Whenever something is happening in the middle east (that is, every day) that is perplexing (that is, all of it), I find myself thinking, "Juan Cole will understand it". Not just report on it, leaving the who, why and wherefore questions intact, but understand and explain it - insofar as its causes can be known and explained at present. Who bombed that mosque, and perhaps why? Where do all the players and powers fit into this strange narrative about the Lebanese prime minister and the Saudi prince? And how might we expect any of it to play out? I became a daily reader of juancole.com during the second Iraq war, when I trusted neither the understanding nor the statements and motives of our ignorant, mendacious government, and the fog of war they generated that the news media generally didn't have the expertise to penetrate. I stayed because I learned so much, about a region of the world where our ignorance has always been our greatest liability. Through the Arab Spring and Syrian war Juan Cole has been the guide to the people, culture, history (recent and deep) and events as they transpire in this most complex region. I especially value the global perspective: the way he frames all this in the vital international context of climate change, energy wars, displaced peoples and immigration, terrorism - how he achieves global context in every piece he writes, about any specific middle eastern event. To make some sense of the whole world, and life here at home even, out of one's expertise and observation of a region - right in the current moment, and to share that insight every day. That is more than history or reporting, it's a good work of a larger kind. I admire it and I'm very grateful for it.
Whenever something is happening in the middle east (that is, every day) that is perplexing (that is, all of it), I find myself thinking, "Juan Cole will understand it". Not just report on it, leaving the who, why and wherefore questions intact, but understand and explain it - insofar as its causes can be known and explained at present. Who bombed that mosque, and perhaps why? Where do all the players and powers fit into this strange narrative about the Lebanese prime minister and the Saudi prince? And how might we expect any of it to play out? I became a daily reader of juancole.com during the second Iraq war, when I trusted neither the understanding nor the statements and motives of our ignorant, mendacious government, and the fog of war they generated that the news media generally didn't have the expertise to penetrate. I stayed because I learned so much, about a region of the world where our ignorance has always been our greatest liability. Through the Arab Spring and Syrian war Juan Cole has been the guide to the people, culture, history (recent and deep) and events as they transpire in this most complex region. I especially value the global perspective: the way he frames all this in the vital international context of climate change, energy wars, displaced peoples and immigration, terrorism - how he achieves global context in every piece he writes, about any specific middle eastern event. To make some sense of the whole world, and life here at home even, out of one's expertise and observation of a region - right in the current moment, and to share that insight every day. That is more than history or reporting, it's a good work of a larger kind. I admire it and I'm very grateful for it.