Featured

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The International Court of Justice on Tuesday heard arguments that Israel is illegally interfering in the provision of aid to Palestinians by UN agencies and bodies, by other NGOS, and by third states. That is, the court is being asked to declare the current Israeli blockade of civilian food and […]

Donald Trump

The Evils of MAGA’s “Moral Distance” — What we Can Learn from Iraq and Sweden

Alex Poppe

(Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Sahar first told me about moral distance one May morning on a beach in Cadiz. Born in Baghdad, Sahar fled her country during the Gulf War, smuggling herself first to Syria before she made her way to Sweden, where she became a mental health counselor. I was living in […]

Biodiversity

The Serviceberry: Native American Ecology and the End of Carbon Capitalism

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – No one wrote more powerfully about humans’ poisoning the Earth and its consequences than biologist Rachel Carson–with a focus on one contaminant, the pesticide DDT. She traced its toxicity through the food chain of nature and the loss of beneficial insects and birds, and then warned of […]

Donald Trump

Trump, the Suez Canal, and the end of Eisenhower’s World Order

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – AFP reports that Trump has said, “American ships, both military and commercial, should be allowed to travel, free of charge, through the Panama and Suez canals!” He went on to allege that “both routes” would not exist in the first place without the United States. News organizations have probably lost […]

Featured

Pope Francis’s Enduring Legacy on Palestine and the Middle East

Ibrahim Al-Marashi

By Mohammad Eslami and Ibrahim Marashi | – Braga, Portugal and San Marcos, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – The world now grieves the loss of Pope Francis, a spiritual titan whose moral compass and unwavering voice for the marginalized reverberated far beyond the confines of Vatican walls. At the heart of his papacy […]

Featured

US Jews to Trump: Stop using Antisemitism Charges to Repress Dissent and Undermine Liberty

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Featured) – On April 15, the venerable Jewish Council on Public Affairs (JCPA) issued an eloquent statement stating their objections to, “the false choice between confronting antisemitism and upholding democracy.” antisemitismhas traditionally been used as a right-wing tool to appeal to a primitive, nativist sense of exclusion. Now the […]

Featured

The Vietnam War Ended 50 Years Ago: People Still Get it Wrong

Arnold Oliver

Tiffin, Ohio (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – April 30th marks the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War’s end when Vietnamese tanks rolled into Saigon, soon to be renamed Ho Chi Minh City. The war was a terrible experience for the United States, but even more so for the people of Vietnam and much of the […]

Featured

Iran’s Islamic Revolution and the US: Why Diplomats Matter

Fariba Amini

George B. Lambrakis was a State Department Foreign Service officer from 1957 to 1985, after two years with USIS in Vietnam and Laos. He served in Iran during the Islamic Revolution 1978-1979. He is interviewed by Fariba Amini. Fariba Amini: The first Trump administration abandoned the JCPOA. Why do you think now in his second […]

Featured

How Pope Francis Divinized Palestinian Suffering: The Gaza Pietà

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1936 in Buenos Aires to Italian immigrant parents, is dead at 88 after a prolonged illness. Almost alone of Western leaders, he showed enormous sympathy for the plight of the Palestinian civilians of Gaza. He called the small Catholic community there every evening. […]