Map of regions of Egypt
Iraq has a Government: Can we Please Come Home Now?
Iraq has marked three milestones this fall. The formal military mission of US troops was ended by President Obama on August 31, and while about 50,000 troops remain, some of them occasionally engaged in combat at the invitation of the Iraqi government, there are no large US military campaigns. The remaining 50,000 troops are scheduled […]
Saudi Arabia, Distribution of Annual Rainfall
Found a better rainfall distribution map: Courtesy the National Center for Atmospheric Research, 2007
Obama’s 2010 Successes and Failures in the Middle East – Cole in Truthdig
My new column at Truthdig.com is just out: “Obama’s 2010 Successes and Failures in the Middle East”. Excerpt: ‘ As 2010 dawned, President Barack Obama had four big issues on his plate regarding the Middle East. These were Iraq, Israel-Palestine, Iran, and Afghanistan. The year has been as unkind to him on those issues as […]
Hating Muslims in America
Rep. Peter King (R-NY), the incoming chair of the House committee on Homeland Security has announced that he will hold hearings into the ‘radicalization’ of American Muslims. This, despite the fact that the Muslim Americans are pillars of the US community–disproportionately well-educated and well integrated into the country, and even though a third of tips […]
Iraq’s al-Maliki Rebuffed on Incomplete Cabinet
Al-Hayat writes in Arabic that prospective Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki faced severe opposition on Monday to his insistence on announcing the formation of a government without naming all the cabinet members. Among the parties opposed to this step was the Iraqiya, the Kurdistan Alliance, and the Sadr Movement. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court issued a ruling […]
HRW on Israeli Racial Discrimination in West Bank
Human Rights Watch has issued a new report on racial discrimination against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. HRW writes: ‘Israel operates a two-tier system for the two populations of the West Bank in the large areas where it exercises exclusive control. The report is based on case studies comparing Israel’s starkly different treatment of […]
Taliban Strike Qunduz, Kabul, Kill 16
Taliban or other radicals showed Sunday that they could strike far from their strongholds in the south and east of Afghanistan. They hit the capital, Kabul, as well as the northern province of Qunduz. The radicals derive from the Pashtun ethnic group, which is a minority in both places. On Sunday morning in Afghanistan, two […]
Senate Repeal of DADT in Global Context
Conservative religious fanatics lost on ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ and anti-gay discrimination. The scary thing is, that since it is clear that fear-mongering on gays will no longer win elections in the next generation, the turn to hate-mongering against Muslims may accelerate. So the Senate has repealed ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ the compromise policy on […]
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