Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Paul Handley of AFP reports that the US Air Force Inspector General, Lieutenant General Sami Said, found that a drone strike that mistakenly killed 10 civilian non-combatants, including 7 children, in Afghanistan on August 29 violated no laws, including the law of war. When Napoleon had the royalist Duc d’Enghein […]
Sheikh Jarrah Palestinian Families Reject Israeli theft of their Homes, turning them into Renters
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that Palestinian East Jerusalem families facing expulsion from their homes by Israeli squatters in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood have rejected the proposal of the Israeli Supreme Court to let them remain in their homes for some years, but without equity or recognition of their […]
COP26: Biden first President to Back Sweeping Measures on Climate, as for-profit Press lets Denialist Republicans off the Hook
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) | – On Monday, President Joe Biden addressed the UN COP26 climate conference, declaring the 2020s the “critical decade.” It was a strong and hopeful speech that showed global leadership that has been sorely lacking. Those carping about Biden’s performance seem not to remember the past four years when the president […]
COP26: Climate Disaster Stalks Morocco even as it Strives for Wind, Solar
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Since the UN Conference of Parties (COP) 26 is meeting in Glasgow this week, we will be looking at climate and energy issues in the Middle East. Today I want to make some remarks about Morocco, which has one of the most ambitious green energy programs in the region, but […]
Top 3 Ways Biden can restore Iran Nuclear Deal if he Really Wants To
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Diplomacy is the art of the possible, and so far the Biden administration isn’t showing a mastery of that art when it comes to Iran and restoring the Joint Plan for Comprehensive Action (JCPOA) or 2015 nuclear deal. President Joe Biden has not made restoring the nuclear deal a top […]
It is the Israeli Occupation of the Stateless Palestinians that is the settler Colonial State, and, yes, Apartheid
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Apologists for Israeli policy have taken umbrage at the characterization of Israel as a settler colonial state that practices Apartheid. They argue that Israel is unlike the settler colonial societies (the United States, French Algeria, Brazil, Mexico and all of Latin America, Australia, South Africa, Rhodesia) in that it established […]
Top 4 Reasons Sen. Manchin will Fail to Stop the Tsunami of Green Energy and Biden will get Climate Progress
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia may succeed in preventing Congress from legislating the quick demise of coal and gas plants, but once President Biden has Manchin’s signature on his two big legislative packages, there are other ways to move against Big Carbon that Manchin can do nothing about. 1. […]
Israeli Government defies President Biden, announces 3K new Squatter Dwellings on Palestinian Land
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab48 reports that Israeli authorities are authorizing 3,144 new housing units for squatters on Palestinian-owned land in the Palestinian West Bank. The move is spearheaded by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and his expansionist Yamina Party, and was greeted with outrage by some elements of the unwieldy 8-party […]
Is Trump one of Top Mass Murderers? Dr. Birx says he Killed 130K- 160K with Bad COVID Policy
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In remarks this month to Congress, Dr. Deborah Birx, former member of Trump’s White House Coronavirus Task Force, estimated that Trump’s COVID policies cost between 130,000 and 160,000 lives that need not have been lost. World leaders often are responsible for large numbers of deaths of soldiers in war, but […]