By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — The major political parties do fairly sophisticated exit polling in Tunisian elections now, and secular, nationalist warhorse Beji Caid Essebsi claimed a victory of some 52 or 53% on Sunday evening. His opponent, human rights activist and incumbent interim president, Moncef Marzouki, however, declined to concede. Formal results […]
Kurds inflict first Major Defeat on Daesh/ ISIL, Rescue Yezidis of Sinjar
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — The pan-Arab London daily, Al-Hayat [Life] reports that the Iraqi Kurdistan paramilitary, the Peshmerga, have taken Mt. Sinjar from Daesh (what Arabs call ISIL or ISIS). They have therefore saved several thousand members of the Yezidi (Izadi) Kurdish religious minority, who have been besieged and sometimes enslaved or […]
5 Countries where Solar Power is making a Revolution
By Juan Cole | — Developing countries of the global south don’t have enough electricity. Sometimes rural populations are only just now getting electricity. Ironically, many of them can leapfrog conventional power and go straight to solar and wind. Indeed, in the next generation, renewables will be a central element in national development. SunEdison has […]
Blogging Colbert (In honor of the Finale of the Colbert Report)
Reprint: So I was on the Colbert Report, hosted by Stephen Colbert at Comedy Central, on Wednesday night, to promote my new book, Engaging the Muslim World. The clip is up at the Colbert site now The Colbert ReportGet More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,The Colbert Report on Facebook,Video Archive Colbert has four Emmys for his […]
Top 7 Ways Assassination Fails USA as Policy
By Juan Cole Wikileaks has released a government assessment of drone strikes aimed at assassinating top leaders. The document urges such strikes, but is amazingly frank about the drawbacks. it says, “Potential negative effects of HVT ope rations include increasing the level of insurgent support, causing a government to neglect other aspects of its counterinsurgency […]
Cuba: Top 5 other Dictatorships with which US has Diplomatic Relations
By Juan Cole | — The US sanctions on Cuba were justified by their supporters with reference to the Communist government’s human rights record. That record, bad as it is, however, cannot explain the sanctions. They are rather pique that Cuba defied American hegemony and corporate domination. The sanctions have not overthrown the government of […]
3 Problems Pakistani Politics has to Resolve after Grisly School Attack
By Juan Cole | — Pakistan politics has been mired in stagnation for some time now. In September of 2013, Pakistan undertook the first successful civilian hand-off of power in its entire history. Then-president Asaf Ali Zardari was succeeded by the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Despite this milestone, Pakistan’s politics have been full […]
Desperate Pakistani Taliban, on the ropes, attack Army School in Peshawar: Large scale Casualties
By Juan Cole | — On Tuesday, six members of the Movement of Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan or TTP) invaded a school for children run by the Pakistani army in Peshawar The Pakistani military counter-attacked, with early reports of dozens killed and wounded in the cross fire. Some of the Taliban were wearing suicide […]
The Banality of Terrorism: Sydney’s other Hostage Crisis, of 1984
By Juan Cole | — IC doesn’t usually cover hostage-taking, since it is an artificial and manipulative criminal act. Any two-bit thug can grab someone off the street and push them into a car, and subsequently kill them. It doesn’t take intelligence or any other admirable quality, just brutishness. One’s heart goes out to the […]
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