Iraq

Iran has decided to intervene directly in Iraq and has already sent fighters to the front, according to the Wall Street Journal, based on Iranian sources. It is alleged that Iranian special forces have helped the Iraqi army push back in Tikrit, the birth place of Saddam Hussein that was overrun earlier this week by […]

Featured

Iraq: Looming War of Shiite, Kurdish, Extremist-Sunni Militias

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] is apparently keeping control of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city of 2 million, and advanced to take Tikrit, the birthplace of Saddam Hussein, where they held a huge Sunni prayer session. It has been pointed out by a number of commentators that ISIS (also […]

Afghanistan

US Military Fail: Long Asian Land Wars a Route to Disaster since 1963

contributors

By Tom Engelhardt via Tomdispatch.com The United States has been at war — major boots-on-the-ground conflicts and minor interventions, firefights, air strikes, drone assassination campaigns, occupations, special ops raids, proxy conflicts, and covert actions — nearly nonstop since the Vietnam War began. That’s more than half a century of experience with war, American-style, and yet […]

Democracy

The Fall of Mosul and the False Promises of Modern History

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole The fall of Mosul to the radical, extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is a set of historical indictments. Mosul is Iraq’s second largest city, population roughly 2 million (think Houston) until today, when much of the population was fleeing. While this would-be al-Qaeda affiliate took part of Falluja and […]

Iraq

Iraq: 450,000 have fled al-Anbar as Gov’t Deploys Militias against al-Qaeda

contributors

Euronews reports: “Security slips further in Iraq as car bombs hit Baghdad” Ahmad Hadi gives the background at Niqash.org Members of an extremist Shiite Muslim militia have been recruited to fight Sunni Muslim rebels and militias in Iraq’s Anbar province. But for some Baghdad-based fighters the battle is taking place too close to home: They’re […]

Arab Spring

Egypt, Syria, Libya . . . . What is the Appeal of Phoney Elections in the Middle East?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole The world has been treated to a whole series of “elections” in the Middle East recently. Iraq had parliamentary elections, Libya’s parliament voted for a new prime minister, and Egypt and Syria had presidential elections. This summer, Turkey will have elections. It would be nice if all these elections signaled a turn […]

Democracy

Sunnis Big Losers in Iraq Elections, PM al-Maliki has Largest Party

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) The results of the Iraqi parliamentary elections are in, and everybody lost. There will be another hung parliament that gets almost nothing done. The Sunni Arabs ended up dividing their vote and doing poorly. The Shiites likewise are deeply divided. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s party did best, positioning him for a third […]

Iraq

Iraq: Fundamentalist Shiite MP can only keep Power with Sunni Support

Juan Cole

(By Mustafa Habib in Baghdad via Niqash.org) The official results of Iraq’s general elections are unknown as yet. But current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will not be winning a majority – and his opponents are lining up to keep him out of power. Analysis suggests that al-Maliki, a Shiite Muslim politician, will now try to […]

Bush

Condoleezza Rice, Charged with War Crimes at Rutgers, withdraws as Commencement Speaker

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) Condoleezza Rice on Saturday pulled out of giving the commencement address at Rutgers University after professor and student protests. Rutgers historian Professor Rudy Bell argued that while it would be appropriate to have Rice on campus as part of an academic debate, she is unsuitable as a commencement speaker because of her […]