By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — N.B.: Contains spoilers; if interested in the film, go see or stream it first and then read. There has been a lot of blaming the victim in the commentary on Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg’s controversial film, “The Interview” (2014). The premise, of an assassination plot against the […]
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Featured
Have the Kurds cut the ISIL/Daesh State in Two, Blocking Supply Lines?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — Al-Mada newspaper in Baghdad had an interesting article in the aftermath of the fall of Shinjar to the Iraqi Kurdistan Peshmerga. The piece argued that the Peshmerga (Kurdistan’s paramilitary, meaning ‘one who stands before death’) have now effectively cut of the supply lines between Raqqa in Syria and […]
Is the NSA Responsible for N. Korea’s Hack of Sony Pictures?
By Juan Cole | — In all the discussions of what is alleged to be North Korea’s horrible cyber-vandalism against Sony Pictures, I haven’t seen anyone bring up a key issue: The National Security Agency has been for two decades a powerful behind-the-scenes lobby for weak internet encryption and privacy protocols. I don’t know enough […]
Tunisia: Nationalist Candidate’s claimed win in Presidential Poll Contested
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 […]
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 […]
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