Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – US policy in the Middle East is a dinosaur-like holdover from two eras, the Cold War and the “Global War on Terror” (GWOT). Here I would like to raise the question of whether the U.S. lost both. The United State government does a lot o hand waving about human rights, […]
- Africa (248)
- Asia (1,243)
- Australasia (34)
- Authoritarianism (384)
- Canada (7)
- Culture (561)
- Economy (1,050)
- Agriculture (3)
- Banking (67)
- Carbon Footprint (6)
- Corporations (51)
- Cryptocurrency (2)
- Debt (21)
- Degrowth (1)
- Democratic Socialism (20)
- Demographic Decline (1)
- Development (26)
- Downward Mobility (1)
- Employment (118)
- Food Insecurity (21)
- Homelessness (16)
- Industry (5)
- Inequality (425)
- Inflation (5)
- infrastructure (10)
- Insurance (1)
- Investment (92)
- Market Crash (10)
- Middle Class (61)
- Monopolies (8)
- Neoliberalism (203)
- Plutocracy (621)
- Poverty (206)
- Poverty (13)
- Regulation (3)
- Retirement (1)
- Sanctions (4)
- Taxes (37)
- Technology (3)
- Trade (114)
- Weapons sales (7)
- Education (173)
- Energy (1,728)
- Batteries (51)
- Coal (139)
- Electricity Cost (2)
- Fossil Fuels (326)
- Fracking (50)
- Geothermal (7)
- Green ammonia (5)
- Green Energy (415)
- Green Hydrogen (8)
- Heat Pumps (6)
- Hydroelectric (15)
- Mining (1)
- Natural Gas (107)
- Nuclear Energy (158)
- Petroleum (299)
- Power Grid (12)
- Pumped Hydro (6)
- Solar Energy (410)
- Tar Sands (13)
- Wave Energy (9)
- wind energy (340)
- Environment (2,664)
- Climate Change (1,645)
- Acidification of Oceans (54)
- Agriculture (26)
- Biodiversity (12)
- Climate Refugees (3)
- CO2 (125)
- Dehydration (5)
- Denialism (147)
- Desalinization (4)
- Desertification (159)
- Divestment (2)
- Dust Storms (6)
- Environmental Investment (1)
- Extreme Heat (390)
- Extreme Weather (297)
- Flooding (138)
- Food Supply (2)
- Forests (18)
- Green New Deal (40)
- Green Recycling (2)
- Greenwashing (3)
- Mass Extinction (61)
- Methane (20)
- Net Carbon Zerio (8)
- Nitrous Oxide (2)
- Rainforests (19)
- Rivers (11)
- Sea Level (338)
- Soil Carbon Release (14)
- Super Storms (263)
- wildfires (237)
- Wood Buildings (1)
- Climate Crisis (1,305)
- Drought (295)
- Ecology (1)
- Ecology (10)
- Environmentalism (392)
- Green Transportation (252)
- Ice Melt (134)
- Invasive Species (2)
- Islands (1)
- Oceans (101)
- Oil Spills (7)
- Pollution (232)
- Water (95)
- wildlife (19)
- Climate Change (1,645)
- Europe (1,366)
- Featured (4,109)
- Haiti (1)
- Health (698)
- History (356)
- Human Rights (1,589)
- Apartheid (263)
- censorship (305)
- Death Penalty (30)
- Disappeared (3)
- Displaced and Refugees (578)
- Food Insecurity (29)
- Gay rights (29)
- Genocide (56)
- Human Rights Watch (90)
- Indigenous Rights (1)
- Migrants (4)
- privacy (21)
- Rights (89)
- Slavery and Trafficking (16)
- Starvation (4)
- Torture (102)
- Trans Rights (3)
- Transgender Rights (4)
- Unlawful Imprisonment (103)
- Unlwful Killing (80)
- War Crimes (412)
- War Rape (9)
- International Politics and Economy (2,099)
- Arms Sales (73)
- BRICS (3)
- Corruption (265)
- Crime (130)
- Democracy (331)
- Dissent (436)
- Domestic Terrorism (15)
- Drones (112)
- G20 (1)
- Guns (9)
- Hacking (8)
- Immigration (21)
- Immigration (4)
- Islamophobia (382)
- Migrants (2)
- military (125)
- nationalism (117)
- NATO (37)
- Neocolonialism (1)
- Peace (140)
- Policing (2)
- Politics (306)
- Politics&Culture (21)
- Propaganda (13)
- Smuggling (1)
- Juan Cole (270)
- Latin America (101)
- media (483)
- Middle East (9,777)
- Arab World (5,241)
- Iran (1,326)
- Israel (941)
- Israel/ Palestine (3,499)
- Israel/Palestine (9)
- Kurds (291)
- Turkey (592)
- Turkiye (119)
- Patriarchy (10)
- racism (468)
- religion (1,498)
- robots (3)
- Romance (1)
- science (171)
- Secular (West) (9)
- Secularism (30)
- Spirituality (22)
- Statelessness (15)
- Stranded Assets (1)
- Surveillance (280)
- Terrorism (1,094)
- Tolerance (6)
- Uncategorized (8,081)
- United Nations (172)
- Urbanization (4)
- US Foreign Policy (1,345)
- US politics (5,365)
- Anti-War Movement (13)
- Campaign Finance (31)
- Censors (22)
- Central Intelligence Agency (63)
- Charity (1)
- Civil Rights (96)
- Congress (79)
- Conspiracy Theories (23)
- Constitution (401)
- Courts (15)
- crime (12)
- Democratic Party (972)
- Democratic Socialists of America (22)
- Domestic Terrorism (20)
- Drone Warfare (27)
- Espionage (124)
- Ethnicities (389)
- Far Right (391)
- FBI (48)
- Foreign Policy (204)
