Arab World

By Mohammad Makram Balawi | – ( Middle East Monitor) – Since 1979, when Iranian students stormed the US Embassy in Tehran and held American diplomats captive, the US strategy towards Iran has been aggressive. The US led the whole world to isolate Iran, turning it into a pariah state even among its neighbours and […]

Afghanistan

Celebrating Rep. Barbara Lee, our Cassandra who warned against the Failed 20-Year Wars

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com ) – For decades, I kept a poster on my wall that I’d saved from the year I turned 16. In its upper left-hand corner was a black-and-white photo of a white man in a grey suit. Before him spread a cobblestone plaza. All you could see were the man and the stones. […]

Hizbullah

Violence has broken out in Beirut Again, but it isn’t Senseless – it is caused by what Lebanon has not Done

Human Rights Watch

By Lama Fakih, Crisis and Conflict Division | – ( Human Rights Watch) – Scenes from Lebanon shocked residents and the world on Thursday when the streets of a residential and commercial district in Beirut descended into a level of violence last seen during the country’s the civil war: Families sheltering in hallways, bathrooms, and […]

Houthi

Yemen: Will talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran offer hopes for an end to bitter seven-year civil war?

The Conversation

By Simon Mabon | – Recent statements from Iran and Saudi Arabia have provided hope that a pathway might be emerging to an end to the bitter seven-year civil war in Yemen which has killed an estimated quarter of a million people and left millions more homeless. On September 21, officials from Saudi Arabia and […]

Joe Biden

A Yemen Catastrophe that America helped Make (Pearson Inst. Video with Juan Cole)

Juan Cole

Pearson Institute Panel on Catastrophe in Yemen from October 13, with Juan Cole among the panelists. Pearson Institute: Yemen in Neglect My (much more expert-on-Yemen than I) colleagues in this panel: Afrah Nasser is Yemen Researcher, Human Rights Watch. Shadi Abu Sneida is a humanitarian working with UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Yemen. Stacy […]

Featured

Progressives in Congress: Biden must do More to End Saudi War on Yemen, as Starvation Stalks its Children

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Biden says he wants to end the Yemen war, but eight months in, he has not made a dent in it. The Saudi-led war on Yemen has involved the dropping thousands of pounds of bombs on that country, with up to a third of the buildings hit having been […]

Inequality

Could Lebanon, Looted and mismanaged by its Plutocrats, become a Failed State?

The Conversation

By Tony Walker | – In the midst of a pandemic that has wrenched the world off its axis, Lebanon’s precipitous decline has not received the attention it deserves given the country’s strategic importance. Bordering Syria to its north and east, and Israel to its south, Lebanon occupies a critical space in the Eastern Mediterranean. […]

Featured

Epitaph for a Failed US Occupation: The Late Gen. Odierno’s Arch-Nemesis Muqtada al-Sadr wins Iraq

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The elections in Iraq have brought it briefly back into U.S. headlines, though it is a long time since Americans have given the mess they made there any thought. The late Gen. Ray Odierno, the former head of the 8.5-year-long occupation of Iraq who died on Saturday, once fingered a […]

Anti-Vaccination

Wahhabi Saudi Arabia has a More Rational Vaccine Mandate than the US Republican Party

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Republicans, among all Americans, are the most Islamophobic or Muslim-hating, with 72% holding that Muslims are more likely than members of other religions to encourage violence by their community. Republican TV idol Tucker Carlson called Iraqis “monkeys” and “illiterate” and maintains that “white men” invented civilization. That is, Muslims in […]