Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump keeps talking about taking Syrian oil. In fact, many of those 1,000 special operations troops he pulled out, sending them to Iraq, are mostly back in Syria now, but in Deir al-Zor rather than up north. That is because the lion’s share of Syrian petroleum is in Deir al-Zor […]
Biggest Iraqi Crowds in History Demand changes in Bush Constitution
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Dubai’s Al-Akhbar al-An reports that further large demonstrations broke out in Iraq on Saturday, leaving 91 wounded and one dead. Friday saw some of the largest demonstrations in modern Iraqi history. Protesters are demanding an end to corruption and sectarianism and want a government that can deliver basic services. They […]
Syria’s Al-Assad: Trump, Openly Criminal, is the best US President we could Wish for
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Syrian strongman (and mass murderer) Bashar al-Assad gave an interview to Syrian media in which he expressed his happiness that Trump is president of the United States, “because he is the most transparent, so he says, ‘We want the oil,’ and this is the reality of American policy.’” Al-Assad said, […]
Looming Trump Impeachment puts him in Company of Challenged Corrupt Mideast Leaders
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – If we think about mass politics in the Middle East during the past 8 years as anti-corruption drives, it is easier to see the ways in which Trump resembles a typical Middle Eastern dictator. Americans are prosecuting him in the House of Representatives rather than in the streets, but then […]
The Carbon Dioxide Horror Show: Sea Level threat to Coastal Cities triples in New Study
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Scott A. Kulp and Benjamin H. Strauss have published an extremely alarming set of conclusions in Nature in which they recalculated the likely impact of sea level rise in this century on coastal populations. Previous measurements by NASA satellites of how high above sea level coastal areas are, were inexact […]
Bernie Sanders: Give Aid to Gaza; & It isn’t Anti-Semitism to Say Netanyahu Gov’t Racist
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Bernie Sanders has almost single-handedly changed the discourse on Israel in the Democratic Party and in the United States more generally. But his appearance at the J-Street conference was a further tour de force, and the positions he has staked out clearly have put pressure on the other Democratic candidates […]
US Militarism, having Provoked ISIL into Being, Kills Cult Leader Baghdadi
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,” the nom de guerre of the notorious Iraqi terrorist Ibrahim al-Samarrai, is dead, killed in a US special forces raid on his compound in Syria’s northwest Idlib province. Declared a “caliph” in 2014, this minor cultist helped turn the Fertile Crescent into a charnel house. From a […]
Did US Officials Manipulate Trump into Sending Back Troops from Iraq to Syria “for the oil”?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) | – NBC reports that a US convoy of light armored vehicles carrying special operations forces has been sighted heading from Iraq into northeast Syria and then south to the oil-rich Deir al-Zor province, with attack helicopters hovering above. You have to wonder if the Kurds pelted them with rotten vegetables […]
Iran seeks to Take advantage of Trump’s Exit from Syria to become Diplomatic Power Broker
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – How has Trump’s impetuous invitation to Turkey to invade Syria and displace America’s allies against ISIL, the Syrian Kurds, issued nearly two weeks ago, been taken advantage of by Iran? It should be noted in the first instance that Iran has its own restive Kurdish province and is no more […]
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