Juan Cole

Mitt Romney said Monday that of course he would have taken out Bin Laden and that ‘even Jimmy Carter would have made that call.’ Since Jimmy Carter ordered a brave and risky but failed military mission into Iran, that was a cheap shot on the part of someone who has never had anything to do […]

Not only are high officials and former officials of the Israeli security establishment pushing hard back against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s seeming rush to war with Iran, they appear actually to be attempting to unseat him, as it becomes possible that Israel may go to early elections in September. Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert […]

Tom Engelhardt writes at Tomdispatch: The Obama Contradiction Weakling at Home, Imperial President Abroad By Tom Engelhardt He has few constraints (except those he’s internalized). No one can stop him or countermand his orders. He has a bevy of lawyers at his beck and call to explain the “legality” of his actions. And if he […]

The closure of the Saudi embassy and consulates in Egypt, and the continued demonstrations in Cairo in front of the Ministry of Interior, point to a coming crisis in the Arab world between the revolutionary states and the conservative ones. So far that potential conflict has not riven the Arab League, because there have not […]

This is C-Span’s video of President Barack Obama’s mostly tongue-in-cheek address at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. “[Hillary] won’t stop drunk-texting me from Cartagena.” “It’s nice to be here in the Hilton Ballroom, or what Mitt Romney would call a ‘little fixer-uppper.’ ” “Jimmy [Kimmel] got his start on the Man Show. In Washington that […]