By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – the left-leaning Lebanese newspaper al-Safir [Ambassador] reports that the armed resistance to the regime of Bashar al-Assad in the East Aleppo pocket is finished. Reports from Wednesday morning say that the ceasefire that Russia and the regime signed onto in hopes that the few hundred hold-outs […]
Trump’s Triangle in E. Asia: a Force for Peace or a harbinger of War?
By Tim Shorrock | ( Tomdispatch.com | – – Despite the attention being given to America’s roiling wars and conflicts in the Greater Middle East, crucial decisions about the global role of U.S. military power may be made in a region where, as yet, there are no hot wars: Asia. Donald Trump will arrive in […]
Sorry, Garrison Keillor: Keith Ellison for President could have beaten Trump, and still Can
Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – I am a fan of Garrison Keillor, of “Prairie Home Companion” fame. I am also a fan of Keith Ellison (D-MN), the prominent liberal representative from Minneapolis and happens to be a Muslim. Unfortunately for me, I have to choose between them because Keillor, deep in depression […]
Syria’s Aleppo Falling: The Government Russia actually Turned
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – By Monday morning Syrian time, the large and important district of Shaikh Saeed in southeastern Aleppo had completely fallen to the Syrian Arab Army and its allies among the Shiite militias of Lebanon and Iraq. (Orange in this map areas regime has taken in past 3 […]
Is Bruited Sec. of State Tillerson allied with Iran & at war with Iraq?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – A couple of years ago an oil tanker showed up off the Texas coast with cargo from Iraqi Kurdistan. The problem? Iraqi Kurdistan is a province of Iraq, and the central government in Baghdad claims that petroleum discovered in Iraqi Kurdistan is under the control of […]
No, America, it wasn’t Russia: You did it to Yourself
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The headlines scream, “Secret CIA assessment says Russia was trying to help Trump win White House” and “Obama orders review of Russian Hacking during Presidential campaign.” I don’t doubt that the Russian Federation employs hackers and PR people to influence public opinion and even election outcomes […]
How We Can fight back against Trump’s Anti-EPA
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Trump’s nomination of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency is a slap in the face of every American who cares about the environment in this country. Pruitt has repeatedly sued the EPA for doing its job. He is a climate change […]
Syria unlikely to be Partitioned: The Resilience of Colonial Borders
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Whenever a country falls into civil war, there are always observers who suggest that the problem could be resolved by a partition of that country. It is as though they think the parties to the war are like squabbling children in the back seat of the […]
More districts of East Aleppo fall to Regime & Militia Allies
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Both regime sources and the Britain-based Syria Observatory said Tuesday that the Syrian Arab Army and its Shiite militia allies from Lebanon and Iraq had taken the district of Shaar in the East Aleppo pocket. In the past two weeks rebel forces have lost the northeast […]
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