By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Donald Trump has probably benefited so far from giving long stemwinders of a speech on the hustings, saying enough outrageous things in each one to inflict on journalists information overload. He got away with a lot of awful statements because journalists only had room to focus […]
Rouhani: forget Geopolitics: Iran’s real Enemies are Water & jobs Shortages & Drugs
By RFE/RL | – – – Iran’s President Hassan Rohani has warned that water shortages, unemployment, inflation, and problems like drug addiction are threatening the Islamic republic. Rohani made the remarks in a September 15 speech to commanders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Rohani said: “Our enemies are not just Zionists, America, and […]
Pope Francis Endorses Iran Deal: Another Dilemma for GOP Catholic Candidates
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Republican presidential candidates are virtually unanimous that human-caused climate change is a hoax and burning fossil fuels is good for us; that Obamacare is evil and must be repealed; and that the UN Security Council’s deal with Iran restricting its nuclear enrichment program must be […]
Mexican Tour Organizers, Buddhist Healers, Baffled by Egyptian Army Attack
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Gabriela Bejarano Rangel, the sister and daughter of the Mexican organizers of the tour to Egypt that met with tragedy Sunday, has been interviewed at Excelsior.com. The Egyptian military mistook the tourist convoy in the western desert near Siwa Oasis for terrorists and attacked them, killing […]
US Intel Chief: Iraq and Syria may not Survive as States
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Public remarks by the head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency and by John Brennan, director of the CIA, suggest that Washington is making its peace with a break-up of Syria and Iraq. They hastened to say that break-up was not US policy, they simply saw […]
Sanders surges in Iowa as Clinton faces Enthusiasm Gap
Anthony Salvanto | (CBS Face the Nation Video) | – – “A new CBS News 2016 Battleground Tracker poll shows presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, leading in both Iowa and New Hampshire. With 78 percent of Sanders fans “enthusiastically” supporting his candidacy, states across the nation are feeling the Bern.” CBS Face the Nation: […]
Germany seeks Talks with Russia over Syria as Putin conducts Naval Maneuvers off Tartous
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Agence France Press Arabic says that Cypriot officials are reporting that Russia has asked them to alter airline routes this coming week because it is planning naval military maneuvers off the Syrian coast near its leased naval base, Tartous. The maneuvers are called “routine” by Moscow […]
Top 5 Reasons Obama defeated GOP, AIPAC effort to vote Down Iran Deal
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – 40 Democratic senators and two independent senators stood with President Obama on Thursday, preventing any congressional condemnation of the UN Security Council’s Vienna agreement with Iran over its civilian nuclear enrichment program. By the genteel rules of the senate, proponents of the censure vote needed 60 […]
Russia Ramping up Military Involvement in Syria?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Reuters reports, based on sources in Beirut, that Russia is increasing its involvement in Syria, backing the military of beleaguered dictator Bashar al-Assad. Russia appears to be offloading tanks at its Tartous naval base on the Syrian coast, and may also be establishing an interior air […]
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