South Asia

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The president of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin visited Tehran on Wednesday for consultations with President Hassan Rouhani and the country’s clerical leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Khamenei is quoted by Tahrir [Liberation] as saying that Russia and Iran could cooperate to isolate the United States and […]

Afghanistan

Extremists, So-Called Muslims, bomb Mosques in Afghanistan, Killing Dozens

Juan Cole

TeleSur | – – Over the past week, the Taliban has led a number of attacks in the country. Suicide bombers have attacked two mosques in Afghanistan, killing at least 72 people, including several children. In Kabul, a bomber detonated an explosive in a Shia mosque during Friday prayers. The interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said […]

Afghanistan

“Tell me how this Ends”- Gen. Petraeus has decided Forever War Doesn’t

contributors

By Tom Engelhardt | ( Tomdispatch.com | – – It took 14 years, but now we have an answer. It was March 2003, the invasion of Iraq was underway, and Major General David Petraeus was in command of the 101st Airborne Division heading for the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Rick Atkinson, Washington Post journalist and military […]

Afghanistan

How “ghost soldiers” could frustrate Trump’s plans for Afghanistan

contributors

By Jessica Purkiss | ( The Bureau of Investigative Journalism) | – – Frank “Gus” Biggio arrived in Nawa, a district in Afghanistan’s embattled Helmand province, in the summer of 2009. Then, he recalled, it was “a violent, lawless, ungoverned place”, like an “apocalyptic scene out of a movie”. The battle to secure the district […]

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 […]

Afghanistan

Taliban target SecDef Mattis Helicopter in Kabul, hit Airport

contributors

TeleSur | – – U.S. forces responded with an airstrike but one of the missiles went off course in a “malfunction,” causing several casualties. Kabul’s airport has been attacked by militants during a visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to Afghanistan. The U.S. responded to the attacks with an airstrike that killed multiple civilians, […]

Afghanistan

Are US troops in Afghanistan causing Talibanism?

Juan Cole

By Ann Jones | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – Here we go again! Years after most Americans forgot about the longest war this country ever fought, American soldiers are again being deployed to Afghanistan. For almost 16 years now, at the command of three presidents and a sadly forgettable succession of generals, they have gone […]

China

Floridians with Solar Inverters had Electricity after Irma & other Green energy success stories

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – After Hurricane Irma in Florida, millions have been without electricity. But those Floridians who had solar panels plus an inverter or a Tesla powerwall were able to recover electricity immediately. Likewise, cities used solar to power traffic lights and other essential services after the huge storm […]

Bangladesh

Muslim Rohingya Refugees Drown as They flee Buddhist Persecution in Myanmar

contributors

TeleSur | – – Around 27,400 Rohingya Muslims have crossed into Bangladesh from Myanmar since Friday. Bangladeshi border guards have recovered two dozen bodies from the country’s shore in the last two days, as tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims flee violence in Myanmar. The bodies of 11 Rohingya children and nine women washed up […]