By Alison Pargeter | ( OpenDemocracy) | – – If peace and national unity in Libya seem remote five years after the fall of the Qadhafi regime, western powers and the international community bear much of the responsibility. On 20 October 2011, former Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Qadhafi was dragged out of his sewage-pipe hideout […]
Archives for October 2016
Will Turkey, Iran & Iraq make the Mosul Campaign a Land Grab?
By James Miller | ( RFE/RL ) | – – We may be witnessing the end of the extremist group, the [so-called] Islamic State [group] (IS), as we know it. Over the weekend, the coalition of Turkish military soldiers and Syrian rebel groups, backed by a small number of U.S. Special Operations Forces and air […]
Polls: Capt. Trump aiming GOP Flight 2016 at nearest mountain
David Faris | (Informed Comment) | – – In weighted opinion polls, Hillary Clinton crushed Donald J. Trump in Wednesday night’s debate, with a 10 to 13 percent spread. On Wednesday night, an accomplished, intelligent woman with painstakingly constructed plans for the future of American society and a wonk’s grasp on policy once again spent […]
Hillary Clinton Roasts Donald Trump At 2016 Al Smith Dinner
Fox 10 Phoenix | (Video) | – – “Hillary Clinton isn’t holding back against Donald Trump at the annual Al Smith dinner in New York. Clinton joked that if Trump didn’t like what she was saying, then he could “shout `wrong.”‘ She added that she was surprised Trump let her go second because “I didn’t […]
Trump Campaign: The Donald’s 5-Point Plan to Defeat Islam
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Donald J. Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, went on MSNBC touting the Republican candidate’s “5-point plan to defeat Islam.” She later clarified that she meant “radical Islamic terrorism.” But in fact her candidate has often spoken as Islam in general as his target, as when he […]
The Mosul Campaign and the 3rd Presidential Debate
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Some of the more extended comments on the Mosul campaign were those of Hillary Clinton. Here is Wallace’s question: WALLACE: . . . let’s move on to the subject of foreign hot spots. The Iraqi offensive to take back Mosul has begun. If they are successful […]
Now is the time to remember Bernie Sanders: Can a new Political Center yet Emerge?
Joseph Saltarelli | (Huffington Post) | – – “[Jill] to the left of me, [Hillary] to the right, Here I am, stuck in the middle with you” – Adapted from Stealers Wheel Amid all the “sound and fury” of the Clinton-Trump spectacle, what of Bernie Sanders and his “political revolution”? Given its disappointing and dispiriting […]
Selling arms to Arab rulers won’t improve security in the Middle East
By Stephanie Dornschneider | (Informed Comment) | – – As a child, Najeh Ibrahim, who founded one of the most violent groups in recent Egyptian history, loved his president. “We all loved Nasser,” he recalls. However, Ibrahim’s positive attitude toward the leader of his country changed. Observing waves of arrests in which Muslim Brothers and […]
ISIL Boasts: America will go down to defeat in the Streets of Mosul
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – AFP is reporting that a news agency linked to Daesh (ISIS, ISIL), “A`maq,” is carrying a video of a Daesh fighter who swears that he and his colleagues will inflict a decisive defeat on the US in Iraq, as the guerrillas spread through the streets of […]