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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Revised Those ratings that castigate Afghanistan and some other poor countries as hopelessly “corrupt” always imply that the United States is not corrupt. VOA reports : While it is true that you don’t typically have to bribe your postman to deliver the mail in the US, […]

Featured

Russo-Turkish Conflict over Syria & Iraq Boils: “Manifestations of impotent Rage”

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Turkish and Russian government have continued their war of words that followed on the shooting down of an Su-25 bomber on Nov. 24. Issues include a new Turkish accusation that Russian bombing in the north of Latakia province aims at ethnically cleansing the Turkmen populations […]

Featured

If Defeating ISIL/ Daesh is so imp’t, why isn’t Ramadi Campaign all we’re talking about?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Given the large number of vehement pronouncements by US presidential candidates about the dire threat from Daesh (ISIS, ISIL), and attacks on President Obama for not doing more, you would think that the American public would be hanging on every word about any progress against the […]

American Jews

Top 6 Times US government Excluded Millions based on Race or Religion

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and other bigots on the far right are nothing new in American history. Rather, they remind us of the worst and most shameful detours of the American Republic in the past. From the mid-nineteenth century racial theory became prominent in European and […]

Featured

Trump vs. the Founding Fathers on Muslims Coming to US

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In his never-ending trolling of the American public, Donald Trump has now come out and urged banning Muslim immigration into or even entrance into the United States. Some of the below is revised from an earlier text Forbidding people from entering the United States on the […]

Barack Obama

Obama vs. Daesh/ISIL: Freedom is more powerful than Fear & We Refuse to take the Bait

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – President Obama addressed the nation on Sunday night, in an attempt to calm the public mood after the San Bernardino killers were tied to Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) — though the connection seems to spring merely from common radicalism and murderousness rather than any organizational tie. Obama […]

Featured

Shiite Iraqi politicians denounce Turkish ‘Invasion,’ call for Aerial bombardment

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Sawt al-`Iraq reports that sources in the Turkish military announced Saturday that about 150 Turkish troops had been placed into northern Iraq along with 20-25 tanks. The head of the Iraqi parliament’s Security and Defense Committee, Hakim Ilzami, said that this incursion was just switching out […]

Christians

Roof, Dear and Tashfeen Malik: ‘Self-Radicalized,’ ‘Terrorism,’ ‘Lone Wolf’ and Double Standards

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Federal officials are now investigating the San Bernardino massacre as an “act of terrorism” rather than just workplace violence. But when Dylann Roof allegedly shot nine persons dead at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on June 17, 2015, there was strong resistance on the part […]

al-Qaeda

How Turkish President Erdogan went Wrong: Dividing and Not Ruling

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Receb Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, was once seen as a political breath of fresh air and a beacon of change in the Middle East. Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Algeria, Tunisia and other countries in the region were locked into an unhealthy political gridlock. The […]