By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – 47 GOP senators sent a letter to Iran on Monday warning that country that any agreement only signed off on by President Obama might not last longer than his last day in office. This intervention of the senate in a foreign policy matter is not, as some observers […]
Bombing Iran: What would Happen if the Hawks got their Way?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Some of those who believe that Iran’s civilian nuclear enrichment program is inevitably dual use (that it can be used to produce a nuclear weapon) are alarmed at the prospect of a diplomatic deal between Washington and Tehran that will allow Iran to continue enriching under inspections. After […]
African-Americans still struggle for Full Citizenship Rights, Voting Rights
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – 50 years after the Selma march to Montgomery, African-Americans still face substantial impediments to their full citizenship in the United States. We all saw the scene in the film “Selma” where the Oprah Winfrey character has to pass an arbitrary test to vote (and is always failed by […]
The “Hindenburg Trap”: Dump Oil, Coal & Gas Stocks if you Want to Retire
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – What is the actual value of the oil, gas and coal fields owned by big energy corporations, which gives them their stock price and allows them to be counted as assets for borrowing purposes? The real value of those hydrocarbon resources is zero. Or actually it is much […]
Iraq: 30,000 Sunnis flee as Shiite Militias, Army, approach Tikrit
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) The Iraqi military and allied Shiite militias are mounting a campaign to take the largely Sunni town of Tikrit (original pop. 300,000), which is alleged to have been planned and is being directed by the Jerusalem (Quds) Brigade, the foreign special ops arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps […]
Syria: As al-Qaeda defeats ‘moderate’ US allies, will US ally with al-Qaeda?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – President Obama’s impossibly complicated plan for dealing with ISIL involves a de facto alliance with Iran in Iraq, and training up a ‘third force,’ essentially creating a new, ‘moderate’ Free Syrian Army to attack al-Qaeda and ISIL. Training an effective new fighting force will likely take 15 years, […]
Iran Reformers – Talks will Succeed: Netanyahu ‘not Influential,’ like Iran Hardliners
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – How did Iranian politicians react to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s anti-Iran speech to the US Congress? Iran’s first woman vice president, who has the Environment portfolio, Masoumeh Ebtekar, is in Paris these days and she spoke with AFP about the Netanyahu address. “I don’t think,” she said, […]
4 Things more Dangerous to Israel than Iran’s civilian Nuclear Enrichment
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s strident and continual harping on the alleged dangers of Iran to Israel’s security has become like an old song. Netanyahu has raised this issue repeatedly over the past 20 years, often predicting that Iran was as little as a year away from having […]
What does Iran think of Netanyahu’s Interference in Talks?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – As Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu makes a bid to thwart President Barack Obama’s foreign policy toward Iran, the Iranian press is reacting to the wrench Netanyahu is trying to throw into negotiations over Iran’s civilian nuclear enrichment program. For some odd reason, US mass media are almost […]
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