Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – US policy in the Middle East is a dinosaur-like holdover from two eras, the Cold War and the “Global War on Terror” (GWOT). Here I would like to raise the question of whether the U.S. lost both. The United State government does a lot o hand waving about human rights, […]
UN Demands immediate Gaza Ceasefire as Israel’s Cabinet of Horrors Continues – 53 Killed, as 65K lack Food, Water, Medicine
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that the Israeli military killed 53 Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday. The Israeli Air Force intentionally targeted residential buildings in the north and the south of the Strip, in Beit Lahiya and in the Al-Janina neighborhood east of Rafah City. The Israeli Air Force […]
Shamash! “The Condition”
Panel #22 Previous panels : >
Shiite Latakia Falls to new Syrian Government, as Sheikhs call for Reconciliation and Recruits are Pardoned
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Monday, the Levant Liberation Council (Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham/ HTS) guerrilla forces extended their rule to Latakia, Syria’s major port, in the northwest of the country. One Syrian source maintained that there was an uprising of anti-Assad Alawites in Latakia, and that HTS rebels had not entered the city. Other […]
Shamash! “The Kiss”
Panel #21 Previous panels : >
Syrians finally Won the Arab Spring; Can they avoid Pitfalls and Win Democracy?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Syrian Revolution of 2024 has succeeded in deposing the al-Assad dynasty, in power since 1970, throwing off the rule of the once mighty Syrian Socialist Baath Party, a feared and murderous one-party state. Rebel forces streamed into the capital, Damascus, Sunday morning, facing no significant resistance from government troops, […]
Why Iran can’t Stand up for the al-Assad Government: Russia isn’t Offering Air Support
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The strategic situation in Syria is dire for the Baathist government of Bashar al-Assad. Typically in military history, if an invader takes the capital of the other country, it secures its victory. Damascus is the prize. Damascus has an Achilles heel. It is landlocked, deep in the south of the […]
Shamash! “Candid Thoughts”
Panel #20 Previous panels : >
“It is like an Apocalypse:” Amnesty International finds Israel is deliberately undertaking Genocide against Palestinians of Gaza
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Amnesty International has just put out a detailed report based on its own fieldwork and masses of other evidence finding that Israel is committing a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The organization joins several other international bodies in coming to that conclusion, and it is one that I endorsed in […]