By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Alarabiya says that Russia has killed over 3,000 civilians in its bombing raids of the past year. BBC Monitoring translated an article by Mikhail Khodarenok at the Gazeta.ru site from 23 September that tries to explain why any decisive victory in Syria has eluded Russia during […]
The Shootings you Didn’t Hear Trump Denounce because, not Muslim
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Cable news and social media in the United States don’t go into “OhmyGod there’s only One Story” mode about mass shootings unless they somehow involve Muslims. The downside of this procedure is that Americans think Muslims in the US are way more violent than they actually […]
How the JASTA override on Saudi could Bite Americans in the Ass
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – President Obama vetoed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, but Congress has for the first time in his presidency over-ridden his veto. This is a disastrous law with potentially ruinous effects on the US economy and US policy. Individual tort suits against other countries had […]
RIP Shimon Peres: Last Great Israeli leader to believe in 2 State solution
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – I met an emperor once, but have only met a couple of presidents. Shimon Peres (1923-2016) was one. I met him briefly in the Green Room when doing an interview with Charlie Rose. The Polish-born Peres made his best impression on me with his support for […]
The Presidential Debate that did not really Happen
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Regular readers will know that in my view the 2016 presidential election did not happen. Likewise, the first debate between the two candidates did not take place. There was no debate as the word is usually understood, where the two take turns setting out policy positions. […]
Syria, Russia push to take East Aleppo pocket as airstrikes kill 66, wound 200
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Only a week after seeming to agree to a ceasefire, Russia and the Syrian regime in Damascus appear to have decided to throw caution to the winds and simply wipe out the pocket of rebel resistance in East Aleppo. If the regime has all of Aleppo, […]
The last Time Summer was this Hot, Human beings hadn’t yet Left Africa
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) Summer of 2016 was not only hotter than any summer on record, i.e. since 1880. We have enough proxies for global average temperature to know that it was hotter than any summer since at least 1016, when Genoa launched a campaign against Muslim Sardinia and Norway not only got […]
Number of US Troops in Iraq Heading toward 6,000
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The US plans to send another 500 troops to Iraq to help with the massive Mosul campaign, which will involve the Iraqi army and its allies, the Kurdistan paramilitary Peshmerga, hard line Shiite militias, and Sunni Arab tribal levies. US troops will not engage in war-fighting […]
Colonial Slow Genocide: Palestinian Leader Abbas asks Britain for “Balfour” Apology
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Mahmoud Abbas, president of Palestine, is asking Britain for an apology for its having in 1917 issued the infamous “Balfour Declaration.” He won’t get one. The difference between the North Atlantic countries and the rest of the world is that the former are still committed to […]
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