will his New Sanctions on Iran Cost Obama the Presidency?
A sharp drop in the value of the Iranian currency as a result of new American sanctions may sound like good news to hawks in the US. But actually this development may signal ways in which Americans will also be harmed, and Obama may have put a second term in jeopardy, cutting off his nose […]
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