- Gay Rights (17)
- Guns (97)
- Immigration (240)
- Israel Lobbies (130)
- Marijuana (4)
- Militarization (273)
- National Security State (475)
- Native Americans (40)
- Nuclear arsenal (7)
- penitentiaries (6)
- Pentagon (567)
- Police (43)
- prison reform (9)
- Private Prisons (2)
- Progressive Politics (13)
- Puerto Rico (30)
- Religious Right (15)
- Reproductive Choice (68)
- Republican Party (2,994)
- Supreme Court (133)
- Voter suppression (36)
- Whistleblowers (7)
- Xenophobia (9)
- Veterans (35)
- Voting Rights (16)
- War (613)
- White Supremacists (229)
- wikileaks (8)
- women (558)
- workers (232)
- Writing (5)
- Youth (215)
Featured
UN Demands immediate Gaza Ceasefire as Israel’s Cabinet of Horrors Continues – 53 Killed, as 65K lack Food, Water, Medicine
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that the Israeli military killed 53 Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday. The Israeli Air Force intentionally targeted residential buildings in the north and the south of the Strip, in Beit Lahiya and in the Al-Janina neighborhood east of Rafah City. The Israeli Air Force […]
Trump’s Nominee for Ambassador to Israel is an End Times Fanatic and Palestine Denialist; What could Go Wrong?
Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Trump’s second-term nominee for U.S. ambassador to Israel is former Arkansas Governor, Rev. Mike Huckabee. He is an Evangelical Zionist, who has repeatedly claimed that there are no Palestinians, and brutally dismissed the right of the Palestinian people to their own land. A former US ambassador, Luis […]
Shiite Latakia Falls to new Syrian Government, as Sheikhs call for Reconciliation and Recruits are Pardoned
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Monday, the Levant Liberation Council (Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham/ HTS) guerrilla forces extended their rule to Latakia, Syria’s major port, in the northwest of the country. One Syrian source maintained that there was an uprising of anti-Assad Alawites in Latakia, and that HTS rebels had not entered the city. Other […]
Assad’s Fall is a Reminder that Russia is not a Global power but a Regional One
Trabzon, Turkey (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – When former U.S. President Barack Obama referred to Russia as a “regional power” at the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague, he minimized Moscow’s global influence while recognizing its ability to a have an impact on events within its immediate vicinity. Obama further downplayed the notion […]
Syrians finally Won the Arab Spring; Can they avoid Pitfalls and Win Democracy?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Syrian Revolution of 2024 has succeeded in deposing the al-Assad dynasty, in power since 1970, throwing off the rule of the once mighty Syrian Socialist Baath Party, a feared and murderous one-party state. Rebel forces streamed into the capital, Damascus, Sunday morning, facing no significant resistance from government troops, […]
Why Iran can’t Stand up for the al-Assad Government: Russia isn’t Offering Air Support
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The strategic situation in Syria is dire for the Baathist government of Bashar al-Assad. Typically in military history, if an invader takes the capital of the other country, it secures its victory. Damascus is the prize. Damascus has an Achilles heel. It is landlocked, deep in the south of the […]
Turkish Right celebrates Syrian Rebel Offensive, while Left Fears Partition and Turmoil
Istanbul (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – After four years of frozen conflict, Syrian rebels, mainly from the Islamist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), launched a surprise offensive against President Bashar al-Assad’s government in northwestern Syria on November 27. The rebels swiftly captured Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city, marking […]
“It is like an Apocalypse:” Amnesty International finds Israel is deliberately undertaking Genocide against Palestinians of Gaza
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Amnesty International has just put out a detailed report based on its own fieldwork and masses of other evidence finding that Israel is committing a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The organization joins several other international bodies in coming to that conclusion, and it is one that I endorsed in […]