By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The leader of al-Qaeda in Syria, Abu Muhammad al-Julani, has called for an escalation in attacks on the population centers of the Alawite Shiite minority. The president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, and other leading members of the ruling Baath Party belong to this folk sect of […]
Iran in Syria? Reports its Troops plan Idlib, Aleppo Campaigns
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Jordanian newspaper al-Ghad (Tomorrow) is reporting that the commander of the Jerusalem Brigade of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards has been spotted near Latakia, urging on a volunteer militia of Alawite Shiites. The report comes as AP says it was told by a senior Western official […]
Debate: Clinton slams Iran, Putin & supports Syrian Rebels; Sanders rejects Intervention
Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Foreign policy came up a bit in the Democratic Party debate. One form it took was a series of clashes over Hillary Clinton’s 2002 vote to authorize the Bush Iraq War. Lincoln Chafee, then a Republican senator, opposed that vote and was the only Republican senator to […]
Syria: Will US arming of Kurdish-led Northeast Rebels Provoke Turkey?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The intrepid Anne Barnard and Karim Shoumali at the NYT have a piece on how Saudi-supplied TOW anti-tank weapons to rebels in Hama and Idlib are creating a US-Russian proxy struggle in northwest Syria (the CIA is actually the source of the weapons, with Saudi intelligence […]
Does Obama have a Syria Strategy? Putin Does.
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In his “60 Minutes” interview on Sunday President Obama made some remarks on Syria, but do they add up to a policy? Obama said: 1. He is giving up on a Pentagon plan to train thousands of “moderate” Syrian fighters to take on Daesh (ISIS, ISIL). […]
Tunisian Nobel Recognizes role of Labor Unions, the Left in Democratic Transition
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – How many American news reports about the Nobel Peace Prize given to the Tunisian Quartet that pushed the country toward democracy and compromise will mention that two of the four organizations so honored are national labor unions of workers? A third was an attorneys’ guild. The […]
Top 5 Signs cheap Renewable Energy is taking the World by Surprise
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – 1. Vice News points out that a new report from the Paris-based International Energy Agency estimates that in just five years, by 2020, slightly over one quarter (26%) of all the electricity being generated in the world will come from renewables. The report concludes, “By 2020, […]
Climate Change “Tipping Points” and the Fate of the Earth
By Michael T. Klare | Tomdispatch.com Not so long ago, it was science fiction. Now, it’s hard science — and that should frighten us all. The latest reports from the prestigious and sober Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) make increasingly hair-raising reading, suggesting that the planet is approaching possible moments of irreversible damage in […]
In final Failure for Bush/Cheney, many in Iraq seek Russian Alliance
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Iraqi government in Baghdad, threatened by Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) and frustrated by the Obama administration’s foot-dragging in taking it on, seems increasingly tempted by a Russia alliance. Leaders of the Iraqi Shiite militias visited Moscow this week to seek Russian airstrikes against Daesh, according to […]
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