By Mustafa Habib | (Niqash.org) – (Baghdad) – The offensive to re-take Tikrit from extremists seems to have stalled as troops surround the city but cannot go further. The same thing is happening elsewhere. And there are three main reasons why. While stopped on the edges of the city of Tikrit, Captain Ahmad Mahmoud says […]
Month
Category
- Africa (254)
- Asia (1,264)
- Australasia (36)
- Authoritarianism (395)
- Canada (9)
- Culture (569)
- Economy (1,074)
- Agriculture (3)
- Banking (67)
- Boycotts (1)
- Carbon Footprint (6)
- Corporations (55)
- 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 (428)
- Inflation (5)
- infrastructure (10)
- Insurance (1)
- Investment (93)
- Market Crash (12)
- Middle Class (61)
- Monopolies (8)
- Neoliberalism (204)
- Plutocracy (634)
- Poverty (209)
- Poverty (16)
- Regulation (3)
- Retirement (1)
- Sanctions (5)
- Tariffs (4)
- Taxes (38)
- Technology (3)
- Trade (119)
- Weapons sales (8)
- Education (192)
- Energy (1,767)
- Agrovoltaics (1)
- Batteries (53)
- Coal (140)
- Electricity Cost (2)
- Fossil Fuels (330)
- Fracking (50)
- Geothermal (7)
- Green ammonia (5)
- Green Energy (425)
- Green Hydrogen (8)
- Heat Pumps (6)
- Hydroelectric (2)
- Hydroelectric (16)
- Mining (1)
- Natural Gas (107)
- Nuclear Energy (160)
- Petroleum (303)
- Power Grid (12)
- Pumped Hydro (6)
- Solar Energy (428)
- Tar Sands (13)
- Wave Energy (10)
- wind energy (352)
- Environment (2,734)
- Climate Change (1,673)
- Acidification of Oceans (54)
- Agriculture (26)
- Biodiversity (15)
- Climate Refugees (4)
- CO2 (129)
- Dehydration (5)
- Denialism (151)
- Desalinization (4)
- Desertification (161)
- Divestment (2)
- Dust Storms (6)
- Environmental Investment (1)
- Extreme Heat (400)
- Extreme Weather (299)
- Flooding (138)
- Food Supply (3)
- Forests (18)
- Green New Deal (41)
- Green Recycling (2)
- Greenwashing (3)
- Mass Extinction (63)
- Methane (20)
- Net Carbon Zerio (8)
- Nitrous Oxide (2)
- Rainforests (19)
- Rivers (12)
- Sea Level (339)
- Soil Carbon Release (14)
- Super Storms (265)
- wildfires (241)
- Wood Buildings (1)
- Climate Crisis (1,365)
- Drought (297)
- Ecology (2)
- Ecology (12)
- Environmentalism (393)
- Green Transportation (257)
- Ice Melt (139)
- Invasive Species (2)
- Islands (2)
- Oceans (104)
- Oil Spills (8)
- Pollution (234)
- Water (97)
- wildlife (23)
- Climate Change (1,673)
- Europe (1,391)
- Featured (4,316)
- Haiti (1)
- Health (711)
- History (372)
- Human Rights (1,646)
- Apartheid (263)
- censorship (326)
- Death Penalty (30)
- Disappeared (4)
- Displaced and Refugees (582)
- Food Insecurity (30)
- Gay rights (29)
- Genocide (68)
- Human Rights Watch (91)
- Indigenous Rights (1)
- Migrants (4)
- privacy (21)
- Rights (92)
- Slavery and Trafficking (16)
- Starvation (4)
- Torture (102)
- Trans Rights (5)
- Transgender Rights (5)
- Unlawful Imprisonment (111)
- Unlwful Killing (82)
- War Crimes (425)
- War Rape (9)
- International Politics and Economy (2,137)
- Arms Sales (74)
- BRICS (3)
- Corruption (268)
- Crime (133)
- Democracy (337)
- Dissent (453)
- Domestic Terrorism (15)
- Drones (113)
- G20 (1)
- Guns (9)
- Hacking (8)
- Immigration (5)
- Immigration (22)
- Islamophobia (383)
- Migrants (2)
- military (125)
- nationalism (118)
- NATO (38)
- Neocolonialism (1)
- Peace (145)
- Policing (2)
- Politics (309)
- Politics&Culture (21)
- Propaganda (13)
- Race (2)
- Smuggling (1)
- Juan Cole (270)
- Latin America (104)
- media (487)
- Middle East (10,143)
- Arab World (5,327)
- Iran (1,393)
- Israel (983)
- Israel/ Palestine (3,726)
- Israel/Palestine (9)
- Kurds (294)
- Red Sea (1)
- Turkey (604)
- Turkiye (131)
- Patriarchy (11)
- racism (478)
- religion (1,528)
- robots (3)
- Romance (1)
- science (176)
- Secular (West) (9)
- Secularism (30)
- Spirituality (22)
- Statelessness (15)
- Stranded Assets (1)
- Surveillance (283)
- Terrorism (1,096)
- Tolerance (6)
- Uncategorized (8,086)
- United Nations (180)
- Urbanization (4)
- US Foreign Policy (1,402)
- US politics (5,545)
- Anti-War Movement (13)
- Campaign Finance (31)
- Censors (22)
- Central Intelligence Agency (63)
- Charity (1)
- Civil Rights (96)
- Congress (82)
- Conspiracy Theories (24)
- Constitution (416)
- Courts (15)
- crime (12)
- Democratic Party (976)
- Democratic Socialists of America (22)
