Total number of comments: 1542 (since 2013-04-13 18:28:29)
Juan Cole
is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page
Website: http://juancole.com
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War crimes.
Wittgenstein said, of that of which we do not know we must be silent.
I think Hurriyet does a good job.
to be fair that was my title, not theirs.
The production of those small fields in Syria does not affect the global price of petroleum in the least.
1/24/2016: I've heard that Michael Lardner has passed on. RIP, friend, and my condolences to the family.
The fourth amendment forbids the government from looking at our private correspondence or papers unless it has reason to suspect wrongdoing and can convince a judge to issue a warrant. The FBI couldn't read our letters before the internet, why should the change in the mere method of the delivery of them suddenly give them that unconstitutional authority?
You haven't been watching TV, which is showing a map of the US governors who are rejecting the presence in their states of Syrian refugees.
I argued in that piece that it is not a conventional state but a small terrorist organization. I have been further vindicated.
Google Juan Cole The Nation "How Islamic is the Islamic State?"
Hi, Frank. I didn't say a division (25,000 troops)! I said an expeditionary force, maybe a brigade. Or maybe they will intensify aerial bombing.
Syria went Neoliberal from 1990s forward. Socialist only in name.
Both Turkey and Saudi Arabia have been attacked by ISIL and would be authorized to riposte by the principle, recognized in the UN charter, of self-defense. Not clear that they have similar authorization to take on al-Assad regime.
It is the CIA estimate.
They mostly have thrived by allying with local elites then screwing them.
The point is that the claims of military prowess by ISIL are unwarranted. If it is mere terrorism, so they are mere terrorism. They shouldn't be taken seriously as a conventional power.
No, Egypt isn't like Syria was in 2010 or 2011 either. I was there last year. Quiet as a dormouse. People have demobilized except more hotheaded Brotherhood, who seem to have almost no practical support. I don't deny there are demos in villages and sometimes campus, and occasional sniping at police or even scattered bombings. But Brotherhood leadership plays a long game and knows violence is self-defeating; youth have gone home, and there is an amazing amount of support for army and al-Sisi. US is very happy with this situation.
No, it isn't like Syria. Like Egypt in 1990s.
I don't know of any evidence the US would mind if Kurds go west to Afrin. That would cut off ISIL supply lines.
Barrel bombs are being dropped on civilian neighborhoods indiscriminately and are, indeed, incapable of discrimination. Indiscriminate fire in an area where a prudent person would recognize the high probability of non-combatant casualties is a war crime, and this is one of the chief charges against the 2014 Israeli attack on Gaza. The alternatives do include smart weaponry, but in their absence international law requires the Syrian government to avoid using barrel bombs on kindergartens. People who defend this tactic are endorsing war crimes.
I think she may have suffered from autism.
Not sure what you are trying to say.
Syria in 2010 was a seedy police state with thousands of prisoners of conscience where criticism of the Baath Party was illegal if not a capital crime. The economy was stagnant and poverty had increased 2007-2010. The family of the president had privatized state enterprises for their use and become billionaires. Urbanization was at 50%, shockingly low in world terms. There had been a drought since 2004 and in the northeast, farmers had lost 70% of their livestock. The gov't seemed relatively uninterested in water works (unlike in the 1970s). This was a grenade with the pin pulled.
The Free Syrian Army aimed at democratic elections and equal rights for all. Ahrar al-Sham rejects both in favor of sharia supremacism. I'm not sure why you say it isn't jihadist but it doesn't seem materially different to me from the Taliban.
Nusra is much bigger than Ahrar and is clearly the senior partner!
YPG is allied in some towns with SAA against Daesh/ ISIL
Hi, Paul. What makes you think I favor intervention?
The dictator's heavy artillery and tanks produce the social apocalypse.
In Libya, contrary to some allegations, NATO bombing mainly hit weapons depots and tanks and maybe killed 100 civilians and a few thousand regime troops.
The Libyans were being killed at a fair clip under Gaddafi. Read the article. You've never heard of Abu Salim, have you?
