By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In a sign of China’s increasingly powerful role in Central Asia and the Middle East, on Tuesday a Chinese train arrived in Tehran after a 14-day journey. The freight train just used existing rail links to go from China to Kazakhstan, then to Uzbekistan, then Turkmenistan, […]
George W. Bush, who Mirrored & Inflamed Public passions, attacks Trump for It
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – George W. Bush came out of political exile on Monday to be his brother JEB!’s surrogate in attacking Donald Trump. W. allowed as how “These are tough times and I understand Americans are angry and frustrated, but we do not need someone in the Oval Office […]
Could a post-Scalia court restore Campaign Finance Sanity & pull back from Plutocracy?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – There is no guarantee that the successor to the late Justice Antonin Scalia will be a liberal. But only if Cruz wins the presidency can we expect a nominee as hard right as Scalia. In all likelihood, the court has just shifted at least somewhat to […]
Top 5 Scalia Rulings that helped Progressives
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Justice Antonin Scalia died in Texas on Saturday. IC sends condolences to his family. Scalia is widely recognized as having been a brilliant legal thinker and a fine and passionate prose stylist. He was the first Italian-American to serve on the Supreme Court. It is worth […]
Despite Syria Cease Fire, Belligerents Plot military Victory
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Despite the announcement at Munich of a cessation of hostilities in Syria, to be implemented in the next week or so, all the major fighting forces in Syria have announced a determination to soldier on. According to the London pan-Arab daily al-Hayat [Life] , Russian foreign […]
Clinton and Sanders on Mideast War and Kissinger’s Legacy (PBS Debate)
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Both the Middle East conflicts and the ghost of the Vietnam War haunted the PBS Democratic debate Thursday evening. Vietnam was symbolized by Henry Kissinger, former Nixon National Security Adviser (1968-1975) and Secretary of State for Nixon and Gerald Ford (1973-77). In the last Democratic debate, […]
Israel: Friedman of the NY Times surrenders to One-State Solution, sees ME Apocalypse
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Tom Friedman of the New York Times has completely given up on a two-state solution, forthrightly abandoning the polite fiction that there will ever be a Palestinian state alongside Israel, and ridiculing American presidential candidates for speaking as though it were still a possibility. In fact, […]
Did Muslim-Americans lose the New Hampshire GOP Primary?
AJ+ | (Video News Report) | – – “This is what the Republican presidential candidates said about Muslims in their most recent debate.” AJ+: “The GOP Has A Muslim Problem”
Did Bashar al-Assad win New Hampshire? Trump & Sanders Mideast Policies
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders won big in New Hampshire on Tuesday. Caution is in order, since that state is demographically not very much like the rest of the United States, and both candidates are Northeasterners with advantages there. US journalism dreams of a presidential election […]
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