- Domestic Terrorism (20)
- Drone Warfare (27)
- Espionage (124)
- Ethnicities (396)
- Far Right (399)
- FBI (48)
- Federal Government (1)
- Foreign Policy (204)
- Gay Rights (17)
- Guns (97)
- Immigration (256)
- Israel Lobbies (130)
- Marijuana (4)
- Militarization (274)
- National Security State (477)
- Native Americans (41)
- Nuclear arsenal (7)
- penitentiaries (6)
- Pentagon (579)
- Police (43)
- prison reform (10)
- Private Prisons (3)
- Progressive Politics (15)
- Puerto Rico (30)
- Religious Right (15)
- Reproductive Choice (69)
- Republican Party (3,130)
- Supreme Court (133)
- Voter suppression (36)
- Whistleblowers (7)
- Xenophobia (9)
- Veterans (35)
- Voting Rights (16)
- War (625)
- White Supremacists (238)
- wikileaks (8)
- women (570)
- workers (234)
- Writing (5)
- Youth (218)
Iraq
Washington’s 2 Air Wars: alongside Iran in Iraq, Saudis in Yemen
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – The United States is now involved in two air wars in the Middle East, not to mention more widespread drone actions. US fighter jets have, at the request of the Iraqi government of Haydar al-Abadi, begun bombing Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) positions in Tikrit, according to al-Hayat (Life). Initially, […]
The Rise of ISIL & the Political Bankruptcy of Arab Politics in the Levant
By Ali R. Abootalebi | (Informed Comment) The rise of the so called ‘the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (al-Sham)’ or the ISIL—the Daesh in Arabic—is fundamentally the result of both the poverty of Arab Politics and the failure of the Islamic clerical leadership in formulating and institutionalizing the mechanics necessary for modern governance. […]
All the Wars and Coups of President Ted Cruz
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Texas Senator Ted Cruz, one of three Cuban-Americans in the Senate, is throwing his hat into the ring for the 2016 presidential race today. Cruz has made a career out of slamming President Obama for being weak and presiding over the collapse of countries like Yemen (as though […]
Even if they can Defeat ISIL/ Daesh, Can Iraqi Politicians Get together? The Surprising Answer
By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) – Former political enemies are forming new, non-sectarian alliances to prepare for an extremist-free future. Shiites are partnering with Sunnis and Kurds to support progressive decision-making. Can it work? There have been some quiet negotiations going on in Iraq’s Parliament for some time now. Members of the Ahrar […]
Iraq: Shiite Militia atrocities During Fight Against ISIL & Iraq’s Response
Human Rights Watch | (New York) – Militias, volunteer fighters, and Iraqi security forces engaged in deliberate destruction of civilian property after these forces, following US and Iraqi air strikes, forced the retreat of Islamic State fighters (also known as ISIS) from the town of Amerli and surrounding areas in early September 2014, Human Rights […]
Worst than ISIL: Iraq’s US-caused Public Health Catastrophe
By Mozhgan Savabieasfahani | (Informed Comment) The Iraqi people, once the envy of the Arab world for their outstanding educational and health-care systems, have been reduced to a nation of refugees, flung across the Middle East. U.S.-created thugs are axing Iraq’s historical heritage into pieces. The Iraqi health system continues to disintegrate as doctors flee […]
Could Sunni-Shiite Rift make Tikrit a Pyrrhic Victory? Al-Azhar & Shiite Militias
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) The foremost Sunni Muslim seat of learning, al-Azhar University in Cairo, has stirred controversy by issuing a considered legal opinion (fatwa) condemning the Shiite militias or “Popular Mobilization Forces” that are now fighting alongside the Iraq army to take Tikrit back from Daesh (ISIL or ISIS). To be fair, […]
As Islamic State retreats, aid workers uncover human toll
By Louise Redvers | (IRIN) – BAGHDAD/LONDON, (IRIN) – A week after launching a major offensive to recapture the city of Tikrit, pro-government forces in Iraq claim they are close to reclaiming large parts of territory held by militants from the group calling itself Islamic State (IS). But for aid agencies the work in Tikrit […]
© 2025 All Rights Reserved