And you think Gaddafi was predictable? People in Libya complained bitterly they never even knew tax rates from one month to the next; impossible to run a business.
Yes but the vast majority are Eastern Orthodox.
The 10% figure is likely an exaggeration.
Idlib is controlled by a coalition of Ahrar al-Sham/ Freemen of Syria and al-Qaeda. FSA doesn't have a significant position there any more. Sorry, I just don't see FSA as a significant player any more.
the operations room in Aleppo did in fact come to include the Support Front of al-Qaeda. And, there are times when Suqour allied with al-Qaeda. link to dotmsr.com
Al-Qaeda was formed in the 1980s in Afghanistan when Bin Laden was allied with the US-backed Afghan Mujahidin. It was originally called Maktab al-Khidmat or Office of Services, to provide medical and other aid to the holy warriors against godless Communism.
Thanks so much for the Informed Comment, Yasser!
You're not taking into account the shock of 1973-- they would have been more cautious if Egypt hadn't made a separate peace
yes but if they had remained an indigenous sef-defense guerrilla group they wouldn't have geopolitical importance
the assertion is ridiculous
The post isn't angry, it is analytical. There is no accusation of homophobia, simply the assertion that homosexuality remains forbidden and seen as a sin and gay marriage is opposed. I will look into the context of the quote more- - but it isn't anyway key to my point.
I admire a lot about Pope Francis. He isn't a liberal.
Stewardship is clear in his public speeches
link to juancole.com
People who see Francis as a liberation theologian don't know liberation theology. As for practical steps to reduce income inequality, aside from maybe taxes he hasn't given any specifics. Evangelicals have long preached love the sinner but condemn the sin. Francis is much nicer than that but his policies come to the same thing. It is nice that you know the future but my post was not about the future.
Actually oil and gas is a form of property so the costs go beyond extraction. And they are ongoing costs even once you have constructed a plant that uses that fuel. The sun didn't charge me anything at all to generate virtually all my household electricity costs last month. If I had bought a diesel generator instead of panels, I would have had to keep running to the gas station to fuel it, which means I had to buy it from its owners, extractors & distributors, none of which exist with regard to the sun.
So, it is different.
None of this is actually compelling. Syrian arms purchases are minor, Tartus isn't used much. I think your later points more likely-- it is about reestablishing Russia as a Power by asserting spheres of influence in the 19th century way, not about capitalist imperialism as Lenin would have described it.
the whole thing is satire.
But when asked what she what do about Syria, she did say Sixth Fleet.
Coming on toward 13 years, so 14 or so to go. & thanks for the wonderful comparison
Australia has so much sun energy and panels are now so inexpensive that just closing the coal mines and going solar would save the country billions in the coming years. Moreover it is not just Tuvalu you are endangering. Much of Sydney and Melbourne are not going to be there. What does that loss come to? How many billions?
Coal is evil.
No, the Europeans didn't make it much worse. The Gulfies took sides in the budding war that Bashar started, and then Russia and Iran took the other side. Can't see that it had anything to do with the French or British at all, and Obama has bearely gotten his toes wet in those waters. The issue is one of proportionality.
Mostly, it was indigenous. If 22 million people want to have a brawl, there's not much that can be done about it.
the US had nothing to do with the turn to violence in Syria. It was Bashar's and Maher's decision to shell the protesters. PressTv & RT are full of conspiracy theories on this issue because they support the genocidal Bashar and need a scapegoat.
Funding for al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia and ISI may have come from rich Gulfies, including rich Saudis; there is no, zero nada evidence that the Saudi royal family funded the latter. Daesh has attacked Saudi targets and killed Saudi security personnel.
Illegal immigration is not black and white. The US deports something like 400,000 people a year; that's an enormous operation-- 4 million every decade. It is not as if the agencies are sitting on their hands. But for children brought by parents, whose whole life and identity was formed here, there should be a path to citizenship. And even for adults who have subsequently made a contribution. At the moment they have a choice of hiding or self-deporting. There needs to be something in the middle, as even Jeb Bush acknowledges.
