Arab World

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Rumors swirled on Monday that the Democratic Union Party in the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in northern Syria had made an agreement for Syrian government troops to come defend them from the current Turkish assault on them . Reports were circulating (some of them from the […]

Bashar al-Assad

Is the Syria War over and has Putin won it?

contributors

By Danny Makki | ( OpenDemocracy.net) | – – The end game is clear: Assad, Russia and Iran will emerge victorious. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (2nd L, Front) and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin (2nd R) view a military parade in the Russian-run Hmeimim Air Base in the coastal city of Latakia, Syria, on Dec. […]

Pentagon

Ending America’s Disastrous Role in Syria

contributors

By Jeffrey D. Sachs | ( Project Syndicate) | – – America’s official narrative has sought to conceal the scale and calamitous consequences of US efforts to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. That is understandable, because US efforts are in blatant violation of international law, which bars UN member states from supporting military action to […]

Displaced and Refugees

Saudi Arabia’s Filthy Lucre & its War on Yemen’s Civilians

contributors

By Daniel Martin Varisco | (MENA Tidningen) | – – “Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.” (Titus 1:11) Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have pledged to provide over $1 billion to address the humanitarian crisis in Yemen that they have […]

Featured

Let’s remember the Schoolchildren US & Russian bombs are killing, too

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The US-backed Saudi-led war on Yemen is keeping two million children out of school (Yemen is a country of 27 million). Worse, schools and schoolchildren have repeatedly been struck from the air by Saudi, UAE, Moroccan and Jordanian pilots using American-supplied planes and bombs, in a […]

Iraq

Why do Iraq’s Shiites want US Troops out, but Sunnis prefer they Stay?

contributors

By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | Iraq’s Sunni Muslims are anxiously watching the debate over the presence of US troops in Iraq. Civilians believe they are an important neutralising presence and military personnel want their help and their technology. On January 27, a friendly fire incident in Iraq’s Anbar province ended in the […]

Kurds

The U.S. Is Permanently Occupying Northern Syria, and That’s Trouble

contributors

By Reese Erlich | (The Progressive) | – – When President Barack Obama started bombing Syria in 2014, he enjoyed bipartisan support in Washington, D.C. Americans were appalled by the atrocities of the Islamic State, which had massacred Yazidis, and seized swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq. At the time I warned that, […]

Featured

Syria: War is over at the Center, but Powers nibbling at Edges

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Where people live and how many of them there are constitute basic questions for any social scientist but these basics are often ignored by the writers of headlines in the press. There is a rash of articles about how Syria’s war is heating back up. It […]

Featured

Russia warns Israel on Syria strikes, danger to Russian Troops

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – BBC Monitoring reports on a statement in Russian at the site of its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reacting to the Israeli air attacks on Syria and the shoot-down by the Syrians of one Israeli fighter-jet. The Foreign ministry expressed “serious concern” over the Israeli air strikes, […]