Featured

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 […]

Featured

How the NRA is harming American Security: Mass Shootings as Serial Terrorism

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – As I write, the full story behind the heinous San Bernardino shootings, which left 14 dead and 17 wounded, is still not known. The names of the two shooters have been released, which may or may not be very pertinent to the incident. It may have […]

Featured

8,124 Murders by Firearm in US in 2014 vs. 29 (Equiv. 144) in UK

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Revised The United States continues to be peculiar in handing out powerful magazine-fed firearms to almost anyone who wants one and not requiring background checks on private purchases even if these are made at gun shows. 80% of civilian-owned firearms world-wide are in the US, and […]

Featured

US to send Spec Ops troops to Iraq to fight ISIL, but do Iraqis want them?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced Tuesday that the US would send more Special Operations troops to Iraq to fight Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) both in Iraq and in Syria. They would coordinate with and reinforce the Iraqi Army and the Kurdish peshmerga. It looked to […]