Syria

TeleSur | – – The Syrian Arab Army has reportedly taken over the [so-called] Islamic State group’s de facto capital of Al-Mayadeen. The Syrian Arab Army, SAA, has achieved full control over all districts within the city of Al-Mayadeen, according to Al-Masdar News, citing exclusive military sources. Al-Mayadeen in Deir Ezzor province has been functioning […]

Afghanistan

What if we Gave Seven Wars and No Americans Noticed?

contributors

By Andrew J. Bacevich | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – Consider, if you will, these two indisputable facts. First, the United States is today more or less permanently engaged in hostilities in not one faraway place, but at least seven. Second, the vast majority of the American people could not care less. Nor can it be […]

Donald Trump

Trump blasts Iran for backing Syria, ignores Russia, Praises Saudis

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Trump more or less threatened to wipe out the 25 million people of North Korea in his speech at the UN. Then he turned to the Middle East, where he again pledged to undermine the Iranian nuclear deal. In other words, he put forward a plan […]

Feminism

Given Fundamentalist impact on Syria, Women’s Freedoms in Doubt

contributors

By Manal Ismael | ( Global Voices Online ) | – – In early September 2017, a piece of paper with a potent message targeted against women, held by a group of Hezbollah fighters in Juroud Arsal, Eastern Lebanon, went viral. The message, which celebrates “every woman who is not using her own photo as […]

Featured

Russia rebuffs Israeli demand for 40 mi. Buffer with Iran in Syria (Haaretz)

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – According to Haaretz Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu asked Vldadimir Putin, president of the Russian Federation, to keep Iranian troops and Hizbullah militiamen in Syria about 40 miles from the Israeli border. The Russian replied that these were matters for the Syrian Arab Army, but that […]

Featured

Saudi Arabia wants to improve Image; Here’s How

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Saudi Arabia is alleged to be hiring a PR firm to improve its tattered image in the West . As usual, such a campaign confuses substance with fluff and the money will be wasted. I am sympathetic to Saudi feelings that they get an unfair rap. […]

Iraq

As ISIL dwindles, Iraq fears extremists fleeing Syria

contributors

Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | – – Iraqi forces are upset about the safe passage granted to Islamic State fighters from Syria. They will enter Iraq, where, locals say, thousands of their comrades await them in the extremists’ secret capital. Last week, Lebanese officials confirmed that around 670 defeated members of the extremist […]

Bashar al-Assad

Have we Won yet? Was ISIL a flash in the Pan?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – With the Iraqi campaign against ISIL having wrested from it Mosul and Talafar, and with Hawija and Qaim really the last two areas where it actually controls a town, you have to wonder if ISIL was ever all that formidable. Three years after it announced its […]

Archaeology

Syria’s Heritage, and the World’s, that the War Destroyed–From Palmyra to Castles

contributors

Written by Alreem Kamal | ( GlobalVoices.org) | – – Syria's story is one that has been weaved through families from one millennium to the next. Subjugated as a Roman province under the command of Pompey the Great in 64 BC, and brought under Ottoman rule 16 centuries later by Sultan Selim I in 1516, […]