Israel expelled the Palestinians, not Lebanon. Why should Lebanese workers suffer from competition from refugees? Why hasn't Israel paid reparations (it would be in the trillions)? 60 or 70% of the Palestinians in Gaza are refugee families expelled by Israel. They are now Occupied by the Israelis, who control their sea, air and land crossings. Not only can't they work in Israel, they can't even find jobs in Gaza because the Israelis have blockaded the civilian population. At one point they were rationing their calories. Lebanon's policies toward the Palestinian refugees could be better; they are a million times better than Israeli policies toward those in Gaza.
As for Kanafani, people executed without due process are typically referred to as having been murdered.
I simply underlined that each genocide is different; the Rwandan one was not, as you say, industrialized the way the Nazi one was.
Now *that* is an Informed Comment! Thanks so much Ambassador Mack.
they had stockpiled fair amounts of 19.75% enriched uranium. As for 3.5% enriched not being dangerous, it is what would be used in a dirty bomb, which security experts are deeply concerned about - and also what is released in a plant meltdown, since it is what fuels the plant.
The opposition agreed to the referendum and there were no significant protests against it. 80% of eligible voters went to the polls. It was a very popular referendum. People wanted it to be a step toward new presidential and parliamentary elections, but in and of itself it was a legitimate vote with wide popular support.
I think there was some psychological torture- pointing an unloaded gun and pulling the trigger, e.g.
It's a little over 10% more than a third; I would say that is ballpark.
It isn't just a university calculation that affects corruption, it is a personal one. It is important that individual careers and reputations of miscreants are affected by this crime, as an object lesson.
No one held that life begins at conception until recently, including the Christian churches, and it is a made up doctrine to control women. You're welcome of course to your beliefs but you are a minority and shouldn't want to legislate for the rest of us.
The historiography shows that the Japanese were so alarmed by the approach of Russia that they were in fact on the verge of surrendering.
Me, I have an electric car fueled by my solar panels.
Our sanctions, we could keep. But the rest of the world won't go along, and we're not that important.
I presume most of us have such roots; I'd be very proud if this were proven.
Am not a consultant to the CIA, though would be happy if they'd listen to me.
but it isn't commensurate; the home made high school science experiment rockets mostly land uselessly in the desert and have caused a tiny fraction of the deaths and damage of Israeli bombardment of Gaza. Moreover Israelis are not trapped in a large outdoor prison.
Thanks. Have revised in the light of your comments.
Thanks so much! Have amended in the light of your comments.
However, the Sanaa I palimpsest is clearly by far the more valuable and newsworthy, being apparently on the order of 60%-70% of the Qur'anic text, not just 18 pages. It is also mostly not illegible as you imply. Moreover, there may well be other very early Qur'ans in the Sanaa collection which have not been radiocarbon dated, and it is a voluminous collection, not 18 pages.
Do you have a cite for Tuebingen?
Hi, Tony. Full of admiration for Canada, but my discussion was of the P5 +1 negotiations with Iran, and I was saying that not only did Britain, France and Germany participate vigorously in that process but they are also military allies who have sacrificed for the alliance. It wasn't a general discussion of US allies in Afghanistan.
The British spent more on trying and failing to control the Pushtun tribes in the Northwest Frontier after the Third Afghan War than they spent on the war itself. They never had more than the land on which their garrisons stood.
It wasn't technically legal, Mark. They had to notify Congress and did not.
No, on the contrary. Far more contemporary Egyptian actors are fully cosmopolitan today!
The point is that he had lots of other roles, including appealing leading men, and was not typecast as an Arab terrorist.
Actually African-Americans are woefully underrepresented in South Carolinian politics and the white politicians are making it more difficult for them to vote and get health care.
birth rates fall with urbanization. US Roman Catholics have more abortions than Protestants.
In Australia they do it the other way around, a $10 fine for not voting. Works great.
google spells it Tal al-Abyad-- just east of Kobane
link to google.com
yeah, slip of the keyboard. Sorry!
