By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Iranian Chief of Staff Major-Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi said Saturday that despite some reservations, he saw 16 major advantages to the Iran deal. He didn’t mention any specific disadvantages. Firouzabadi said, “The armed forces have the largest number of concerns about the effect of the accord on […]
Daesh/ ISIL takes 250 Captive, including 60 Christians in Syria
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In more bad news for the Baath regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) fighters have taken the town of Al Qariyatain southeast of Homs and are advancing west on the nearby towns of Mheen and Sadad. These central small towns are Sunni-majority, but […]
Top Cringe Worthy Foreign Policy Moments in GOP Debate
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Well we had the primetime GOP debate, so the 2016 election season has formally begun. Trump declared himself more or less an independent. When Megyn Kelly pressed him on his history of misogyny and putting down women, he threatened not to be nice to her any […]
In Honor of Jon Stewart’s Finale, that time he showed a Juan Cole clip re: al-Qaeda
By Juan Cole | (informed Comment) | – – Jon Stewart is the most brilliant man on television, and Steve Colbert said it well, that we’ve all learned from him “how to do our jobs” — the job being to be a critical consumer of information and news. Not having him to turn to at […]
Obama: Opponents of Iran Deal are Warmongers
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Lame duck Obama pulls no punches. In his major address Wednesday on the Vienna deal reached with Iran, Obama let his critics have it. I take it he has done the math and knows that the Republicans in the House and possibly the Senate will reject […]
How Likely are the GOP Presidential Candidates Top 10 to drag us into War?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Fox Cable News announced its pick for the 10 Republican presidential candidates it will allow in its Thursday debate. These are candidates who are getting at least 3% support in a basket of opinion polls, including one commissioned by Fox itself. CNN will follow a similar […]
Major Indirect Benefits of Obama’s Climate Plan that could save the World
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – President Obama spoke on Monday on his plan to use the Environmental Protection Agency to pressure states to close high-carbon power plants and reduce CO2 emissions by 32% below 2005 levels by 2030. The US Supreme Court has ruled that carbon dioxide is a form of […]
Top 5 Ways Obama’s ‘All of the Above’ Politics led to Sanders & Trump
By Juan Cole – (Informed Comment) – It is said that one of the things President Obama wanted to talk to comedian Jon Stewart about was his occasional cynicism. “Obama scolded him for turning young Americans cynical.” But the approach to politics taken by Obama until recently — of promising genuine change but governing as […]
Another Bush Legacy in Iraq: Barzani asks PKK to Leave
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – On Sunday morning, Kurdish separatist guerrillas launched a suicide-bombing strike on Turkish forces in Angri province, using a tractor laden with explosives. On Saturday, the president of the Kurdistan Regional government of northern Iraq, Massoud Barzani, condemned the Turkish airstrikes on Iraq and asked the PKK […]
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