By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Iran’s pundits are confident that the country is sitting in the catbird seat. They are elated over the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad proving victorious, with Russian help in Aleppo. They are exulting in their newly strengthened ties with Moscow. They believe that the Obama administration’s […]
Preparing for the Normalization of a Neofascist White House
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – It is 2017, and shortly the White House will be inhabited by an unscrupulous, corrupt narcissist who has shamelessly mobilized the Neo-Nazi fringe of the Republican Party to get into power. Despite all the cries of ‘no’ to normalization on the left, Trump will be normalized […]
America’s Major Challenges in Middle East Policy, 2017
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The incoming Trump administration is riven by a profound division between those determined to avoid deep entanglements in the Middle East, such as Donald J. Trump himself, and the hawks he is putting in key positions, who desperately want to overthrow the Islamic Republic of Iran. […]
Top Eight Mideast Stories of 2016 that Shaped our World
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In 2016, the Middle East continued to be a major focus of the US public, and it often came up in the primary and presidential debates. Alas, the Middle East referenced by US politicians and many pundits does not actually exist, and the American fixation on […]
Top 5 Ways Obama Sanctions on Russia work for Democrats
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – President Obama’s sanctions on Russia are small potatoes and will have almost no effect on the Russian Federation. The high officials sanctioned are unlikely to have assets in the US that Washington can attach. When you hear that the US is sanctioning the FSB (the Russian […]
5 Surprising Signs of Positive Change in 2016
Sarah van Gelder | (Yes! Magazine) The election divided the year into “before” and “after.” But there remain signs of hope for 2017. It was a year blown up by the election results. There are now two very different 2016s—the one before and the one after we learned that Donald Trump would become president of […]
The Chinese Solar Juggernaut that Trump Can’t Stop
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Donald Trump has pronounced solar power “too expensive” and has pledged to revive the use of coal. The former is a falsehood, the latter a genocide. (Coal kills people with lung disease and global warming). Moreover, Trump keeps complaining that China is eating Americans’ lunch with […]
Erdogan-Putin Syria Bromance as Turkey accuses US of backing ISIL
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Turkey and Russia are announcing they have reached a cease-fire deal in Syria. The ceasefire reached in Aleppo will be continued past December 28, and will be expanded to other parts of the country Russia is representing the government of Bashar al-Assad, which its air force […]
Now is the time for Obama to Recognize Palestine
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – I’d like to return today to an argument I made two years ago in The Nation, which is that President Obama should recognize Palestine before he goes out of office. For different but related reasons, Jimmy Carter made a similar plea last month. One of the […]
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