Featured

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Emma Foehringer Merchant at Greentech Media reports that the GOP Congress defied Trump’s priorities on green energy almost across the board. She notes the following: $2.32 bn.– The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) $353 mn. — the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) $6.3 […]

Featured

Let’s call Bolton what he is, a War Criminal with Terrorist Ties, not just “Hawkish”

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – John Bolton helped lie our country into an illegal war of aggression that killed several hundred thousand Iraqis, wounded over a million, and displaced 4 million from their homes, helped deliver Baghdad into the hands of Iran, and helped create ISIL, which blew up Paris. In […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan: How a Shrine Bombing in Kabul tells us Trump’s Surge won’t Succeed

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – This year, the merriment of Now-Ruz in Kabul was marred by a suicide bombing that killed at least 33 persons and wounded 68, according to the Afghani Ministry of Health. The perpetrator was allegedly a member of ISIL (which really needs another name, since it isn’t […]

Featured

Syria: A Market bombing kills 38 and Explains why Government won Syria War

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – A rocket fired by rebel forces at a market, Kashkul, in the Jaramana suburb of Damascus on Wednesday killed dozens of people. It strikes me that this incident encapsulates the deep tragedy of the Syrian civil war. Jaramana is a mixed Christian and Druze neighborhood 3 […]

African-Americans

Increasingly Ludicrous WH denial that Austin bombings were “terrorism”

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Update: The suspect in the central Texas bombings is dead, after he detonated a bomb in his car on being surrounded by police, and was shot. Two more package bombs were found in Austin and San Antonio Fedex offices on Tuesday, giving evidence of originating with […]

Featured

Turkey takes Afrin, pulls down Statue Now-Ruz Revolutionary Kaveh

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Tuesday, March 20, is the spring equinox this year. Iranians, Kurds, Central Asians and many in Pakistan and India celebrate the equinox as the New Year, which after all makes a lot more sense than starting it in the dead of winter. Spring is symbolically the […]

Constitution

Trump, McCabe and our Permanent Constitutional Crisis

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Trump’s conviction that being president means never having to say you are sorry, and being able to do whatever the hell you please, is likely to cause him legal trouble sooner or later. His vindictive firing of deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe, just before McCabe could […]

Featured

Thousands flee E. Ghouta as Regime Army Advances, Rebels ask for Talks

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Thousands of civilians fled the southern pocket of the East Ghouta suburb of Damascus on Thursday and Friday and Saturday, carrying what few belongings they could with them. The rate seems to have been about 10,000 people a day until today. Russian sources are saying 11,000 […]