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 […]
Syria’s al-Qaeda captures US-Linked Free Syrian Army Commander, troops
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The 30th Infantry Division of the moderate Free Syrian Army says that the al-Qaeda-linked Support Front captured one of its commanders and several troops the day before yesterday. Some 56 members of Division 30 were among the 70 fighters so far trained in a multi-million dollar […]
Has Iran cut off Hamas? Is Hamas turning to Saudi Arabia?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Newsweek is reporting that Iran has cut off funding to Hamas in Gaza, citing Israeli journalism and Hamas sources. Iran’s relationship with the Hamas party-militia in the Gaza Strip has been an roller-coaster ride in the past three years. The youth revolutions of 2011 created hard […]
Turkish Tanks Shell Syrian Kurds who expelled ISIL from Zur Maghar
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Syrian Kurds and the British based Syrian Observatory said Monday that Turkish tanks had shelled the village of Zur Maghar near Kobani on the Syrian side of the border held by the YPG [People’s Protection Unit] leftist Kurdish militia. Four of its fighters were wounded. The […]
Top Six Signs ISIL/ Daesh is Doomed
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – It has been over a year since Mosul fell to Daesh (ISIS, ISIL). In some ways the organization has continued to make advances since then, taking Ramadi and Palmyra in the past few months. It isn’t as important as FBI director James Comey says it is, […]
Turkey’s new “war on terror” mainly targeting Kurds
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – What was at first announced as a new Turkish turn toward attacks on Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) on Friday has quickly become largely a campaign against Kurds instead. It is being alleged that the Turkish Air Force launched dozens of strikes against bases of the Kurdistan Workers […]
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