Uncategorized

By Juan Cole The fall of the Yemeni government to radical Zaidi tribesmen from Saadah in the north has gone relatively unremarked in the US mass media. Yemen is admittedly a relatively small country of 24 million, a little less populous than Texas. It is the second poorest in the Arab League after Somalia. It […]

Asia

The Yasukuni Shuffle: China and Japan duke it out via T.V. Serials on the Wrongs of WW II

contributors

By Philip J Cunningham Everyday hundreds, if not thousands of Chinese and Japanese kill one another on Chinese television. Hundreds of Anti-Japan war dramas were churned out last year and the genre dominates China’s airwaves round the clock like never before, even though eight decades have gone by since Japan’s war of invasion. What’s more, […]

Featured

Pan-Mideast War: ISIL and al-Qaeda attack Hizbullah outposts Near Lebanese Border

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole ISIL and al-Qaeda have, according to Hizbullah, launched attacks in Syria’s Qalamoun district (abutting the Lebanese border near Baalbek) on Hizbullah military outposts on the Syrian side. Hizbullah is acting in Syria as an adjunct to the Syrian Baath Army and helped reduce Qusayr and Homs last spring. The Syrian rebels were […]

Featured

The Alamo of the Kurds: Kobane Near Falling to ISIL

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Ismat Sheikh, commander of the Kurdish forces at the border town of Kobane (Ain al-Arab) that is besieged by ISIL tanks and artillery, says that he expects massacres of its inhabitants if it falls to the Sunni Arab extremists. He warned that ISIL fighters are less than a mile from his front […]

American Jews

Statement by Professors of Jewish Studies in North America Regarding the AMCHA Initiative

contributors

Received by email attachment) Statement by Professors of Jewish Studies in North America Regarding the AMCHA Initiative We the undersigned are professors of Jewish studies at North American universities. Several of us have also headed programs and centers in Jewish studies. Many of us have worked hard to nurture serious, sustained study of Israeli politics […]

Human Rights

The Other Iraq Reality: Shiite Militias besieging Sunni Towns

contributors

By Erin Evers, HRW Shia militias, still operating under the control of former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, are laying siege to Latifiyya, especially the Asa’ib Ahl al-Haqq militia. Failure to address the broader effects of international assistance in Iraq’s fight promises to further polarize Iraq’s communities. The spectacular conquests by the Islamic State have held […]

Barack Obama

Why Obama underestimated ISIL in Syria and Iraq

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole President Obama admitted on CBS’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday that the US had underestimated the military potential of ISIL. Obama understands that a generational struggle is going on in the Middle East, but some of his comments in the interview seemed to me to show insufficient appreciation for the true nature of […]

Iraq

Can Iraq Convince its Sunnis to Fight Extremists?

contributors

By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad via Niqash.org Local opposition to Sunni Muslim extremists in control of parts of Iraq is building – and it’s being formalised with the creation of a new National Guard, with military units enlisting locals to protect their own provinces. As well as fighting the extremists, the new units could include […]

Iraq

As Sunni MPs Plea for Precision US Strikes, Iraqi Gov’t Kills 31 in School Shelter

contributors

Human Rights Watch (Erbil) – The Iraqi government should promptly investigate an airstrike that hit a school housing displaced people near Tikrit on September 1, 2014. The attack killed at least 31 civilians, including 24 children, and wounded 41 others. According to three survivors, no fighters from the armed group Islamic State or other military […]