By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | — At a summit on Monday, Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif turned the tables on the countries demanding that Iran keep its nuclear program for solely civilian, electricity generation. Zarif called for all countries to give up nuclear weapons, including Israel and the US. Iran does not […]
Anger Translation: Why Obama was Ranting against GOP Climate Policy at Press Dinner
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – The Comedy Central show, Key and Peele, made famous a bit by Keegan-Michael Key on Obama called the “Luther, the anger translator,” which plays on the president’s laid back approach to controversial issues. But at the annual White House Correspondents’ dinner, Obama outdid “Luther” in ranting against climate […]
Beyond the Headlines: The New Arabs (Juan Cole Interview)
Jack Segal | International Affairs Forum (Traverse City) | – “For three decades, Juan Cole, Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan has sought to put the relationship of the West and the Muslim world in historical context. This conversation will add to that endeavor. Beyond the Headlines is hosted […]
Syria: Al-Qaeda takes Jisr al-Shughur, threatening Key Port
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – A coalition of extremist groups with al-Qaeda ties managed on Saturday to take the city of Jisr al-Shughur from the Syrian army. Among them were fighters of the Support Front (Jabhat al-Nusra) and the Islamic Movement of the Free Men of the Levant (Ahrar al-Sham). Also involved was […]
US admits it has no Idea who it is Assassinating by Drone
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – The tragic deaths last January, just now being revealed, of two Western hostages in drone strikes on a relatively empty housing complex in northern Pakistan near the Afghanistan border underlines that the Obama administration is killing people from the air without knowing who they are and is killing […]
Rand Paul: GOP Hawks are Obama’s “Lapdogs;” McCain: Paul ‘Worst Candidate’
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) The philosophical difference between the Libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and the GOP hawks has burst into open name-calling. First, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said that Paul had been more wrong than right, and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) jumped in, calling him “naive.” On Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom” on […]
Top Ten ways to prove you Love the Earth on Earth Day
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – I was a junior in high school on April 22, 1970, on the first Earth Day, called for by Sen. Gaylord Nelson (D-Wi) (d. 1981). The road leading to our school had been littered with trash, and a group of us went out with black plastic bags and […]
Pakistan as Hong Kong West: China’s New Silk Road & US Failure
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Chinese President Xi Jinping made a state visit, full of pomp and circumstance, to Pakistan on Monday, but its centerpiece was a $46 billion investment in the country, dwarfing the US Congress’s $7.5 bn. program initiated in 2008. Whereas the US likes to sell useless weapons systems that […]
Khamenei: US invented nuclear Myth; Iran will Never Invade another Country
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – The clerical leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, gave a speech on Sunday in which he urged that Iran maintain its military readiness in order to fend off any hostile invasion or attack. But, he said, “Iran has never invaded a country and never will.” He also called US […]
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