It was a reference to organized crime
Geez, pro-Saddam propaganda has a long life.
Saddam killed thousands of people for holding the wrong political views, including many, many Shiites.
the Iraqi constitution authorizes a parliamentary system with a powerful prime minister; the president is symbolic.
You'll have to ask Sheldon Adelson.
they're keeping last 5 years!
Achaemenids conquered most of known world from Egypt to Indus Valley.
Daesh benefits from the support or complacency of the Sunni population in a place like Ramadi. Baghdad is by now mostly Shiite and I doubt Daesh has much of a way to take it. The Shiite troops and militias also fight better on home turf.
gee David, I guess I don't think interpreting texts is a glib activity that can be done without nuance or context. I quoted that passage to the readers. The question is what 'supporters' means there, in 2012. It didn't mean the USA with regard to supporting the al-Qaeda affiliates and offshoots.
It doesn't say Western countries were supporting al-Qaeda or ISIL.
The Saudis did not create ISIL and the Saudis are not backing it or al-Qaeda/ Support Front. They back the Islamic Front. Iraqi Ex-Baath officers created ISIL.
Thx
Western diplomats who have met him say that the Salman Alzheimers story is incorrect
Fuel costs are higher in Hawaii
You stop the killing by helping some side win. Which?
Assad massacred Sunni protesters. Erdogan did his best to have a good relationship with Assad, but small town Sunnis are his constituency and Assad crossed a red line.
Read the earliest Sira, Ibn Hisham's redaction of Ibn Ishaq.
Clan loyalties ran deep in Mecca and Abu Talib refused to have his own nephew mistreated by other septs.
US funding for Syrian rebels was miniscule.
It is a war crime because they lack guidance systems and are sent toward civilian population centers, systematically harming noncombatants.
Completely unfair. Ordered EPA to close down coal, which is 1.5 bn of our 5.5 bn annual CO2 emissions
Yes, and a lot of Afghans were happy to see the Taliban take Kabul in 1996 because the Mujahidin reduced it to rubble fighting among themselves. In 2004, 5% of Afghans in polling reported thinking well of Taliban.
Jabhat al-Nusra is among the few groups actually to hold a lot of territory on its own, and I very much doubt that Idlib or Jisr al-Shughur would have fallen without it. You can't slap a name like Fath al-Sham on a group that is primarily victorious owing to al-Qaeda and hide the fact that it is al-Qaeda. Ahrar al-Sham's connections to al-Qaeda go beyond one guy, now dead.
What do you think these guys will do to the Alawis once they get hold of them? The Christians who fell under them were already brutalized. Or the Kurdish Marxists? These Salafi Jihadis (and yes, that is what Fath al-Sham is) are a small minority of Syrian Sunnis, and are ideological extremists, but with Saudi and Turkish funding they are taking over. Many of them are mass murderers, just like the regime they are fighting.
Scott, I respect your work, but your reply contains logical fallacies. That Neocons are also afraid of the Salafi Jihadis is irrelevant; they and I are also both afraid of tsunamis.
We don't know who is going to win the war, but that consideration is irrelevant to the characterization of the people who just took most of Idlib province. They are Salafi Jihadis and some of them are outright al-Qaeda, which means all of them are allied with al-Qaeda.
Jabhat al-Nusra is a lead group in Fath al-Sham, and Ahrar al-Sham, another lead group, has firm al-Qaeda connections. the rest are Salafi Jihadis not much different from al-Qaeda. Can't entirely understand why you would want to downplay this, but around here we calls 'em as we sees 'em
Hi, Deborah.
Manufacturing in and of itself doesn't produce CO2. It is the electricity generation that does, which drives the manufacturing machines. Of course, steel production is carbon intensive, but scientists and engineers think it, too, could be produced in a low carbon fashion.
Awlaqi suit was dismissed because court found Awlaqi's father did not have standing. V clever of USG to demand that those killed must themselves sue or there is no case.
you need to look into Gaddafi more
just stop subsidizing extraction processes - wind and solar are actually cheaper