By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) This article appeared at The Nation earlier this month. I’m reprinting an excerpt on the occasion of King Abdallah’s death . . . the kingdom faces a severe budget shortfall because of the plummeting price of petroleum. All this instability takes place against a backdrop of substantial regional turmoil. […]
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Featured
Netanyahu Imported by GOP to ensure Iran War
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — Republican House Majority leader John Boehner secretly invited Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to Washington to address Congress and then once it was set up he let Barack Obama know about it. The reason for bringing Netanyahu is that Boehner wants to craft a super-majority in Congress that […]
Obama to GOP: More Iran sanctions lead to War (& 7 other Foreign Policy points in SOTU)
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address slighted foreign policy in favor of touting domestic progress and proposing new domestic initiatives. But there were some foreign policy highlights worth underlining. 1. Obama pushed back hard against hawks like Senator John McCain, who want to ramp up a […]
Israel’s Syria Strike: Is it trying to Help al-Qaeda vs. Hizbullah & Iran?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — There are several questions around the Israeli helicopter gunship strike on Mazari` al-Amal in Syria’s Quneitra Province, which killed Hizbullah personnel and an Iranian general. First, what were the latter doing there? Second, why did Israel strike them? The Israeli cover story, that Hizbullah was planning attacks inside […]
Why Martin Luther King would support Pres. Obama’s Tax on Super-Rich
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — In one of his last speeches, at Grosse Point, MI., the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., laid out his next campaign, the one he died pursuing. It was not about civil rights for minorities but economic rights for “the other America” (the title of a book by Michael […]
Amazing Green Cars at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — I caught the Detroit Auto Show on Saturday afternoon. As always, it was great to see the concept cars of the future. But if you know me, you know I was there for news about electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrids. This is mostly just window shopping — […]
French Pres. Hollande: Anti-Muslimism is as bad as Antisemitism: Muslims Must be Protected
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) French President Francois Hollande addressed the Institute of the Arab World on Friday, in a bid to reassure French Muslims, who fear being the victims of a collective guilt campaign or reprisals after the attack of radicals on Charlie Hebdo. Hollande said: “It is the Muslims who are the […]
Top 7 Things to know about Belgium anti-terror Op that left 2 Dead
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) Belgian police launched a counter-terrorism operation on Thursday in the eastern city of Verviers (pop. 56,000) near the German border. Verviers is one of the towns in Belgium that has a large number of Muslims, with many of the young men in that community being unemployed. Belgium is a […]
Will France intervene in Yemen after its al-Qaeda Claims Paris Attacks?
By Juan Cole | — Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which is based in south Yemen, claimed on Wednesday to have been behind the attacks in Charlie Hebdo in Paris last week. Said and Sharif Kouashi are known to have visited Yemen in 2011 for weapons training, assisted by Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born terrorist later […]
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